Self‐efficacy in undergraduate students with dyslexia: a mixed methods investigation

It may be thought that gaining a place at university confers self‐belief on students with dyslexia; after all, they have succeeded in their academic studies. Our research explored self‐efficacy beliefs in university students with and without dyslexia. An Academic Self‐Efficacy Scale and a Sources of Academic Self‐Efficacy Scale were completed by 44 university students. These scores were compared between dyslexic and non‐dyslexic students. Interviews were conducted with eight participants to gain a fuller understanding of how their self‐efficacy beliefs develop. Undergraduate students with dyslexia scored lower than students without dyslexia on four out of the five measures of academic self‐efficacy. The dyslexic students reported role models, teachers and school performance as factors influencing their motivation toward academic work. The research suggests that university students with dyslexia still need interventions to help boost their self‐efficacy profiles, despite the level of success they have achieved in gaining a place at university.     

CRITICAL GERONTOLOGY AND EDUCATION FOR OLDER ADULTS

Complementary meanings of educational gerontology are considered to introduce a discussion of the role of “critical gerontology” as a theoretical stance in education for older adults. The sources of critical gerontology are traced to the movement toward interpretive social science in the past decade and to the interdisciplinary dynamics of gerontology as an emerging field of inquiry and practice. Examples of the intentions and uses of critical gerontology and its meaning for education are offered in accounts of the history of the social construction and of wisdom and religion in the postmodern life course.     

Sustaining advocacy and action on women��s participation and gender equality in adult education

This article gives an overview of the development of gender equality and women??s participation in adult learning and education in the history of the International Conferences on Adult Education (CONFINTEA). Though the equality of rights was highlighted throughout the various conferences, the first Global Report on Adult Learning and Education (GRALE) observed that a gender gap in the participation in adult learning and education still persisted in 2009. This is especially remarkable with regard to the impact of CONFINTEA V in 1997, because it focused on the issue of women??s participation and gender equality. A review of the CONFINTEA VI programme elements and the national reports prepared by UNESCO Member States in 2008 reveals that gender issues have to some extent moved from the centre of attention to the periphery. This article therefore tries to explore how gender principles are acknowledged in CONFINTEA VI and its follow-up.