International Perspectives on Older Adult Education

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.

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.

Marvin Formosa is Head of the Department of Gerontology, Faculty for Social Wellbeing, University of Malta, and Director of the International Institute on Ageing (United Nations - Malta).