The role of organisations in the professionalisation of adult educators in Germany and Slovenia

Abstract

In this paper, we analyse the role that adult and continuing education (ACE) organisations play in the professionalisation of adult educators (AE) by providing and shaping opportunities for primary professional education and continuing professional development in two Central European countries: Germany and Slovenia. Theoretically, our discussion draws on classical profession theory, organisation theory, and the "new professionalism" discourse; empirically, we perform a comparative analysis between two countries and discuss similarities and differences in terms of state-society contexts, professional organisations, and professionalisation organisations. Our findings indicate that professional and professionalisation organisations represent main institutionalised contexts where the professionalisation of ACE is negotiated. In Slovenia, this is supported by strong state-society contexts, whereas in Germany, traditional regional and institutional diversity is achieved at the price of a unified AE occupational profile.

Professionalisation of Adult Education in Slovenia from a Multi-level Perspective

“…For the strengthening of professionalism in AE, various organisations, such as universities associations and societies, are also responsible Schwarz and Mikulec 2020). In Slovenia, there is no single umbrella organisation for AE but a variety of associations can be found, serving different objectives and needs of its members and performing their activities in accordance with their own vision and mission.…”

“…It can be applied to a wide range of 'professions', while its focus is on professional conduct in practice, which is a reflection of an individual's professional development. Therefore, professionalism is understood as the ability to comprehensively understand professional situations and to use a wide range of knowledge in concrete situations (Evetts 2006;Evans 2008;Egetenmeyer and Käpplinger 2011;Breitschwerdt et al 2019;Egetenmeyer et al 2019;Schwarz and Mikulec 2020).…”

“…In recent years, especially in the European educational space, studies of professionalisation focused mainly on competences that adult educators should have (see Mikulec 2019;Zagir and Mandel 2020), but less attention has been given to the important role organisations play in the professionalisation of adult educators (see Breitschwerdt et al 2019;Schwarz and Mikulec 2020), as well as to career paths, professional identity and professional development of adult educators (see Bron and Jarvis 2008;Evans 2008;Bierema 2011). From a multi-level perspective on professionalisation, the general importance of interdependencies between the state-society (macro), organisations (meso) and staff-personnel (micro) levels of professionalisation is emphasised (Egetenmeyer et al2019).…”