In many regions, professionalisation in adult and continuing education is brought into the focus of educational policy. The professionalisation approaches and strategies are diverse and vary due to the corresponding key actors and cooperations, national cultures and historical particularities.

We want to focus on the historical development and current trends in the various regions from an international (and comparative) perspective thus revealing common factors as well as differences in the context of the individual social development. As a result, new opportunities as well as the hazards and contradictions for the professional development can be identified. In particular, we welcome research activities that focus on one of the three topical fields and the following research questions.

1. Actors, stakeholder and their cooperation culture & their impact on professionalisation methods Professionalisation methods are created e.g. based on the interaction of the key actors. Issues of cooperation and competition, power and trust are significant aspects. Several questions arise: Who are the key actors in the professionalisation system? Who determines the debate on professionalisation? How can access be created and regulated? What roles can universities and the scientific community fulfil? What is the role of the regional and international organisation?
    
2. Didactic-methodological approaches and curricula, & their contribution to professional development Courses of study and continuing education contribute to the professionalisation. We need to differentiate between the universitarian science-oriented strategies for professionalisation and the pragmatic approach of professional associations and continuing educational institutions. At the same time, many European countries pursue new certifications systems and competence assessment. This forum covers issues of professional learning, the effects of professionalisation on various didactic-methodological approaches and the development of curricula.
    
3. Globalisation processes, strategies of internationalisation and transnationalisation & new tasks and fields of activity By now, the experience of living no longer in a “national container“ has become common sense. Global processes and the transnationalisation of living environments are the origin of new tasks and activities for adult educators, which range from the involvement of expatriates in companies, to the creation of learning cultures across borders as well as to the inclusion of migrants. Additional questions arise: What are the institutional strategies of the internationalisation? To what extent do the new media support spatial exceedance? How are learning experiences gained in international respectively EU projects taken up? What importance is attributed to international competence?