Challenges and changes

The multiple challenges and rapid changes in our societies in Europe demand us to rethink the role of education. While Lifelong Learning is widely accepted as the main concept, we have to rethink the role and concepts of Adult Learning and Education (ALE). This is essential if we want to equip citizens with the skills to make informed decisions and take transformative action in the world shaped by e.g. climate change, digitalisation and social divide.

The Bildung project contributes to this re-thinking by making use of the concept of “Bildung” for conceptualising ALE. In the context of the Bildung project, Bildung is envisaged as an individual maturing process that combines education, knowledge, upbringing, and developing one's character. It refers to the abilities that one needs to participate in society and includes the ability to join and serve a group as well as being uniquely you and standing up for what you believe, even when the group disagrees.

In the premise of the Bildung project as a consortium we decided to tackle the multifaceted nature of Bildung through several lenses such as democracy, digital learning, sustainability and basic learning.  

In this article we will aim to represent the conceptualisation of “Democracy and Bildung” which is, for us, linked with the how and the what of educational and learning processes and encompasses all aspects of the development of individuals, the development of communities and the development of societies, through its ethical aspects and emotional and scientific dimensions. Using the Bildung approach within democratic education creates links between democratic institutions, understanding and using democratic rights and the ability of the individual/the society to intervene, resist and change. Bildung in democratic education can also protect the diversity of the European identity by including democratic processes at all levels of activation and influence.

A historical concept

Democracy education is based on the historical concept and understanding of democracy in its three different dimensions:

1. the development of democratic institutions,
2. the development of basic democratic and social rights and human rights, and
3. the development of the potential for democratic intervention and change.

Figure 1: The Dimensions of Democracy and Bildung

We relate the above to the understanding that adult education has historically been a vehicle for experimentation and implementing concepts of an egalitarian and liberating education. Furthermore, adult education has been a place of inclusion, a place where findings are discussed and evaluated and open communities are fostered (cf. Freire 1972).

The discourse on adult education, its key concepts, tasks and functions are essentially shaped by supranational organisations. Concerning the relationship between adult learning and democracy or democratic developments, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, the European Union and the OECD stand out in this context.

Bildung for us refers to the individual but also society; it is to be interpreted as a relationship to oneself but also to ‘the world’. We need to develop our awareness more, as living with global problems, refugee crises, economic crises, and ecological crises ask us to develop our moral sensibility and our empathic abilities to a global skill to be able to think and feel and decide from a global perspective.

Especially through the lens of the relationship between Bildung and democracy, we can make the correlation between what ought to be possible and what might be. In the first case ‘ought to be possible‘ is reflected in our investigation that democratic education becomes a means of power distribution between citizens and power structures as possible due to ethics (justice, equality, human rights) that results in co-shaping the narrative as a continuation of the legacy of values.

In the second case, ‘the might-be-possible’, is explored as the need to strengthen aesthetics and science as pillars of active intervention in power and its co-formation through democratic education as seen so far. As we can see in the schematic overview below democracy and concepts of holistic Bildung are historically linked in their reference to multiple contexts of everyday life. Democracy and concepts of holistic Bildung are historically linked in their reference to multiple contexts of everyday life.

Democracy requires criticality and knowledge about institutional ways and the possibilities of participation. Education, to that extent, is needed as part of the path and practice of searching for solutions that are not a foregone conclusion and that are characterised by opposing opinions.

Figure 2: The overview “Democracy and Bildung” presents the interrelation between democracy and Bildung in the form of a matrix, as we believe that it doesn’t follow a linear process of succession but is constantly evolving. Click here to add your input concerning concepts of Democracy and Bildung and here to give us your idea of the future of Bildung and ALE

Good practice examples

To represent the multiple connotations of what Democratic Bildung may include, the Bildung consortium collected several good practices which were categorized following three main topics of interest and for each a key good was studied more thoroughly, as seen briefly below:

Improvement of democratic participation: Participatory budgets – Catalonia | The project allows for the direct participation of citizens in the preparation of public budgets, involving them in the reflection of needs, identification of demands and prioritization of budgets, as well as the monitoring of accountability by governmental choices. | More information: http://acefir.cat

Train the trainer databases and material banks: Epic Light – Finland | Epic Light publishes media content created by young adults facing different challenges in their lives. All the activities are done in peer groups. Epic Light aims to motivate and empower both the creators and the audience. | More information: https://mieletontavaloa.fi/english/ 

Adult learning and education provision and courses: Village University – Estonia | “Kodukant” encourages broad-based, legally constituted village organisations, which can stimulate and co-ordinate activities in their locality, mobilising local communities and encouraging them to become more organised. | More Information: https://kodukant.ee/en/

Adult learning and education provision and courses: Autonome Schule Zurich (ASZ) – Switzerland |  The ASZ is a self-organised and independent school where all important decisions are made once a month in a plenary meeting. Whether volunteer teacher or participant, everyone is valued equally in decision-making.| More information: https://www.bildung-fuer-alle.ch

Recommendations

To reimagine and re-establish a society that encompasses all concepts included in the context of Bildung and Democracy, change and activation are essential on multiple levels. For this reason, below we construct our input and recommendations towards the macro, meso and micro levels of influence towards ALE.

The “macro-level” – Policy, Civil Society etc.

Understanding democratic rights and especially the ability to apply them and to intervene, resist and change means. This understanding must be embedded in an appropriate context, which leaves room for visions, but also a realistic assessment of power issues and inequalities.

Democracy has to be learnt. | Bildung is a right for all. | Transnational cooperation is essential for a unified Europe.

The "meso level" – Community

Relates to how democracy education fosters dealing and interacting with one's local environment. This could include projects and examples as providers of democracy education, supporters of engagement, moderators of networks, but also as service providers towards politics or civil society associations.

The power of the community is immeasurable.| Adult education must aid in defining our roles as citizens. | How democratic are the adult education organisations?

The micro-level – Courses

The content and methods taught and applied by the trainers and the needs of the learners through a participatory understanding that connects to the reality of the life of the participants, e.g. acceptance different individual interests, personal needs for democratic education, and the willingness of participants to get involved in political processes.

Democratic Education should consider individual interests and needs. | Focus on Democratic Education | Practice Democracy in the classroom

In this article we have merely tried to summarise the work compiled during the creation of the second intellectual output (IO2: Democracy and Bildung) of the Bildung project and as such we invite you to visit our website at: https://eaea.org/project/bildung/ where you can explore more on IO2 as well as the rest of the project outcomes which include a Comprehensive context paper on the relevance of the Bildung-concept for developing the ALE sector, Four best practice guidelines using the Bildung-concept for improving ALE activities on a) digital learning, b) democracy, c) sustainability and d) basic learning, a Bildung Roadmap: Recommendations for European and national decision makers on how to develop ALE-systems further by using a Bildung-lens and finally a Video explaining the concept of Bildung!