Assessing the impact of Erasmus+ in Adult Education: empirical evidence, transformative processes, and comparative perspectives within the RIA-AE Framework

Building on the empirical evidence emerging from the transnational RIA-AE network (Researchbased Impact Analysis of Erasmus+ of Adult Education Programme) (Buiskool, KrichewskyWegener & Erckrath, 2024), this monographic issue sets out to investigate Erasmus+ as a privileged space for self-directed (Knowles, 1975), reflective (Schön, 1993), and transformative (Mezirow, 1991) learning. The primary aim is to analyse how individual mobility (KA1) and strategic cooperation (KA2) act synergistically across the three levels of the training system: the Micro level of the person, the Meso level of organisations, and the Macro level of policies. The present issue of our journal Epale Journal thus addresses a topic that is complex, important, widespread, yet under-studied. Evaluation, and above all impact evaluation, are increasingly central concerns for scientific research, whether funded or not. Impact evaluation helps us understand whether the varied training offer – of which we, as researchers, practitioners, adults, and older adults, are beneficiaries – actually has repercussions on our sense of citizenship and self-construction, as well as on participation and personal growth. Assessing the impact of Erasmus+ in Adult Education: empirical evidence, transformative processes, and comparative perspectives within the RIA-AE Framework brings together a broad range of theoretical contributions, empirical studies, and experiential accounts concerning the impact of the Erasmus+ Programme in the field of adult education. This work is situated within the research activities of the transnational RIA-AE network (Researchbased Impact Analysis of Erasmus+ Adult Education Programmes), aimed at monitoring and evaluating the effects of European projects funded by the Commission on organisations, learners, and educational and training systems at the European level. The transnational network is made up of a significant number of member countries, with more than twenty participating in this institutionally grounded research. In each country, both researchers from the National Agencies and university researchers take part.