Abstract
Adult education research is frequently an own subject of research. Such research is often focused on the analysis of journals. This paper will present a partly updated analysis of triennial research conferences of the European Society for the Research on the Education of Adults (ESREA) between 1994 and 2016. A bibliometrical program analysis of conference papers will be done. Results support previous findings in the analysis of adult education research, but a number of differences or blind spots of ESREA and adult education research in general will become visible as well.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Translation of quote by author.
- 2.
- 3.
I am deeply thankful for the advice and support I received from Gerhard Bisovsky, Andreas Fejes, Fergal Finnegan, Barry Hake, Ewa Kurantowicz, Emilio Lucio-Villegas and Henning Salling-Olesen. Emma Fawcett was as native speaker a critical-constructive proof reader.
- 4.
I am deeply thankful also for the work and support foremost of my assistant Mirko Ückert and my former research team: Erik Haberzeth, Claudia Kulmus and Nina Lichte. They contributed in different ways to the coding of papers.
- 5.
For each paper, all citations were counted. In a second step the number of cited policy documents – national and inter-/transnational ones – was counted. National documents meant all kind of publications which refer to national state institutions like governments, ministries, statistical offices on all federal or regional levels. Inter-/transnational documents were differentiated between various EU documents, OECD documents, UNESCO documents and a category “other documents” with miscellaneous contributions from the World Bank, International Labour Office, the Council of Europe or other agencies.
- 6.
The tag clouds were built and saved via the freeware program Tagxedo (www.tagxedo.com).
(Therefore) the data of the citations were freed from all information other than the full last name and the initials of the first name. Some names received special treatment, because of their special spelling. Popular last names like Smith, Schmitt or Andersen were controlled in relation to the first name. Institutions/organisations were coded in categories (NationalPolicy, EUPolicy, OECD, OtherTrans). Other organisations like national research institutes were quantitatively of no relevance. Tagxedo build the clouds based on the 50 most frequently names. Persons more often cited are written bigger than persons less often cited. The tag clouds were configured visually. The changed parameters of Tagxedo were: Emphasis: 60%, Tightness: 60%. Other parameters of the algorithm were not changed. The tag clouds can thus be reproduced, although Tagxedo allows images to be saved, but not the parameters.
- 7.
Intensive definitions and discussions on this classification can be found in Long (1983).
- 8.
It would be interesting to observe more closely what influence the ‘re-importing’ of Bourdieu and Foucault had after their success in North America
References
Antunes, M. H. (2003). Comments to selection process and conference papers. In ESREA (Ed.), Wider benefits of learning: Understanding and monitoring the consequences of adult learning. Triennial ESREA 2001 conference (pp. 67–72). Lisbon: Lusófona University.
Arnold, R., et al. (2000). Forschungsmemorandum für die Erwachsenen- und Weiterbildung. Frankfurt/Main: Deutsches Institut für Erwachsenenbildung.
Bisovsky, G., Bourgois, E., Bron, M., Chivers, G., & Larsson, S. (Eds.). (1998). Adult learning and social participation. Wien: Verband Wiener Volksbildung.
Boeren, E. (2017). The methodological underdog: A review of quantitative research in the key adult education journals. Adult Education Quarterly, 68, 63–79.
Bron, A., Kurantowicz, E., Salling Olesen, H., & West, L. (2005). ‘Old’ and ‘New’ word of adult learning. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Dolnośląskiej Szkoły Wyzsżej Edukacji.
Chang, B. (2013). Shift of adult education research. In Proceedings of the adult education research conference 2013 (pp. 63–69). Penn State University.
Daley, B., Martin, L., & Roessger, K. (2018). A call for methodological plurality: Reconsidering research approaches in adult education. Adult Education Quarterly, 69. (Online First).
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. St. Paul: University of Minnesota Press.
Enoch, C., & Gieseke, W. (2011). Wissensstrukturen und Programmforschung. Programmforschung als empirischer Zugang zur Bildungsarbeit der Weiterbildungsinstitutionen.http://www.ifbe.uni-hannover.de/fileadmin/ifbe/enoch/enoch_gieseke14_Juli2011.pdf
ESREA. (2003). Wider benefits of learning: Understanding and monitoring the consequences of adult learning. Triennial ESREA 2001 Conference. Lisbon: Lusófona University.
Fejes, A., & Nicoll, K. (2013). Approaches to research on the education and learning of adults. European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 4(1), 7–14.
Fejes, A., & Nylander, E. (2013). Defining the field of research on the education and learning of adults. A bibliometrical and content analysis of three adult education journals 2005–2012. Paper presented at the seventh ESREA triennial European research conference. Berlin: Humboldt-University Berlin, 4–7 September 2013.
Fejes, A., & Nylander, E. (2014). The Anglophone International(e) – A bibliometrical analysis of three adult education journals 2005–2012. Adult Education Quarterly, 64(3), 222–239.
Fejes, A., & Nylander, E. (2015). How pluralistic is the research field on adult education? Dominating bibliometrical trends, 2005–2012. European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 6(2), 103–123.
Garfield, S. (2013). On the map – Why the world looks the way it does. London: Profile Books.
Gieseke, W. (1999). Bildungspolitische Interpretationen und Akzentsetzung der Slogans vom lebenslangen Lernen. In R. Arnold & W. Gieseke (Eds.), Die Weiterbildungsgesellschaft. Band 2: Bildungspolitische Konsequenzen (pp. 93–120). Neuwied/Kriftel: Luchterhand.
Gieseke, W. (Ed.). (2000). Programmplanung als Bildungsmanagement? Recklinghausen: Bitter.
Gieseke, W. (2010). Professioneller Habitus und Geschichte. Hessische Blätter für Volksbildung, 60(2), 105–116.
Gieseke, W. (2014). Adult and continuing education: Results in the context of research. In B. Käpplinger & S. Robak (Eds.), Changing configuration in adult education in transitional times: International perspectives in different countries (pp. 153–174). Frankfurt/Main: Lang.
Gieseke, W., Meueler, W., & Nuissl, E. (Eds.). (1989). Zentrifugale und zentripetale Kräfte in der Disziplin Erwachsenenbildung. Heidelberg: Arbeitsgruppe für Empirische Bildungsforschung.
Hake, B. J. (1992). Remaking the study of adult education: The relevance of recent developments in the Netherlands to the search for disciplinary identity. Adult Education Quarterly, 42(2), 63–78.
Jones, W. (2014). The present and future situation of adult educators in the United Kingdom. In adult and continuing education: Results in the context of research. In B. Käpplinger & S. Robak (Eds.), Changing configuration in adult education in transitional times: International perspectives in different countries (pp. 139–152). Frankfurt/Main: Lang.
Käpplinger, B. (2008). Programmanalysen und ihre Bedeutung für pädagogische Forschung. Forum Qualitative Social Research, 9(1). http://www.qualitativeresearch.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/333
Käpplinger, B. (2014). Adult education research in Poland and Germany on the European level: Two sleeping beauties? Rocznik Andragogiczny, 21, 393–409.
Käpplinger, B. (2015). Adult education research seen as field or as rhizome: A bibliometrical analysis of conference programs of ESREA. European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 6(2), 139–157.
Larsson, S. (2010). Invisible colleges in the adult education research world. European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 1(1–2), 97–112.
Long, H. B. (1983). Characteristics of adult education research reported at the adult education research conference, 1971–1980. Adult Education Quarterly, 33(2), 79–96.
Ludwig, J., & Baldauff-Bergmann, J. (2010). Profilbildungsprobleme in der Erwachsenenbildungsforschung. Report, 33(1), 65–76.
Martin, I. (2000). Reconstituting the Agora: Towards an alternative politics of lifelong learning. In T. Sork, V. Chapman, & R. St. Clair (Eds.), Proceedings of the adult education research conference 2000. Vancouver: UBC.
Milana, M. (2017). Global networks, local actions: Rethinking adult education policy in the 21st. Milton Park: Routledge.
Nicoll, K., Biesta, G., & Morgan-Klein, N. (2014). (His)story of the European Society of Research on the Education of a Adults (ESREA): A narrative history of intellectual evolution and transformation in the field of adult education in Europe. Stirling/Luxembourg: ESREA.
Olesen, H. S. (2014). Adult education in the Danish modernization process. In B. Käpplinger & S. Robak (Eds.), Changing configuration in adult education in transitional times: International perspectives in different countries (pp. 39–56). Frankfurt/Main: Lang.
Plecas, D. B., & Sork, T. J. (1986). Adult education: Curing the ills of an undisciplined discipline. Adult Education Quarterly, 37(1), 48–62.
Popovic, K. (2013). Adult education – Lost in a transition? Non-published key note at the 7th ESREA Triennial. Berlin: Humboldt-University.
Rubenson, K. (1982). Adult education research: In quest of a map of the territory. Adult Education Quarterly, 32(2), 57–74.
Rubenson, K. (2000). Revisiting the map of the territory. Conference proceedings of the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education, 2000.
Rubenson, K., & Elfert, M. (2014). Changing configurations of adult education research: Exploring a fragmented map. In B. Käpplinger & S. Robak (Eds.), Changing configuration in adult education in transitional times: International perspectives in different countries (pp. 25–38). Frankfurt/Main: Lang.
Schrader, J. (2014). Strategies of modernisation and their effects on configurations of adult education. In B. Käpplinger & S. Robak (Eds.), Changing configuration in adult education in transitional times: International perspectives in different countries (pp. 57–71). Frankfurt/Main: Lang.
St. Clair, R. (2011). Writing ourselves into being: A review of the Canadian journal for the study of adult education. Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, 23(2), 27–44.
Taylor, E. W. (2001). Adult education quarterly from 1989 to 1999: A content analysis of all submissions. Adult Education Quarterly, 51(4), 322–340.
Usher, R. (2010). Riding the lines of flight. European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 1(1–2), 67–78.
Wittpoth, J. (2005). Autonomie, Feld und Habitus. Hessische Blätter für Volksbildung, 55(1), 26–36.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Käpplinger, B. (2019). Adult Education Research from Rhizome to Field? A Bibliometrical Analysis of Conference Programs of ESREA from 1994 to 2016. In: Fejes, A., Nylander, E. (eds) Mapping out the Research Field of Adult Education and Learning. Lifelong Learning Book Series, vol 24. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10946-2_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10946-2_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-10945-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-10946-2
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)