Prof. Paula Guimarães
What excites you about adult learning and education?
" I like to learn more about adult learning and education policies, practices and research in order to be more critical in what concerns discourses in adult learning and education policies at the international and national levels, as well as in what happens in different education and learning contexts (formal, non-formal and informal) and to be critically aware and informed about the developments in research, in the different streams that we can find."
Why did you choose to do research in the field of adult learning and education?
"To do research in adult learning and education was part of my first job after finishing my Bachelor's degree. I had then the chance to learn with colleagues how to develop several kinds of research (quantitative and qualitative), by using several data collection techniques. I wrote several research reports and had the chance to present data in workshops, conference, etc. I enjoyed very much this experience and still today, as a lecturer, research is my favourite part of my daily work."
Paula Guimarães is an assistant professor at the Instituto de Educação, Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal)since 2012. She did her PhD on Education Policies, in adult education, and has been studying adult educa-tion policies established, implemented and assessed at national and international levels.
Her main interests have been the link that might be established among different levels (mega, macro, meso and micro) of political intervention.
International strategies in adult education
Master’s students, doctoral students and practitioners working on “International strategies in adult education and lifelong learning” in the first week of the Adult Education Academy will use a policy analysis perspective. This perspective will enhance their analytical skills by integrating and analysing different perspectives. The theoretical analysis perspective is accompanied by field visits to adult education providers in and around Würzburg. Presentations of international adult education organisations (EAEA, ICAE, DVV Internation-al) will complete the programme. These insights will be applied to the analytical models as case studies.
CG4: Activities, competences and hybrid professionalism in adult education
Co-Moderator: Lisa Breitschwerdt
The field of adult education is traditionally very heterogeneous and intersects with many other fields (e.g. cultural field, education in enterprises, integration into the labour market). This impacts in the lack of clarity about the nature of the job profiles of adult educators and about the concrete activities they carry out in the different fields of action.
Adult learning and education is a differentiated and heterogeneous field of practice, including liberal/non-formal education, social development activities, second-chance education and vocational education and training, among others. This field of practice is characterised by a wide range of contexts of development of activities (Research voor Beleid, 2008). Adult learning and education activities related to planning, organising and designing teaching and learning processes are some of the most traditional ones developed by adult educators; many others, such as guidance, curriculum design based on ICT, social and cultural mediation have been arising from a wide range of jobs, revealing the complexity, diversity and unpredictability of action situations. These activities allow the development of different professional knowledge (Mikulec, 2019), requiring several competences, such as professional, interpersonal, personal and didactical competences, theoretical and practical expertise as well as empowering adult learners and dealing with diverse social groups competences (Research voor Beleid, 2010).
The heterogeneity and differentiation of the fields of practice, of activities and competences places special demands on the professionalism of adult educators. Adult educators work at interfaces where they have to mediate between different logics of action (e.g., adult education and learning, economic and bureaucratic logic) (Breitschwerdt et al. 2019). This requires a "hybrid professionalism" that is to be developed and promoted in the specific organisational and social contexts of adult education fields of action (Egetenmeyer et al. 2019).
For more information about the comparative group have a look at our programme!
- MELO, ALBERTO, LIMA, LICÍNIO C. & GUIMARÃES, PAULA (ORGS.) (2021): Actualidade da Educação Permanente. Lisboa: espaço ulmeiro/APCEP.
- EGETENMEYER, REGINA/ GUIMARÃES, PAULA & NÉMETH, BÁLAZS (EDS.) (2017): Internationalisation in Higher Education. Reflections on the Joint Module “Comparative Studies in Adult Education and Lifelong Learning”. Frankfurt-am-Main: Peter Lang GmbH.
- LIMA, LICÍNIO C. & GUIMARÃES, PAULA (2012): Estrategias Europeas en el Aprendizaje Permanente. Una Introducción Crítica. Xativa (Valência): Ediciones del Crec.
- LIMA, LICÍNIO C. & GUIMARÃES, PAULA (2011): European Strategies in Lifelong Learning: A Critical Introduction. Opladen & Farmington Hills, MI: Barbara Budrich.
- GUIMARAES, PAULA (2018): Les altres alfabetitzacions. Habitar l’educació d’adults: el treball dels nous educadors d’adults i aprenentatge al llarg de lavida. Quaderns d’Educació Contínua, 39-40, 26-35. DOI: 7103/QEC.40.13262.
- GUIMARÃES, PAULA & VALDERRAMA-HERNANDEZ, ROCIO (2017): Fostering democratic pedagogy? The participatory budget in Lisbon (Portugal). Social Pedagogy Quarterly, 3(65), 67-83.
- GUIMARÃES, PAULA (2017): The usefulness of adult education: lifelong learning in the European Union and the Portuguese public policy. Andragoška spoznanja/Studies in Adult Education and Learning, 2017, 23(4), 35-50. DOI: dx.doi.org/10.4312/as.23.4.35-50.
