Tomas Bata University in Zlín

Short Biography

Jan Kalenda is Associate Professor of adult education and head of the Reserch Centre of the the Faculty of Humanities (FoH) Tomas Bata University in Zlín (TBU), with extensive managerial and research skills. Between 2017 and 2022, he served as vice-rector for educational activities and quality management. He was responsible for implementing new standards for higher education institutions at TBU and developing its quality assurance system, including obtaining national and European (EUA) accreditation for TBU. He was appointed to this function as one of the youngest academics in the Czech Republic. In this role, he led several large-scale projects from the EU funds with a cumulative budget of over €25 million. Since the beginning of his job contract at TBU, he has been honoured three times as the best employee of the FoH, TBU. After the end of this administrative tenure, he spent the academic year 2022/2023 as a Fulbright fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles. As a researcher, he has participated in many scientific projects focusing on adult education and learning related policy, supported by the Czech Science Agency (GAČR), Slovakia Science Agency (VEGA), European Training Foundation (ETF), CEDEFOP, or ERASMUS plus from the European Commission. For fifteen years, he has been actively involved in research on lifelong learning.

 

Research Profile

His research has been focused on three key topics. First, factors and processes influencing participation in lifelong learning included related inequalities to participation and relevant educational policies. Second, an analysis of macro-social processes and long-term social change related to evolution of Adult Learning Systems. In this regard, he has coedited The Modern Guide to Adult Learning Systems (2025), together with Richard Desjardins, and Formation of Adult Learning Systems in Central Europe (2024). Third, applying new theoretical and methodological approaches to mesuement of lifelong learning, including development of new research instruments (e.g., Self-regulation questionnaire, Self-determination questionnaire, Metacognitive reading strategies questionnaire, Attitudes to adult education questionnaire, and Factors of nonparticipation in non-formal education questionnaire).

Skills and Leadership

Kalenda possesses a broad range of methodological skills, including qualitative and advanced quantitative research methods. In terms of large-scale survey design, he has led multiple international projects involving data collection across four or more European countries. In 2018, he was involved in a study collecting data from respondents in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. In 2020, he led a data collection initiative targeting adult learners in Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Sweden. This project included the development of a specialised web-based platform designed for the collection of behavioural data. Subsequently, in 2022, he directed a survey that collected data about lifelong learning among respondents from the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, and the Czech Republic. Currently, together with Professor Richard Desjardins (UCLA) and Professor Ellen Boeren (University of Glasgow), he is directing a survey about adult learning systems (ALS-S 2025) in five involved countries (Italy, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden).

Furthermore, he has extensive project management and leadership skills. Throughout his career, he was responsible for the preparation and management of five significant investment projects funded by the EU, with a combined budget exceeding €25 million (Strategic Project of TBU I., Strategic Investment Project of TBU I., IKAROS, DUO – Strategic Project of TBU II., Strategic Investment Project II. and ADAPT TBU). In those projects, he had the role of principal investigator or project team co-leader.

Additionally, he served as the principal investigator or a team member in nine medium-scale research projects, with a cumulative budget surpassing €1.2 million from: (1) Czech Science Agency (Projects: “Blind Spots of Non-Formal Adult Education in the Czech Republic”; “Roads towards 21^st Century Inclusive School: An ethnographic approach”), (2) Slovakia Science Agency (Project: “Concept of Docility in Theory of Adult Education”), (3) Visegrad Fund (Project: “Measuring university excellence in the V4 region”), (4) European Training Foundation (Project: “New Learning Environment of Adults”), (6) CEDEFOF (Project: “Apprenticeships for Adults in Europe”), (7) ERASMUS plus (Project: “Development of diagnostic and intervention apparatus of adult docility phenomenon”), (8) Fulbright Commission (Project: “Political Economy of Adult Learning Systems in Central Europe: From their Emergence to Liberalization”), (9) Norwegian Funds (Project: “Czech-Norwegian Hub for the Study and Prevention of Inequalities in Educational Systems”).

Beyond that, he contributed to over a dozen more minor research and development projects at the national scale in the fields of education, lifelong learning, sociology, and higher education.

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Teaching

Consulting hours

Friday: 13:30pm - 15:30pm

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Curriculum vitae

Education

• 2010–2013: Faculty of Arts, Palacký University Olomouc, doctoral degree in Sociology
• 2008–2010: Faculty of Arts, Palacký University Olomouc, master’s degree in Sociology – Andragogy
• 2005–2008: Faculty of Arts, Palacký University Olomouc, bachelor’s degree in Sociology – Andragogy

Process of employment

• 2023 - Head of PhD studies at the Faculty of Humanities, TBU
• 2022-2023: Visiting professor at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), School of Education and Information Science
• 2019-2022: Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Vice-rector for Quality Management
• 2017-2019: Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Vice-rector for Pedagogical Activities
• 2013–2017: Tomas Bata University in Zlín, head of the Research Centre of the Faculty of Humanities
• 2014–2016: Faculty of Arts, Palacký University Olomouc, Department of Sociology, Andragogy, and Cultural Anthropology
• 2012–2013: Tomas Bata University in Zlín, assistant professor at the Department of Pedagogical Sciences, Faculty of Humanities.

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Creative activities

Publications

Project outputs