Intern
Adult Education Academy

Prof. Bernd Käpplinger

Prof. Dr. Bernd Käpplinger is full professor for continuing education at the Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty 04, University of Giessen.

  • Program planning
  • participation in adult and continuing education
  • guidance&counselling
  • quality development
  • history of adult education

CG 4: Programme planning and analysis in adult education: Dealing with power and ethics

Co-Moderators: Prof. Borut Mikulec

Although adults can learn independently and in self-directed ways, many learn in an organised manner through formal and non-formal educational opportunities available to them. Various organisations provide learning opportunities for adults through their educational programmes, and programme planning and provision represent core activities of professional practice in adult education, where power and ethics must be critically considered and often balanced.

Programme analysis refers to the analysis of educational programmes. Programmes:

  • in adult education serve as a hinge between potential learners and the provision of learning offers.
  • now encompass a wide variety of formats, including printed catalogues, leaflets, posters, webpages, downloadable PDF documents, online databases, or posts about learning events on social media.
  • can be regarded as everyday documents or temporary marketing tools, but programmes and associated programme planning are much more than that.
  • often include a brief description of the aims and content of a course, the way learning takes place, information about the teachers, target learner groups, location, time, costs, and other relevant details.

By analysing educational programmes, we can identify the development of course types/areas of study (e.g. health education, political education, languages, basic education/literacy, professional training), localities and venues where they are offered, instruments and policies related to the programmes, target groups addressed, funding of programmes, and other relevant aspects. Programmes often reflect the contemporary “Zeitgeist”.

  1. Käpplinger, B. (2025). Quality management in its relation to professionalisation revisited: A landscape shaped by internal and external forces. European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 16(2), 165–178. https://doi.org/10.3384/rela.2000-7426.5614

  2. Käpplinger, B. (2025). Social Change by right-wing movements. In: Hake, B., Ahonen, K./Stifter, C. (Eds.) Reformers, Activists, Intellectuals, and the Circulation of Knowledge - Studies in Social, Cultural, and Popular Educational Movements in Europe, 1815–1973. Berlin: Peter Lang, p. 103-118.

  3. Allespach, M., Käpplinger, B. & Wienberg, J. (Eds.) (2024). Handbuch Betriebliche Weiterbildung – Emanzipatorische Ansätze in Theorie und Praxis. Frankfurt/Main: Bund-Verlag. URL: Handbuch Betriebliche Weiterbildung (bund-verlag.de)

  4. Käpplinger, B. (2022). Arbeitspläne und Leitideen in der Weimarer Republik – Divergente Richtungen der Volkshochschulen in Bremen und in Gießen. Zeitschrift für Weiterbildungsforschung 45, 275–293. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40955-022-00209-7

  5. Käpplinger, B. (2020). Modernisation of organisations due to migration? : Mixed blessings in adult education centres in Germany. European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 11(3), 293–308. https://doi.org/10.3384/rela.2000-7426.ojs1699

  6. Käpplinger, B., Lichte, N. (2020). “The lockdown of physical co-operation touches the heart of adult education”: A Delphi study on immediate and expected effects of COVID-19. International Revue of Education 66, 777–795 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-020-09871-w

 

                                                                                                                                                                               

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