LLinE Lifelong Learning in Europe

Orientation 4/2008

REMOTE AREAS AND LIFELONG LEARNING
Remoteness can be a challenge for education at all levels. In this issue we consider what is the impact of distance, or remoteness, to adult education and lifelong learning. Can adult education technologies and community initiatives help overcome “remoteness”?

António Fragoso
REMOTENESS IN SOUTHERN PORTUGAL: CAN ADULT LEARNING MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
The paper focuses on the south-end region of Portugal, the Algarve. The writer reflects on the characteristics that make this territory a remote one. After describing the nature of adult learning processes initiated during the 1980s, he goes on to consider whether adult learning can overcome remoteness and the decline of rural communities.

Sofoklis Sotiriou, Pavlos Koulouris and Emmanuel Apostolakis
PROVISION OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES TO TEACHERS WORKING IN SMALL RURAL SCHOOLS
Small multigrade schools in rural Greece provide the children of remote areas with the access to education that all children in Greece are entitled to. Teachers of these schools confront significant challenges and need to develop personal competences that extend beyond the initial and in-service teacher training curricula. The writers report on ongoing research on how emerging ubiquitous e-learning technologies can enable the building of a lifelong learning culture and the development of teachers’ advanced professional competences.

Ásrún Matthíasdóttir
DISTANCE EDUCATION IN ICELAND: A GLIMPSE INTO THE FUTURE
A successful distance education programme in higher education for students with a vocational background was developed in Iceland during the last decade. The writer describes the development of distance education in Iceland during the last decade and discusses future challenges in adult education in this rural country.

THE EU PRESIDENCY: CZECH ADULT EDUCATION
In this issue LLinE introduces the adult education field in the Czech Republic, which holds the EU presidency from 1 January to 30 June, 2009.

Petr Novotný
LEARNING FOR WORK AND FOR WORKPLACE. OVERT AND COVERT WORLDS OF LEARNING AND EDUCATION IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
Since 1989, the Czech Republic has experienced a process of radical social and economic change. The transformation of the totalitarian political and social structures and the state controlled national economy into a democratic society has led to a transformation of the whole domain of lifelong learning and adult education. The writer considers the overall situation and in particular, learning for work and for the workplace.

Ladislav Rabušic and Milada Rabušicová
MOTIVATIONS AND BARRIERS IN ADULT EDUCATION IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC. DO WE LEARN THROUGHOUT OUR LIVES?
A mere 9 per cent of Czech adults enter formal education and approximately one third of the population participate in non-formal education. The writers carried out a representative national survey in spring 2005 to find out which internal and external barriers individuals have to adult education. In this paper they focus on what adults find or do not find motivating in terms of participating in formal and non-formal adult education.

Jan Fiala
FIRST STEPS ON THE PATH TO RURAL LIFELONG LEARNING IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
Several vocational courses for new professions – “rural generalists” and village lifelong learning coordinators – have been developed and registered in the Czech Republic during the last two years. The writer describes the general situation of rural lifelong learning as well as the development of these courses, which were largely a result of co-operation between two NGOs and local communities within programmes supported by the ESF.

TEACHER EDUCATION IN EUROPE
This year LLinE is publishing a series of articles on the latest scenarios for development of teacher education in Europe.

Diana Berthén, Inger Eriksson and Viveca Lindberg
IN-SERVICE TRAINING AS COGNITIVE APPRENTICESHIP
Political will to increase the proportion of people with higher education has contributed to teachers encountering new groups of students who fail in examinations. An in-service training project in the Åland Islands aimed to improve these students’ literacy practices while at the same time studying teachers’ knowledge formation. The writers discuss the results of the four year in-service training project and the teachers’ knowledge formation, especially in terms of their emerging insights of the relational and contextual aspects of what it means to become literate within a specific vocational higher education programme.

LLINE PROFILE: ANTRA CARLSEN

NETWORKING AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION FOR PROMOTING ADULT LEARNING
The new member of the LLinE Editorial Board discusses her experiences of international and cross-sectoral cooperation and networking in adult education.

LITERATURE

Antti Saari
FOUCAULT AND LIFELONG LEARNING
Andreas Fejes and Katherine Nicoll (Eds.)