Papers by Maja Maksimovic
Research handbook on adult education policy, 2024
In the last decade, many countries, particularly in the post-communist world, have developed hybr... more In the last decade, many countries, particularly in the post-communist world, have developed hybrid political regimes characterized by democratic structures and authoritarian practices. This contribution examines the case of Serbia and argues that the tension between demonstrating the existence of democratic processes for geopolitical reasons and implementing fake participation in decision-making processes without real influence has led to a discrepancy between adult education policy and reality. The paper presents a conceptual analysis of international and European policy transfer and policy diffusion, including the mechanisms of soft power and their impact on national policy creation. The authors base their interpretation on an analysis of policy documents and interviews with representatives of three types of stakeholders (policy makers, researcher-experts, civil society and NGOs) who were involved in the adult education policy-making process.
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Journal of Adult and Continuing Education, 2024
This article applies system theory to the analysis of the relationship between the EU and candida... more This article applies system theory to the analysis of the relationship between the EU and candidate country Serbia, with a focus on adult education policy. The study explores how the peripheral status of Serbia with its hybrid political regime combining autocratic and democratic features leads to the hybridisation of its adult education system, and how the EU’s policies, institutions, and funding mechanisms shape this relationship. The study draws on system theory and the results of our recent study of EU support for adult education in Serbia and applies qualitative content analysis to EU and Serbian adult education policy documents, to examine the consequences of interactions between system components on Serbian adult education policy. It posits that EU’s norm-setting on one side and the allocation of funding and control mechanisms on the other facilitate the neo-colonial position of Serbia as the periphery and perpetuate a power dynamic that allows hybrid regimes to flourish and prioritise their own interests over those of their citizens or civil society. The study further opens up the possibility that these dynamics may produce ‘glitches’ in the system and corruption of the system as a whole, and invites further research and theorisation that would illuminate similar patterns and relationships across other European (national) subsystems.
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This study explores the concept of liminality, a transitional phase marked by uncertainty and dis... more This study explores the concept of liminality, a transitional phase marked by uncertainty and disorientation, within the context of adult education. The research employed the correspondence method, engaging in a threemonth exchange with a participant to reflect on the personal experience of the liminal phase. Through sharing stories and examining connections with transformative learning, the research highlights the importance of encounter and dialogue in navigating liminality and fostering the emergence of new perspectives. The results of the study offer insight into the utility of the dialogical approach of Martin Buber in understanding and enduring the liminal phase.
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Andragoške studije, 2021
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Obrazovanje odraslih/Adult Education
In this paper we want to consider the underlying assumptions on which the research work is based ... more In this paper we want to consider the underlying assumptions on which the research work is based in adult education and learning: our beliefs about cognition within that reality (epistemology). These beliefs inevitably shape human decisions which direct the activities and general engagement in the world that surrounds us, thus in the planning and realisation of scientific research. In this context, to understand at least some of these beliefs is crucial to effective critique and application of research results, with the aim to improve educational practice and theoretical consideration of its eligibility.
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How we build ŠKOGRAD: Anatomy of the Infrastructure of Hope, 2019
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Obrazovanje odraslih/Adult Education, 2013
The paper analyzes the approach of international organizations (World Bank, OECD; UNESCO and the ... more The paper analyzes the approach of international organizations (World Bank, OECD; UNESCO and the European Union) to the concept of quality of adult education through an analysis of current documents that are directly or indirectly related to quality issues. By using critical discourse analysis and focusing on language and terminology of the texts, we came to the conclusion that the current concept of adult education quality was developed within the economic narrative where the purpose of education was seen in the growth of productivity through skills development. This paper provides a possible answer to the question: does the rhetoric of international documents is an indication of the final capitulation of educational paradigm, or it is just adjustment to the ongoing global crisis?
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Revista Educação, Artes e Inclusão, 2020
The study attempts to discover elements of learning by practicing the right to the city through t... more The study attempts to discover elements of learning by practicing the right to the city through the embodiment and re-articulation of the identity of the flâneuse. In this urban investigation, we will explore perspectives that emerge from the city, how they are connected to specific city sites, and how they form our becomings, having in mind the gendered division of urban life. In order to do so, we will engage in reflexive wandering and performing in the city. Learning that unfolds with this action is a bodily and sensorial process of reading the layers of public spaces in the city. As wandering implies a turn off the main road, the learning process is marked by unpredictability and meandering. It does not follow a familiar path that leads to specific learning outcomes, but involves a journey through unknown and unowned places. We aim to describe learning that evolves by wandering around the side roads of Belgrade by mapping the experiences of the three authors. The research also in...
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Coll Books, 2018
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Andragoske studije, 2019
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Tercio Creciente, 2017
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European Journal of Education, 2018
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Andragoske studije
We commence this paper with Foucault's theory of the technologies of the self and the approac... more We commence this paper with Foucault's theory of the technologies of the self and the approach to analysing their function in adult education. In exploring the mechanism of control, of particular importance is the point of intersection of power, examining, confiding, science and experts or specialists and the formation of the self. We shall attempt to clarify such relations, particularly the connection of the technology of the self and education. The adult learner is perceived as an active learner and is expected to provide constant reflexion on their previous experience which has turned into raw material honed by critical analysis. It is presupposed that such action is empowering and that talking about oneself influences the liberation of an individual. In the past decade, various societal spheres saw a more pronounced neoliberal position, which also applies to the sphere of education. Consequently, we witness the growing and more frequent transfer of responsibility to the subj...
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Život u kriznim vremenima - andragoški pogledi, 2021
Živimo u periodu hroničnog bola. Akutna situacija je produžena. Bol se smatra hroničnim kada traj... more Živimo u periodu hroničnog bola. Akutna situacija je produžena. Bol se smatra hroničnim kada traje duže od uobičajenog toka bolesti ili duže od očekivanog vremena potrebnog za zarastanje povrede. Taj protok vremena ispunjen fizičkim bolom je jedno i razlaganje sa dotadašnjim životom jer dolazi do nove prostorno-vremenske konstrukcije, stvarnosti i telesnosti, kao i do gubitka samopouzdanja i gubitka izvesnosti sopstva. Takva faza je označena kao granična i, ukoliko prihvatimo ustaljeno andragoško tumačenje krize kao početak transformativnog učenja, može dovesti do preispitivanja dotadašnjih svetonazora, posebno onih koji se tiču telesnosti i identiteta. U radu sam koristila autoetnografski pristup, zasnovan na performativno-vizuelnim umetničkim metodama, ali i fenomenološki koristeći polustrukturisani intervju sa osobom koja je prošla i još prolazi kroz iskustvo bola. Dobijeni narativi nisu kodirani i kategorisani, već sam pokušala da pokazujem relaciono mapiranje dva življena iskustva jer upravo u dijalogu nastaju nova značenja i priče. Ovaj tekst je prolog istraživanja koje će se nastaviti. Dovelo me je do uočavanja da postoji različiti dostupni narativi koji uobličavaju iskustvo bola. Jedan od njih je i teorija transformativnog učenja koja interpretira patnju kao svrsishodnu jer polazi od uverenja da suočavanje sa fizičkim bolom inicira preispitivanje. postojećih shema značenja. Na osnovu iskaza učesnica intervjua pokazano je da takva linearnost učenja nije uvek primenjiva i da je za učenje u hroničnom bolu karakteristična neuređenost, neosmišljenost i nedoslednost uvida i promena.
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How we build ŠKOGRAD: Anatomy of the Infrastructure of Hope, 2019
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Papers by Maja Maksimovic
lifelong learning will be given. The concept of lifelong learning has been analyzed in the context of power relations on a global level and benefits of this dominant political discourse to adult education profession are questioned. Critical discourse analysis has been applied in order to identify naturalised assumptions, and the research methodology is
enriched with historical approach in order to offer a better understanding of the dominant ideologies that shaped development of lifelong learning and to map the influence of the concept on current educational policies.
art education and to contemporary arts within the CREARTE projects.
Similarities and differences in the experimented local CREARTE projects
are discussed, illustrating the great variety and diversity of contemporary
art tools used in the schools. Finally, curriculum strategies are analysed taking
into account the impact of the project
on the direct and indirect participants
(students, artists, teachers, schools and
local communities).
point concerned the function of knowledge in a system (society, state) realised through the means of its legitimation: the legitimacy of knowledge had now become underlined by a technological, rather than a normative rationality. In other words, the running of a societal eco-system was now not driven by questions of what is right, just, or moral, but of how to achieve optimal levels of performativity and efficiency.
Travel some 20 years into the future, and authors such as Novoa (2007) bemoan the discourse of the “obvious” in European (adult) education policy, based around topoi of efficiency, rigor, accountability, and benchmarking, steering competitiveness (in performance) among nation states and equating citizenship with employability for their denizens, a discourse created by a diffuse body of “neutral” experts, the latter ensuring its legitimacy and authority. This is the discourse intended to create a 21st century European: a “learning” European, ever since the 2000 Lisbon Agenda recognised (adult) education as a key resource for
the (economic) development of European Union and its member states.
The focus of this paper will not be a critical examination of the contemporary European adult education policy, which has been done profusely and persuasively by various colleagues in recent years (see, e.g. Jarvis, 2014; Mohorčič Špolar et al., 2014; Popović, 2014; Popović & Maksimović, 2012), but rather its effects on policy (learning1) in contexts which have a significant tradition of constructing an alternative adult education discourse. We will discuss here the assumptions
underlying the current transfer of educational discourse (Silova, 2004; SteinerKhamsi, 2004) in adult education policy in Serbia, an EU candidate country, following a disruption and (dis)continuation of an earlier narrative, in the country’s efforts to shed the epithet of the Other, and finally become European.
education are not explored enough in the current European academic discourse. Postmodern and feminist orientated researchers have questioned heteronormative tradition of knowing, but adult education theories still do not sufficiently tackle gender constructed concepts and approaches. Adult education research suffered from slighting gender and women in three basic ways: deletion of women (as individual
subjects and as a notion) from the history of research and philosophy of adult education, domination of androcentrism in epistemology and misunderstanding of gender perspective and overemphasizing heteronormative differences (placing females in opposition to men) in research methodology and data interpretation, which reproduces
dualism and binary positions while underestimating social dimension of
gender identities.