Media and in particular digital media play an important role within European education initiatives for over twenty years now. As a surrounding framework, these documents have an essential impact on the professionalisation of adult educators and related research also. Important examples are the “Memorandum on Lifelong Learning” (Commission of the European Communities 2000) that emphasizes the development of ICT-skills on the side of adult educators already. Furthermore, these documents highlight the support of media competence for adults in general which makes media related skills for adult educators necessary (European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice 2015). Consequently, the development of digital competencies among adults are recommended by a study commissioned by the European Commission as well to support a sustainable media education in Europe (Bertelsmann Stiftung & ECORY 2015). In this context, the EU DigCompEdu framework suggests a media competence model for teaching staff (Redecker & Punie 2017) that also seems highly relevant for the professionalisation of adult educators. In addition, the recently published “Digital Education Action Plan” (European Commission 2020) also suggests a wide support of digital education and digital competencies for European adults and points out the importance of professionalisation programs for teachings staff over a lifespan. The last aspect can also be found in the “New European Agenda for Adult Learning 2021-2030”, which was discussed and passed by in November 2020 in the European Council (Council of the European Union 2021).

These gathered EU education initiatives are discussed in a variety of adult educational research papers dealing with the media related professionalisation of teaching staffs (e.g. Rohs & Bolten 2017). The focus of this European debate is the identification of different necessary skills and knowledge resources adult educators have to develop in order to deal with the challenges and opportunities of a digital world. Yet, the discussion lacks a critical examination of a) the understanding of media as well as b) the understanding of media education (in the sense of ‘Medienbildung’) that are inscribed in these framing documents and ultimately have consequences for professionalisation processes in European adult education. This is an important research gap that our submitted paper aims to fill.

Therefore we will analyse recent EU documents using the methodological pillars of the Objective Hermeneutics (Wernet 2013). To investigate the understandings of media and media education empirically, we focus on theoretical deliberations that suggest a broader view on media beyond technologies and on media education as transformation process between subject and society (Bettinger 2021). In addition, we reflect on our research results from a Diversity Education perspective (e.g. Zepke 2005) with focus on their meaning for media related professionalisation of adult educators as a heterogeneous target group. The latently inscribed understanding of media and media education in the documents pre-structures in which way adult educators are addressed as learning subjects and which abilities are recognized or not recognized in context of media related professionalisation processes. In a Diversity Education perspective it is important to reflect on the question if these pre-structuring practices acknowledge diversity as a chance for adult educator’s learning on media topics and the related development of relevant skills. The research results conducted within this investigation promote a deeper understanding of the importance of EU education initiatives as a framework for in particular professionalisation in adult education and for a sustainable implementation of digital education in Europe in a broader view.

Considering the shortly elaborated theoretical background, our qualitative investigation will focus on the most recent published “Digital Education Action Plan”, the “New Agenda for Adult Learning 2021-2030” as well as the “DigCamp 2.2” (Vuorikari et al. 2022). First we will focus on analysing the understanding of media and media education that are inscribed in the named documents. Secondly, we will identify the most important segments of the documents related to our research interest and interpret them with Objective Hermeneutics (Wernet 2013). Considering this empirical approach, we understand the analysed documents as products of social practices of European education initiatives. In this view these documents become empirically accessible for our investigation (ibid.). A methodical challenge our study will be facing is that the analysed EU documents do not only contain text material, yet also include graphics that have to be considered. Therefore, we take up theoretical assumptions that unfold deliberations around the Objective Hermeneutic analysis of data with such kind of text-image combinations (Zizek & Andermann 2020). We assume that there are certain latent orders and social attributions in the document’s text-graphic presentations concerning the conceptualisation of media and media education and their pre-structuring function for media related professionalisation processes, which are carved out within our analysis. Thirdly, we will compare our findings of the three mentioned documents and elaborate a final conclusion that will refer towards a Diversity Education perspective in adult education (Zepke 2005).

Since we have not conducted the study yet, we can only speculate on the results and following conclusion at this point. Based on our first insights into the data material, we assume that the analysed EU documents will show a strongly technological understanding of media that results in a functional understanding of media education. If media education is associated in a functional way, we assume that it is likewise associated with the development and the maintenance of human capital in context of global economic challenges in a technically oriented world. Referring to the theoretical positions mentioned before, this can be interpreted as an enormous shortened perspective of media as well as media education. Media related professionalisation of adult educators consequently is closely related to the competitiveness of EU and its working citizens in a global vocational market. In addition, taking a Diversity Educational perspective into account we expect some very interesting findings as well. Firstly, the mentioned documents aim to circumvent media related stereotypes especially referring to gender and age. Through our analysis we will investigate, whether stereotypes might be reproduced in the sense that the development of media related competencies are primarily connotated towards young (working) and male citizens. This assumption shows the importance of further research and reflection on aspects of media related professionalisation in European adult education. We therefore argue, that different stereotypes in the context of media education should be critically reflected in order to overcome them.

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