Participation Patterns in Adult Education: the role of institutions and public policy frameworks in resolving coordination problems

• Published in: European journal of education Vol. 48; no. 2; pp. 262 - 280
• Main Authors: Desjardins, Richard, Rubenson, Kjell
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Paris Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.2013; John Wiley & Sons Ltd; Wiley-Blackwell
• Subjects: Access to Education; Adult Education; adult learning; Adults; Australia; Austria; Barriers; barriers to participation; Belgium; Bulgaria; Canada; Comparative Analysis; constraints to participation; Coordination; coordination problems; Croatia; Cross Cultural Studies; Cultural Differences; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Denmark; Disadvantaged; education policy; Educational Demand; Educational Policy; Estonia; Finland; Foreign Countries; France; Germany; Greece; Hungary; Iceland; Incentives; Incidence; Inequity; Investment; Ireland; Italy; Korea; Latvia; Life span; lifelong learning; Lithuania; market failure; Netherlands; New Zealand; Nonformal Education; Norway; Participation; Poland; Portugal; Public Policy; Romania; Slovakia; Slovenia; Spain; Supply and Demand; Sweden; Switzerland; Training; United Kingdom; United States; Cyprus; United States; Portugal; Iceland; Greece; Austria; Latvia; Netherlands; South Korea; Sweden; Ireland; Poland; Slovakia; Slovenia; Bulgaria; France; Lithuania; Croatia; Romania; Hungary; United Kingdom; Switzerland; Spain; New Zealand; Canada; Czech Republic; Belgium; Norway; Finland; Denmark; Italy; Australia; Germany; Estonia
• ISSN: 0141-8211; 1465-3435
• DOI: 10.1111/ejed.12029

This article focuses on evidence regarding cross‐national patterns of participation in adult education and an interpretation of these patterns from an institutional and public policy perspective. The interpretation follows from the perspective that sustaining high and widely distributed levels of investment in the development and maintenance of skills over the lifespan of individuals is to a large extent interconnected with a high‐level of non‐market coordination via institutional arrangements and/or specific public policy measures. Such arrangements and measures are seen to alleviate coordination problems that otherwise lead to underinvestment in skills and/or inequity in the distribution of access to education and training and hence skills. Consequently, it is argued that institutional contexts and public policy measures condition participation patterns in adult education, and are thus worthwhile to understand better for the purposes of informing policy.