Adult Educators in Portugal 73
to compete”; this made them human resources managers (Lima 2008; Cavaco 2009), facilitators of learning useful to economic development and promoters of “learning to learn” in work contexts. These practitioners could, therefore, be considered life-long learning technicians who favoured knowledge relevant for work performance and who were able to anticipate problems and promote adaptive solutions for adult learners (Guimarães 2009).
Paula Guimarães & Natália Alves 74
teachers must be highlighted. Even in the context of uncertainty that has character-ized the Portuguese education and training system in recent times, these practition-ers have more stable work conditions; established rights and duties; and the power of teachers’ trade unions to negotiate with state authorities. Adult educators were never completely recognized as “professionals” and “technicians” (professionally or socially), mainly due to a general economic, social and political context marked by state deregulation, job insecurity and a fragile legal status heavily dependent upon intermittent and discontinuous adult education policies.
A third challenge relates to the fact that practitioners working in adult education centres have temporary employment contracts or are hired to develop very specific tasks. This situation is most relevant when we consider the discontinuous character of public policies in Portugal that has brought more insecurity to working in adult education. This systemic trend has also had an impact on the changing nature of the designation of jobs and occupations, as we have already stressed. The reliability of public policies, organizations and jobs in adult education is a relevant precondition for any successful professionalization process (Dausien & Schwendowius 2009).
A fourth challenge concerns the non-existence of specific paths in adult edu-cation at a higher eduedu-cation level such as one leading to a first degree (a bach-elor’s). The practice of hiring practitioners to work in adult education centres who have a degree, without taking into consideration the specific scientific character of working in adult education, can be seen in different ways. For some, these circumstances are an opportunity to develop knowledge and skills (Loureiro &
Cristóvão 2010) and learning contexts (Paulos 2015). But for many others, these circumstances can also be problematic, as they constitute the devaluing of adult education as a specific and complex domain of practices and a theoretical field.
The heterogenous character of qualifications for practitioners in centres of adult education raises questions concerning expertise. Owing to this, the quality of work achieved by practitioners can be more than questionable. In fact, if qual-ity management systems have been developed at all since 2000, they have very much centred on the technical dimensions of the work of adult educators due to the formalization of work in adult education centres. Quality management has not, therefore, emphasized the specific knowledge and skills these practitioners need to possess when hired or could develop when working as adult educators.
In addition, the lack of continuing education programmes for staff focused on adult education (Guimarães & Barros 2015) has failed to allow any possibility for debate on the general and technical dimensions of the work achieved, and especially on educational and political issues relating to public policies and adult education programmes.
Adult Educators in Portugal 75
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