Qualification of adult educators in Europe: insights from the Portuguese case

Author(s):

Catarina Paulos(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

02. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

02 SES 04 A, Trends in VET Systems in the Iberian Peninsula

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-03

09:00-10:30

Room:

B023 Anfiteatro

Chair:

Fernando Marhuenda

Contribution

In a lifelong learning context, an adult educator is not only a knowledge provider, but instead he is faced with a wide range of situations, which can mobilize different skills and competences. For example, adult educators can develop different tasks, such as personal and vocational guidance, accreditation of prior learning, pedagogical accompaniment, teaching, building learning situation or designing and making learning tools (Freynet, 2008).

Adult educators are a professional category that includes several kinds of professionals with different knowledge, skills and abilities. The data of the European Research Group on Competences in the Field of Adult and Continuing Education (with contributions from Austria, Sweden, Denmark, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Italy, France and Portugal) indicate that adult educators can work in four domains, which involve different work content and qualities (Van Dellen & Van der Kamp, 2008). These work domains are vocational education, corporate and functional education, social and moral education and cultural and arts education.

The qualification of professionals of adult learning is an important point of several European policy documents in the field of lifelong learning (Research voor Beleid, 2010). However, most of the initiatives that have been taken to improve the professional situation of teaching staff were concentrated mainly on school teachers or in the initial vocational education staff. Educational staff, who are working outside the formal system, have been forgotten. This happen due to a “very low degree of regulation and a very high degree of diversity and complexity regarding structures, types of learning offers and types of actors involved” (Lattke & Nuissl, 2008: 7).

In Europe there is no regulated qualification in the field of adult educators (Bechtel, 2008). But Egetenmeyer (2010) remarks that there are two typical ways of qualifying as an adult educator: through university programmes with an academic degree; and through further education programmes, often offered by adult education institutions. According to some authors such as Lattke and Nuissl (2008), it is needed to increase the knowledge about the activities developed by adult educators, “the skills that they possess or that they still need to improve” (p. 13).

The European Qualifications Framework (EQF) appeared as an instrument that could help the European countries to find a common basis for the establishment of competences profiles and standards for professionals who are working in the adult education field (Bechtel, 2008). The EQF focuses not only on formal qualifications, but also on learning outcomes, acquired in formal, non formal and informal contexts and this learning outcomes are based on competences achieve by the learner.

Adult educators’ qualification has a key role in the implementation of efficient adult education programmes. European Commission urges Member States to implement initial and continuing professional development measures to qualify people working in the field of adult education (Nuissl & Lattke, 2008).

This paper will explore the qualification of adult educators in Europe and in Portugal. The data used are from a research integrated in a PhD I’m attending in Education, specialization in adult training. This investigation is about adult educators working in the processes of recognition, validation and certification of competences.

In a theoretical point of view, this research use elements from several knowledge fields, mainly adult education and sociology of education. The main aims of this research are to understand the pathways and the professional activity of those adult educators and also their competences and qualifications. This study intended to answer the following questions: Who are these adult educators? How do they learn to do their work? What are the competences of adult educators?

Method

From an epistemological point of view, the research is based on a comprehensive perspective, which aims to describe, interpret and analyze critically (Gonçalves, 2010) the pathway and the professional activity of adult educators responsible for the recognition, validation and certification of competences processes. The comprehensive perspective is useful to explain contexts characterized by deep changes in social practices (Guerra, 2006). From a methodological point of view, the qualitative approach was used. The method used for collecting data was the biographical interview (Pineau & Le Grand, 2002) since this kind of interview allows to understand the relationship that individuals have with the social and historical world through their biographical activity and studying the meanings that they give to their experiences (Delory-Momberger, 2012). The empirical data of this study consist of thirty-two biographical interviews of recognition and validation of competences professionals. These adult educators help the adults to think about their life experiences and learning, they support them during all the process and they also have a mediator role in the problem resolution between the several actors involved in the process, mainly between adults and trainers. Audio recordings of the interviews were done with the subjects’ consent. A thematic content analysis (Bardin, 1995) was the technique used to analysis the information from the interviews.

Expected Outcomes

Data collected revealed that adult educators held higher education degrees in social and human sciences, mostly in Psychology, Sociology and Education Sciences. As far as training was concerned, adult educators were divided by the areas in which they mainly invested. Some prefered to focus on training related to their professional activity or area of academic studies. Others have opted for other types of training, namely at a postgraduate level, which are related to the field of adult education and training. Regarding the professional trajectories of those adult educators, they weren’t generally straightforward but punctuated by incursions in other professional areas. This is in agreement with what was observed by Andersson, Köpsén, Larson and Milana (2013) on their research on the qualification paths and professional trajectories of adult educators in two EU countries, Sweden and Denmark. The learning process of how to exercise this professional activity is carried out based on observation of the professional practice of more experienced colleagues, also by reading existing methodological materials, by the transposition of theoretical concepts to practice in a register of experimentation and of trial and error, and also by attending training sessions. According to Pineau (1991), we can say that adult educators learn through eco-training, hetero-training and experiential training, with direct and reflected contact with the learning situations (Josso, 1991). These adult educators had technical competences and behavioral and relational skills. Firstly, they had knowledge about autobiographical methodologies and competences assessment. But the main highlighted competences were relational skills such as communication, motivation, support and mediation. Similar to what happens in other European countries (Bechtel, 2008; Lattke & Nuissl, 2008), in Portugal adult educators are a heterogeneous group. Adult educators need special skills and competences. Training in adult education methodologies shall be considered as a mean to increase the quality in this field.

References

Andersson, P.; Köpsén, S.; Larson, A. & Milana, M. (2013). Qualification paths of adult educators in Sweden and Denmark. Studies in Continuing Education, 35(1), 102-118. Bardin, L. (1995). Análise de conteúdo. Lisboa: Edições 70. Bechtel, M. (2008). Competence profiles for adult and continuing education staff in Europe: Some conceptual aspects. In E. Nuissl & S. Lattke (Eds.), Qualifying adult learning professionals in Europe (pp. 45-61). Bielefeld: W. Bertelsmann Verlag. Delory-Momberger, C. (2012). Abordagens metodológicas na pesquisa biográfica. Revista Brasileira de Educação, 17(51), 523-536. Egetenmeyer, R. (2010). Professionalisation in adult education: a European perspective. In R. Egetenmeyer & E. Nuissl (Eds.), Teachers and trainers in adult and lifelong learning. Asian and European perspectives (pp. 31-44). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Freynet, P. (2008). Modern processes of production, distribution and use of knowledge. In E. Nuissl & S. Lattke (Eds.), Qualifying adult learning professionals in Europe (pp. 45-61). Bielefeld: W. Bertelsmann Verlag. Gonçalves, T. (2010). Investigar em educação: Fundamentos e dimensões da investigação qualitativa. In M. G. Alves & N. R. Azevedo. (Eds.), Investigar em educação: Desafios da construção de conhecimento e da formação de investigadores num campo multi-referenciado (pp. 39-63). Lisboa: UIED. Guerra, I. C. (2006). Pesquisa qualitativa e análise de conteúdo: sentidos e formas de uso. Estoril: Princípia. Josso, M. C. (1991). L’expérience formatrice: un concept en construction. In B. Courtois. & G. Pineau (Coords.), La formation expérientielle des adultes (pp. 191-199). Paris: La Documentation Française. Lattke, S. & Nuissl, E. (2008). Qualifying professionals for adult learning in Europe. In E. Nuissl & S. Lattke (Eds.), Qualifying adult learning professionals in Europe (pp. 7-18). Bielefeld: W. Bertelsmann Verlag. Nuissl, E. & Lattke, S. (2008). Qualifying adult learning professionals in Europe. Bielefeld: W. Bertelsmann Verlag. Pineau, G. (1991). Formation expérientielle et théorie tripolaire de la formation. In B. Courtois & G. Pineau (Coords.), La formation expérientielle des adultes (pp. 29-40). Paris: La Documentation Française. Pineau, G. & Le Grand, J. (2002). Les histoires de vie: Que sais-je? Paris: PUF Research voor Beleid (2010). Key competences for adult learning professionals. Contribution to the development of a reference framework of key competences for adult learning professionals. Final report. Accessed January 30, 2014, from http://ec.europa.eu/education/more-information/doc/2010/keycomp.pdf Van Dellen, T. & Van der Kamp, M. (2008). Work domains and competencies of the European adult and continuing educator. In E. Nuissl & S. Lattke (Eds.), Qualifying adult learning professionals in Europe (pp. 63-74). Bielefeld: W. Bertelsmann Verlag.

Author Information

Catarina Paulos (presenting / submitting)

Institute of Education, University of Lisbon

Lisbon

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