Professor Dénes Koltai Memorial Conference on Adult Learning and Education

Several members of the European Branch of the International Hall of Fame of Adult and Continuing Education participated the Dénes Koltai (Class 2008) Memorial Conference on Adult Learning and Education for Friday, 11 October 2024 to Pécs, Hungary.

According to the attached Programme, Éva Farkas Class 2019) Heribert Hinzen (Class 2006) and András Benedek (Class 2022) provided plenary keynote speeches, while Arne Carlsen (Class 2017), together with Balázs Németh (Class 2017) held workshop presentations on some challenging aspects of ALE research and development work with reference to international trends and issues.   

Éva Farkas focused on some particular matters of how to improve ALE with specific tools as microcredentials and individual learning accounts. Heribert Hinzen was signalling the roles of professionalisation and institutionalisation on ALE. András Benedek provided a retrospective focus on the legacy of Dénes Koltai in promoting and developing ALE with academic focuses research, interdisciplinary analysis and professional developments of BA and MA programmes in Adult Education. András also recalled CONFINTEA V and VI how they influence some Hungarians having been involved in the quality development of the filed to build international relations and to rely on partnerships with bodies as EAEA, eucen and PASCAL Int. Observatory.

Arne Carlsen made a significant reflective workshop presentation on the progress ’From the right to education, to the right to lifelong learning’. Arne’s input was followed by some other six presentations with different approached to ALE with quality concerns. In this respect Balázs Németh was pointing out the ‘Trends of Policy Research in ALE two Years after CONFINTEA VII’.

The five representatives of HOF Europe were strongly concerned of the importance of preparing for the Florence Conference of International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame (https://www.hoflorence.unifi.it/) and to take this opportunity to develop further thematic RDI collaborations amongst its members.

From left to right: Arne Carlsen, Heribert Hinzen, Éva Farkas, András Benedek, Balázs Németh