Learning Outside Formal Education: current and completed projects

Find out more about our research projects
Mayflower Community Impact Day when the community comes together to do a bit of a grounds makeover to help improve the school campus and outdoor learning environment for the benefit of the children.

Invisible Education Post-65: reconstituting everyday lives and learning

Invisible education is the learning that happens in everyday life – it is invisible because it is often ignored and devalued, and it is education because it is powerful and formative.
With ageing populations living longer, life post-65 needs to be re-thought, but research has shown that discussions about ageing tend to ignore learning. In the UK, these explorations are important because the 2021 UK Census showed that 18.6% of the total population were aged 65 years or older.
Woman preparing to go swimming at Firestone Bay, Â鶹´«Ã½

Beyond Words

This two-year longitudinal project is one of only eight national projects funded by the prestigious Arts Council Research Grants Programme. In partnership with community music organisation Â鶹´«Ã½ Music Zone it explores how learning music can facilitate communication and wellbeing for those who struggle to be understood in words: including those with dementia, autism, strokes and mental illness. It explores the non-verbal in music making and implications for the Arts in a post human world. The project is led by Professor Jocey Quinn and Dr Claudia Blandon .
LOFE Beyond Words  (Image: Â鶹´«Ã½ Music Zone Sensory Room)
Image: Â鶹´«Ã½ Music Zone Sensory Room

ESRC International Partnership and Network Award

Sue Waite and Dr Rowena Passy led the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded network ‘Understanding educational and wellbeing implications of learning outside the classroom through cross-national collaboration’. Partners in this award were from Australia, Singapore and Denmark.