This final paper forms the result of three months of intensive working in the Socrates-Erasmus programme, Adult Education in Europe. During these three months we saw different point of views, themes and fields concerning adult education. At the end of every module we made a paper with our own reflections concerning the different challenges for adult education. It was every week again a challenge to find the main ideas of the module and to elaborate them.

In the first chapter, information technology and training, we pose the following question: What and how can new technologies contribute to adult education? Thereby, we describe the relation between new technologies and mediated learning environments on the one hand and on the other hand the tension between the old and the new learning and teaching paradigm. New technologies give the opportunity to create a rich learning environment. Therefore we see it as a challenge for the adult educator to use new technologies in an appropriate way.

In the second chapter the stress is put on learning strategies in a multicultural society. We argue to surpass the surface concerning the multicultural problem. We distinguish, following Ruud Van der Veen, an economical and a cultural perspective towards the multicultural society. Using Shäffter’s theory, we explore further the cultural perspective on different identity levels and experiences of strangeness. The challenge for the adult educator is to accept the differences on the different levels and to work on the sphere of selfhood with the participants before working on the cultural problem.

Community education, for some of us an unknown field of adult education, is the third chapter where we discuss the tension in the reflexive modernity concerning individual and communal life. We start from a Finnish action movement to elaborate this tension and to illustrate how adult education can play a role to reinforce social participation and integration.

For the following chapter (4) we also use a case study to illustrate our main idea of management of organisation. We use the example of vzw Musica to illustrate the innovation process that took place in the organisation and how the learning circle of Kolb is active in that kind of organisation.

In chapter five, we describe more the role of the training department in the organisation instead of looking to the learning process in the whole organisation. In this chapter we reflect on the tension between the economical and the human perspective. We start from a concrete example of an existing supermarket and ask the following questions: "How is training conceived within the company?" and "Which suggestions can we formulate from a more human perspective?"

As a red line through the courses we discovered the influence of policy on the different professional fields of adult education. Referring to Griffin, we reflect on two policy tendencies: the progressive social-democratic on the one hand and the neo-liberal welfare policy on the other hand. In chapter six we describe these two tendencies and try to surpass this tension using the concept of reflexive modernity.

In chapter seven we look for foundations of our study and professional field. Therefore we build a house that symbolises the foundations in which we will build our practice as adult educators.

To conclude we reflect on the main themes to search for general tendencies. We see the post-modern society, the reflexive modernity and social constructionism as three main concepts that challenge the field of adult education. These concepts influence on our way of looking at the reality and our way of organising educational programmes.

This final paper is the result of a process with ups and downs. For the description of our process, we refer to the "open process model" of Walter Leirman (1984). In this model we recognise our own experiences of the learning process. The model refers to three dimensions: task, group and growth that go each through the phases of searching, planning and realisation. We will only discuss the dimensions of task and group, although we recognise that the dimension of growth was present in the whole process. Beside group development individual growth has also contributed to the final paper, but we didn’t found it relevant to add this in the introduction.

In the searching phase of the group dimension Leirman distinguishes a feeling of strangeness towards a feeling of acceptance. In the beginning of the programme we felt not at ease. Coming from three different countries and universities: Finland (Helsinki), Spain (Barcelona) and Belgium (Leuven) it was not an evidence to work together because of differences in our studies and the conception of adult education. In Finland, adult education is more oriented towards individual learning and work and organisation development, the Spanish student is specialising in labour pedagogy and in Leuven every student studies three fields of adult education (vocational training, liberal education and community work and education). These differences gave in the beginning of the programme a feeling of strangeness to each other. Further there were also language difficulties because the knowledge of English is not always the same. After two meetings we recognised each other and accepted the differences without going further than the surface. There was a kind of 'relational contract' made by the group members.

After making the first paper we fell into the planning phase. We had an intensive discussion concerning the way of working. It was a confrontation of two different visions and habits to structure a paper. With a lot of patience of both sides we finally found a consensus towards the following papers. We felt more at ease to discuss and to share our opinions.

Finally, we reach only in the last module of the programme real communication and convergence. The results of the papers were more than a consensus or a summation of the ideas of the pair that was working on the paper. In the end we really had a group-result and a group feeling when we discussed the content of the last module and the final paper. To write a paper was not anymore an invention of your own ideas, it was a description of the group discussion.

In the task dimension we see an evolution from putting a diagnosis towards an execution. This can be seen in two different ways. The phases of diagnosis, planning and execution returned every module in the process of writing a paper, but also during the whole programme we recognise the three phases. We will only describe the last process to make clear how we worked.

When we wrote the first paper, we discovered that there was a need to structure our way of constructing the paper.

Therefore we made a planning and decided first to discuss the paper and write the paper in pairs, which gave the possibility to think loudly and to represent a common vision. Every module we changed the pairs so that everyone could work with everyone. Further, we decided to correct every paper in the following week.

In each module, we looked for information to work out an idea for a paper. We related the content with our own experience to develop our own way of learning and working.

Introduction

We are living in a society that is constantly changing in different ways (economically, socially, culturally) and one important element in this changing context is the development of the new technology. Multi-media, hypermedia, Internet and information technology are concepts that have become common sense. The term multimedia has been around for several decades. Until recently, the term has meant the use of several media devices, sometimes in a co-ordinated fashion. However, advances in technologies have combined these media so that information previously delivered by several devices is now integrated into one. The computer plays a central role in this environment. These developments in the field of information technology influence also on the field of education, where new educational resources can be used. In the United States for instance, the first virtual university has become reality (Knack; 17.03.1999, p.106). The Jones International University only exists in a virtual world. This university addresses itself towards students all over the world, who want to combine their studies and work without losing time when attending courses. From this example one can conclude that new technology created a lot of new possibilities for people to learn. On the other hand a new kind of illiteracy arose. Not everybody has the opportunity to surf in this world of new technologies and there are people who don't know how to integrate them in their learning process. As adult educators we have to take into account this situation when teaching and designing programmes.

In this chapter we want to pose the following question: "What and how can new technology contribute to adult education?". By answering this question two main ideas come to the front. On the one hand there is the relation between new technologies and mediated learning environments. The use of new technologies doesn’t implicate always the use of the new, mediated model, as a rich learning environment. On the other hand we look to the tension between the old and the new paradigm. We don’t consider these paradigms as two extremes, between which one has to choose unconditionally. Both models have their strengths according to the needs, target group, objectives, … of the educational activity. In a second part we describe the consequences of the new model on the roles of both the learner and the educator.

Moving towards a rich learning environment

The evolutions in the field of information technology created possibilities to set up educational activities by using new media, beside the traditional ones like books, blackboard, video,... At the same time these developments are challenges for the adult educator to integrate the new technology in an appropriate way. Using new technologies doesn't implicate immediately a rich learning environment. To make the positive aspects of information technology clear, we want to make the link with the information technology and a rich learning environment. This idea is expressed in the new mediated model presented by Patrick Thomas. To illustrate this, we will present the differences between the old and the new model or in other words the description of the change from a face to face or presential to a mediated way of teaching and learning. Both models possess strengths and weaknesses that we will mention later.

In the traditional teaching and learning theory the teacher is regarded as an authority, who gives the information to the passive learners. This paradigm starts from a behaviouristic learning theory where students are only supposed to look and receive the given stimuli (S), in order to response in a certain way (R). The learning programme in this model is segmented, which means that the programme is made of different boxes according to the individual’s level, the field of interest, ... As a consequence the learning process is divided into small courses, which may not have any integration. Furthermore the curriculum is designed in a centralised way. In other words, all the learners follow the same structure of studies and have no freedom to choose.

According to Kozma (1991), the traditional model, including the behaviouristic perspective, is not suitable to the mediated learning situation. The learning process should be seen as an active collaborating process with the medium to construct knowledge. This idea is translated in the new mediated paradigm where a new relationship is created between learner and educational system. This paradigm tries to break the segmented structure of teaching and learning by designing a learning environment, where different media and learning strategies are offered. This allows the learner to choose his or her own programme and to take an active role in the learning process by making individual learning plans according to his or her own objectives and needs. In contrast with the previous behaviouristic perspective, the basic framework here is the constructivistic learning theory. The learners are seen as active constructors of their own reality. This means that the learner chooses the kind of data that is relevant to his or her learning process. With this the data becomes information. In this theory, learning means processing information and integrating it to ones own knowledge base.

As Patrick Thomas says, the presential and the mediated paradigms should not be considered as black/white or good/bad models. The adult educator should not consider the mediated paradigm as an absolute value of teaching. The learning programme should be designed so that it offers learning activities suitable to different learning strategies. The choice between the two models depends on what the individual wants to learn and who is learning. Both models have their own strengths. The old model guarantees, among other things, immediate feedback and the possibility to exchange knowledge and experience in a face to face relationship. The new model on the other hand stands for just in time learning, individualised path of learning depending on the needs, the pre-requisites, rhythm and cognitive profile, reactive learning starting from a concrete experience, …

We recognised these strengths of the new model in France Télécom. They have created a learning organisation with the help of the internal Intranet. Intranet helps the staff to communicate effectively. It permits all the workers just in time learning when there appears a need. Instead of a segmented approach of training they are able to start from a concrete problem that appears on the work floor. We can conclude that here the needs of the organisation and the individual are taken into account when the learning environment is designed. Further, the use of new technologies is here integrated in a rich learning environment. These characteristics are important in our understanding of the mediated model.

The influences of the mediated model on the role of adult educators and learners

New technologies challenge the adult educator to integrate them in an appropriate way in his or her programmes. The adult educator should not consider multimedia as a fashion tool. It is important to use media in teaching only, if it takes into account the learners needs, objectives and backgrounds. This question about the proper choice of media should be asked in the broader context of designing a good learning environment. The new paradigm offers a framework to treat the different aspects.

The mediated model changes the roles of both the adult educator and the learner. Within this model the adult educator is an animator, who motivates the learners by offering a rich learning environment and different kinds of learning activities and strategies. Secondly, the role of the tutor is to help the learners in their process of individualised learning and to find their own needs and objectives. Thirdly, the role of the expert means that the adult educator has to be familiar with the subject he or she is teaching. At last, these roles have to be combined with designing skills where pedagogical and technical theories are integrated.

In the old model the adult educator is considered as an authority, who has to know everything related to the subject and the whole teaching process. In our opinion the new model can give the opportunity to work in interdisciplinary groups and teams. The adult educators as experts of different fields can work together and bring their knowledge and different skills to common use. Sharing their experiences and conclusions can improve their work to build a rich learning environment.

The idea of learning environment and the mediated model changes also the role of the learner. Carrying out individual learning programmes sets the learner a need to be self-directed. This is often misunderstood as self-learning, where the learner is learning on his or her own. We understand self-directed learning as individualised learning, where every learner has his or her own path to follow with the help of the tutor and other learners. Self-directed learning doesn't therefore mean that the learner works alone. Although we mentioned the direct exchange between the actors as a strength of the old model, interaction with other learners also can take place within the new model.

The role of the adult educator is more important in the beginning of the learning process, when the learner doesn't have much experience in self-directed learning. As the adult educator helps the learner to develop the skills of self-directed learning, the importance of guidance decreases. The need for guidance is personal, some people need more interaction then others. Therefore tutoring should always be provided whenever it is needed.

With the new technologies more data is available to the learner. The learners should develop critical thinking skills because people have limited capacity to work with data. Without criticism, the mental processes of the learner could easily be overloaded. Therefore they have to learn how to choose the data which are relevant to their objectives and needs. It is for this reason very important to have a guidance to develop critical evaluating of relevant data.

New technologies and media can offer adult learners the opportunity to study while working. They promote the educational equality, because with the help of new technologies the learner can choose the time, the place, the rhythm and the cognitive profile of the learning process. This can give an ideal image of learning through media. Some negative aspects also exist as we mentioned before. It is very important to evaluate the needs and objectives of the learners and start to build the teaching and learning process from them. Furthermore, the media should be integrated with the teaching methods that are used, so that they support each other.

The use of new technologies within education can be dangerous because learning processes can become too individualised. In that case the learner has only interaction with machines without feedback and communication with teachers and other learners. Mentoring and social aspects of learning are also needed. With new technologies the interaction usually is limited to verbal communication. Also the non-verbal communication is important in the learning process.

Living in a multicultural society

The late twentieth century is characterised by the migration of people into Europe for political, economical and educational reasons. This mass amount of the incoming people permits us to speak of a multicultural society. The term 'multicultural society' doesn't immediately imply an open way of approach towards the cultural diversity. It is a term in evolution as the following example illustrates: The multicultural society used to be seen by several governments as a melting pot. This meant that new incoming groups would all melt together. There would be no difference in culture after several years. Now multiculturalism is rather seen as a symphony orchestra: each separate piece has a voice and when you put them together they make beautiful music. So multicultural society is seen here as something where the different cultures are respected by everyone.

We can say that multiculturalism as a respect for different cultures can be acknowledged or not. Within this process of acknowledgement the state plays an important role. The following example illustrates the relationship between the choice of the government concerning the incoming people and the kind of programs made for them. If the government chooses workfare as a framework for policy, the main question for migrants becomes: "How to find a job?". This implies a lot of duties and responsibilities towards the society. On the contrary, with the choice of welfare policy the stress is on feeling safe and trust in the society.

The government influences the way migrants are treated. Therefore, education has to take into account these decisions. Education alone is not a solution. Education has to form a part of the whole programme concerning immigration. If the government chooses for a workfare policy, the adult education has to pay attention to the skills concerning the job market.

Therefore, to conduct discrimination, we think that the adult educator has to participate in a network where different actors are involved. This network has to consist of an adult educator, a policymaker and someone who is involved with the company mentality to find a job. Forming part of the network with the policy doesn't simply imply an adaptation of the educational programmes. Adult educators also have to fulfil an experimental role by taking part in the discussion concerning the migrant problem.

The main idea of this chapter is the importance not to stay on the surface of the multicultural problem, as the following quotation of Adonis (1991) says: "The world today lives in a climate of a single universal civilization, but one which has it's own specification, obvious or hidden, that depends on the various people.". Taking into account these own specifications, we use two different frameworks. First, we reflect the distinction between cultural perspective and the economical perspective. We want to argue that the multicultural problem often is interpreted by the cultural perspective, while the economical perspective is not seen. Secondly we have the theory of Ortfried Shäffter who says that there are differences in levels of identity and that there are different modes of experiencing strangeness in a multicultural society. One has to analyse the problem in a deeper way and look for the kind of relations it has.

Adult education is deeply involved in the debate concerning the multicultural problem and cultural diversity in our society. The educational perspective is presented in the last paragraph concerning the role of the adult educator.

Economical perspective versus cultural perspective

We started from the point what it means to live in a multicultural society. Ruud Van der Veen described in the module two perspectives to look at this kind of society, an economical and a cultural perspective.

The economical approach claims that cultural problems are not about cultural problems at all. Instead, the problems often concern an economical competition, which is then covered up by cultural solutions. The cultural terms are used to oppress the minority by several groups, that are trying to protect their economical situation for incoming migrants. The danger of this approach is that there is too much stress on the labour aspect. Life is not about work alone, social and psychological welfare are also very important.

The cultural approach on the other hand says that culture is really a problem. Culture is deeply ingrained in a person and causes problems to integrate. This difference is thus the explanation for why one is integrated, employed or not. This includes the danger that one can use the cultural perspective whenever one likes and in different ways. For instance: When one starts from the differences in culture to explain the difficulties that migrants are confronted with, one can ask them to change their whole culture. In this sense discrimination is allowed, because they are not adapted. One can also say that people have to accept these differences in culture to learn from them.

We mention these two approaches not to make a choice between them, but to warn of a pragmatic way of thinking. Confronted with the multicultural society one tends to react to the surface of the problem and search for a solution as quickly as possible. This danger of pragmatic thinking is connected with the two approaches. If one only starts from the economical perspective, for instance by giving every migrant a job, one may forget the own habits concerning having a job. On the other hand, when one only wants to offer them a feeling of safety and trust without a guarantee of work, one may forget the economical competition between the different groups of people.

We think it is important trying to understand the complex situation, instead of making too soon the step towards a solution. To define the problem one has to confront every situation with the two perspectives.

Different levels of identity

Shäffter goes even deeper into the cultural problem. He says that intercultural learning stresses the need for acquiring a new context of meaning by first accepting the differences. He starts with the idea that everyone has a feeling of strangeness, which is necessary to learn. It is the starting point of intercultural learning. First, one has to be irritated by something that happened before he or she starts to learn.

On the sphere of selfhood there is a distinction to be made between the self and the other. This boundary between this sphere of selfhood and the others is necessary to be sensitive for the strangeness in other spheres of selfhood. The importance of this boundary is that one realises that it has to be constitutional to be sensible for the strangeness. This makes it possible to make a distinction, to get in contact with the others. One needs this boundary to be capable to cross over from one side to the other. Therefore, in a certain way, we are all multiculturalists. Knowing from within what is strange, gives the possibility to cross over the boundary

Once a person is confronted with a problem of strangeness it is useful to distinguish different levels of identity. Schäffter distinguishes the organism, a psychic system, personal system a family- as inter-generation-system, a social group, the organisation, the sub-culture, the ethnic-group; people/nation and culture as form of civilisations.

It is important to mention these levels of identity because a "cultural" problem can be situated on many different levels. Analysing the problem along these different levels makes it easier to understand and therefore deal with. So the problem can then be handled on one level at a time. Each level that has weak boundaries is not able to cross the boundary. First, we have to make the different boundaries solid of every level of identity. Then, we can handle the problem appropriate to the level.

To look to a problem Shäffter not only distinguishes different levels of identity, but he also mentions different modes of experiencing strangeness. First, he distinguishes the reaction of a sounding board. In this mode the selfhood is confronted with a feeling of strangeness and one compares it with him- or herself. Secondly, there is the counter-image, in which everything from outside is seen as a threat. Another reaction can be that of supplement, in which all strange things are seen as very special and likely. Finally, there is the reaction of complementarity, in this mode the selfhood is conscious about a lot of things that he doesn't know. That is what Shäffter calls 'mutual strangeness', in that phase one tries to understand the strangeness.

One has to analyse the way someone reacts on a problem. If one realises on which level of identity the problem is situated and which mode of experiencing strangeness is acting it makes it easier to understand the different problems.

The role of the adult-educator

We can conclude from the previous points that the adult educator first has to define the problem. As a consequence, he or she needs to be conscious of the different aspects of a learner in a multicultural society. We will point out two aspects: The consciousness of the modes of experiencing strangeness and the consequences of the policy on the educational programme.

From the previous point of the learner as a sphere of selfhood, we can say that individuals have different learning possibilities.

First, we have to work on the selfhood so that the boundaries are save. The adult educator has to build trust and safety in his or her activities. One needs a constitutional boundary to be sensible. So that one can cross over that boundary. Further, there is an awareness needed from the adult educator on the different levels of identity. E.g. if two people do not agree about greeting another person the following question can be asked: " What is the dominant level within this problem?", "Is it a difference in lifestyle, social group or ethnic level?" At last the adult educator has to be aware of the modes of experiencing strangeness: "In which way is this strangeness produced?"

After the adult educator has made a personal and situated diagnose of the problem he can start to design a programme. In general this concerns a sensibilisation of mutual differences. The learner has to become aware of his or her own sphere of selfhood. Furthermore, he or she has to realise that there are a lot of differences on all the levels of identity, besides the level of culture. The adult educator has to cope with strangeness by creating the possibility to cross over the boundaries. These distinctions make the learner sensitive to others so that one can learn to respect the others. To design a programme one can use two different approaches: a cultural or an economical.

As we already mentioned above the role of the adult educator in relation with the policy is two-sided. He or she has to cope with the policy and develop educational programmes within the context of the choices made by the government concerning the multicultural problem. On the other hand he or she has to experiment with different programmes to counterbalance. These two tasks can be made concrete by searching for a balance between cultural and economical, functional strategies. Within these strategies it is important to spend enough time in defining the problem and looking for the appropriate solution.

We will illustrate these different strategies through the example of a community center. We think that a community center has to find this balance between the functional and cultural perspective. Therefore a center has to set up a lot of various activities and projects. To play a functional role a center has to develop programmes to help people to a job. IFAD, a community center in the suburbs of Montpellier, organises a programme in which young people can learn solicitation skills. Furthermore IFAD provides a traineeship in an organisation where they gain work experience.

Introduction

Within our intercultural group we experienced the concepts of community and community education in a different way. As we will mention later on there is not one clear definition which implies the different meanings of these complex concepts. We did not only experience the problem of defining the concepts, but also the link between them and adult education wasn’t clear to some of us. In Finland the science of adult education is concentrated on individual learning and development. Community work belongs to the field of social sciences. In Belgium and Spain community work is one of the professional fields of the adult educator. We saw it as a challenge to try to show the link between community education and adult education, using the example of the ‘Village action movement’ as a kind of community work in Finland.

The framework of this chapter is based on the tension between individualism and collectivism. In the risk society the emphasis has moved towards the pole of the individualism and as a consequence the communal life is at risk. This evolution will be described in the first part of this chapter by using the concept of ‘reflexive modernity’ of Beck. Because of the move towards individualism community work and community education have become more and more important. In the second part we will raise the question: «How can adult education reinforce social participation and integration?»

Living in the reflexive modernity

Ulrich Beck (in Jansen, Th & Van der Veen, R, 1997) describes the critical changes in our society, or more specific in the industrialised countries, by using the concept of reflexive modernity. According to him we are moving from ‘simple modernisation’ into a society where the conditions, like the fast development in the fields of technology, industry, sciences, …, that earlier facilitated the development of industrial society have become problematic in themselves. These problems lead to a risk society characterised by the global life insecurity which the modern institutions are not able to overcome. Within this changing context the processes of individualisation take a big part.

To describe the process of individualisation we refer to Beck's three developments: setting people free, destabilisation and re-integration.

1. People are no longer bounded to the traditional categories like age, sex, social class, … This development of setting people free has two sides. On the one hand it gives people more possibilities to choose. On the other hand this freedom can create a feeling of unsafety.
2. People can’t rely anymore on the existing norms and values of the different traditional categories to give direction to their life. The individual is more and more responsible of finding out a meaning to his or her own life.
3. In this searching process the individual is re-integrated in more global and anonymous systems that have influences on the possibilities from which to choose.

The outcome of these processes is that every individual has to write his or her own self-reflexive biography. The ongoing narrative of one’s life becomes the subject of self-reflection. There are two sides included: the freedom to construct one’s own life story has enhanced, but it is also compulsory. Each individual has to be focussed on his or her self-actualisation. This predominance makes it understandable that the emphasis has moved towards the individual pole.

The processes of individualisation, as mentioned above, did raise the fear that the communal life is at risk. There are two roads that one can follow in reinforcing the social participation and integration in a community. On the one hand there is the individual orientation, where the emphasis is on the individual development. Adult education is seen as vocational training. On the other hand there is the collective orientation, where educational actions have much more to do with the needs and desires of community life. Here adult education is understood broader, in link with community education.

In the following part we want to pose the question: "How can people enter the society and participate in communal life?" It’s not our purpose to give a complete answer, but we will try to reflect on it by using the example of the ‘Village Action Movement’ in Finland.

Village Action Movement (kylätoiminta)

«In today’s rapidly changing world, Village Action Movement has a significant role as the rural areas of Finland faced the challenges of the future. The former passivity and submissiveness have given way to a new vigour, self-reliance and community spirit and to a better awareness of opportunities for activities and assistance.» (Rantama, E. & Väätäinen, E., 1997)

In the last couple of decades the people in the countryside faced the problems of centralisation and rural depopulation. The former active villages became isolated and the social life diminished. The future of the rural areas relies strongly on the people’s self-reliance, skills to develop their own life and the creativity to find new ways of livelihood. The Village Action Movement is an expression of these kinds of skills and spirit. In other words you can say that the people were looking for an answer to the following questions: How to become active in our community and how to improve the quality of living within the village?

The people in the villages were confronted with the problems of individualisation. The social bounds in the villages weren’t so strong anymore. There was a lost of social participation of the villagers in communal life. The former associations in the villages lost their dynamics because of the depopulation of the countryside.

The Village Action Movement tries to react against the individualisation by creating collective action on a local level, which was urgently needed to revitalise the social life of the villages.

In the 1990’s the Village Action Movements have started to enlarge their connections with each other by constructing networks on regional and national level. These networks play an important role as platforms for social communication and the development of rural areas in culture, education, leisure, services, housing and economic development. Also the authorities have recognised the importance of the platforms on local, regional, national and international level.

We can raise the question: «Why is communal life important in this context?»

There are three different ways to argue that it is important to keep in balance the individualisation and self-actualisation on the one hand and communality and participation on the other hand. We think that it is important to regard our reflections as one possible way to use the three arguments against the ‘over-individualisation’. We are conscious that on the local level the different committees might have their own emphasis on one or more arguments.

From a moral aspect, one could say that the Village Action Movement wanted to change the attitudes of the passive people to take part in collective action.

From the political aspect, one could say that the villagers searched for new instruments to take power in the public debate by creating platforms on local, regional and national level. Within the context of globalisation the people needed new kinds of political action.

From the aesthetic point of view, the Village Action Movement can be seen as a new tribe to give meaning to individuals life.

How can Village Action Movement be seen as a community or communities?

In this paragraph we will further reflect on this example by using the theories concerning community and community education presented in the module. This implies that it’s not an analysis of the reality, but we start from the situation in reality to build up our own ideas about the concepts of communities, community education and the link with adult education.

Village Action Movement can be described as voluntary community work by people in villages to make their village a pleasant and comfortable place to live in. On local level it consists of about 3000 village committees all over Finland. In the following we will focus on the local level, the committees in the villages, but we also take into account the networks on regional and national level as a broader community. We will argue why we define this case study as a community(ies) by using the five entries to identify communities mentioned by David Clark.

Looking at the example we think that all the five entries (territory, human collective, sentiment, network of close-knit relationships and channels for diffusion of information and goods) can be used for identifying this example as a community. We will stress three entries that are according to us the most dominant, but we see our reflection as hypothetical. When we, as community workers or adult educators, would be confronted with reality we would use interviews to take into account the experiences of the individuals within the community.

We regard the Village Action Movement as a collective noun of the different communities on a local level. The different communities are bound to a certain territory namely the villages on the countryside. Furthermore, within these villages the committees play an essential role in village activities. Examples of these shared activities are organising village festivals, providing services in the fields of health, social sector and transportation and promoting entrepreneurship in their village. The meeting aspect also exists, not only on the local level, but also on regional and national level. The local committees are reinforcing their mutual co-operation and have established regional and national platforms.

In some local committees the aspects of human collective and sentiment might play an important role. For instance within one community smaller communities may exist based on the common characteristics as being a farmer, a housewife or a youngster. Also the sentiment as a sense of solidarity can be the base of the different communities.

To take into account the whole reality, it is important not to look at communities as given facts, but regard each community as a construction in relation with the internal and external context. We will start reflecting on the three aspects of the external context. Concerning the internal context we will explain the role of community work and community education and make the link with adult education.

The way people experience their communities is influenced by the political, economical and demographic context. Looking at the history of the Village Action Movement, the influence of demographic changes is clear. The Village Action Movement started as a reaction to centralisation and depopulation of the countryside. The ones who moved away were mainly younger people and as a consequence the future of the farms was in danger. But also the political and economical context could have had an important influence on the nature of livelihood and capabilities of action on local level. To clarify this we start from an example of a women’s village group «Primal Force» (Alkuvoima) (Simonen, K., 1998). This group started a study circle to learn how EU was going to change their lives as farmers. The changing economical situation was the starting point to organise activities within their village and later on to get into contact with other farmers in Europe. We also recognise the influence of the political context in their experience of community. The regional and national authorities are giving more and more support to the local initiatives and the village committees and associations have also become important partners for local authorities in organising services and finding new sources of livelihood in rural areas.

Besides the external context, it’s also important to be aware of the internal competencies within the community. Every community has its own competence and it can be improved. Therefore it is important to identify the competencies that already exist within the community and base the strategies of promoting the competence on that.

How can Adult education promote communal life?

In answering this question we make a selection of the different theories offered in the module. We won’t go deeper in explaining the strategies that can be used to construct a competent community. In Finland adult education, as a science, is more concentrated on individual orientation. By using the Finnish example we want to show that it is possible to see adult education in a broader sense. Instead of conceiving community education as distinct from adult education in the narrow sense, we see community education as a kind of adult education.

In our example the different village committees can be seen as voluntary community work. Their main interest was the rebuilding of the communal life to make the village a pleasant and comfortable place to live in. We can also speak of an equal distribution of opportunities for participation because the village committees have offered an instrument for the villagers to express and implement their own ideas and plans (Rantama, E. & Väätäinen, E. , 1997). The platforms on local, regional and national level can be seen as an instrument to promote the relations and communication between the participants.

In the Village Action Movement we also see elements of community education. To be able to accomplish their activities the people in the villages «have needed new skills, which they have gained on courses arranged in co-operation with municipal adult education centres, educational organisations or other providers of adult education.» (Rantama, E. & Väätäinen, E. , 1997). These educational efforts should not be seen as isolated learning processes of the individual who wants to develop him- or herself, but they are linked to empowerment for critical and creative participation to communal questions.

Looking at community education as a scale going from pure education, as in the community schools, towards community development , our example of Village Action Movement is more situated on the latter pole. More concrete, it ‘s an example of locality development, in which the problem is the disintegration of social bonds, isolation and lack of dynamism. On the local level the committees are involving people in formulating problems, capacities and opportunities in developing community capacity for self-help and community oriented services and provisions. As a tool for change the committees use permanent community-meetings.

To explore further the idea that community education is a kind of adult education we use the principles of social learning according to Wildemeersch and Jansen (in Baert, H & Jansen, Th., 1997).

In our example we recognise the four principles of social learning, which make us regard Village Action Movement as a concretisation of the concept of adult education in the broad sense. The villagers are critically reflecting their changing situation. For instance, the study circles of the «Primal Force»-committee are searching for a new meaning of their lifestyle as farmers within the changing context of Europe. We also recognise the principle of action- and experience-centredness within the Village Action Movement. The villagers are not the passive recipients of a pre-given reality, but they are taking their lives in their own hands and are giving new meanings to their lives. The idea of multi-actor orientation is expressed in the networks on local, regional and national level. On local level there can be existence of different communities with different needs and objectives. These differences between for example women, farmers and elderly people, should not be regarded as a threat, but a richness of different angles. The regional, national and international interactions provide possibilities to learn from each other. Within the platforms the villagers also take part in the public debate concerning the revitalisation of the rural areas.

Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to look to a particular organisation and the change that took place in its structure. Using different perspectives we want to analyse the problem in a profound way. We chose to make a case study of "Musica", the organisation where one of our Belgian group members did her internship. First, we will describe the organisation, so that the reader can easily understand the changes that took place within the organisation. Musica changed the organisational structure from three separate organisations to one organisation. Further, we apply this changing process on the learning circle of Kolb that illustrates the way Musica manages the innovation. Analysing the forms and forces developed by Mintzberg, we can conclude that this organisation is an adhocracy form characterised by the force of innovation. Therefore we also describe the innovation model of confrontation and orientation. To conclude we do the Vokipo profile test and explain the role that the consultant can play to improve the organisation structure.

We have to mention that this chapter is based on the personal experience of one of us. We are aware of the concept of constructivism, which says that every individual constructs his or her interpretation of the reality. This case is based on the experience of one group member, who worked in the organisation as a trainee. This means that her experiences are influenced by her position in the organisation and that the description is seen only from one angle of incidence. The fact that we discussed about her experiences starting from the theories presented in the module made it possible to form a social construction concerning Musica. Our common understanding can be different from the construction of the employees within the organisation.

Presentation of Musica

Vzw Musica is a non-profit organisation in Peer (Belgium). It is a little organisation with 15 employees and the target group are people that are interested in playing music on an advanced level. The main goal of this organisation is to organise courses, concerts and holidays for musicians on a (pre-) professional level. It consists of three organisations in one. First, there is «Mallemuze«, which organises music courses and holidays for children and youngsters. The second is «Muziekactief«, which organises courses for (pre-) professional musicians. They often organise master classes with concerts at the end of the programme. The third is «Alamire«, that publishes music score and scientific work concerning classical music. The organisation structure is illustrated in figure x:

In January 1999 there took place a complete reorganising of the organisation structure. Musica decided after many discussions and meetings (for the description of that process see further) to work in projects. From now on, the different organisations became one. This means that one project often has a course for youngsters, another course for adults and a work that is published. So the three organisations are implicitly presented in these projects.

This new structure implied many changes for the staff of the organisation. From January 1999 there are three kinds of employees within the organisation. The project leaders invent and co-ordinate the whole project. Further there is a support staff in which each staff member is specialised in one domain: logistics, communication, publication and finances. Finally, Musica has also administrative co-operators, that make sure that every practical problem is solved.

The force and the form of the organisation

To describe the changes in the configuration of Musica we use the theory of Mintzberg concerning the forces and the forms in the organisation. The author distinguishes five forms that can be seen in organisations that are: simple structure, machine bureaucracy, divisionalised form and adhocracy. These forms have four dimensions that are used in a different way according to each configuration. These dimensions are: the key means of co-ordination, the key part of organisation, the structural elements and the situational elements.

Using these five configurations we can classify Musica as an adhocracy coming from a simple structure referring to some of these dimensions.

The key means of co-ordination in Musica come from a direct supervision towards a mutual adjustment between the different levels.

The support staff is seen as a key part of the organisation. The organisation works with four employees who are specialised in different fields to give every project leader support.

One of the structural elements consists of horizontal specialisation. Musica moved from a little specialisation, where everyone could do the same tasks, towards a horizontal specialisation, where every worker has his or her domain. Furthermore, Musica organises courses that are functional and market oriented towards a specific target group. Therefore the action planning is limited because of working in different projects. Before the reorganisation, Musica was working with few liaison devices, but nowadays this is the main strategy of work. They also decentralise the tasks, which was not the case before the restructuration. In an adhocracy there is much training of the employees required but in Musica the employees do not follow courses. In our opinion this lack of training is a problem in the organisation, that has to be improved. Although the professors in Musica have high qualification skills and the co-ordinators work efficiently, it is necessary to improve their skills with training courses.

Referring to situational elements, the technical system of Musica has become very complex and dynamic, because they need to work in teams and distribute tasks in every project, instead of the three former systems that worked before the change. The power is executed through expert control, which means that the experts who are invited to give courses control the quality of the work. We cannot see Musica as a machine bureaucracy or as a professional bureaucracy because these forms are seen as more stable and they have a different structure.

Mintzberg sees a strong relation between the adhocracy form and the force of innovation. As we already mentioned Musica changed completely its structure from three organisations to one organisation that works in projects. By working in projects the innovation force has become important, because innovation is Musica’s inspiration to develop new projects.

Changing process as a learning process

figure x: learning circle of Kolb

Before the change, Musica was active with three different systems in one, with no co-operation between the different employees, and the similar courses done in parallel ways. The staff felt unhappy with the inefficient way of working. There was a concrete experience like Kolb mention in his circle of learning.

After this experience the employees started to reflect and observe what was wrong in Musica. They made the following diagnosis:

• The three organisations were doing the same without collaborating.
• Every co-ordinator of the little organisation made his or her financial report.
• Every co-ordinator designed his plan for the programme.
• There were competent people who did not have the chance to lead the project because of the structure of the organisation.

Through this experience and observation they started thinking about a solution. Therefore they made a plan to reorganise the structure focused on a project way of working. It would provoke a global change in the organisation on different levels.

Musica decided to:

• merge the three organisations in one,
• work in projects in multidisciplinary teams,
• break the hierarchical structure and
• create a support staff, so that one person is doing the financial aspect of every project.

Therefore they made a policy plan to reorganise themselves completely and to create projects for the coming years. They developed the pilot project "Charles V" to experience the new structure. With this project they could see the shortcomings and make adaptations for the final structure. The project of "Charles V" required: someone, who organises the adult programme, another person needs to publish the scores and another one has to keep in mind the financial aspect. They have to work together to realise the whole project.

This process of learning did not only appear in the re-organisation of Musica. It is the motor of developing projects. By inventing new projects to answer the needs of the target group the organisation is obliged to offer new kinds of courses. So the learning circle of Kolb is like a wheel that is rolling all the time on all the levels of the organisation.

Interpretation of the innovation

Bouwen and Fry distinguish four models of innovation. Therefore they make a comparison of the eight characteristics of innovation that are interpreted in a different way. There is the power model that results in compliance. In the sales model the effect for learning is imitation. While in the expert model the result is insight through a cognitive learning process. In the last one, the confrontational model, the process of learning is based on communication to validate data, involving the whole organisation.

According to us Musica is an organisation that innovates in the way of the confrontational learning model. The main characteristic of this model is the complexity that covers all the aspects of the organisation, such as the different projects that are taking place at the same time and the different roles that the employees have to play in the projects. Confrontation is observable during the numerous contacts and meetings, where every aspect of the restructuring is openly discussed.

The project leader is a facilitator in the process of designing the projects in opposite to the authority figure that is mentioned in the power model.

The change process is facilitated by the confrontation of the general director and the staff. To make the policy plan and the restructuration there were several meetings organised for the general counsel and the employees to discuss the new projects of the coming years and the new structure of the organisation in a climate of communication. So the decision making process is based on consultation and consensual validation where all the employees are involved. To be effective Musica finds it important to reach a common sense concerning the new projects and the new structure of the organisation. Therefore, the policy plan is made by every employee of the center, so that everyone feels involved with the new projects.

Collaboration between employees is needed in order to reach the results. For instance, the financial employee has to collaborate with the publisher employee and the publisher employee has to collaborate with the project leader, etc. So, everyone takes part in the development of the project, which is different in every project.

The role of the consultant in the process of changing

To know what kind of climate they have in the organisation we decide to do the Vokipo profile test (De Cock, G., Bouwen, R., & De Witte, K., 1988) . It consists on 40 items divided in four categories: support, innovation, respect for rules and goal oriented information flow. One of our group members who worked as a trainee in Musica did the test according to her experience. So we have to take into account that it is only one point of view towards the organisation and maybe not all the employees of Musica do agree with these results.

The result of the profile test is that there is a high result on innovation, as on support and goal oriented information flow. The respect for the rules has a low result.

What could be the role of the consultant when we see the results on the profile test? First of all, the role of the consultant in the changing process is to look for competencies instead of problems or weaknesses within the organisation. Starting from an appreciative approach we argue that it is important to try to discover the energy to work with it.

In this case it is remarkable that there is a little respect for rules and agreements, maybe because the rules are not well clarified. This aspect has to be discussed together with the staff, to discover if it is a problem or not for the organisation. There seems to be a lack of control in the organisation: the employees are working in interdisciplinary teams but they have no clear idea of the rules in each project. In this aspect, the process of change could have been too fast and the employees have forgotten to pay attention to the rules. Because of changed roles of every employee we find it important to define the rules clearly.

While communicating this towards the employees we think that the consultant has to stress first on the good points. He or she has to stress the relational aspect where Musica reaches a high level. Employees help each other when there is a problem and support each other in their tasks. They also reach high points in the innovation aspect, which is quite clear, because they just reorganised the whole center to work in teams and projects. There is a high result in goal orientation because everyone knows very well his tasks. There is a good communication between the employees, so the control is done by everyone in an autonomic way. But there is also control needed by making rules and agreements.

Introduction

Starting from the experiences in our intercultural group, we can say that nowadays the economic system is the dominant force in our society which influences the other systems like politics, education, culture, … Within this economic system the competition between the different actors defines the rules of the game. As well the profit as the non-profit organisations are finally oriented towards the effectiveness of the products (cost) and services (of quality). Later on we will question the predominance of the economic system starting from a more humanistic perspective.

Within the context of a competitive European workforce, in-company training plays an important role to reach a high level of effectiveness in the companies. In our countries (Belgium, Finland and Spain) companies are more and more investing in the training of the staff, in order to reach the main purpose of effectiveness.

We will describe the importance of training in companies by using a case study of the training department in a supermarket in Spain.

Case study: The training department in the supermarket

We chose to make a case study of «X«, a supermarket in Barcelona. One of the students in our intercultural group did already research of this company for her studies. Starting from this case, we will discuss training within organisations treating the human and economical perspective as equally important.

Therefore we will reflect on this case by asking two questions: «How is training conceived within this company?« and «Which suggestions can we formulate from a more human perspective?«. The first part concerns a reflection on the present situation within the company, while we in the second part give some suggestions for the future.

During our exercise we were confronted with the problem that the company did not give sufficient information. As a private organisation, the head of the human resources didn’t want to make the strategies public in order to protect the position of concurrence with other supermarkets. Therefore we won’t analyse their concrete strategies of training, but focus on their general approach towards training and the role of the training department within the organisation.

Supermarket X offers different products such as food, fish, meat, clothes, books, games … This supermarket belongs to a national chain of several supermarkets, which has its main office in Madrid. In company «X« (Barcelona) there are between 175 and 200 employees. As you can see in the organisation structure, the company in Barcelona is divided in four departments: the sales department, the marketing department, the management department and the department of the staff. Each department consists of one responsible manager and the staff. The chairman is situated on the top of the organisation and he is working in close relation with the head of the human resources and the head of the staff.

Figure x : the organisation structure in «x« supermarket

The main aim of this company is to satisfy the clients by offering a broad scale of high quality products. Thereby they put the stress on the way of offering their products, by building up a trustful relationship with their clients. We can say that values and ideas concerning a good relationship with the clients and between the employees are an important part of the culture of this organisation. By creating such a climate they finally tend towards effectiveness and efficiency. In interaction with the culture they formulate the strategic plan, where the different aims, strategies and philosophy of the company are mentioned, to achieve the final goal of effectiveness. Within the strategic plan training is considered as an essential tool to reach the final goal. In-company training is seen as a need to be competitive in the market.

The structure of the organisation also shows the importance of training within the company. As you can see in figure x the training and development department, here called the human resources department, is situated on the same level as the chairman. Training is not isolated in a separate department, but takes place in a strong interaction with the strategic planners.

As we mentioned before, the main office of this company is situated in Madrid. In the central training department one constructs the training plan in co-operation with the heads of the different human resources departments. The implementation of the training plan in the companies is co-ordinated by the head of the human resources department. The managers of each department have the role of a trainer. Therefore they follow courses in Madrid.

It’s interesting to notice that in-company training is strongly integrated on the work floor. According to us it’s easier to make a clear link between work and training when the managers are the trainers. At first we thought that the manager is in a good position to recognise the needs of the staff. So that the different courses are more adapted to the needs. Furthermore, the manager has the possibility to follow up the implementation of the training on the workplace. This is important for the company because of the final goal of effectiveness.

On the other hand we want to criticise that the manager plays the role of a trainer. To work with internal trainers implies the danger that the organisation might close the door for challenging and innovative ideas from external experts. The training and learning process can also be negatively influenced by the relationship between the manager and his or her staff. It’s not unthinkable that the employers are afraid to express their critics about the way of working.

Until now we described the general approach towards training and situated the training department within the organisation. In the following part we will specify the conception of training by using two axes: one goes from adaptation to development and the other tends between cost and investment. These axes form a diagram that shows four possible conceptions of in-company training:

• Competence development (development, investment): We don’t recognise this conception of in-company training in «x« supermarket in Barcelona. Most of the training, except the improvement, is situated on the part of adaptation. Although, we think that in Madrid research in the fields of marketing, merchandising, … makes part of the strategic plan, because of the strong competition in the market. They have to invest in new tendencies and find new strategies, for instance to promote their products.
• Improvement (development, cost): The organisation spends or invests money in training issues that are not essential for a job performance. They offer non-compulsory courses, for example about aesthetics. The company consider these courses as a possibility to improve the climate among the employees, but does not see the profits in the long term.
• Promotion and retraining (adaptation, investment): This kind of training is named within this organisation as ‘recycling’. The training activities are on the one hand focused on adapting new tendencies of the market and new products (retraining). On the other hand they invest in courses for promotion, such as career planning and the welcome training. They see the welcome training and career planning as an investment to be effective.
• Adaptation to the job (adaptation, cost): The company doesn’t offer this kind of training, because they see training mainly as an investment for the future.

In general we can conclude that the major part of training efforts are oriented on promotion and retraining. The organisation conceives training as an investment, because it is an important tool to reach effectiveness. They believe the efforts, the investments will bear fruit in the future. Furthermore the stress is on adaptation, not to the job as required after a change but adaptation in the sense of promotion and retraining.

By conceiving training as promotion and retraining the organisation mainly demands the employees to adapt and meet the prescribed standards. We want to argue that it ‘s also important to recognise the innovation as a part of organisation culture on all levels. In this case the innovative processes take place only in Madrid. Research, development and planning are situated in the main office. Although the managers of the different supermarkets are strongly involved in these activities, we think that it’ s a weakness not to value the innovative competence on the other levels of the organisation. The climate would be improved by supporting participation and innovation of the employees.

Through the reflection on the present situation of the company, the predominance of effectiveness and, more in general, the economical approach came to the front. Training is seen in this company as an instrument to reach a competitive position on the market. In the following part we will look to the future from a more human perspective.

Which suggestions can we formulate from a more human perspective?

Changes are present in our everyday life. These changes in society have also consequences to organisations that can handle them in two possible ways: reactive and proactive.

The predominant, reactive way in our market-oriented society is ruled by the economical perspective. Within this perspective the adaptation to continuing changes is seen as necessary to survive. Furthermore training is conceived as the instrument to introduce change by informing the employees and teach them how to cope with the changed work situation. In our opinion it’s more likely that people feel uncomfortable and have negative feelings towards the implemented change. Therefore in this perspective training is necessary for changing the negative attitudes towards an acceptation of the change.

Harrison (1989) and Edwards (1983) define in-company training as: «the process focused on eliminating the differences between the competencies one employee can offer and the competencies required for his job. (Edwards). It’ s the systematic process through which an individual is helped to master defined tasks or areas of skill and knowledge to pre-determinated standards. (Harrison)«. A missing element in the definition of Harrison is the area of attitudes. We think that in a learning process one has to take into account the attitudes as an important factor to achieve the standards. Especially in a changing context we think that attitudes, like feeling of threat and anxiety towards the change, are often hindering the learning process.

In this reflection, we only related attitudes to the process of adaptation. Within the economical perspective changing attitudes are important when negative reactions arise towards change. In our opinion the organisation should consider developing attitudes towards the change as part of the whole organisation culture, instead of only reacting on negative attitudes afterwards. This is related to the more human perspective.

Starting from a more human perspective the orientation towards change has to be different in our opinion. Instead of working in a reactive way, the company has to be proactive. This implicates another kind of organisation culture where the innovative competencies of the employees are recognised. As we mentioned above implementing change often goes hand in hand with negative reactions. If employees are involved in the process of development and innovation, they feel committed to the organisation, to their work and to the new tendencies. As a consequence, training isn’t seen as a tool to introduce change and change attitudes, but it ‘s an instrument to generate change. Here we argue for a more human perspective, in which the main aim of training is development instead of adaptation.

As we mentioned before, in our case study we recognise mainly the economical approach. The major part of training activities are oriented towards adapting to changes in order to survive in the competitive market. We also see some elements of the human perspective. Within the organisation the stress is on developing a good climate between the employees, the managers and the clients. The organisation also creates possibilities for the employees to follow courses according to their interests. Even though the company finally tends towards effectiveness and profit, they find it important to invest in improving the knowledge and skills of the employees without consider it as a waste of money. This investment will improve the personal benefits of the employees, for instance motivation, personal enrichment, … In the long term these benefits will influence the organisational level in terms of culture, functioning, quality, …

Starting from the human perspective we think it’s important to search for a balance between adaptation and development. On the one hand there are changes within the economical market, like the change towards a common currency (Euro) that the company has to adapt. During the implementation of the change, they have to take into account the feelings and attitudes of the employees. On the other hand they have to work on a culture where development is not seen as a threat. It’s about creating a learning environment where the employees can participate in.

As a conclusion we want to stress the importance of combining the training objectives of the company and the employee. In-company training can have three possible objectives:

• To prepare progressively to execute tasks of growing complexity and/or responsibility.
• To up date knowledge, skills and attitudes to face the changes in the work environment (technology, processes, products, …)
• To transform training in a focus of personal satisfaction and professional improvement.

The main interests of most companies are translated in the first two objectives. We think that the adult educator has an important role to play in the third, personal objective, by making the managers aware of its importance for the employees and on the long term for the benefits of the company.

Introduction

In the previous chapters we reflected on adult education and the adult educator in relation to the different fields of our profession in the future. In this chapter we want to stress the influence of policy on these different fields of adult education. As Freire says every educator is a political actor whether or not he or she is aware of the consequences of his or her values and way of acting in designing and teaching programmes of adult education. Although an adult educator chooses to stay neutral, he or she takes a position in the political debate. Therefore we think it is important to be aware of the consequences policy has towards education.

We will explain the influence of social policy on adult education by using Griffin’s two models of lifelong learning. Our goal is not to explain the different levels of policy and decision making, which are the international, the national, the organisational and the group level. We want to explain the social-democratic and the neo-liberal discourse to show the contradictions and paradoxes that may appear in practice. We will explain this by using examples from the educational field. At last, we refer to Beck’s concept of ‘reflexive modernity’ as a framework for developing the social-democratic and the neo-liberal policy models towards a constructive dialogue.

Description of the two models of policy

Progressive social-democratic policy

In general the role of the state in this model can be seen as redistributive. The social-democrats want to create a welfare state, where every citizen is offered equal opportunities in health care, education, social security,... Their goal is to combat social exclusion and reinforce a common culture and citizenship. Therefore they pay attention to the social responsibility and social rights of each citizen on every policy level. The state provides opportunities for everyone and by giving these opportunities the state wants to control, if the citizens use them in an appropriate way. Therefore there is a tendency towards centralisation and bureaucracy.

Neo-liberal welfare reform policy

In a post-modern society we recognise a general tendency towards neo-liberalism and individualisation. A new way of life is established, where the individual is seen as a consumer and competitor in the free market. The emphasis in this kind of policy is on the market where the state plays a minimal role. The market supports the equal rights of every consumer to take his or her own individual responsibility, but in the end it is up to the individuals whether or not they want to use their individual freedom.

The influence of policies on education

Our main interest as future adult educators is in the influence of the different policy models on education. Therefore we explain the model of Griffin as illustrated below in figure x.

Figure x: different policy models on education

To reflect the educational policy Griffin distinguishes two dimensions. On the one hand he sees the political meaning of the concepts education and learning and on the other hand of social policy and social function.

Education versus Learning

The social democratic model concentrates on providing education on all levels for every citizen. It seeks to achieve redistributive educational provision through increased educational opportunities, which may be compulsory. It is the aim to give every citizen equal opportunities to follow training. The educational system and the designing of the programmes are based on rational planning. Because of this well-defined structure the state is able to provide courses for the citizens. As a consequence the state wants to control and measure the outcomes of education.

The neo-liberals pay attention to the centrality of learning in the lives of the individuals. They think that providing education is not enough to guarantee that an individual will learn. Therefore they concentrate on the learning process itself and not on the outcomes. They emphasise on vocational training to give individuals capabilities to compete in the free market. The stress is also on the individuals and companies to create courses to reinforce the learning society and learning organisations. The state chooses to play a minimal role because it wants to give every individual the responsibility and freedom to choose his or her own individual learning plan. So every individual has equal rights to follow courses if he or she wants to.

Policy versus Function

The social-democrats want to control the educational field. Therefore they develop a complete educational policy to plan in a rational way the provision of educational facilities. So fundamentally, policies for education and training have their roots in the existing systems of provision.

The neo-liberals see learning more as a function of social and cultural life, rather than as an object of public policy. Learning eludes social policy because it cannot, like educational provision, be directly controlled. (Griffin,1998, p. 3) Therefore the government takes a strategic role in creating the conditions in which the individuals have opportunities to learn. In this model learning is seen as a way of life.

Political Contradictions and Paradoxes in Adult Education

In reality one can recognise that different policies can in many cases lead to contradictions and paradoxes between discourse and practice. In this chapter we will show contradictions between them, using as examples the Open University and vocational training.

The social-democratic policy model stresses the equal opportunities for everyone to follow education. For instance, the basic principle of the Open University is to offer courses on university level for everyone without any qualification requirements. They even support distance learning and learning through Internet to give the opportunity to combine work and studies. This seems to be a very social-democratic discourse but in fact the Open University is in a way widening the gap between high and low educated or rich or poor people. Only the one’s that have access to Internet (can afford it and know how to use computers) are able to attend courses. Also the fee that some see as a formality is for others, like unemployed people, an obstacle for attending education. Although one has the money and the possibility to follow courses in Open University the entrance may be difficult because of the limited number of people that is allowed to attend. So, we see that in many cases the practice is neo-liberal even though the main principle of equal opportunities is social democratic.

Vocational training is often linked with neo-liberal thoughts about getting qualifications to compete in the free market. Training is seen as an instrument for economical competition and the stress is on employability. In neo-liberalism every individual is responsible of his or her own choice for his or her future life course. Because of the recession the state has taken over this responsibility and has made a lot of vocational training compulsory for unemployed people. The neo-liberal discourse has become in labour education a social-democratic practice.

Reflexive modernity, towards a combination of the two models?

In our opinion choosing between the two models will always lead to extreme positions that are never satisfying. We believe that there has to be a development in both models towards a dialogue.

If we choose only the neo-liberal policy there might be a danger of extreme individualisation. We believe that there is no future in this darwinistic way of seeing learning as a function of the survival of the fittest and not paying attention to the community. On the other hand if we choose a pure social-democratic policy, the extreme control of the state does not leave space for individual growth which we think is needed to be able to participate in communal life.

Beck's concept of ‘reflexive modernity’ shows the danger of extreme neo-liberalism. In the chapter of community education we became aware of the importance of paying attention to both the individual and the communal life. On the one hand ‘reflexive modernity’ refers to the individual growth and self-reflexivity in defining one's own biography. This can be seen as a neo-liberal aspect of individual responsibility of one's own life. On the other hand the need for the communal life in reflexive modernity is strong. This stresses the social responsibility of the citizens in a social democratic way.

In the reflexive modernity both individual reflexivity and social responsibility to communal life are important. In our opinion there has to be a concentration on individual learning processes and also to community education. Therefore, the challenge for adult educators is to stress social responsibility as well as individual reflexivity in designing and teaching programmes. More radically, we believe that the role of the adult educator is to take part in the political debate on educational questions.

Introduction

In this chapter we want to answer the question: "What does adult education mean for us?" According to our experience, it is not easy to find a complete description, because of the differences between and within countries and personal interests. In the previous chapters, we gave meaning to the concept of adult education by reflecting on the different fields, like community education, in-company training and multicultural society, in which the adult educator can play a role.

To get a more clear picture of both adult education as a science and as our profession in the future, we constructed our own house of adult education. This house symbolises the foundations on which we will build our practice and theory as adult educators. The emphasis of these foundations will be different according to our professional field in the future.

Our house of adult education

According to us, every adult educator, like every individual, has to construct his or her own understanding and definition of him/herself and the environment in which he or she lives, acts,… This includes also the professional view on adult education. We think it is important to ask oneself: "What are my values, objectives and needs?", "What do I want to reach as an adult educator?", and "What is my profile as adult educator and how could I develop it?"

To answer these questions the adult educator has to go back to the foundations of adult education on which he or she relies.

The general dynamic of our house, of all the foundations and the professional, educational activity is the process of understanding and theory building. As we mentioned above this is both a challenge and a must for every individual and adult educator. The learning circle of Kolb, explained in chapter four, describes in a clarifying way, how we see these processes of understanding and theory building.

Every theory should be based on practice and reflection on the experience coming from the practice. To close the circle one has to see how the theory appears in practice.

The process of theory building circulates through the whole house and in each of its rooms: philosophy, psychology, sociology and the professional fields of adult education.

This circling process doesn’t happen in a vacuum. As in every action one has to take into account the general context. Here we call it the environment, which is nowadays characterised by post-modern influences. In the previous chapters it became clear that the post-modern tendencies have influences on the everyday life of the individual and on the society. These tendencies are also influencing the different sciences, which focus on the individual and the society, including adult education and its foundations.

These post-modern tendencies give on the one hand freedom to the individual to create his or her theories and definitions. Beck (Jansen, Th. & Van der Veen, R., 1997) calls this kind of definition the ‘self-reflexive biography’. People are no longer forced to rely on pre-determinate standards, but have the freedom to choose their own values and construct their own meaning of life. The other side of the coin is that the security of the traditional tribes, the religion, class and generation, is replaced by the individuals own responsibility. Thereby there is an increasing freedom that causes insecurity and uncertainty.

In the following parts we will walk through the different rooms of our house:

We placed philosophy as a foundation at the bottom of our house, because we see it as an underlying discipline of all the other foundations. For us philosophy is a general orientation of being reflective. It is not only knowing the different philosophical theories, but it is a way of looking to ourselves and the world around us as well in everyday life as during professional activity. It' s about a way of thinking and becoming conscious of one's selfhood, including the values, attitudes, ideology, ... It's also a way of looking towards the world and society, always in relation to one's self. For an adult educator it's important to be aware of the values and perspectives on which he or she bases his or her educational action. In the previous chapter we referred to Freire to make clear that every adult educator is also a political actor who acts according to his or her values and ideology whether he or she attempts to or not. The adult educator can't deny the question: "Why is (this) educational action justified?"

Here we want to stress that we are aware of the influence of the post-modern context in which we live in. The meaning that we give to philosophy as a foundation has to be seen in relation to the environment. In these post-modern times philosophy can be a tool for every individual in defining one's own life course. Living in a post-modern society, we conceive philosophy as a framework to pose questions, to be critical, to analyse facts in relation to their context, ...

Starting from the post-modern environment psychology as a foundation of adult education means for us a science that reflects on the actions that take place inside the individuals mind as a reaction to the external and internal environment. Psychology is for adult educators a necessary science that gives research information to work with. It is interesting to apply the knowledge of this science to the different methods we use in practice. The most important domains of the psychology we use are developmental, learning, work and social psychology.

In psychology there are different tendencies, like behaviourism, neo-behaviourism and constructivism. We think that constructivistic tendencies can be a relevant starting point for the adult educator. The adult educator has to be aware of the way a person interpreters the reality, so that he or she can use that kind of interpretation to work with the individuals.

Sociology

As a third foundation we want to mention sociology. In comparison with sociology, psychology focuses more on the individual in the social environments, whereas sociology focuses on the individual as an active part of the society. Sociology starts from the angle of society to look to the individual within the society. As an adult educator it is important to be aware of the influence of the external environment, like post-modernism, communal life, economy or policy, has on an individuals life or on an organisation. The adult educator has to look for the main tendencies in the society and reflect on the consequences on adult education activities.

The foundation of sociology and psychology are complementary with each other and therefore we put them on the same floor of our house. Psychology looks more towards the individual and the processes that are going on in the individual, to the inner change of the individual. While sociology looks to the influences that the society has on the individual. These are both important aspects that have to be taken into account in order to be able to understand the individuals, his or her needs and values and the kind of education he or she needs.

Professional field

On the third floor we decided to place the different professional fields of adult education. Referring to Kolb both the theory and practice are present in the professional field as a foundation. These fields are also constantly in dialogue with the general knowledge of philosophy, sociology and psychology. The adult educator is influenced by these sciences and uses them as frameworks in his or her practice and creates his or her personal definitions of the practice, while the scientist uses the professional fields to investigate the reality and to develop new theories.

The ideal model?

In our house we don’t preview a roof, because we think that the professional is always developing new methods or theories through the learning circle of Kolb. Therefore our house has spiralling stairs that go up. We think that in this house regression is also possible. If there is a practice or a theory developed that doesn’t work, then there may collapse a floor. It is necessary to return to the foundations during every educational activity to make them present and stronger. Our house has open windows, so that the environment always influences our way of thinking and vice versa. Adult educator should use his or her philosophical abilities, knowledge of the different foundations and the practical skills to be able to close the windows if necessary.

In this last chapter we want to look back to the previous chapters and reflect on some general lines starting from the question: "What are the challenges for adult education and the adult educator in the future? ".

The framework of this reflection is the post-modern society and its influences on adult education as a science and in practice. In some of the earlier chapters we referred to Beck’s concept of ‘reflexive modernity’ and pointed out the characteristics of individualisation. These concepts describe the society in which we are living nowadays.

The traditional categories, like family, social class and religion, on which people earlier based their identity and life course have lost their significance. As a consequence, people have to search now for own meanings of their lives and make personal choices instead of relying on pre-determinate standards. The outcome of this process of individualisation is the importance of self-reflexivity in every individual’s life. According to Beck, every individual has to write his or her own ‘self-reflexive biography’ based on his or her individual choices. In this sense, constructing ones own view of the world and oneself is an ongoing process for every individual.

We recognise the importance of self-reflexive biography also in Schäffter’s idea of ‘the sphere of selfhood’. Building this sphere of selfhood is also an ongoing process. According to him it is important to know ones own selfhood to be able to cross the surface of sensitivity and get in contact with the outside world. Schäffter’s theory adds a new element in building a self-reflexive biography. He stresses that every inside needs an outside. Here, self-reflexivity means making a distinction between the self and the other in order to enrich ones own selfhood and learn from this distinction. Schäffter related his theory to the multicultural society but we want to enlarge it to the whole post-modern society. We are all multiculturalists, because we cannot rely on the tribes but have to come in contact with new experiences and our feeling of strangeness. We argue that self-reflexivity has become more and more important in the post-modern society.

Therefore we see philosophy as a basic foundation of our house of adult education. For us, philosophy is the general orientation of being reflective. By this, we mean becoming aware of one’s selfhood in relation to the general context in which we live in. For the adult educator it is important to be conscious of his or her values, ideology and perspectives on which he or she bases the educational activities. Both the critical reflection on the inside and the outside are needed.

Another challenge for the adult educator, related to this tendency of individualisation, is to be a facilitator in the process of building self-reflexive biographies. This task is needed because there are two sides on the concept of self-reflexivity. On the one hand people have a greater freedom in defining their own life, but on the other hand this must for ongoing self-actualisation creates uncertainty.

In the chapter of information technology and training, we recognise the tendency of individualisation in the evolution from the presential paradigm to the new way of conceiving the relation between the learner and the educational system. In the new paradigm the stress is on creating rich learning environments, where the individual has the opportunity to form his or her own learning path. When creating individual learning plans, the role of being self-directed and critical becomes more important. This self-directed learning does not mean self-learning, learning on one’s own. The role of the adult educator as a facilitator and tutor is here very important in helping the learners in their process of individualised learning and in finding their own needs and objectives. We can conclude that this freedom of individualisation creates new possibilities to find one’s own way for instance in the field of information technology, but there is also another side.

People have to take their responsibility of their life course anyway, because of the diminishing safety of standards. For some people the process of self-actualisation creates a feeling of unsafety. Also here we see challenges for the adult educator. In the different professional fields of adult education the adult educator has to facilitate the process of self-actualisation. The adult educator’s task is helping different target groups, who are in a situation where they may feel unsafe, like migrants, unemployed people, illiterate people,... to form their own understanding of their situation and their own solutions for their life course.

Until now we looked to the post-modern society from the angle of individualisation. In the following we want to reflect on individualisation in relation with collectivism. These two concepts are always present as a tension between two counterparts. But because of the tendency towards the pole of individualisation in the post-modern society, the tension between the two poles reaches an acute stage. This tension creates challenges to the adult educator to search for a balance, which takes the both parts into account. To clarify the challenges we look back to the chapters of community education, management and organisation, in-company training and adult education and social policy.

The strong tendency of individualisation and self-actualisation raises the fear that the communal life is at risk. What used to be a socially conditioned biography is gradually transformed into a biography, in which the individual is free to make decisions about his or her life course according to his or her own needs and desires. The importance of communal life to give meaning to an individuals life has diminished and even more, the decisions can work against communal interests. The challenge for adult education is to find ways to promote communal life, social participation and integration to the community. This means working with the tension in a constructive way. In our opinion, community education and community work have an important role in raising the interest of communal questions and bring them to the public debate. The constructive way of working with the tension also implies taking into account the individual self-actualisation. Here, the educational efforts should not be seen as isolated learning processes of the individual, who wants to develop him- or herself, but they should be linked to empowerment for critical and creative participation to communal life. We need "strong" individuals to build up a "strong" community.

This role of adult education is in some countries, like Finland, where community work is not so clearly related to learning, more challenging. Adult education should broaden its focus, so that also the pole of communal life is included and communities are seen as environments, where learning processes can take place.

We recognise the same tension between individualism and collectivism in organisations. In these environments we see the tendency towards the individual pole in the shape of the market-oriented society. Within this dominant economic system individual learning and development is an important tool to reach effectiveness and competitiveness in the free market. Here training concentrates on the right performance of a specific job task. The main concern of organisations in the constantly changing market is adaptation to survive. Training is set up in a reactive way, which means that it goes always with the flow of the developments in the market. This raises negative attitudes towards the change and uncertainty of the future and training has to cope with these feelings.

In our opinion, working in a reactive way on the attitudes is not enough. The organisation should include a more human perspective to its culture, structure, strategic plan and training. According to us this human perspective is situated on the pole of collectivism, because within this perspective we conceive the organisation as a dynamic social construction. The task of the employee is not only to adapt to the pre-defined standards, but he or she should be involved to the process of development. The stress in this perspective is on creating a climate, where the proactive way is included and every employee is involved in the process of generating changes. The conception of training is more related to continuing development instead of adaptation. We can conclude that the understanding of learning is not limited to an individual function, but it means creating a learning environment, where the employees can participate in.

The challenge for the adult educator, as responsible for in-company training or as a consultant, is to take into account the whole context of the organisation and find a balance between the economic and the human perspective. We recognise that within the organisations the economic forces are a reality, which the adult educator has to take into account. He or she can contribute to in-company training, where the stress is on the individual, functional development to reach the effectiveness (profit and quality). Next to this task concerning the company’s objectives, the challenge for the adult educator is to bring the human perspective in the culture of the company. This means building up a community, where social participation and integration of each employee is possible.

As an example of how the adult educator can contribute to the human perspective in organisations we refer to the confrontational model of innovation. This model is characterised by the climate of open communication, in which the decision making process is based on consultation and consensual validation, where all the employees are involved.

In the chapter of Adult education and social policy we mentioned also the tension between collectivism and individualism. "On one side of this new political spectrum are the political perspectives that emphasize integration, solidarity, community … On the other side of this spectrum are the perspectives that interpret individualization as a triumph of personal freedom for individuals." (Jansen, Th. & Van der Veen, R., 1997) In the post-modern society there is a general tendency towards neo-liberal policy, which stresses the individualisation. In the politics of education the neo-liberals pay attention to the centrality of learning in the lives of the individuals. They want to give every individual the responsibility and the freedom to choose his or her individual learning plan. The neo-liberals want to offer the same rights for everyone, but they neglect the real opportunities of each individual to compete in the free market. In fact the neo-liberals are pushing the tendency of individualisation to an extreme position, which broadens the gap between the people who can compete and the others that cannot.

The social democrats stress more on communal life. The politics of education stress on redistributive educational provision through increased educational opportunities. The state sees providing education as a public responsibility. In an extreme social-democratic policy the control of the state doesn’t leave space for individual growth, which we see as important to be able to participate in communal life.

The adult educator has to be aware of the consequences of the two policy models in educational practice. While designing educational activities, it’s important to situate them in the broader context of policy on the different levels. By doing this, it becomes clear which direction one is following and which other possibilities exist. The adult educator cannot only adapt to the political reality, but has to formulate alternatives to avoid the extremes of different policies. Therefore we think that it is a challenge for the adult educator to take part in the political debate on educational questions and try to bring different models of policy in a constructive dialogue.

The main idea that returned in posing the challenges for the adult educator, is the process of searching for a balance within the tension between individualism and collectivism. In our opinion, working with the tension in a constructive way implies always a dialogue between different actors. Within this dialogue people start from their own conception of the selfhood in relation to the outside world. Self-reflexivity is needed to be aware of one’s own values, ideology and perspectives concerning the world, including oneself. This idea of constructivism poses the challenge to the adult educator, as we mentioned above, to reflect on his or her conception of reality and its consequences on the educational activities.

This process of constructing one’s own reality is necessary to be able to step ahead and participate in a dialogue concerning educational questions. This does not only mean communicating one’s personal view, but building up a common understanding by negotiations and discussions. The frame of reference of this idea is the theory of social constructionism. The essence of this theory is seeing the reality as a social construction. The social conception of reality is the result of processes of interaction and communication. Trough these processes people are describing, explaining and legitimating the world where they live in, including themselves.

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