Adult education participation: The Matthew principle

Adult education participation is a hot issue. Participation rates, however, show a lot of inequalities among countries as well as among individuals with a different socio- economic background. Within this article, we will define adult education, take a look at recent European participation statistics and explain the unequal divisions. We will introduce the Chain of Response Model by Patricia Cross (1981) to show the multi- complexity of the decision process undergone before the actual participation. We will end with the observation that adult education is a shared responsibility among three partners: individuals, educational institutions and regulating governments.