In 1963 a group of friends with similar perspectives on adult education got together to form a new association. The leading figures represented very different contexts. On the one hand were people working in the adult education service of the German protestant church – well-funded, and part of a significant professional group. On the other were people working for the Reformed Church in France – members of a small minority group with no specialist adult education posts. What they formed was an association for protestant adult education, operating under a German title: Evangelische Arbeitsgemeinschaft fur Erwachsenenbildung in Europa (EAEE).

It quickly grew to become an association of West European national associations and national churches. In many ways, the changes and arguments it has undergone in the last forty-three years provide a mirror to the wider debates within European adult education.

 Different views, ideas and traditions of Adult Education

 The decade of formation is significant. The 'sixties was a time of ferment, and France and Germany came to be at the centre of this radical movement. The new EAEE was not a neutral organisation; those who formed it believed adult education had to be committed – committed to radical social and political change. That stance remained unchallenged for several years, and it was not until significant numbers of English and Scottish adult educators became involved in the 1980s that it became problematic. The seeds of British church-related adult education had been in personal transformation; the work of Carl Rogers had been particularly influential. It tended to be more concerned with process than with content or outcomes. One EAEE conference, where the president's report had been almost entirely about the world and European political situation, was followed by a puzzled revolt. Why was an adult education organisation behaving like a body for political activists?

Untangling that question led to clarification of further differences. Analysis showed that each of the eight or nine nations by this time involved understood protestant adult education differently. In Germany, the choice of the term “Erwachsenenbildung” already located the EAEE in one of a number of competing understandings. The task of German protestant adult education was to contribute to the building up of society in ways that challenged existing structures. In Scandinavia, church-related adult education stood in the tradition of Grundtvig, with his emphasis on developing popular culture. In Britain and France, however, it was much more directed towards the minorities who were active members of the protestant churches – or, in Britain's case, of any church at all.

Common interest:Focus on Pedagogical Methods

It became clear that the one thing all these diferent practitioners had in common was pedagogical method. So for a while, throughout the 1990s, EAEE concentrated on educational methods. Conferences provided workshops where these could be shared. An EU-funded programme was developed to create materials for training adult educators, that could be used across Europe. Exchanges were organised so people could learn from one another. Alongside it, however, people became increasingly interested in the different understandings of adult education, and wanted to learn more about them. A journal, Didache, was created where stories and perspectives could be shared and discussed. Study tours were arranged, where people from several countries could see how one country went about its task. Language schools were arranged to equip adult educators more effectively with what was becoming the common language of discourse, English.

The emphasis on method was challenged by a new development in the '90s. Anxious to be part of bringing the whole European “house” together, EAEE cultivated links with the newly emerging states of Eastern Europe. They brought to the table rather different agendas. Politically, they often challenged the left-wing assumptions that, no longer much discussed, continued to be taken for granted. Educationally, they were sometimes uncomfortable with the very methods around which EAEE had begun to coalesce. At an EAEE conference in Driebergen in the Netherlands, three Romanians were present for the first time. They were horrified by the routine use of small group processes. For them, small group processes were the means the Communist government had used to keep people under control. The churches had stood out against them, preferring the freedom of the large meeting and the lecture. A conference in Prague in 1997 permitted many of these issues to be discussed. It was clear that many churches in Eastern Europe were looking for more concrete support than EAEE could give; it had no funds to give or staff to second.

No professional support and drop in structures

Throughout its life, EAEE has had no paid staff. The employers of those who ran it provided a “hidden subsidy” through permitting staff to do this work. As the activities grew in the '90s, the extent of the hidden subsidy also grew. That put EAEE in a very difficult position at the turn of the millennium. As money from churches and governments became increasingly tight, employers became less willing to see employees spending large amounts of time working for EAEE. Then, in a number of countries, the existence of the national bodies that had been the local expression of EAEE began to falter. Some, like Germany's DEAE, shrank. Others, like those in England and Scotland, folded. In some countries, even the existence of a professional church-related adult education service disappeared. In 1990, for instance, almost every Church of England diocese had an adult education adviser. By 2010, almost none did. “Adult education” had been subsumed into “training”.

New Perspectives: EAEE as a network

So EAEE had to rethink itself again. Many of the activities had to go. Big conferences were no longer viable. They were replaced with an annual study tour, visiting each country in turn. In many ways EAEE returned to what it was in the beginning, a network of friends learning from one another. A new constitution permits individuals, not just associations and churches, to join, and gives EAEE a European legal identity. Recognising that the word “protestant”, while a positive statement of identity in some countries is an embarrassment in others, it now styles itself an network of protestants and Anglicans. Key to the new identity is the term “network”. Networks can link in different ways, but need no strong centre. They can make use of the internet. They can be flexible, allowing partnerships and joint projects to spring up wherever there are people who want them. That's where the future seems to lie.