News & Views:

Call for papers for the final issue of International Journal of Education and Ageing

The International Journal of Education and Ageing (IJEA) has been AEA’s flagship publication since 2010. This high quality, independent, academic journal has succeeded in its mission to feature a truly international range of original research papers. The Association has come to the decision to cease production of a printed journal and look to develop a future publication that can address the significantly changed context for educational gerontology.

We have published a call for papers for our concluding issue, IJEA Volume 5, number 3. Deadline 31^st January 2023.

AEA Frank Glendenning Memorial Lecture 2022

Our annual lecture will be on Thursday 26th January 2023, 5pm. The lecture will held online via Zoom. You can register here.
The lecture will be given by Dr Amanda Grenier, Professor, Factor Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto, Canada; The Norman and Honey Schipper Chair in Gerontological Social Work
Topic: Lives in Transition: Reconsidering the Lifecourse and Pathways of Change
You can read more about our annual lectures here: Frank Glendenning Memorial Lectures | Association for Education and Ageing
 

University of Strathclyde Learning in Later Life online courses

From October, the Centre for Lifelong Learning at the University of Strathclyde will be offering its courses online to older learners. The Centre has over 30 years' experience offering classes to older adults in the Glasgow area. For details please see https://mycll.strath.ac.uk or the PDF here

April 2020: AEA joins the Social Partnerships Network

AEA has joined the Social Partnerships Network. The network is made up of organisations, led by the Open University, who have a shared commitment to lifelong learning and social mobility and to extending higher education opportunities to all those who can benefit. AEA is pleased to have become a member of the network and looks forward to representing older learners.

For further information about the Social Partnerships Network, please visit: http://www.open.ac.uk/about/main/social-partnerships

October 2019: AEA awarded National Lottery Community Fund grant

AEA has been awarded a grant of £9,600 from the National Lottery Community Fund for a new 12 month project, starting December 2019. It will focus on older people and i) memory ii) well-being and iii) internet-based and digital learning.

It will a) organise and evaluate two pilot national workshops; b) produce a guide for older people on how to learn effectively on-line; c) revise and extend the AEA website so that it is more user-friendly particularly for older people. The project will depend on involvement and feedback at all stages from AEA members and older people who participate.

Further details about the project here 

Active Minds – Still Learning: a Campaign

One of AEA’s aims is to contribute to the development of public policy on education and older adults at local, national and even European level. At its May 4th 2018 meeting, AEA’s Executive Committee passed the motion

During 2018 AEA members have been joining in a growing movement of protest in the UK against the reductions of publicly financed educational opportunities for older adults. The first of these occasions was an event organisedby the Hornsey Pensioners Action Group (HPAG) in London on February 21st 2018. John Miles, AEA Executive Committee member and animateur of AEA’s campaign, spoke to the theme of “Active Minds Still Learning” at the event.

On June 18th 2018 John organised and chaired a well-attended lunch-time fringe meeting at the national Pensioners’ Parliament in Blackpool. Professor Keith Percy, Chair of AEA, gave an introductory talk to the meeting on his ideas about a campaign. He argued that free education for all those in the Third Age should be the ultimate societal goal but that, for the present “a demand for ‘adequate’ funding for adult education, particularly for older adult education, is a reasonable policy goal ...[which could include]… lower fees for older adults and consultation with older adults at district-level on the sorts of classes that they would like to see provided”. Dozens of people present then joined in a wide-ranging discussion.

The British Society of Gerontology held its 47th Annual Conference in Manchester in early July. In the run up to the conference proper, John Miles and Emma- Reetta Koivunen organised an open fringe meeting on July 3rd as part of the work of the new Special Interest Group (SIG) of the BSG on Educational Gerontology, which is backed by a partnership between the BSG, AEA and the Ransackers Association. Also forming part of Manchester’s Festival of Ageing, the object of the meeting was to discuss the future of adult education and its importance for older people. It proved to be a very interesting and stimulating event, in which a plan of action for a campaign started to emerge. Professor Chris Phillipson gave a significant presentation under the title of ReCreating Spaces for Ageing: the role of education in later life.

Professor Chris Phillipson

The ‘spaces’ of the title were defined as where education and learning can enable us to practise ageing and thinking about ageing; spaces where we can ‘unlearn’ what we learned for work and re-examine stereotypes; and places where we can re-engage with activism as opposed merely participating in ‘active ageing’. A discussion of the paper was followed by a lively debate around the possibility of a new campaign for later life learning. Chris’s slides can be accessed here

John Miles is currently organising a seminar on March 12 2019 at Newcastle, under the auspices of the Joint BSG/AEA/ Ransackers’ Special Interest Group on Educational Gerontology. It will be hosted by Professor Tom Scharf and will exploregerontology, life-long learning and educational policy.

International Journal of Education and Ageing (IJEA)

AEA's journal, the International Journal of Education and Ageing (IJEA), published its thirteenth issue in 2019. 

Volume 5 Issue 1 was published in July 2019 and contains the following articles:

Anna Goulding & Christopher Phillipson
Royal Victoria Infirmary Newcastle upon Tyne & University of Manchester
How can older people co-researchers and professionals learn to co-produce together?

Marvin Formosa & Priscilla Cassar
University of Malta
Visual art dialogues in long-term care facilities: an action research study

Robert Zheng, Derek Smith, AJ Metz, Sue Morrow, Janience Pompa, Justin Hill, & Rand Rupper
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, & Salt Lake City Medical Center & University of Utah
Activation of older adults’ schemas: the use of cognitive prompts to facilitate meaningful learning of care giving

Lee-Ann Fenge, Davide Mallaca, Sally Lee & Emily Rosenorn-Lanng
Bournemouth University
Older peoples’ preferences and challenges when using digital technology: a systematic review with particular reference to digital games

The International Journal of Education and Ageing was launched at AEA’s annual conference in July 2010 and has continued the mission of AEA’s original journal, Education and Ageing, which was published from 1985-2003. It is available for subscription.
Further details of the journal are to be found in this website at IJEA

Projects and Publications

Between 2012 and 2015 AEA was a very active member of three EU Lifelong Learning Programme (Grundtvig) funded projects concerned with learning in later life and took on leadership responsibilities in segments of all three. The projects were:

1) FORAGE for later life learning: building on European experience (2012-2015)
The main goals of FORAGE were to:
• To develop a European multi-lateral network concerned with learning in later life
• To be an archive and access point for information
• To promote informed discussion between practitioners, researchers, policy-makers and older people
• To promote the development of learning in later-life, the exchange of good practice and the raising of standards throughout Europe.

AEA worked on the Project with partners in Austria, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands. Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, UK.

At the end of the FORAGE Project took over responsibility for the ForAgeresource database which can be accessed at www.foragenetwork.eu/

2) Memory in Later Life: Learning - Supporting - Developing (2012 – 2014)
AEA worked on this Project with five partner organisations in Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy and Poland.
The aims of the Project were:
to investigate, analyse, improve, test and describe various practical memory and mnemonic rules, methods and techniques which might be implemented by teachers and seniors. These would be used both in the classroom and in private life to facilitate the learning and teaching of various subjects (such as languages, ICT etc.) and also to support personal development and well-being.

The Project Handbook which AEA wrote, edited and published is available to download here

The Wellbeing Project in Turkey, June 2014

3) Well-being in Later Life: Education, Creativity and Physical Activity (2013 – 2015)
AEA worked on this Project with five partner organisations in Italy, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey and Poland,
The two main goals of the project were:
i) to investigate, discuss and conclude how to facilitate and support learning by seniors in educational, creative and physical activities in order to increase their feelings of well-being, positive self-identity and meaningfulness - of still being “in control”, of still being somebody who can do things successfully and still have a life that means something
ii) to investigate how to make the teaching and learning of seniors focus more on process and be more concerned with methods which will encourage self-development and creativity
access here the Project report and resource pack which AEA wrote, edited and published

AEA on Social Media Networks

News and events of interest to older learners are also carried on:
our Facebook page AEAonFB and
on Twitter @AssocEduAgeing