Call for papers

Adult education in the age of global mobility

7th Nordic Conference on Adult Education and Learning, 3–5 May 2017

Venue: School of Education and Communication, Jönköping University, Sweden

Organizers: Encell – National centre for lifelong learning at Jönköping University
Mimer – the Swedish network for research on popular education at Linköping University

Contact: Cecilia Bjursell, Jönköping University, cecilia.bjursell@ju.se
Henrik Nordvall, Linköping University, henrik.nordvall@liu.se

We are living in an era characterized by intense global mobility of people, artefacts, and ideas. During the last few years, with the current refuge situation, many adult educators in the Nordic countries have experienced how global interconnectedness affects their daily practices. Global migration, in general, triggers challenges and presents new opportunities for adult learning. In sharp contrast to forced migration stands the privilege of the type of travel enjoyed by many people living in the Nordic countries. Travel related to recreation, work, or education is also a key element in relation to adult learning in contemporary society, and this raises questions about access, power relations, and the formation of transnational communities. Not only people travel, however: policies and educational and organizational ideas also travel across the world. Social movements, once so central to the Nordic tradition of popular education, tend to stretch beyond national borders.

The multifaceted theme of global mobility, which we address at this 7th biennial Nordic conference on adult education and learning, reframes the classical question of whether there is such thing as a Nordic model of adult education and prompts us to ask how well Nordic adult education has adapted to our age of global mobility. What processes of transformation, reinvention, and reframing are going on, in practice as well as in theory? Contributions relating adult education to various frames of reference are welcome. As in the previous conference, one session strand is dedicated to popular education and nonformal adult education.

Confirmed keynotes so far include: Anna Ekström, Minister for Upper Secondary School and Adult Education and Training, Sweden, and Kjell Rubenson, Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia, Canada.

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 15 February 2017. Abstracts should be sent to karolina.boberg@ju.se. Registration will be open beginning December 1, 2016. Early bird registration will be available until March 7, 2017. See the following page for further instructions or go to liu.se/mimer/norden.

Guideline for paper abstracts

Send an abstract of a maximum of 400 words (Word/rtf document), including your contact information, to karolina.boberg@ju.se no later than February 15, 2017. You will be informed regarding acceptance by February 28. The deadline for full papers (approximately 8–10 pages, including references) will be April 3, 2017, and these should also be sent to karolina.boberg@ju.se.

An abstract proposal for presentation should indicate the following:

1. Title of paper
2. Author(s) of proposal
3. Research topic/aim
4. Theoretical and methodological framework
5. (Expected) conclusions/findings
6. Relevance for Nordic adult education and learning research

When you submit your abstract, you may choose one of the following types of presentation:

Paper presentation

A paper presents ongoing or completed research and is presented in a paper session consisting of oral presentations and a discussion of papers. The time allotted for each paper presentation will be 30 minutes: 20 minutes for the presentation and 10 minutes for discussion. A maximum of 4 papers will be presented in each parallel session.

Symposia

A symposium session builds on a theme and is proposed and planned by a symposium organizer. The papers focus on a common theme. A symposium has a chair (often the organizer) and one or more discussants who have read the papers in advance. Some symposia will overlap more than one session. The symposium organizer will decide how the symposium is to be organized and the time to be allotted for each presentation. It is recommended that at least two different countries/national perspectives be represented in the symposium.

The organizer of the symposium should submit a symposium proposal (as organizer’s text) with a plan for the symposium that includes all the following elements in a single document:

1. The title of the symposium
2. An abstract describing the entire symposium (400 words or less)
3. The names of the contributors, titles of their presentations, and their abstracts (each 400 words or less)

Please submit only one document for the symposium proposal containing first the abstract of the symposium followed by the abstracts for the individual papers in the symposium.

Roundtable discussions

We also welcome proposals for roundtable sessions. A roundtable session is a forum for the presentation and discussion of developmental work and research plans. Roundtable sessions are intended for focused, small-group discussions of research in progress, practitioner experiences, educational improvement initiatives, and issues in institutional effectiveness and improvement. It is recommended that at least two different countries/national perspectives be represented in the roundtable.

The organizer of the roundtable discussion submits a proposal (as organizer’s text) with a plan for the roundtable that includes all the following elements in a single document:

1. The title of the roundtable
2. An abstract describing the entire roundtable (400 words or less)
3. The names of the contributors and titles or short descriptions of their individual presentations (500 words or less in total)

The abstract proposal must describe the focus and purpose of the session and ways in which participants will be engaged. It should be sent to karolina.boberg@ju.se no later than February 15, 2017.