Everything under control?

Abstract

Abstract In the present European context migrants and refugees are represented as a threat to security in the first place. Adult Education, especially when subsidised by the state, finds itself in a double-bind. On the one hand it has to offer a place for “Bildung” for all adults, where they can develop themselves according to their interests, capabilities and needs. Unequal chances are to be reduced and the humanistic ideal of development and expression of one’s personality shall be met. On the other hand—institutions of adult education are turned to adjuncts of the state apparatus by misusing them for monitoring and controlling the migrant participants. To maintain a critical, reflexive and resistant attitude in such a dilemma, time and space for a self-reflexive approach is needed. Time and space, which is too often insufficiently available in daily practice. On the basis of interviews with educational staff, responsible for the organisation of German Courses for migrants and refugees, the power lines running through present pedagogical practice are expounded. Following, vestiges of rooms, where resistance still is possible, are delineated. Rooms, where inherent goals of adult education, still can be achieved and questions concerning a change of given societal relations can be asked.

Keywords

• German classes
• Hegemony
• Critical pedagogy
• Discourse analysis
• Migration