ESREA: 8th Triennial European Research Conference

    Imagining diverse futures for adult education: questions of power and resources of creativity

    We wish to kindly invite you to participate in a major international conference on adult education and learning.  It is taking place between the 8th and 11th of September 2016 at  Maynooth University, Ireland.

    This event is the 2016 Triennial Conference of the European Society for Research on the Education of Adults (ESREA) and it will bring together researchers and scholars from across Europe and beyond to discuss learning, power and creativity.

    There has been fantastic interest shown in the conference and we are certain it is going to be an exciting and stimulating event.  We very much look forward to meeting you at Maynooth.

    Conference Programme

    We are looking forward to meeting participants in Maynooth the full programme can be seen here.

    The Phd pre-conference

     
    This will take place on the 7th and will begin at 10 am and finish around 4pm. This will consist of open fora for discussion between graduate students and masterclasses with leading adult education researchers. Places are limited so please book soon.
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    Conference themes

    In the era of lifelong learning adult education has acquired a new prominence.  Across the world the amount of time adults spend in education has steadily increased and new policy imperatives – often linked to notions such as the ‘knowledge economy’– has made adult education and adult learning major topics of research. Within the body of research which has emerged from the dynamic and diverse field of modern adult education – in vocational, further, community, continuing and higher education as well as in civil society – power has always been a major concern.  In particular there is a longstanding interest in the relationship between education and progressive social change. In a period of crisis characterised by deepening inequalities, a rise in racism and xenophobia, and in which we face grave ecological threats these questions of power and change have acquired a new urgency and relevance.  We invite participants to submit papers on these themes and also to investigate a range of other questions related to power.

    Discussions and analyses of power in society and education can lead to a sense of private powerlessness in the face of seemingly intractable public issues. Resources of hope, however, reside in our capacities for reflexivity, imagination and creativity; capacities which allow us to question and trouble the givens of public discourses that limit our thinking, feeling and acting. Therefore we also also wish to invite contributions on creativity in adult education and learning.

    By exploring questions of power and identifying resources of creativity we hope to create a collaborative, critical and imaginative space in which participants can envisage and discuss a diverse range of futures for adult education.

    Please click on the link to download a Pdf of the     which gives a more detailed overview of the conference themes.

    Proposals for papers, poster sessions, symposia, roundtables and workshops are invited from scholars and practitioners engaged in the broad field of adult education (lifelong learning, community education, higher education, further education and adult vocational education etc.) and related interdisciplinary fields.

    Conference Dates

    The conference will be held from 8th to 11th of September. 

    Other key dates

    Deadline for submission of abstracts 12th February 2016
     
    Acceptance of abstracts will be confirmed 14th March 2016
     
    Deadline for early bird registration (If payment has not been received by this date, the higher fee will be applicable) 8th April 2016
     
    Final deadline for registration and payment of the conference fee 15th June 2016
     
    Final papers must be submitted 15th July 2016
     
    Date of 2016 Phd pre-conference 7th September 2016