Snowball sampling is generally seen as a highly effective sampling technique that allows for the study of difficult to reach or 'hidden' populations. It is also seen as a valuable tool for the study of particularly sensitive or private matters. As a result, it was chosen as the sampling method for a research study into illegal drug users over the…

Background: People with intellectual disabilities have a shorter life expectancy, but healthcare improvements mean that they are beginning to live longer, with associated health difficulties. This means that there is an urgent need to focus research on ageing as well as end-of-life care. This study aimed to explore a specialist intellectual…

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 negative health impacts of prolonged caregiving are widely reported. However, there is a paucity of evidence concerning the impacts of a lifetime of caring on older parents of offspring with learning disabilities. Design and Methods: An exploratory postal survey including the Medical Outcome Study (Short Form) 36 version 2…

Music is increasingly recognised as important in facilitating healthy ageing, yet little is known of what musicians themselves learn when they teach older adults. This article reports the practices of the "Rhythm for Life" project at the Royal College of Music in the UK, in which conservatoire students taught 10-week programmes of group…

This article examines the contribution of older adults as co-researchers to the evaluation of a gerontological social work course. The evaluation was conducted at an Israeli college as part of a collaborative project with a United Kingdom university. Here, we follow the older adults who are service users through their transition to the role of…

Britain's ageing population reflects an international trend--more people are living for longer. Whilst government grapples with the economic and social impact of this demographic revolution, social justice and equality charities advocate for greater recognition of the contribution that an ageing population brings to society, not just the health,…

This paper explores the relations between older people, poverty and place in rural Britain. It develops previous work on rural poverty that has pointed both to the significance of older people within the rural poor population and to their denials of poverty. The paper also connects with recent discussions on the complexity of relations between…

The common practice of annually age grouping children in education, likely done under the assumption of similarly aged children sharing similar abilities and learner characteristics, may actually undermine equity and fairness in student assessments. This strategy has received criticism for (dis) advantaging those older children born closer to the…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore learning for and through retirement from the workplace. Design/methodology/approach: First, "retirement" is considered in the light of the existing literature, demonstrating a complex concept. The paper describes the research project from which a theme of retirement as a learning process…

A compelling body of research demonstrates that music continues to offer powerful potential for enhancing health and well-being in old age. Active music-making has been found to provide a source of enhanced social cohesion, enjoyment, personal development, and empowerment, and to contribute to recovery from depression and maintenance of personal…

Educating and training the dementia workforce is a global challenge, given the expected increasing number of people living with dementia across the world as the population ages. Two projects from the UK (one regionally and one locality based) investigated courses available to the workforce and mapped the content of identified courses against a…

Problem Statement: The island of Cyprus, due to its strategic location, was under the influence of many conquerors throughout the centuries. Cultural traces of these captors have survived to the present day. This long, turbulent history has had a profound effect on the Cypriot educational system, with the most recent influence being the impact of…

In the UK, very few studies have engaged older people in two or more elements of the research process (design, conduct, dissemination). Although there is a body of work on educational gerontology, there are few publications that specifically focus on training older people as coresearchers. This paper reports upon the training program undertaken as…

Drawing from 81 interviews with practitioners in social care and housing with care services in the United Kingdom, this paper explores practice issues in rural areas when supporting the mental health and well-being of older people from Black and minority ethnic groups. The paper begins with a review of the literature which provides evidence that…