ABSTRACT

This chapter considers the implications of informing society about ageing. It focuses on the need for and the essence of pre-retirement education. The chapter argues that the need for advocacy groups on behalf of older people and the need for evaluation research within social gerontology. It discusses the importance of gerontology education, of professional gerontology and of the training of professionals and para-professionals. The chapter describes distinction between educational gerontology and gerontological education, seeing the former as being involved in learning in the later years and the latter as instruction about gerontology and gerontological practice, circumventing the geriatric model of ageing and the notion of inevitable decline. It also considers educational provision for older adults and the need for social and political responses and change. In Britain and North America, there has been a developing interest in education for and about older people for 30 years and more.