The Professional Development of Adult Educators: The Case of the Lifelong Learning Centres (L.L.C) in the Prefecture of Evros, Greece

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to record the opinions of the Greek adult educators who were occupied in the Lifelong Learning Centres in the Prefecture of Evros during the academic year of 2016-2017, in relation to the concept of the professional development. The partial aims of this specific research were: the recording and comparison of their individual aspects regarding the skills, the training, the professional development as well as the certification of qualifications that modern adult educators should obtain. In order for the research to be realised and for the interpretation of the data the qualitative method was selected. This became feasible by individual interviewing on ten adult educators, who cooperated with the Lifelong Learning Centres existing in the Municipality of Alexandroupolis and the Municipality of Orestiada. After monitoring the participants’ viewpoint, the collected data showed that there was certain converge relating the derived results around the skills that characterize an adult educator. The general opinion in the total of the educators was estimated encouraging regarding their professional development while simultaneously the latter proved to possess great potential progress. Although the majority of the adult educators took part in continuous educational programs, they found them someway insufficient. In conclusion, it was obvious that the overwhelming majority of the participants did not certify their qualifications. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.16.11. 5