The importance of educational interventions for the overcoming of obstacles in the employment of intellectually disabled persons

In spite of the legal framework intended for the promotion and protection of rights of the disabled, such persons are still facing significant difficulties in the labour market. Intellectually disabled persons are in a particularly difficult position, primarily due to the negative perceptions held by citizenry which stem from the lack of knowledge and information about their labour potentials. We conducted research in order to determine the most prevalent obstacles in the employment of intellectually disabled persons, as perceived by employed non-disabled persons. The research comprised a sample of 269 subjects of both sexes, of differing educational levels and employed in the private and public sector in the Republic of Serbia. The analysis of the attained results points to the need for certain kinds of educational interventions, whose programmes would improve the knowledge and awareness of employed persons regarding the right to work of intellectually disabled persons, promote diversity and create an inclusive working environment. The different modes of training, reinterpretation and transformation of previous experience, informing and establishing positive contacts with intellectually disabled persons, conducted by a multidisciplinary team of experts would establish a stable base for the removal of obstacles in the employment process.

Refugees and adult education: A thematic analysis on UNESCO's latest recommendations

Contemporary societies are called to face complex challenges, deriving from globalization, the rapid technological evolutions, the intense demographic changes, and the social exclusion. These challenges are part of UNESCO's global mandate, as reflected in the Education 2030 Framework for Action for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals, and have more impact on migrations and refugees. UNESCO's Global Report on Adult Learning and Education comes to play a crucial role in achieving the fourth goal of the Agenda, that of education and lifelong education. The present research, through the qualitative analysis of the text of UNESCO (GRALE 4, 2019), aims at pointing out the basic dimensions of adult refugees' education and how it can be applied. Through the analysis of the text certain thematic networks emerge, related with the participation percentages of adult refugees' participation, mapping out of policies, whose particular characteristic is the investment in lifelong learning, transmission of good practices and their evaluation.

Entrepreneurial organization in higher education: Professional and educational answers to the crisis: The pandemic and more

The current pandemic crisis has also had evident effects on the labour market. Higher Education contexts must increasingly rethink themselves if they want to promote employability. The essay, starting from the triangulation between profession, professionalism and professionalization and from the current reflection on employability, finds in Entrepreneurial Education the crisis solution. In particular, it proposes to understand Higher Education Institutions as Entrepreneurial Organization in which processes are activated for the development of research and narrative competences.

The "yes, and..." principle: Improvisation as a method of educational work

This paper presents an improvisation workshop entitled "Yes, and..." intended for promoting this skill and teaching improvisation techniques to educational workers. After a brief introduction intended to explain what improvisation is and what kind of improvisation this paper refers to, we move on to explain the importance of improvisation for education, as well as the importance of teaching improvisation techniques to educational workers. To illustrate the role that improvisation has or may have in the educational process, we highlight the "yes, and..." principle, which is thought to be essentially describing the main features of improvisation, primarily acceptance (of an offer) and building upon it. On these rationales, we derived a thesis regarding the existence of a link among such characteristics, on the one hand, as well as activation and creativity, on the other, as important components that work together in the development of a motivational and developmental educational environment. In the end, we provided an example of teaching improvisation through workshop engagement using a detailed description of a workshop along with instructions for particular exercises and explaining their significance, in the precise way it was conducted with adult participants.

Factors of pedagogical (in)competence of parents for the parenting role

Starting with the theoretical considerations regarding the perception of parental competence in the context of changes typical of modern society and the challenging tasks faced by parents, this paper intends to examine particular factors of self-evaluation of pedagogical (in)competence of parents for the parenting role. The sample comprised 575 subjects, including mothers and fathers of pre-schoolers. The attained results demonstrated that mothers perceive themselves as more competent in the parenting role, regardless of the child's sex, and that parents whose children live with both parents deem themselves more competent. Furthermore, we concluded that financial status and whether the child is undergoing pre-school education are additional determinants of parents' pedagogical competence for the parenting role. The following factors were of little relevance in the study sample: the living environment of the child, parent age, number of children in the family and parental educational level. The obtained results are important for shedding light on parental actions in raising children, as well as for underlining possible changes in behaviour and opinions.

The concept of environment in andragogical literature and university education of andragogues

This paper is based on the assumption that to facilitate the contribution of andragogy and adult education to the processes of "societal transformation", we as researchers and university teachers are required to question our own understanding and integration of the concept of the environment as one of the key dimensions of sustainable development in this area. The paper starts by asking the following questions: In what way are the environment and the relation of the human kind and environment conceptualized in andragogical literature? Does the integration of this concept contribute to the disappearance or the balance of knowledge about the environment within adult education, in a general sense and in university education, in particular, and in what way does it contribute? In our search for answers, we employed the qualitative trend analysis to conceptualize the environment in the works of authors in the field of environmental adult education, originating from the last decade of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. We shall analyse terminological and conceptual relations among environmental and ecological constructs, as well as their relation to the concept of sustainable development.

The COVID-19 crisis as a collective biographical disjuncture: Understanding the pandemic as a learning experience

This paper examines the COVID-19 pandemic as a disorienting social experience and as an opportunity to engage in learning processes that may critically examine the dysfunctional assumptions that have consequentially emerged from it. The first part of the paper based on the theoretical perspectives of Peter Jarvis develops a framework for the definition of a social experience as a collective biographical disjuncture. Based on that definition, the paper exposes the assumptions that have been challenged during the pandemic era in the areas of social interaction, education, and employment. Finally, the paper argues that critical learning may provide to adults with the necessary cognitive "antibodies" to overcome the side-effects of the pandemic in our social life in the postpandemic period.

Prediction of environmental activism: The role of knowledge, attitudes, affects and behaviors

The components of ecological li teracy comprise knowledge, attitudes, affect, behavior, and environmental activism. The goal of this paper is to establish whether environmental activism can be predicted on the basis of environmental knowledge, proenvironmental attitudes, affect, and behavior. In addition to this, the goal of the research is to examine to what extent individuals of different activism levels differ in terms of knowledge of basic environmental problems, expression of the attitude of ecological apathy, anthropocentrism, belonging to nature and connection with nature, as well as usual practices of pro-environmental behavior. By surveying a sample of adult respondents from Serbia who belong to a group devoted to an environmental problem (N=255), we have discovered that general environmental knowledge alone does not contribute to pro-environmental behaviors or environmental activism. The predictors of activism are pro-environmental attitudes, an affective attitude towards nature, and common pro-environmental behaviors, even though they help distinguish a group of barely active members from two groups of more active members, but they do not help distinguish those who are active in a virtual space from those who participate personally. The groups are further distinguished by other variables, such as the locus of control, values, and the phenomenon of quasi-activism. The established connection between knowledge and emotional affinity towards nature seems to represent a reciprocal relationship, and indicates that the right way to learn is to acquire knowledge, but while developing a love for nature.

The application of the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) concept in industry and education: Implications for a change of university practice

With the development of mobile technology emerge fundamental changes in all spheres of human endeavor. In education, new methods of remote studying are being developed, with a particular emphasis on "m-learning" (learning with the help of mobile devices). Taking into consideration that mobile devices are one of the fastest-developing forms of technology, the importance of their assistance in the process of teaching and studying has been recognized. The goal of this paper is to introduce the concept of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) in the context of industry and education as an example of disruptive technology. This concept implies that students bring their own mobile devices to the classroom and use them when learning. Using a descriptive research method and analysis of the relevant bibliography, the authors of the paper distinguish the implications for the change of university practices on the basis of critical analysis of positive and negative consequences of their use, redefined positions of the teachers and the students in the educational process, as well as the modified educational design.

Sustainable development through lifelong learning: A good practice about women entrepreneurship from Turkey

Women form half of the world's population, but the same cannot be said for their active participation in economic development. Sustainable, strong economies can be achieved through equally active involvement in the process by developing or keeping up to date the skills of individuals in society. This paper focuses on women's contribution to sustainable development as entrepreneurs through Lifelong Learning. The paper consists of two sections. The first section discusses the relationship between accessibility to digital age-appropriate education and sustainable development in Lifelong Learning. The second section is a good practice of the impact of the "Women First in Entrepreneurship" project on developing women's entrepreneurship. It covers the reasons for the project and its implementation process, outputs, and impact. To increase women's participation in the labor market as part of sustainable development in today's economy, the project, which began in 10 pilot provinces, is currently being implemented across Turkey. The project has been implemented under the coordination of the Turkish Directorate General for Lifelong Learning since 2015. The General Directorate of Lifelong Learning is the highest policymaking authority in Turkey to strengthen the adult education system.