The World Education Research Association (WERA) is an association of major national, regional, and specialty education research associations dedicated to sharing scholarship, developing networks, and mutually supporting capacity building.

Each year, WERA holds a Focal Meeting in conjunction with the Regular Meeting of a WERA member association. Previous WERA Focal Meetings have been held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2010); Kaohsiung, Taiwan (2011); Sydney, Australia (2012); Guanajuato, Mexico (2013); Edinburgh, Scotland (2014); Budapest, Hungary (2015); Washington DC, USA (2016); Hong Kong, China (2017); and Tokyo, Japan (2019). In 2018, the first-ever WERA World Congress was held in Cape Town, South Africa.

The WERA 2021 Virtual Focal Meeting will be held from 7th to 9th July 2021 in parallel to the 17th Spanish & 9th Ibero-American Education Conference, organized by the Spanish Pedagogical Society (SEP) and the University of Santiago de Compostela. The main theme for both events is Networking Education: Diverse Realities, Common Horizons.

The WERA Focal Meeting seeks to feature research that includes more than one country or is comparative, cross-cultural, international, or transnational in conceptualization, scope, or design. The WERA 2021 Virtual Focal Meeting will consist of a program of paper, posters and symposia sessions on topics of world-wide extent.

Olga Rubtsova, Head of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research of Contemporary Childhood, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, will speak as a key speaker on July 8, 2021 at 12:15 pm and present a report ““Drama” as a tool for constructing developing learning environments in adolescence”