In December, the SIAE published the monographic publication Moments of Change: Adult Education During the Epidemic of COVID-19 (in Slovenian), with the participation of 12 authors.
The contributions analyse the factors related to the issue of participation of the adult population in education. This is one of the fundamental indicators of the development of the field and the education system.
The SIAE has approached this complex task seriously and professionally, in line with its tradition and experience. The research approach went beyond the statistical data and results provided by the Labour Force Survey. The authors, fully aware of their social and professional responsibility, took additional steps – complementing the quantitative data with a range of qualitative ones, organising focus groups and surveys, adding case studies and leveraging decades of experience.
The SIAE has engaged a world-class research team of experts from different fields, which has allowed for a diversity of perspectives in the analysis.
As Dr Katarina Popovič pointed out, this involves a complex indicator where macro (education policy), meso (providers, institutions and organisations) and micro levels (individuals, teachers, mentors, leaders, educational groups) are intertwined. All these factors contribute to the final outcome – the scope, type and quality of participation. Therefore, it is difficult to isolate precisely the impact of each determining factor on it. The indicator is monitored annually by the EC in the Member States and beyond.
Analyses have shown that there are countries and systems where a significant proportion of the population is enrolled in education and training programmes. In these environments, a wide variety of formats, programmes and ALE opportunities are generally offered. Here, both awareness and support among social partners and the population on the importance and role of lifelong learning are high. In other parts of Europe, the participation of the adult population in education and learning is lower and often highly differentiated. This means that certain social groups are excluded from educational processes and have very limited opportunities to improve their social situation through education.
An important dimension is the use of different research methods in ALE. This part will be particularly relevant for students and all future researchers in this field. In particular, it advocates combining qualitative and quantitative research approaches. It highlights national and European sources that contain a large amount of relatively accessible data, allowing comparative analysis and a reasoned description of the underlying directions of change. Interviews, focus groups and document analysis are used to provide a more in-depth analysis of motivations, barriers and contexts in which people engage or do not engage in education. This aspect is particularly relevant for ALE, which is open to very diverse (often marginalised and disadvantaged) groups of participants.
For Slovenia, it is characteristic that it was among the more successful in the European Union, but then the participation rate decreased every year. In 2020, participation of the adult population in organised forms of education reached its lowest point, 8.4%, after which the situation changed. According to the Labour Force Survey, 18.9% of the population in the country was educationally active. Particularly interesting is that the increase occurred precisely in 2021, the second year of the COVID-19 epidemic. The authors of this publication recognised the need to analyse and explain the reasons for the results that led to this situation.
They have focused on important questions such as which mechanisms exist for monitoring adult education in Europe and worldwide, how the phenomenon of participation is monitored in our country and whether changes in adult participation in education have also led to changes in equity. A comprehensive analysis of policies and measures over the last three years has been made, and their potential impact on the dynamics of change in participation rates has been examined. They have explored who is not a participant in education and why. They looked at how an individual’s financial situation affects their educational activity, analysed how the organisation of work influences greater participation in education and examined the role of guidance, information and awareness-raising.
The contributions provide necessary evidence while also serving as a tool for authors to push policy and practice to act more incisively.
The Ministry of Education made the monographic publication possible.
Jasmina Mirčeva, MSc (jasmina.mirceva@acs.si), SIAE
