Adult Education Academy 2025
Since 2014 the Professorship of Adult and Continuing Education has been hosting the Adult Education Academy. Students, colleagues from the field (also called practitioners) and lecturers from around the world come together and exchange on the topic of international perspectives of adult education and lifelong learning every year.
We are very happy, that for the Adult Education Academy 2025 we could welcome more than 100 participants. It was a special experience, since there were even more participants taking part in the Academy, than in the years before. We very much appreciate the interest in the Adult Education Academy and are sure, that the participants learned analytical and comparative skills in adult education in an international environment and got an understanding of internationally relevant educational policies in the context of lifelong learning. The exchange between the participants strengthened the communication and teambuilding skills and further the critical thinking of the participants during this international exchange.
Connecting theory and practice
During the first week the participants worked on two topics. This year the topic of international strategies in adult education was divided into three groups due to the huge participant count. Prof. Regina Egetenmeyer, head of the Professorship for Adult and Continuing Education at the University of Würzburg, held sessions about the topic of Adult Education providers in Germany. Meanwhile Prof. Tadej Košmerl of the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia held sessions on the topic of social policy models for the groups. A third part was offered by Prof. Nélia Vicente, who is Professor at the University of Lisbon in Portugal and worked with the participants on different possible levels of analysis. On Friday of the first week all groups were engaged in a role play about the social policy models and adult education practice, connecting theory and practice.
As a second topic, PhD students focused together with Licinio Lima, Professor em. at University of Minho in Portugal, on discussions on Paulo Freire’s work. Intensive literature studies, lead the course and were connected to practice.
To connect theory and practice a theoretical framework was discussed and reflections were important parts of the sessions. This was put into perspective during the field visits, that were conducted at three different days during the first week. The first field visit included adult education providers in Würzburg, where the participants were able to choose between three different institutions: the Volkshochschule Würzburg, the IHK Würzburg-Schweinfurt and the Robert-Kümmert-Academy. On Thursday afternoon we traveled to Frankfurt and Nürnberg, where the Bildungszentrum Nürnberg, the Caritas Frankfurt and the Deutsche Bahn Frankfurt supported our program with insides on their work in adult education. During the last day of the first week, we welcomed colleagues from DVV International, EAEA and ICAE for presentations in Würzburg which brought in a focus on international adult and continuing education associations.
Comparative group work: an international comparison of adult education structures
For the second week the participants were divided into 7 different groups. Those focused on country comparison within different topics in adult education. The participants could choose the topic based on their own research and study interests. Topics like digitalization, national/regional policies, sustainable development or inclusion with the specification of disability are some examples of the groups’ focuses.
The results of the comparisons of all groups were presented on the last day of the Adult Education Academy. The type of the presentation differed between a room full of posters or an online presentation with videos. The presentations of the groups showed their intensive work during the comparative group work.
The end of the Adult Education Academy 2025 was celebrated at the last evening in the Neubaukirche in Würzburg. Not only did the active participants of the Academy receive a participation appreciation for their work, but the first Master students, that started the Double Degree Master at the Professorship of Adult and Continuing Education of the University of Würzburg about two years ago were granted their master’s certificate. This master was created in cooperation with the University of Padua and was first introduced during the 10-year anniversary of the Adult Education Academy in 2023.
The choice of hybrid setting of the Academy
Just as the last year a hybrid setting for the whole Adult Education Academy was offered. While most of the participants were able to come to Würzburg and attend on site, it is important to us, to ensure participation also from afar, if personal reasons do not allow participants to travel to Germany. We therefore organized hybrid group settings including online and on-site participants to enable everyone to work together despite the physical distance.
