Tomas Bata University in Zlín

Short Biography

He is an associate professor of adult education and a head of PhD studies at the Faculty of Humanities, 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 EUR. During this period, he was twice honoured as the best employee of the Faculty of Humanities, 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, where he wrote his first book in English – Formation of Adult Learning Systems in Central Europe (Springer). As a researcher, he has participated in many scientific projects focusing on lifelong learning and 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.

Furthemore, he has been actively involved in research on adult adult learning and education for over ten years. Beyond his Fulbright fellowship at UCLA, he has gained vital international experience from his research stays and collaborations with colleagues from the University of Glasgow, the German Institute of Adult Education (DIE), the Arctic University of Norway, and many others.

Research Profile

From the outset of his career, he has developed a diverse interdisciplinary profile, which has allowed him to extend his research interests beyond the field of adult education. Drawing on approaches and methods borrowed from (historical) sociology, (social) psychology, digital studies, and historical institutionalism, he has tried to enrich research regarding adult learning and education. His primary research aim is to push the frontiers of knowledge concerning engagement in adult learning and education and the evolution of adult learning systems. In this regard, his dominant research up to this date has focused on three interrelated topics:

1. Participation in adult learning and education: Factors and processes affecting participation in adult learning and education, including not only social and institutional factors but also a set of psychosocial factors/ constructs, like motivation, barriers, and attitudes.
2. Theoretical and methodological Innovations: Applying new theoretical and methodological approaches to Czech social science, especially education research, including situational analysis, historical institutionalism, the political economy of education and self-determination theory.
3. The institutional framework of adult learning and education and states: Analysis of state formation and change of political institutions responsible for lifelong learning policy and coordination. In this regard, he has published the book Formation of Adult Learning Systems in Central Europe (2024), as well as two books in Czech, Uncertain Triumph: Development of Non-formal Adult Education in the Czech Republic between 1997– 2016 (2021) and European State-Formation: Authors, Models and Theoretical Synthesis (2014), that provide a systematic analysis of long-term social change and policy of adult education and state development.

He has published or co-published four books and more than 60 reviewed research articles, chapters and papers in conference proceedings. His research has been published in distinguished peer-reviewed journals, including – e.g., Adult Education Quarterly, Journal of Further and Higher Education, European Journal of Education, Higher Education Quarterly, International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, Studies in Continuing Education, Czech Sociological Journal, International Journal of Lifelong Education, Human Affairs, International Journal of Educational Psychology, Journal of Education and Work, Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment and many others.

Skills and Leadership

He possesses a broad range of methodological skills, which includes both qualitative and advanced quantitative research methods. In terms of international comparative research, he has led multiple international projects involving data collection across four or more European countries. In 2018, the research he led collected data from respondents in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. In 2020, another project he led collected data among adult learners from Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Sweden. 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 preparing a new survey for 2024 with five involved countries (Italy, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden), which should advance measurement of adult learning systems.

Among other skills, throughout his career, he has been responsible for the preparation and management of five significant development and investment projects funded by the EU, with a combined budget exceeding 25 million EUR (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 th principal investigator or as part of the project management team.

Additionally, he has served as the principal investigator or a team member in eight medium-scale research projects, with a cumulative budget surpassing 1 million EUR from: (1) Czech Science Agency (Projects: “Blind Spots of Non-Formal Adult Education in the Czech Republic”; “Roads towards 21 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) Norway Grants – Czech-Norwegian Hub for the Study and Prevention of Inequalities in Educational Systems.

Current Research

Currently, his focus is on consolidating a team capable of advancing our understanding of participation in lifelong learning and related factors in the European educational area. He is also working on redefining how we conceptualise adult learning systems in advanced industrial and post-industrial countries. For this purpose, he has established an international research network with colleagues from UCLA, the University of Glasgow and the German Institute of Adult Education (DIE – Deutsche Institut fur Erwaschenenbildung). In addition to the currently organised small-scale survey for 2024, he is also editing an upcoming book about lifelong learning systems around Europe with Professor Richard Desjardins.

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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

• 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