Congratulations to the new  PhD  Justina Garbauskaitė-Jakimovska on successfully defending her  doctoral thesis Becoming Non-Formal education. A Post-Structuralistical  Analysis of Non-Formal (Youth) Education (Educational Science  (S 007), scientific advisor – prof. dr. Lilija Duoblienė) and after acquiring   doctoral degree  of  Social Sciences in the field of Educational Science. 
The dissertation can be viewed at the libraries of Vilnius University, Klaipėda University, Mykolas Romeris University and on the VU website at: www.vu.lt/lt/naujienos/ivykiu-kalendorius.

A short annotation  of doctoral thesis is presented below.

The dissertation analyses non-formal education and the experiences of educators using concepts from poststructuralistical philosophy. The aim is to reveal the emergence of educators in the field of non-formal (youth) education and the multiple field they create. The dissertation is written “thinking with theory”. Thinking with theory means first of all analysing the concepts of the French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari and looking at non-formal education through these concepts. The thesis applies (introduces) some of the concepts proposed by Deleuze and Guattari (becoming, rhizome, multiplicity, affect, nomadicity, territory, mystery) to reflect on aspects of non-formal education that are often overlooked in the field. The chosen structure of the dissertation, starting from the theoretical implications of the NFE and a review of existing research, takes a broad view of the phenomenon of non-formal education, focusing on the links and interactions with other contexts. The work continues by drawing on the personal experience of non-formal education coming from practising educators and learners. By talking about their experiences of the NFE, the research participants confirm what has been said previously about the NFE and expand their knowledge of the NFU field, practices, values and ways of working. This is a return from the personal level to a broader view of non-formal education as an educational phenomenon – multifaceted, diverse, and in a constant state of becoming.
Keywords: poststructuralism, non-formal education, educator, becoming, Deleuze and Guattari.

Dissertation Defense Council:

Chair – assoc. prof. dr. Irena Stonkuvienė (Vilnius University, Social Sciences, Education – S 007);
Associate prof. dr. Jolita Buzaitytė-Kašalynienė (Vilnius University, Social Sciences, Education – S 007);
Prof. dr. Natalija Mažeikienė (Vytautas Magnus University, Social Sciences, Education – S 007);
Prof. dr. Liudmila Rupšienė (Klaipėda University, Social Sciences, Education – S 007);
Prof. dr. Audronė Skukauskaitė (University of Central Florida, USA, Social Sciences, Education – S 007).