WERA is an association of major national, regional, and specialty education research associations, mainly dedicated to developing networks. The WERA TASK FORCE Global Research in Extended Education is a collaborative group of scholars working on this research topic.

WERA TASK FORCE Global Research in Extended Education

In learning societies, there has been an increase in out-of-school and extracurricular learning in childhood and in adolescence compared to the past. The last 10 to 20 years have seen numerous efforts to expand institutional learning and care opportunities to supplement or complement (traditional) schooling in almost every modern country in Europe, North and South America, Asia, and Australia.

Nowadays, children and adolescents enroll in various public or private forms of arrangements outside regular school hours. Children may participate in school- or community-based programs, forms of private tutoring – also called shadow education – or after-school programs, like art courses as well as extracurricular activities at all-day schools, called in the following ’extended education’. Alternatively, children may time in services that provide opportunities for play and leisure pursuits to support social and emotional learning.

Extended education represents a multitude of programs/activities/offerings, among other things, that provide children and adolescents with a range of supervised activities designed to encourage learning and development, for children to be supervised and safe, and extending the regular school day. Some of them pursue general goals, such as psychological well-being and social competence, others focus on specific educational outcomes and goals. (Schuepbach, 2018, p. 135)

Developments and focus of the Task Force

The Task Force originated from the WERA IRN Extended Education and some members originate from this IRN. However, this Task Force is more specifically focused on global research in the described area of extended education than the IRN. The Task Force is an inclusive space in which all interested researchers in the field extended education with the similar strategies and objectives can participate.

The WERA Task Force Global Research in Extended Education is chaired by Prof. Dr. Marianne Schüpbach, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.