Chair of Adult and Continuing Education

The Chair of Adult and Continuing Education has been collaborating closely with Ukraine for many years, particularly with scientists from the National Yuri Fedkowych University in Chernivtsi and the Academy for Pedagogical Sciences in Kyiv. We condemn in the strongest possible terms Russia's brutal war of aggression against Ukraine, which violates international law. Our sympathy and solidarity goes to all people in Ukraine and to all those who are now having to flee Ukraine.

Кафедра педагогіки з фокусом на освіту дорослих і безперервну освіту вже багато років тісно співпрацює з Україною, зокрема з науковцями Чернівецького національного університету ім. Юрія Федьковича та Академії педагогічних наук у Києві.

Ми найрішучіше засуджуємо жорстоку загарбницьку війну Росії проти України, яка порушує міжнародне право.

Наше співчуття та солідарність – до всіх людей в Україні та до всіх тих, кому зараз доводиться тікати з України.

Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Meilhammer

Everyone has the right to education (Universal Declaration of Human Rights of December 10, 1948, Article 26) – all life long. To implement this right after childhood and adolescence is the fundamental aim of adult and continuing education.

Lifelong education is indispensable for industrial and postindustrial societies. There is no way past adult and continuing education, whether one is seeking to preserve the natural resources, or to strengthen democracy, to enable a prosperous coexistence of the generations and cultures, to advance society and economy, or to develop one’s own personality and increase one’s attractiveness on the job market.

There are manifold possibilities for doing professional work in the large, and still expanding, field of adult and continuing education: it includes general, cultural, vocational, political, and leisure-oriented education, as well as continuing education in the arts and sciences.

The professional motivation for working in the field of adult and continuing education is not so much characterized by instructing, guiding, molding, or helping, than by mediating, stimulating, motivating, facilitating, coaching, and evaluating.

The study of adult and continuing education is directed towards acquiring foundations and methods that further and broaden the ability of reflection and action in the professional field.

News from the chair

Lecture Series

Dr. habil. Tetyana Hoggan-Kloubert and Nicole Luthardt, both employees of the Chair of Adult and Continuing Education, are organizing an international and interdisciplinary lecture series on the topic "Ukraine - terra incognita? Education, society and politics in Ukraine" in the summer semester.

The events on July 6th, 2022 and July 13th, 2022 are canceled and will be made up for in the winter semester 2022/2023.

Schools of Democracy

German and American initiatives to rebuild adult education centers in Bavaria after 1945
Elizabeth Meilhammer

On the occasion of the 75th birthday of the Bavarian Adult Education Association (bvv)

International Review of Education

100 years of Volkshochschule in Germany – 50 years of DVV International
Signposts for local and global comparative perspectives on adult learning and education
The authors: Heribert Hinzen, Elisabeth Meilhammer