This important book builds on recent publications in lifelong learning which focus on learning and education in later life. This work breaks new ground in international understandings of what constitutes later life learning across diverse cultures in manifold countries or regions across the world. Containing 42 separate country/regional analyses of later life learning, the overall significance resides in insiders’ conceptualisations and critique of this emerging sub-field of lifelong learning and adult education.International perspectives on older adult education provides new appreciation of what is happening in countries from Europe (14), Africa (10), the Americas (7), Asia (9) and Australasia (2), as authored by adult educators and/or social gerontologists in respective geographical areas. These analyses are contextualised by a thorough introduction and critical appraisal where trends and fresh insights are revealed. The outcome of this book is a never-before available critique of what it means to be an older learner in specific nations, and the accompanying opportunities and barriers for learning and education.
The sub-title of research, policy and practice conveys the territory that authors traverse in which rhetoric and reality are interrogated. Coverage in chapters includes conceptual analysis, historical patterns of provision, policy developments, theoretical perspectives, research studies, challenges faced by countries and “success stories” of later life learning. The resultant effect is a vivid portrayal of a vast array of learning that occurs in later life across the globe.
Findsen, B. & Formosa, M. (Eds.) (2016). International perspectives on older adult education: Research, policies, practices. New York: Springer. (519 pages)
Director of the United Nations International Institute on Ageing, Malta
Marvin Formosa PhD is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Gerontology and Dementia Studies, Faculty for Social Wellbeing, University of Malta. He holds the posts of Chairperson of the National Commission for Active Ageing (Malta), Rector’s Delegate for the University of the Third Age (Malta), and Director of the International Institute on Ageing United Nations – Malta (INIA). Prof. Formosa published widely in the field of ageing studies, and recent publications included Active and healthy ageing: Gerontological and geriatric inquiries (2018), and The University of the Third Age and active ageing: European and Asian-Pacific perspectives (2019).
He is Country Team Leader (Malta) of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), sits as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal on Ageing in Developing Countries, and his academic interests include older adult learning, Universities of the Third Age, social class dynamics, feminist gerontology, and critical gerontology.
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