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Educational Gerontology

Learning in later life is an under-valued and under-resourced aspect of the experience of ageing. Likewise the teaching of gerontology has diminished in the UK. The Educational Gerontology SIG aims to raise the profile of lifelong and later life learning, and of gerontology, through events and opportunities for discussion and action.

Aims & Objectives:

We aim to promote research and debate on a wide range of issues including:

The factors associated with activity and development in adulthood and later life;
The impact of age on engagement in different forms of learning (formal and informal);
The impact of different forms of learning on the ageing process, on wellbeing in later life, and on civic engagement;
Learning initiatives and activities for older learners in different cultural settings and countries;
The role of intergenerational exchange in learning and sharing knowledge in later life;
The role of older adults in educational policy making;
Learning and teaching about gerontology
The political economies of educational gerontology and gerontological education and the case for investment and structural development.

Announcements

Two announcements from Special Interest Group partner The Association for Education and Ageing.

First, you can find attached below the final edition, 5.3, of the International Journal of Education and Ageing. It has been edited by SIG-ED affiliates, Anne Jamieson, Joanna Walker and Jane Watts and has contributions from many well-known scholars and some who have entered the field more recently. There are two case studies which highlight examples of innovative practice in different parts of the world but the majority of the articles reflect on the development and achievements of educational gerontology. In a Guest Editorial Chris Phillipson offers his comments on these reflections and considers their implications for the future.

Complementing this publication this year’s Frank Glendenning Memorial Lecture will be delivered by one of the Journal’s contributors, Dr Hany Hachem, on the theme Depolarising and Restating the Principles of Educational Gerontology: A Late Modern Rationale. It will take place online at 5pm (UK time) on Tuesday, December 5^th,2023. Joining instructions can be found here:

https://www.britishgerontology.org/DB/general-events/frank-glendenning-memorial-lecture-2023.

or by writing to the chair, Dr John Miles at johnmiles68@yahoo.co.uk.

IJEAJournalVol5number323.pdf (0.85MB)

Meetings:

The group held a Symposium at the BSG conference on Thursday 6^th July 2023:

‘Refreshing the field: educational gerontology in its local and global contexts’.

There were four presentations:

Professor Tannistha Samanta, Flame University, India - The Promise of Cultural Gerontology in Gerontological Education: some reflections on decolonizing the field. Slides attached below.
Dr Jane Watts, Consultant, European Mid Life Skills Review - Midlife - the employment of older workers and the panic surrounding early labour market exit in the post-pandemic period. Slides attached below.
Rob Hunter and Bharti Mistry, Leicester Ageing Together - Building a learning community during lockdown. Slides and commentary attached below.
Dr Nataliya Balyasnikova, York University, Vancouver, Dr Jitka Vseteckova, Open University, and Dr Marianne Markowski, Greenwich University - Community-based learning and collaborative learning in two countries (Canada & UK) – a critical comparison of approaches to learning in later life. Slides attached below.

The Symposium was a hybrid session and could be joined online or in person. It was chaired by Dr John Miles, Chair, Association for Education and Ageing.

Quality Learning for Positive Ageing

Dr Alan Potter will present his research into older learners’ perceptions of quality in later life learning. His study stems from his experience as a teacher, educational advisor and Director of Education for a large London Borough. Within a critical educational gerontology framework, his empirical inquiry adds to evidence that learning in later life can contribute to wellbeing and may offer protection from cognitive decline. Exploring the under-researched field of older learners’ experience of learning, Alan will outline the factors which older learners say they value when learning in an informal class setting. His findings may have a wider application to other educational settings and be of interest to tutors, learning and funding providers, policy makers, gerontologists, and older learners themselves. Dr John Miles will host the seminar.

To register please contact jillwales77@gmail.com or johnmiles68@yahoo.co.uk

The group held a Symposium at the BSG conference on Thursday 6^th July 2023:

Gerontological Education: a step too far for undergraduates?

Andrew Dunning, Lecturer in Social Policy at Swansea University and Debbie Price, Professor of Social Gerontology at Micra, presented on their experience of teaching undergraduate modules on ageing. They raised questions about course content, the problems of marketing such courses and the role of the university in supporting and promoting gerontology. Dr Anne Jamieson, Emeritus Reader, Birkbeck University of London served as discussant and drew on her twenty-five years’ experience of graduate and diploma teaching. The seminar was chaired by Dr John Miles.

The group held a Symposium online at the BSG conference on Wednesday 7^th July 2021. Fifteen people attended and our two presenters drew on contrasted fields of enquiry. Dr Marianne Markowski, Research Fellow in the School of Health Sciences at University of Greenwich, reported on research into the role of peer education practices and their impact on professional training and considers the potential for their wider application. Dr Jitka Vseteckova Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and & Language Studies at the Open University drew on her current experience of delivering public talks on the theme of Ageing Well and considered how these have evolved in relation to her respondents and to her having to deliver them online. Besides presentations touched on theoretical debates about the nature and meaning of learning with implications for understanding the importance of teachers and their changing roles.

Discussion of mentoring and peer education continued online after the event.

Previously the group held a Symposium online at the BSG Conference on July 2^nd 2020. The session was in three parts: Race Matters in Gerontology, by Dr Nilu Ahmed with Dr Karan Juttla as discussant; Learning in Later Life at a Time ofChange with presentations by Dr Jitka Vseteckova, Dr Joanna Walker and Dr John Miles and Learning in Practice with Rob Hunter of Learning for the Fourth Age. A recording of the session can be viewed here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebi0Q7es0bA&t=6442s

The group held a meeting in Newcastle upon Tyne on 12th March 2019 - a report on the various discussions at that meeting is available below.

Educational Gerontology also submitted comments in response to the call for contributions to the investigations of Adult Education 100, the 1919 Centenary Commission on recommendations for adult education in the century ahead. Our submission can be found below.

The group held a joint seminar with the BSG SIG for Technology and Ageing on November 22nd 2019 at the Institute for Mental Health, University of Nottingham. A report of the event can be found here:

https://imhblog.wordpress.com/2020/01/24/how-is-digital-technology-influencing-adult-education-and-how-could-adult-education-address-the-digital-divide-exclusion-and-in equality-caused-by-services-moving-online/

Membership:

Membership of the Educational Gerontology SIG is open to all. A series of online seminars is under discussion for the year ahead.

Following the 2021 BSG conference in Lancaster the group is now convened by Dr John Miles, Dr Jitka Vseteckova and Dr Jill Wales. Jill will be contacting everyone on the current mailing-list and inviting you to register afresh. For the moment contact John Miles for more information about the SIG, meetings, or the BSG events.

The Educational Gerontology SIG has emerged from a collaboration between BSG members of the Association for Education and Ageing (AEA), the Ransackers Association (RA), and Conversation into Action (CiA).

The SIG-Ed is strongly encouraging anyone with an interest in this field to become an active member of the Association for Education and Ageing and contribute to sustaining its important publication, the International Journal of Education and Ageing.