Second Call for Papers – deadline: 19 June 2011

Globalization, and the trans-nationalization of education policy-making which accompany it, have many implications for policy studies in adult and lifelong learning. As globalization deepens, so does its impact on national policies and on how educational research is done.

The inaugural conference of ESREA’s Network on Policy Studies in Adult Education will explore how globalisation affects agency and policy processes, and the conditions or structures under which policy processes occur. It also aims to deepen understanding of how scientific inquiry – as a means of comprehending and interpreting current policy processes and their implications – can accompany and support contemporary developments in adult education and learning.

Ongoing debates on the trans-nationalization of governance, and on the changing role of the nation state, need to be scrutinized and researched – not only the processes underlying globalization, but also those underlying Europeanization and localisation, and how these are linked. For example, with the trans-nationalization of education has come a shift away from national collection of data: comparative international data is now required – and itself plays a role in driving national policy-making.

In the light of these trends, the research community should pay greater attention to the roles international organizations play in national policy-making, and to the growing phenomena of policy borrowing and policy learning. It should also investigate the role of authority structures in fostering and pinning shared meanings to common vocabulary and agendas in adult education and lifelong learning – and hence the impact on communication and governance in the area, from both ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ perspectives.

Keynote Speakers:

Susan Robertson - Professor of the Sociology of Education, University of Bristol

Kjell Rubenson - Professor of Adult Education, University of British Columbia

Full Guidelines for Submission of Abstracts below: