Is professionalization the way forward for adult educators? If so, how to proceed? That was the main issues at a Nordic seminar "Competence development among adult educators/Professionalization of adult educators". In between discussing this, several participants questioned the basic idea that adult education differs that much from all other kinds of education.

The seminar was organized by The Nordic Network for Adult Learning (NVL), which is funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers, comprising the governments of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland. The seminar took place March 1-2 in Malmö in the southern part of Sweden.

Central competencies

• Assessing learners´ needs
• Planning and preparing teaching and learning programs for groups and individuals
• Managing the learning process
• Providing learners with support
• Reflecting upon and evaluating one´s own performance and planning future practice

These were some of the central competencies of adult educators mentioned by professor Ekkehard Nuissl von Rein from the German Institute of Adult Education in his key note speech. He was quoting an official British guide for teachers´ trainers.

In the following workshop this prompted two Danish adult education teachers to raise the question, if such a thing as a special didactic for adult education exists. They also referred to the enormous heterogeneity of adult education.

"Should we not rather focus on the different competencies needed for education in different contexts and target groups irrespectively of age," they asked.

Defending identity

Both the workshop leader, professor Bjarne Wahlgren from the Danish National Center of Competence Development, and other workshop participants insisted that there are specific features related to adults and adult education and that special competencies are needed to cope with these specifics.

They pointed to the question of identity. As one participant said:
"Children and teenagers are in a process of establishing an identity. That makes them more open to learning. While adults often have a need for defending their identity - and to some people new knowledge is a threat to their established identity."
It is easier to convince adults about the usefulness of learning by arguing, was another point. And the diversity of life situations and learning environments is much more obvious for adults than for children.

Exactly these points were the answer, when Dr. Jaap van Lakerveld of the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, was asked the same question after his key note speech the next day. He said that the different contexts have a greater influence on the learning processes of adults and added that adults are less flexible.

Room for improvement

This and other discussions took place on the basis of a number of key-note speeches outlining the broad background for competence development of adult educators.

Among the challenges of the future in professor von Rein´s conclusion was the need to define the "core" of adult education and an agreement on the needed compentencies.

Professor van Lakerveld presented a list of five areas of improvement in adult education: promotion, profession, professional development, programs and provision.

What is a profession?

At the end of the seminar professor Kathrin Hjort of the University of Southern Denmark, introduced a definition of "profession". If adult educators want to be a profession they need to establish:

• a monopoly on occupation, education and scientific knowledge
• autonomy, meaning the formal and real competence to plan, conduct, evaluate and development own work
• legitimacy, meaning professional ethics, internal collegial control, external social legitimacy.

Adult educators are not close to this position, she argued.
But according to Katrin Hjort professionalization is not only a positive possibility but also a threat that may lead to loss of variety in knowledge and experience, personal engagement and professional autonomy. Professionalization may also have a negative effect on the ability to organize adult education according the needs of local participants and social movements. And it may delegitimize adult education, if people consider it "just another business".

Reports, presentations and slides will be available at the end of March on the NVL website: www.nordvux.net

(InfoNet - Michael Voss)