Developing a conceptual framework for understanding older adults and learning

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Education and older adults at the University of the Third Age

This article reports a critical analysis of older adult education in Malta. In educational gerontology, a critical perspective demands the exposure of how relations of power and inequality, in their myriad forms, combinations, and complexities, are manifest in late-life learning initiatives. Fieldwork conducted at the University of the Third Age (UTA) in Malta uncovered the political nature of elder-learning, especially with respect to three intersecting lines of inequality - namely, positive aging, elitism, and gender. A cautionary note is, therefore, warranted at the dominant positive interpretations of UTAs since late-life learning, as any other education activity, is not politically neutral.peer-reviewe

Challenging the Hegemony of Western Views of Learning

This symposium will challenge the hegemony of Western conceptions of learning through the presentation of conceptions of knowing and learning based in alternative epistemological systems. The following views of knowing and learning will be presented: Confucian, Hindu, Maori, Islamic, and African Indigenous Knowledge

Participation in formal learning activities of older Europeans in poor and good health

Little attention has been given to the involvement in formal learning activities (FLA) in the older population when considering different health statuses. The aim of this study is to explore the extent to which possible predictors (derived from previous research as well as a conceptual model) of FLA differ for older people in poor and good health. Data are used from SHARE 2010/2011 for the 50+ populations in 16 European countries. Poor health is defined as self-report of having two or more chronic diseases assessed by a medical doctor, i.e. multimorbidity. Possible predictors of learning activities represent individual characteristics: functional limitations, demography (age, gender, marital status and household size), human capital (achieved level of education), employment, income and participation in other social activities. To assess the predictors of FLA, logistic regression models are used and average marginal estimates are compared across groups. In addition to multimorbidity, labour market activity is used as a grouping variable. The average participation of individuals in the group with multimorbidity was nearly 50 % lower than that in the group in good health (6.5 vs. 13.3 %). Regardless of multimorbidity, human capital proved to be significant predictors of FLA, especially in those active on the labour market. However, the associations were weaker in the multimorbidity group. Also, significant associations were observed of other types of social activities, in particular cultural and leisure activity and volunteering, with FLA. This study suggests that similar factors are predictors of FLA in older people with and without multimorbidity

Cold adaptation drives population genomic divergence in the ecological specialist, Drosophila montana

Funding: UK Natural Environment Research Council (Grant Number(s): NE/L501852/1, NE/P000592/1); Academy of Finland (GrantNumber(s): 267244, 268214, 322980), Ella ja Georg Ehrnroothin Säätiö.Detecting signatures of ecological adaptation in comparative genomics is challenging, but analysing population samples with characterised geographic distributions, such as clinal variation, can help identify genes showing covariation with important ecological variation. Here, we analysed patterns of geographic variation in the cold-adapted species Drosophila montana across phenotypes, genotypes and environmental conditions and tested for signatures of cold adaptation in population genomic divergence. We first derived the climatic variables associated with the geographic distribution of 24 populations across two continents to trace the scale of environmental variation experienced by the species, and measured variation in the cold tolerance of the flies of six populations from different geographic contexts. We then performed pooled whole genome sequencing of these six populations, and used Bayesian methods to identify SNPs where genetic differentiation is associated with both climatic variables and the population phenotypic measurements, while controlling for effects of demography and population structure. The top candidate SNPs were enriched on the X and fourth chromosomes, and they also lay near genes implicated in other studies of cold tolerance and population divergence in this species and its close relatives. We conclude that ecological adaptation has contributed to the divergence of D. montana populations throughout the genome and in particular on the X and fourth chromosomes, which also showed highest interpopulation FST. This study demonstrates that ecological selection can drive genomic divergence at different scales, from candidate genes to chromosome-wide effects.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

University continuing education in a neoliberal landscape: developments in England and Aotearoa New Zealand

This paper explores how changing higher education policies and funding, influenced by neoliberalism, are impacting on university adult and continuing education in England and Aotearoa New Zealand. The downhill trajectory of English university continuing education in the first decade of the twenty-first century is compared with the apparent buoyancy of the situation in New Zealand during the same period. The paper discusses some of the contextual factors which may have contributed to sustaining continuing education in New Zealand, against the tide of developments elsewhere, and in spite its subjection to the influence of neoliberal policies since the 1980s. These factors include: an ethos of public dissemination of knowledge, an acknowledgement of the universities’ role as ‘critic and conscience’ of society, a broad commitment to educational equality and an approach which has been strategic as well as pragmatic. The paper describes developments in one New Zealand continuing education department between 2006 and 2010 as it experiences further institutional and political change. The author concludes that, in spite of having demonstrated considerable resilience, the current structures and activities of continuing education departments in New Zealand are as fragile as they have been shown to be in England. Possible responses to the current situation are discussed and ‘radical hope’ (Brookfield 2005) is advocated as the university-based adult educators’ response in difficult times. Radical hope, founded on critical theory, involves recognising and challenging the assumptions of neoliberalism, as well as critical praxis (Carr and Kemmis 1986), and a reaffirmation on the part of academics and adult educators of the political nature of adult education (Freire 1972; Crowther et al 2005; Martin 2008; Wallace 2008)