Adult Education: From Survival to Empowerment

As part of our 2025 Adult Education Promotion Campaign, we are proud to present a thought-provoking piece by Professor Jovan Miljković, Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Department of Pedagogy and Andragogy. His text takes us on a reflective journey through the history and essence of humanity’s need to learn—from early tribal communities to the modern-day challenges of educational management.

Professor Miljković reminds us that education is not a privilege reserved for the young, but a fundamental pillar of human existence and progress. Drawing on his extensive experience working with teachers and school principals in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he explores how curriculum and educational management in adult learning can become tools of empowerment, freedom, and hope.

"Many believe that adult education and lifelong learning entered our lives suddenly, as a consequence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the early 21st century. Those slightly more informed trace these phenomena back to the First Industrial Revolution of the 18th century. But such thinking overlooks the very nature of humanity. This bare creature—without horns, claws, wings, or fangs—has no other shield in life but learning and education.

It is also a mistake to think that learning and education, so deeply rooted in human nature, are limited to childhood and youth. When early humans discovered fire, the wheel, or the spear, they likely shared that knowledge not with children, but with fellow adults—so that, as a group, they could be faster, stronger, and more resilient than others, and better equipped to face the natural world around them. Education and learning have always been about survival, endurance, and advancement.

They are the foundation of becoming truly human—enabling us to take on the complex roles of citizen, employee, parent, child, friend. Through learning, we become homo religiosus, but also homo ludens. Even those who resist learning must, at the very least, learn how to avoid unwanted learning.

For over 15 years, I have worked with and for DVV International in Bosnia and Herzegovina, focusing primarily on educational management and curriculum development in adult education. Together with school principals and teachers—driven more by personal motivation than legal obligation—we explored what curriculum truly means. In a country where, as Ivo Andrić said, 'everything is possible at any moment,' we discovered that curriculum is more than a syllabus. It is the picture above the blackboard, the name of the school, the dress code, the way learners are addressed—and sometimes, the conditions placed upon them.

We learned that curriculum is all around us. It can be a hidden trap we fall into—and then pass on to our learners. But it can also be a path to liberation, strength, and courage. The word “management” was initially met with skepticism, even ridicule. Yet we came to understand that education must be structured, envisioned, planned, organized, and managed.

With a bit of theory and a wealth of lived experience, we created plans that transcended education, society, and time. We imagined a better world than the one around us, believing that education is the way to get there. And we still imagine that world—moving forward at the pace of a snail or a tortoise, navigating the obstacles placed by daily politics, unaware that the seeds of educational management will bear fruit years after they are sown. But that fruit will be sweet.

I believe that education and learning can both save and destroy the world. My work with teachers and school leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina strengthens my andragogical optimism. For only the petty and the small-minded consider a teacher’s work to be small. (Dositej Obradović)"