Shall adult education be cultural or vocational? Crucial aspects for a reconciliation of Adult Education’s necessary ambiguities

Abstract

The article focuses on the long-standing juxtaposition between vocational and cultural perspective in the field of adult education. While disapproving of the utilitarian learning imposed by the market and production system, one cannot deny the educational and identity relevance of work and of the skills that it requires and develops. It is therefore necessary to overcome the ideological dichotomy in the name of an educational unity of intent, starting from a humanistic and humanizing conception of work and economy. In this regard, an interesting interpretative view comes from one of the founding fathers of Adult Education, Eduard C. Lindeman, who focuses on the intrinsic aspects of the adult educational experience and on the purposes and methods that distinguish it.