Andragogy in Ukraine and Western Europe: Common and Different Features throughout Its History

Abstract

The article aims to study and summarize the historical experience of training adult education specialists in Ukraine and compare it with the politically unbiased experience of Western Europe. It analyzes the origins of adult education didactic and justifies the evolution of scientific-theoretical approaches to building the content, organizational forms and methods of adult learning. Besides, the article traces the stages and reasons behind socio-political and sociocultural changes in the content of education. It describes a stable development of organizational forms and methods of adult learning which adhere to the specifics of adult learners and boost their activity. The article proves that Soviet Ukrainian andragogy depended on state planning, ideology and favoured the public good over the personal good. Furthermore, the article substantiates evolutionary processes in the development of the professional training system for adults in Ukraine and Western Europe and identifies the coverage of the issue in question in the scientific literature. The findings of the comparative study suggest ways to improve the current system of adult education in Ukraine and develop andragogy as its scientific-theoretical and methodological basis.