Table Of ContentLifelong Learning Book Series 24
Andreas Fejes
Erik Nylander E ditors
Mapping out
the Research
Field of Adult
Education and
Learning
Lifelong Learning Book Series
Volume 24
Series Editors
Karen Evans, UCL Institute of Education, London, UK
Andrew Brown, UCL Institute of Education, London, UK
Advisory Board
Chiara Biasin, University of Padova, Italy
Richard Desjardins, University of California, USA
Kitty te Riele, University of Tasmania, Australia
Yukiko Sawano, University of the Sacred Heart, Japan
Maria Slowey, Dublin City University, Ireland
Maurice Taylor, University of Ottawa, Canada
Ann-Charlotte Teglborg, ESCP Europe Business School, Paris, France
Rebecca Ye, Stockholm University, Sweden
Dayong Yuan, Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences (BAES), China
Aims & Scope
Competing visions and paradigms for lifelong learning co-exist at national as well
as international levels. The fact that one ‘official’ discourse may be dominant at any
one time does not mean that other ways of thinking about learning throughout the
life course have disappeared. They are alive and well in a range of critical traditions
and perspectives that retain their power to engage and persuade.
In this series, contributors critically analyse issues in lifelong learning that have
important implications for policy and practice in different parts of the world.
Evidence, ideas and the polity can mobilise political thinking in new directions, as
policy makers search for the new ‘big idea’. In turbulent times, ideas for better
connecting system worlds and life worlds in the pursuit of broader and more just
forms of meritocracy can focus compellingly on learning as a lifelong process
which links, rather than separates, the older and younger generations and incorporates
the realities of working lives.
The series aims to engage scholars, practitioners, policy-makers and professionals
with contemporary research and practice, and to provoke fresh thinking and
innovation in lifelong learning. Each volume is firmly based on high quality
scholarship and a keen awareness of both emergent and enduring issues in practice
and policy. We welcome work from a range of disciplines and, in particular, inter-
and multi-disciplinary research which approaches contemporary and emerging
global and local challenges in innovative ways. Through advocacy of broad, diverse
and inclusive approaches to learning throughout the life course, the series aspires to
be a leading resource for researchers and practitioners who seek to rethink lifelong
learning to meet the challenges and opportunities of the 21st Century.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/6227
Andreas Fejes • Erik Nylander
Editors
Mapping out the Research
Field of Adult Education
and Learning
Editors
Andreas Fejes Erik Nylander
Department of Behavioural Department of Behavioural
Sciences & Learning Sciences & Learning
Linköping University Linköping University
Linköping, Sweden Linköping, Sweden
Lifelong Learning Book Series
ISBN 978-3-030-10945-5 ISBN 978-3-030-10946-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10946-2
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
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Series Editors’ Note
The Lifelong Learning Book Series was launched in 2004 and, by 2018, had pub-
lished 23 volumes on topics of international significance. In this latest phase in the
life of the series, we aim to engage our expanding, international readership in
‘Rethinking Lifelong Learning for the 21st Century’. Lifelong learning debates are
refreshed and renewed when scholars bring fresh perspectives and critical analyses
of emergent and enduring issues in lifelong learning that have important implica-
tions for policy and practice around the globe.
In selecting books for the Lifelong Learning Book Series, we recognise that
competing visions and paradigms for lifelong learning co-exist at national as well as
international levels. The fact that one ‘official’ discourse may be dominant at any
one time does not mean that other ways of thinking about learning throughout the
life course have disappeared. They are alive and well in a range of critical traditions
and perspectives that retain their power to engage and persuade. Evidence, ideas and
the polity can mobilise political thinking in new directions, as policy-makers search
for the new ‘big idea’. In turbulent times, ideas for better connecting system worlds
and life worlds can focus compellingly on learning as a lifelong process which
links, rather than separates, the older and younger generations and incorporates the
realities of working lives.
In Mapping Out the Research Field of Adult Education and Learning, the con-
tributors bring critical perspectives to questions of what is shaping the map and how
adult education research and scholarship contribute to international learning debates.
The book explores, from a variety of theoretical and historical perspectives, how
knowledge about adult education and learning is produced and communicated inter-
nationally. The detailed analyses reveal biases in communication across leading
journals and research networks and highlight the extent to which the field is depen-
dent on the cognate disciplines of sociology, social psychology and organisational
studies. As the debate is progressively deepened to address power relations in the
positioning of individual scholars and information flows across national boundaries,
the biases and unevenness of the playing field for international scholarly recognition
become clear.
v
vi Series Editors’ Note
The editors and authors thus generate a set of challenges for those who are
engaged in refreshment and renewal of the field, if the research field of adult educa-
tion and learning is to become genuinely, and inclusively, international. As research
development is inextricably linked with contemporary policies and evolving prac-
tices, these questions are significant not only for researchers and scholars but also
for professionals, practitioners and policy-makers worldwide.
UCL Institute of Education, London, UK Karen Evans
Lifelong Learning Book Series Editors Andrew Brown
January 2019
Contents
Part I I ntroducing and Historicizing the Field
1 Introduction: Mapping the Research Field on Adult
Education and Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Andreas Fejes and Erik Nylander
2 Examining the “Weak Field” of Adult Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Kjell Rubenson and Maren Elfert
3 Adult Education Research in Germany: Approaches
and Developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Christine Zeuner
Part II I nvisible Colleges and International Recognition
4 Exploring the Adult Learning Research Field by Analysing
Who Cites Whom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Erik Nylander, Lovisa Österlund, and Andreas Fejes
5 Invisible Colleges in Research on Adult Learning:
A Bibliometric Study on International Scholarly Recognition . . . . . . 73
Staffan Larsson, Andreas Fejes, Lovisa Österlund,
and Erik Nylander
6 The Politics of Publications and Citations: A Cross Country
Comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Andreas Fejes and Erik Nylander
vii
viii Contents
Part III Research Approaches and Research Objects
7 Adult Education and Learning: A Pluralistic Research Field? . . . . . 119
Andreas Fejes and Erik Nylander
8 Quantitative Research in Research on the Education
and Learning of Adults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Ellen Boeren
9 Adult Education Research from Rhizome to Field?
A Bibliometrical Analysis of Conference Programs
of ESREA from 1994 to 2016 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Bernd Käpplinger
Part IV D ebating International Comparative Adult Education Research
10 Revisiting the Debate on International Comparative
Adult Education Research: Theoretical and Methodological
Reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
John Field, Klaus Künzel, and Michael Schemmann
11 Debating (International) Comparative Adult Education
Research: Reflections on Conceptual Clarity
and Methodological Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Marcella Milana
12 A Rejoinder on the Debate on International Comparative
Adult Education Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
John Field, Klaus Künzel, and Michael Schemmann
Part V L ooking Ahead
13 The Research Field of Adult Education and Learning:
Widening the Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Erik Nylander and Andreas Fejes
Part I
Introducing and Historicizing the Field
