Aims and themes of the network

The gender issue is visible in research in the Educational Sciences, but it mainly concerns formal education and children. The purpose of this ESREA network is to offer an opportunity for researchers interested in adult education and gender topics from all over Europe to enhance their understanding and their reflections within an international perspective. The Network performs a crucial role in giving visibility and developing intellectual debates on the role of gender in adult education. Reports of research are discussed in terms of their theoretical aspects such as gendered learning, gender in higher education, gendered biographies, masculinities-femininities, gender in adult training, gender and informal learning, but also in terms of their philosophical and methodological dimensions. The network meets every two years.

History of the network

ESREA envisaged establishing a gender research network from the beginning of its activities in 1991. However, it was only in 1996, during an international conference on education in Sweden, that Agnieszka Bron, Stockholm University, Barbara Merrill, Warwick University, and Edmée Ollagnier, Geneva University took the initiative to activate the ESREA gender network during a friendly lunch in a Viking village. During the ESREA European Research Conference in Brussels in September 1998, concrete decisions were made and future activities planned. The first meeting of Network was held in 1999 at University of Bochum in Germany and prof. Edmee Ollagnier from University of Geneva became a first Network Convenor. In 2007 she resigned and since then Joanna Ostrouch-Kamińska has been a convenor of the Network.
History of meetings: 1999 – University of Bochum, Germany; 2000 – a joint meeting with ESREA network on Life-History and Biographical Research at the Roskilde University, Denmark; 2001 – University of Geneva, Switzerland; 2004 – a post-conference meeting following the ESREA European Research Conference at the University of Wroclaw, Poland; 2005 – University of Geneva, Switzerland; 2007 – University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland; 2009 – University of Hull, United Kingdom; 2011 – University of Montpellier, France; 2013 – University of Coimbra, Portugal; 2015 – University of Belgrade, Serbia; 2017 – University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany.