Im Jahr 2008 startete im Rahmen des ASEM-Hub for Lifelong Learning der Aufbau des Professionalisierungsnetzwerkes. ASEM steht für Asia-Europe-Meeting; hier entsteht ein Netzwerk zum Austausch zwischen Wissenschaft und Politik. Das ASEM-Netzwerk gliedert sich in fünf thematische Subnetzwerke. Im November 2008 fand das Kick-off-Meeting in Peking statt.
Ziel des Projektes ist die Entwicklung und Pflege eines asiatisch-europäischen Netzwerkes zur Professionalisierung. Vorbereitend auf die erste Konferenz des Netzwerks im Juni 2009 wurde das Schwerpunktthema â€žProfessionalisierung in der Erwachsenenbildung" der referierten rumänischen Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaften erstellt. Vom 29. bis 30. Juni fand in Bergisch-Gladbach die asiatisch-europäische Konferenz â€žTeachers and Trainers in Adult Education and Lifelong Learning" statt. Fragen der Professionalisierung, der Kompetenzen von Lehrenden und ihrer Qualifizierung widmeten sich 70 Bildungswissenschaftlern aus Asien und Europa. Auf der Konferenz wurde die derzeitige Situation in asiatischen und europäischen Ländern diskutiert, Vergleiche hergestellt, gemeinsame Probleme und Fragen definiert und damit Grundlagen für weitere Forschungsprojekte und Kooperationen gelegt.
Das im Sommer 2010 wird ein im Anschluss an die Konferenz publizierte Buch präsentiert Beiträge von Autor/inn/en aus verschiedenen asiatischen und europäischen Ländern. In diesem konnten erste Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede des Professionalisierungsdiskurses auf den beiden Kontinenten herausgearbeitet werden.
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training, role-professionals, competences profiles and the question of responsibility. It also gives an insight into initiatives to professionalise the people working in adult and lifelong learning.
In 2005, the German Institute for Adult Education - Leibniz Centre for Lifelong Learning (DIE) established a European Research Group on Competences (Q-Act Group) in the Field of Adult and Continuing Education (ACE). In May 2007, an interim summary was presented at the conference "Qualifying the Actors in Adult and Continuing Education" in Bad Honnef/Germany. This conference focussed on a number of activity types in ACE, such as: Teaching and Learning, Training and Development, Counselling and Guidance, Policy Making and Managing, Organisation and Technical Support, Evaluating and Assessing. The results of this conference have been published in English (Nuissl/Lattke 2008). Now it seems time to extend the discussion of the European research network to an Asian-European perspective. In this enlarged network, under the umbrella of the ASEM-Hub for Lifelong Learning, the focus is on teachers and trainers in Lifelong Learning contexts.
Looking at Lifelong Learning, we find more and more attention being given to particular people working in that field. In European policy documents, the quality of the teachers is seen as a key factor effecting the quality of the entire adult education (Commission of the European Communities 2006). Therefore the European Union intends to create standards for people working in adult education (European Commission 2007), as other national governments already did. Similarly, increasing efforts concerning personnel working in lifelong learning are taking place in Asia.
This conference will focus on teachers and trainers working in lifelong learning and on their profes-sional development: What competences are needed in future by people working in the field of lifelong learning? What pathways of professionalisation are available to them in Europe and Asia? What are the actual effects of teacher training? What are the specific responsibilities of ACE teachers and trainers? At the conference, we intend to exchange and compare findings, current research results, best practice and views on the situation of the personnel working in Lifelong Learning in Asian and in European countries.
Teachers and Trainers in Adult Education and Lifelong Learning: Professional Development in Asia and Europe.
The topic of "professionalisation in adult education" has received international attention in the last few years. Two European documents have drawn educational-political attention to it: the Communication from the European Commission (2006, S. 7) "Adult learning: it is never too late to learn" describes the professional development of staff working in the field of adult education as key factor for the overall quality of adult learning. The intention of the "Action Plan on Adult learning" of the European Commission (2007, S. 9) is to formulate standards for the staff working in adult education.
Since October 2007 the Romanian Institute for Adult Eduation and the German Institute for Adult Education have been collaborating in the Asia-Europe Network on Professionalisation of Lifelong Learning with a special emphasis on teacher training under the ASEM-Hub for Lifelong Learning. This network aims at bringing together colleagues from Asia and Europe to work on the topic of professionalisation in adult education. Some papers of this volume are the results of two activities that took place in 2008. This special issue of the Journal of Educational Sciences presents current research results on the topic of professionalisation of adult education. Several papers of this issue were developed, presented and discussed in the above mentioned contexts. Now we are happy to present them together in three parts in this issue of the Journal.