Podcasts on Edited Volume: Transition from Pedagogy to Andragogy. An International Perspective

 HSU

2. November 2025

Since the public release of the edited volume Transition from Pedagogy to Andragogy: An International Perspective by Leslie Cordie (ed.) with contribution from the DigiTaKS* project, a series of accompanying podcasts have been recorded.

Listen to the Podcast Episodes:

Episode 1: Transitions from Pedagogy to Andragogy: An International Perspective

Episode 2: Authenticating Lifelong Learning in South Africa: Colette February

Episode 3: Digitalization and Higher Education in Germany: Lisa Breitschwerdt

Episode 4: Twenty-First Century Holistic Learning: A Caribbean Perspective: Shermaine Barrett

Episode 5: Digitalization and Higher Education in Germany: Jan Schiller

Episode 6:  Adult and Community Education in New Zealand: Colin McGregor

Episode 7:  An Overview of the Evolution of Higher Education in China: Lingfei Luan

Episode 8: Further Education and Training (FET) in Ireland: Stephen O’Brien

Episode 9: 36 Years at the Lectern: Michael Wooten

Episode 10: An Overview of the Evolution of Higher Education in  China: Yan Dai

Episode 11: The Young Adult: Dr. Linnea M. Haren Conely

Episode 12:  From Traditional to Student-Centered in China: Dr. Xi Lin 

Episode 13: Higher Education in the US: Reflections from Scholar-Practitioner – Sarah Bond

Episode 14: An Overview of Higher Education Transitions – Narratives from Canada: Julia Denholm

6th International Online Guest Lecture on Time and Learning

 HSU

8. September 2025

Human beings are inherently temporal entities – our lives, experiences, and learning are deeply shaped by time. In this thought-provoking lecture, Prof. Dr. Sabine Schmidt-Lauff explores how lifelong and lifewide learning are influenced by temporal dynamics and transitions in our modern, globalized society.

Key questions include:

  • How does time shape the experience of learning?
  • In what ways is time used and felt during educational processes?
  • Can learning create temporal counter-movements such as deceleration or leisure?
  • How can professionals engage with time in a sensitive and intentional way?

Join us online for a deep dive into the temporal theory of learning and discover new perspectives on how time and education are fundamentally intertwined.

Prof. Dr. Sabine Schmidt-Lauff: Time and Learning. Perspectives on Lifelong Transitions Through the Lens of Temporal Theory
Date: 20 September 2025
Time: 16:30 – 18:00 (Copenhagen & Berlin)

Co-organised by:
ASEM LLL Hub Regional Centre for South Asia (and Partner Institutions), Research Network 5, ASEM LLL Hub

To receive a free Zoom Link for the lecture, please fill the Google Form here: https://forms.gle/ecfkUmHC4ti8fsjg9. 

International Literacy Day: Achieving Digital Literacy – Will Access Solve the Problem?

 HSU

9. September 2025

In celebration of the International Literacy Day on September 8th, Dr. Jan Schiller of HSU Hamburg joined Prof. Dr. Shikha Kapur of Jamia Millia Islamia Central University, New Delhi and Dr. Shalini Singh, South Asia Coordinator of the ASEM Lifelong Learning Hub for 2 critical Interviews and discussion based on data from India and Germany regarding “The Issue of Access and Beyond…in Achieving Digital Literacy”.

ASEM International Literacy Day

The discussion was about the challenges we face for equipping ourselves as individuals and societies for digitalisation: “Are we really ready for Industry 5.0?” The event spanned one hour and aimed to discuss the realities in two different parts of the world regarding the fact that access to digital devices is a major issue especially in India, but problems after access are also crucial.

ASEM is an intergovernmental process including 51 countries from Europe and Asia, European Union and ASEAN, and the ASEM Lifelong Learning Hub works under it to promote lifelong learning.

DigiTaKS* presentation at PaTHES Conference 2025

 HSU

25. July 2025

At this year’s 7th Annual Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education Conference in Dublin, held from June 10–12, 2025, Jan Schiller and Marie Rathmann presented findings from the DigiTaKS* project.
The contribution, titled “Transformative digital competences: Reclaiming creativity for critical thinking”, is largely documented and available via OpenHSU under the DOI 10.24405/20211

STREAM Online Research Symposium Update

 HSU

14. May 2024

Since January 2024, 150 people registered to the online Research Symposium Series titled “Spaces and Times of Transitions – Recalibrating the Multiple Scales of Change in Adult Education” organized by the ESREA STREAM Network (Spaces, Times and the Rhythms of the Education of Adults and its Movements) with the support of the Sunkhronos Institute. 

Since then, nine guest speakers from Germany, Ireland, South Africa, Switzerland and the UK, have been gathering to reflect around the theme of “transition”, and the ways it relates to notions such as liminality, the life course, transgression, professional development, virtualization, or hybridity.

Whether or not you were able to attend the first 7 sessions, please note that you can now watch the video recordings on the STREAM Network’s YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/@ESREASTREAMNetwork

To support our efforts to gather scholars and practitioners interested in the spatial, temporal and rhythmic dimensions of adult education, we also invite you to subscribe to this channel and 👍 the videos, as it may contribute (through YouTube’s algorithms) to make them more broadly visible. And if you know colleagues or students who may be interested in this topic, feel free to share the news!

We are looking forward to pursuing the dialogue during our last session on June 4th (13:00-14:30 CEST) with Dr. Julia Elven and Dr. Jörg Schwarz on “Dissipation and Transitions » (if you are nor already registered – it’s free – you can register online at www.sunkhronos.org/stream2024)

AI in higher education, training and adult education – an international survey

 HSU

8. April 2024

Research collaboration between the HSU (Professorship for Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning) and the Institute for Adult Learning, Singapore (Lead)

The International survey on artificial intelligence in higher education, training and adult learning led by the IAL (Institute for Adult Learning, Singapore) examines how technological innovations are changing our educational world globally. The aim is to analyze the integration of (generative) artificial intelligence (AI) as a pioneer for learning landscapes and future trends in higher education, training and adult education worldwide.

The global research project with currently over 23 countries, was initiated by the Research Network 3 of the ASEM Education and Research Hub for Lifelong Learning. Prof. Schmidt-Lauff (member of the ASEM network since 2022), together with the German Institute for Adult Education (DIE, Bonn), is responsible for Germany-wide data collection, data evaluation and dissemination of the results.

Symposium „Processuality and Rhythmicity of Crises and Transformation“ at 29th DGfE-Kongress in Halle

 HSU

25. March 2024

The symposium chaired by Jörg Schwarz (HSU Hamburg) approached the conference topic of crisis and transformation systematically from a temporal perspective and bring together theoretical and empirical contributions to discuss processuality and rhythmicity as core aspects of a relational analysis of crisis and transformation, especially fruitful with regard to their pedagogical relevance.

Michel Alhadeff-Jones (Sunkhronos Institute, Genf / Université de Fribourg / Columbia University) provided a temporal-theoretical grounding of the core concepts of processuality and rhythmicity, contrast this perspective with the concepts of transformative learning and discuss the importance of rhythmic intelligence in educational processes.

Franziska Wyßuwa (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle) followed with a qualitative empirical investigation of the processing of crises in adult education courses, asking for how the marking and neogiating of crises in courses contribute to shaping transformational processes.

Hannah Hassinger und Sabine Schmidt-Lauff (HSU Hamburg) looked at biographical transformation processes based on qualitative interviews with adult learners and investigate how crises affect the temporal modalities of their learning.

Maja Maksimovic (University of Belgrade) examined crisis and transformation as deeply embodied processes; using the concept of Liminality, it investigated how a chronic pain condition produces spatiotemporal structures where learning processes emerge.

New Publication: “Comparative Research in Adult Education”

 HSU

20. June 2023

Lisa Breitschwerdt, Jörg Schwarz, Sabine Schmidt-Lauff (Eds.): Comparative Research in Adult Education: Global Perspectives on Participation, Sustainability and Digitalisation. Bielefeld: wbv. https://doi.org/10.3278/9783763971336

The volume presents research that emerges from the 9th International Adult Education Academy (2022), which brings together researchers, students and practitioners from around the world to share perspectives comparatively. More than 80 participants from almost 20 different countries have exchanged, compared and expanded their individual knowledge and experience on adult learning and education.

This volume consisting of eight contributions (including one fundamental article beforehand) assumes that globalisation affects national, regional and local levels of adult learning and education. Transformational relations are observed and analysed through the lens of participation, sustainability and digitalisation.

All contributions apply an international comparative research approach to empirically investigate these areas with their upcoming needs. This approach takes place under consideration of comparison as a research method which not only grounds on a long tradition and relies on a set of rules and techniques, but also on an inner attitude and sensitivity with which we look at the world and its global needs while trying to understand.

Link to the book (open access): http://u.wbv.de/9783763971329

Guest Sabbatical of Prof. Dr. Emmanuel Jean-Francois (Ohio University, US)

 HSU

23. February 2023

Since January 2023, Dr. Emmanuel Jean-Francois, Associate Professor at the Gladys W. and David H. Patton College of Education at Ohio University (US), is spending a research sabbatical at the Professorship for Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning. During this time, he researches and teaches at Helmut Schmidt University on various topics such as globalisation, digitalisation and others.

In the Adult Education/Continuing Education major (Studienschwerpunkt Erwachsenenbildung/Weiterbildung), Prof. Jean-Francois is represented in FT23 with his own English-language seminar (title to follow).

In addition, Prof. Jean-Francois taught together with Prof. Schmidt-Lauff as part of a Comparative Group at this year’s international Adult Education Academy at JMU Würzburg.

During his research stay, Prof. Jean-Francois is conducting data collection in the form of an appreciative inquiry of digitalization in the field of adult education in Germany.