Kristina Pekeč, Dubravka Milhajlovič & Janiery Da Silva Castro
Adult Education in Serbia and
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education to become a fully developed profession? If there is agreement that the answer is positive, it is necessary to discuss conditions under which this can be achieved (e.g., competences for adult educators). These two questions on professionalization are, among others, to be answered in this article through the authors’ own comparative research on adult learning and education in Serbia and Brazil.
Methodological framework
Research aimOur aim is to compare the main characteristics of adult learning and education in two countries, Serbia and Brazil, with the emphasis on analyzing the current status of professionalization in this field.
Although it may appear that it is difficult to compare two very different countries, such as Serbia and Brazil, a deeper analysis of the characteristics of adult education in each country can lead to an implicit conclusion about the strength of the impact that international organizations (e.g., UNESCO, OECD) have on national policies. As no country can grow and develop without the influence of other countries (Savicevic 2003), it is now more than ever pos-sible and necessary to extract and describe the differences in each country’s pathway for adult education. Yet this is also very difficult, as it requires a full understanding of the holistic context in each country.
Research questions
Starting with this aim, we have pointed out several questions for analysis that can be divided into two major groups: 1) Adult learning and education – an overall picture, which consists of the main characteristics of adult education in Serbia and Brazil and presents a good framework within the discussion of its professionalization; and 2) Adult learning and education and profes-sionalization, which focuses on the problems of professionalization of adult education in each country. Each of these issues is examined through the fol-lowing set of questions:
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I. Adult learning and education – an overall picture:
– What are the main characteristics of adult learning and education in Serbia and Brazil?
– Where is the focus on adult learning and education according to the legislative frameworks in Serbia and Brazil?
– Which are the most important similarities and differences between adult edu-cation and learning in Serbia and Brazil?
II. Adult learning and education – towards professionalization:
– What are the main characteristics of professionalization in Serbia and Brazil (micro-, meso- and macro-level of analysis)?
– What is the current status of professionalization in adult education in Serbia and Brazil?
– Which are the main similarities and differences between Serbia and Brazil regarding the current status of professionalization in adult learning and edu-cation?
Operational definitions
Operational definitions of key terms are given below (the main criteria for choos-ing these definitions is their operational value).
In this article, “adult learning and education” 1 is defined in accordance with UNESCO and includes all forms of learning, formal, non-formal and informal –
“whereby those regarded as adults by the society in which they live, develop and enrich their capabilities for living and working, both in their own interests and those of their communities, organisations and societies” (UNESCO 2015, p. 10).
There are two main points that made us to choose this definition among others.
On the one hand, adult learning and education is seen as a core component of lifelong learning, and on the other, literacy is seen as a core component of adult education perceived in this way.
For the purpose of this research, an “adult educator” is defined as an employee in the field of adult learning and education who directs, helps and supports adults in their effort towards learning, self-development and growth in different learning contexts.
“Professionalization” is “a process of structural change of occupation induced by the continuous development of professional knowledge in the first place, and as a process sustained by some other elements” (Ovesni 2007, p. 22). These other
1 The terms “adult learning and education” and “adult education” will be used synony-mously in this article.
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elements, besides having a fundamental theoretical/professional knowledge in a particular field, are: higher education, professional associations, professional au-tonomy and authority, social control of profession and social sanction, monopoly on professional expertise, professional ethics and standards, public recognition, etc. We think that by having such a diverse field as adult learning and education, professionalization gains a new quality; for employees in this field, it is of the utmost importance that they recognize and perceive themselves first as adult educators (which is the quality they all share with each other), and only then as experts from particular fields of occupation (e.g., mathematician, biologist, gardener, artist).
“Profession” is an occupation that has fully developed elements that define the profession (as mentioned above) and for which the process of professionalization is completed.
Research method
Moving through the problem area of this research, we aimed to understand and interpret the current adult education and learning discourse, as well as the process of professionalization in Serbia and Brazil. For this purpose, we used a com-parative method. Comparison is a very important tool for knowing and learning, because “without comparison, it is difficult to comprehend and understand the dialectic of adult learning and education, to look more profoundly into dynamics of andragogical processes that are taking place” (Savicevic 2003, pp. 247–248).
This is true not only in our own country, but also in other countries. The instru-ment used in this research is the SERBRALE (Serbia and Brazil Adult Learning and Education) protocol for content analysis, which is constructed especially for this purpose and consists of three parts:
1) SERBRALE 01 contains a set of questions on the social, economic and demo-graphic characteristics of Serbia and Brazil that provide a solid informative base for further understanding.
2) SERBRALE 02 contains a set of questions aimed at examining and comparing an overall picture of adult learning and education in Serbia and Brazil, and providing answers for the first group of research questions.
3) SERBRALE 03 contains a set of questions aimed at examining and compar-ing the current status of professionalization in adult learncompar-ing and education in Serbia and Brazil, and providing answers for the second group of research questions. We chose these items because we consider them important ele-ments of professionalism.
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