Individualised life courses as an opportunity and challenge for adult education

The life course as an individual project

Towards the end of the last century, a discussion began in the social sciences about the extent to which life courses were becoming increasingly individualised. With individualisation, opportunities to shape the own life course increase and constraints by traditional social ties and norms decrease (Reckwitz 2018; Sennett 2000). People often have diverse roles and identities that they shape according to their individual preferences and values (Beck 1986; Reckwitz 2018). Ultimately, they are called upon to create a “do-it-yourself” biography and an authentic self (Beck 1986; Giddens 1991; Mills 2007). This also means that pursuing self-fulfilment is becoming increasingly important, with leisure, education and childcare gaining significance as well (Taylor 1992).

Due to their changing preferences and values, as well as social changes, individuals need to continuously shape and adapt their life courses in the form of projects. This also requires them to engage in “reflexive modernisation,” constantly reflecting on and questioning their own life courses and the underlying social conditions (Reckwitz 2018; Sennett 2000).

A range of different life courses in adult education

The trend towards individualisation of life courses also affects adult education. The increasing control people have over their own destiny and the various possibilities they have for shaping their lives lead to the emergence of more and more variations in who participates in adult education and how it can be integrated into life courses. In the future, we can therefore expect an increasingly wide range of life courses and backgrounds among participants in adult education. These could include, for example, people who leave the labour market for an extended period to go travelling, start their own business, look after children or engage in voluntary work.

Self-fulfilment and personal suitability

Another consequence of individualised life courses is the pursuit of self-fulfilment, which means each individual has a subjective view of the significance of adult education. Adult education should align with the life course, correspond to personal preferences and reinforce the chosen values of individuals. Participants will increasingly question the extent to which the acquired knowledge contributes to the realisation of their personal goals. The social requirement to continuously adapt and question the own life course is likely to give an enhanced critical perspective on the suitability, usefulness and meaningfulness of adult education. As a result, for example, there could be increasing demands for individually selectable modules and interconnections between learning programmes. Furthermore, this development is likely to be expressed in a desire to deepen what is learned through guided reflection on the learning process integrated into one’s own living environment.

Questions upon questions

These developments create opportunities and challenges for the actors involved in adult education. They are called upon to engage in deeper reflection on the purpose and benefit of adult education, the future of learning and the framework conditions of adult education. In addition to employers and political institutions, trainers and adult education institutions are affected in particular. The following questions are examples of opportunities and challenges that they may face in the future:

• Can we use heterogeneity among participants as a source of knowledge?
• How can we deal with different expectations and motivations?
• Can we use the skills and experiences of our participants when developing new programmes?
• Do we require a connection to the field of application in our programmes, or do we also allow for lateral/re-entries and new entries?
• How do we recognise the needs of participants for individualisation and standardisation and how do we deal with these?
• How can we create cohesion in learning groups within an individualised learning programme?
• How can we assess the quality of the learning process in flexibilised forms of learning?

Conclusion

Social changes such as the individualisation of life courses pose challenges for the actors involved in adult education. They have to embrace changes and create suitable learning opportunities. A broad social perspective is needed to encourage reflection and vision and address the challenges of the future.

Bibliography

Beck, Ulrich. 1986. Risikogesellschaft: auf dem Weg in eine andere Moderne. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

Beck, Ulrich, Anthony Giddens, Scott Lash, und Ulrich Beck. 2019. Reflexive Modernisierung: eine Kontroverse. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

Giddens, Anthony. 1991. Modernity and self-identity: self and society in the late modern age. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Mills, Melinda. 2007. „Individualization and the Life Course: Toward a Theoretical Model and Empirical Evidence“. S. 61–79 in Contested Individualization: Debates about Contemporary Personhood, herausgegeben von C. Howard. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US.

Reckwitz, Andreas. 2018. „Die Gesellschaft der Singularitäten. Zur Kulturalisierung des Sozialen“. S. 45–62 in Kultur – interdisziplinäre Zugänge. Wiesbaden: Springer.

Sennett, Richard. 2000. Der flexible Mensch: die Kultur des neuen Kapitalismus. München: Goldmann.

Taylor, Charles. 1992. The Ethics of Authenticity. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.