Examining values in community stories of the electronic platform for adult learning in Europe

OpenAlex İngilizce

Abstract This research aimed to examine the community stories of the Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe (EPALE) to understand and manage the de facto learning needs of adults in Europe and whether it has the functional capacity to be considered an innovative tool. The EPALE demands high‐quality publication and provides users with six key content types (news, blogs, resources, events, discussions, and community stories) to read, write, and comment on. Specifically, this research delved just into the community stories. We used a qualitative research approach while designing the research in phenomenology. The series of data included adult educators' and learners' stories in the 2020 and 2021 EPALE Community Story Books, and in the EPALE. We employed descriptive and content analysis approaches to find values in the content of the community stories, including the views of 214 users regarding their experiences with adult education. Accordingly, the participants' community tales for 2020 were categorized into four key themes: social inclusion, work skills, basic skills, and culture. The 2021 community stories were categorized into three key themes: inclusive social change, digital transition, and life and work skills. These findings showed the de facto learning themes of adults in Europe. As a result, we understood that community stories and the EPALE are effective adult education tools for gathering and disseminating users' views and experiences to understand diverse learning patterns, which has an influence on the success of adult education implementations.