Three Decades of Educational Gerontology: achievements and challenges

Changes in the meaning and experience of growing older suggest that it is timely to reflect on the contribution of educational gerontology to both theory and practice over the last 30 years. Major achievements have been to stimulate intellectual debate around theory building, to develop discussion around older people's rights to education and its purposes in later life as well as emphasising the importance of intergenerational work. The implications for practitioners are considered and some of the challenges still facing us are also identified. These include rethinking the relationship between education and lifelong learning, understanding how older people themselves regard learning and broadening our definitions to incorporate that which happens in an informal context. It is concluded that we also need to recognise how predicted growth in numbers of older people on a global scale will provide a large-scale challenge to educationalists in years to come.