It is well documented that parental involvement in their children's education is a key factor in improving outcomes for young people, and yet many schools struggle to engage parents. This article discusses the rationale for working in partnership with parents and makes the case for building parental participation in school life so that parents are…

Invited to write a piece to mark SEDA's 20th birthday as SEDA co-chair, I have been excited and humbled by the task. In preparation I have read past editions of this journal and of the SEDA magazine, once called The New Academic and now called Educational Developments. I have reflected on my SEDA experiences and I have talked to people associated…

This paper reviews recent culture-change in British higher education (HE) and an increasing emphasis on academics evidencing, in meaningful and measurable ways, the value and contribution of their work to national societies. Discussion focuses on what is purported to be a shift from a focus on academics rationalizing the benefits of their work in…

Social media platforms such as Facebook are commonplace throughout society. However, within higher education institutions such networking environments are still in the developmental stage. This paper describes and discusses case study data from the Open University's Faculty of Social Science Facebook page. It starts by giving an overview of the…

Over the period of this journal's life the education of adults has been changed and developed in a wide variety of ways: the same phenomenon--adult learning--has been given a variety of meanings and the education of adults has assumed many titles. The aim of this paper is to unravel some of the changes that have occurred in this field during this…

Cross-border higher education institutions are considered a main way to fulfill the educational internalization in Mainland China; to some extent they represent the attitude of entering the international market. In this paper, the history, status quo, and future of Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run schools are analyzed and discussed. Cross-border…

With no tangible evidence of widespread public engagement in the UK on matters relating to the environment, this article assesses the benefits of adopting the principles of key theoretical models on learning (e.g., Kolb's Experiential Model) in environmental campaigns. In addition, in order to facilitate the transition from environmental…

The principal aim of this paper is to address the question of whether and how professional practice within an informal teaching and learning context (music) may be understood through a critical-geragogy lens. Secondly, we consider whether critical geragogy has relevance to and potential applications for enhancing practice among facilitators of…

Background: The realisation of the strategic importance of high quality coaching to the achievement of national sport policy objectives is resulting in extensive movements to professionalise the coaching industry. Interest in coach education is therefore growing among academics and policy-makers alike. A recent review of literature in this field,…

A number of recent surveys of public opinion claim that there is now widespread acceptance of the need for sustainable development, and that the general public, through its social and consumer activity is already successfully engaged. However, in all this, the focus has primarily been on individual and family behaviours such as recycling and…

This article explores aspects of the theory and practice of cooperative problem solving in education from the perspective of community-based adult learning. It describes how society can benefit from using collaborative and questioning approaches as a positive alternative to more confrontational methods of resolving differences and how collective…

Botanic gardens have been evolving, responding to the changing needs of society, from their outset as medicinal gardens of monasteries and university gardens to more recently as organizations that contribute to the conservation of plant genetic resources. Considering that social and environmental issues are deeply intertwined and cannot be tackled…

By investigating how educational practitioners participate in activities around open educational practices (OEP), this paper aims at contributing to an understanding of open practices and how these practitioners learn to use OEP. Our research is guided by the following hypothesis: Different social configurations support a variety of social…

This paper draws upon small scale, qualitative research at a UK university to present a Learning Development (LD) perspective on peer learning. This approach is offered as a lens for exploring social aspects of learning, cultural change in higher education and implications for pedagogy and policy. Views of a small group of peer learning leaders…

Education in the twenty-first century is characterized by narratives of global connectivity. Opportunities offered by digital technologies, connectivity through mobile platforms, and social media, reinforced by changing expectations of students and parents, have put pressure on universities to reimagine global learning and flexible delivery…