In the context of contemporary social and demographic transformations, scientific research serves as a cornerstone for advancing knowledge, developing evidence-based policies, and promoting inclusive and sustainable societies. The International Scientific Conference “Research Diversity in Aging Society” seeks to provide an academic platform for the exchange of research findings and theoretical reflections that address the multifaceted phenomenon of population ageing from the perspective of educational science.
The accelerating demographic shift toward aging populations presents both challenges and opportunities for education systems, social institutions, and research communities. Within this context, the role of education extends beyond formal schooling to encompass lifelong and intergenerational learning, social participation, and the cultivation of digital and civic competencies across the lifespan. Scientific research plays a crucial role in understanding these dynamics and in generating innovative approaches that respond to the evolving educational needs of individuals and societies.
The conference aims to highlight the diversity of research paradigms, methodologies, and theoretical and practical perspectives that contribute to the study of learning and ageing within adult educational contexts. It seeks to bring together researchers, practitioners, and educators from various disciplines to explore how learning throughout life, ageing and teaching intersect across formal, non-formal, and informal settings. By embracing plural epistemologies from life course and biographical research to sociological, psychological, and pedagogical approaches, the conference invites critical and creative dialogue about learning, identity, and participation in ageing societies. Special attention will be given to the experiences and roles of adult learners, educators, their professional and biographical learning, and how education fosters learning, agency, solidarity, and well-being across generations.
It encourages interdisciplinary dialogue among scholars in adult education, sociology, psychology, gerontology, service management, health and welfare policy, technology, and related fields. In line with networking principles, we invite researchers, PhD and postdoctoral students, experts, and practitioners from the above areas to discuss various topics related to the main theme in an interactive, dialogue-based format.
This joint conference aims to explore, reflect, and discuss current issues, questions, perspectives, and possibilities related to the conference theme and its associated thematic areas accross research, policy, and professional practice.
In an ageing society, learning across the life course demands new lenses on ageing, identity, participation, and well-being. This conference explores learning and ageing, life transitions and later life; narrative, biographical and participatory approaches to research; and formal, non-formal and informal settings for learners. We foreground adult educators’ professional identity, well-being and practice, including biographical work, care literacy, AI literacy, and relational competences.
Contributions may address ethical frameworks for working with older and vulnerable learners; intergenerational solidarity and community participation; and the roles of the state, organisations and individuals in building professionalism and developing values of peace and engagement.
We welcome presentations and discussions based on studies on diversity, paradigms and methods in ageing communities, and on how training for special groups (e.g., older adults) influences teaching and learning. Overall, the conference invites dialogue that links personal narratives with social change, and lifewide learning with the reconstruction of life-course pathways.
Papers may address topics such as learning in transitions; intergenerational learning, solidarity and community participation; educators’ professional, reflective and ethical practices; policies and discourses of ageing; or innovative interdisciplinary methodologies.
Through dialogue among scholars, practitioners, disciplines and generations, the conference seeks to deepen the understanding of learning as a life-long, life-wide, and life-deep process in human life.
Key thematic areas include:
- Learning in transitions: how age defines constraints and possibilities for citizens;
- Narrative, biographical and participatory research on adult education and ageing;
- Formal, non-formal and informal settings of education and learning for older adults;
- Learning Lives in an Ageing Society: Adult Educators’ professional identity, and biographical work;
- Growing older vs. getting older: discourses, practices, and policies for well-being and flourishing in later life;
- Developing AI (artificial intelligence) literacy, care literacy, and relational competences among educators and care professionals;
- Education, training and professionalisation of adult educators, care givers, managers, and stakeholders to face the complexities of ageing;
- Adult Educators’ identity and professional well-being in changing social contexts;
- Ethical frameworks for working with older and vulnerable learners;
- Adult Educators’ roles and practice in supporting learning during the life-course and life transitions: career change, retirement, caregiving, and migration;
- Care relationships, boundaries, and identity in life-course and later life;
- Active citizenship and community participation of all ages. Intergenerational solidarity, collaboration, resolving conflicts, and promoting values of peace and engagement;
- Narratives of later life: self-reflexivity, biographicity, ageism, discourses, and contexts;
- Biographical and narrative learning as a bridge between personal experience and social change;
- Adult Educators’ narrative practices: teaching and learning through life stories and collective memory;
- Lifewide learning and the reconstruction of life-course through narrative inquiry;
- Researching diversity in aging societies, communities, paradigms, methodologies, and perspectives;
- The role of the state (macro-level), organizations (meso-level), and individuals (micro-level) in achieving professionalism;
- The role of adult educators’ training and domain-specific expertise (e.g., ageing, care, and accessibility) in designing equitable teaching–learning processes for diverse learner groups.
Through plenary lectures, paper sessions, roundtables, workshops and panel discussions, the conference will facilitate critical reflection on the role of educational science in responding to demographic change while fostering a society that values knowledge, participation, and learning at every stage of life.
By promoting research diversity and international collaboration, this conference aspires to contribute to the broader discourse on how education and science can sustain social resilience and cohesion in an aging world. The integration of three academic streams provides a clear focus for the conference. Dialogical learning and teaching, collaborative dialogues, and dialogical relationships between adult educators and learners are the primary principles and values in different professional contexts of adult education (Bound et al. 2019). The last years have been marked by various crises, which have both reduced and expanded the possibilities for life-course and life span learning and thereby shaped learning biographies and the identity of older adults.
Proposals and submission of papers
We welcome a variety of presentations and workshops on research, professional practice, and policy related to the theme and key thematic areas identified for the conference. You may also submit a proposal for a panel presentation. Alongside the papers, we are also calling for two interactive workshops on the conference theme.
Participants wishing to present and share a research paper in the form of a presentation or a keynote presentation are invited to submit an abstract highlighting the main theoretical and methodological points with a brief selection of references (Times New Roman, 12 pt; 300 words, references according to APA 7).
Participants wishing to organise a workshop are invited to submit an abstract (up to 300 words) outlining the main idea, aims, and expected outcomes of the workshop session. The proposal should briefly explain the workshop format. For example, interactive discussion, collaborative or creative activity, or reflective practices and describe how participants will be engaged in the process. Workshops are intended to foster dialogue, exchange of experiences, and collaborative exploration of themes related to ageing, learning, and adult education. We particularly welcome formats that integrate research and practice, encourage interdisciplinary interaction, and create spaces for dialogue, creativity, and collective reflection.
Participants wishing to present and share practical tools, innovative approaches, or results from ongoing or completed projects are invited to submit an abstract (up to 300 words, Times New Roman, 12-point font). Sessions may include several short presentations on a shared theme or project centred to stimulate discussion and knowledge exchange among participants. We particularly welcome contributions that connect research and practice, illustrate collaboration between institutions or communities, and demonstrate how educational initiatives address the challenges and opportunities of ageing societies.
Please send your abstracts and proposals as a separate sheet with your name, affiliation, institution, address, e-mail, and a short professional bio of yourself in the third person (max 100 words for each author) to e-mail rdas2026@mruni.eu
The Scientific Committee will consider all abstracts and papers by 20 February 2026. Accepted papers and abstracts will be published in the conference electronic proceedings.
The conference will be held in English. Online presentations are not planned.
The conference organisers plan to publish a collection of selected and peer-reviewed papers after the Conference.