Invitation for Paper Proposals

The purpose of ESREA-ReNAdET biennial meetings is to bring together researchers, policy makers and practitioners from the field to present and exchange their ideas on the role/s of adult educators and trainers in Europe as well as to discuss issues relevant to their professional status and development.

Adult educators have often acquired expertise within a subject area in the course of their initial studies, but often lack formal preparation for teaching adults prior to entering the profession and at its outset. Hence, it is worth questioning how prospective adult educators prepare themselves to perform according to high quality standards in a changing working environment. With the increased interest in lifelong learning and adult education, the qualifications of those teaching adults becomes increasingly relevant. While a number of studies have focused on the qualification of adult educators and their need for competences, the question of initial education of those willing to enter the field of adult education has hitherto been rather limited.

In recent years, the concern about the need to qualify adult educators is shared among practitioners, academics and researchers. This is exemplified on the one hand, by the creation of ad-hoc training modules aimed at adult educators and, on the other hand, by the flourishing of national and cross-national studies, which shed light on the influences of societal, educational and occupational contexts within which professional development among adult educators occurs. However, a relatively limited attention has been paid to the role of higher education institutions on the initial education and training of adult educators-to-be, when compared to other fields of education (e.g. primary and secondary education). Furthermore, while a number of policies emphasise the quality of adult education and training provision, little attention is paid within current policy discourses on the role of higher education in the initial education and pre-service training of prospective adult educators.

This biennial meeting focuses on the important yet less discussed role of higher education institutions in both delivering academic programmes that provide relevant cognitive and professional skills and competences to future adult educators, and in being more actively involved in the current dialogue with regard to the professionalisation paths of adult educators and trainers.

A limited number of papers (max 50) will be presented. Interested contributors may choose – but are not limited to – from the following shortlist of sub-themes:

• Initial education and training of adult educators and trainers in higher education environments
• Types of programmes that are or can be provided by higher education institutions for the development of relevant professional competences by adult educators.
• The role of universities as validating agencies of existing psycho-pedagogical competences for in-service adult educators.
• Ways in which adult education policies and initial education and training opportunities for prospective adult educators affect the role of higher education institutions in terms of academic orientation and programme delivery.
• Existing social and cultural factors within higher education institutions that influence the formation of initial competences and qualifications of adult educators.
• Higher education institutions as stakeholders in decision making processes concerning adult education.
• Development of conduits among policy-makers and academics with regard to the professionalization of adult educators.

Guidelines for submission of paper proposals
Proposals are invited for full papers only. Paper proposals should be sent as an attached file [either in *.doc, *.docx, or *.pdf format]. They should not exceed one A4 or 1000 words; they must include a title and keywords, but not the author/s name/s, affiliation or institution/s. Please send in a separate sheet your professional / personal data (name, institutional affiliation, phone, fax and mail).

All abstracts for opinion papers must be submitted by July 14th 2015 August 13 2015 to the following email addresses:

maria.gravani@ouc.ac.cy and esrea.renadet@yahoo.com

All paper proposals will be blind reviewed by the scientific committee.
Acceptance will be confirmed by August 23rd 2015. Final versions of full papers (no more than 6000 words including references) must be submitted by Monday 19th October 2015 Saturday 30th January, 2016. Paper presentations must not exceed 20 minutes in time length. The meeting presentations will be organised based on the Open Space method and will include flow sessions and learning cafés. Learning café is a simple, effective and flexible format for hosting large group dialogue. Each flow session will have 4 to 6 cafés and trainees-guests can visit all of them in one session. The trainer-host will share their ideas with all the participants. The learning café host has 20 minutes max. for presenting and the same amount of time for discussion with trainees-guests. And then they will receive new trainees-guests in their café to hear their thoughts. Learning café hosts will keep notes from the discussion for later on conclusions. They may also use handouts or other presentation techniques in the café, e.g. computers, posters, photos, iPads etc. They can bring their handouts with them to the event.

An interactive workshop focusing on teaching issues in higher education institutions will also be organised. This workshop will have as a theme “Teaching Narratives” and it will be provided by a small number of selected participants who will be able to organise their teaching experience in a narrative and/or interactive format by using a cooperative approach with all other participants. Essentially this workshop will focus on a single successful interactive teaching experience with adult educators in higher education context. Colleagues who are interested in participating in this workshop are requested to submit separately to their paper proposals, an A4 page describing their teaching narrative or story that will be enacted interactively, or a relevant video.