Mary Brown
Mary Brown is a retired Open University social science tutor. In her 60s, after personal experience of ageism, she became interested in critical educational gerontology and did an OU Doctorate in Education. Her dissertation was entitled: ‘Learning in later life: oldering or empowerment? A third-age researcher’s interpretation of some voices of third-age learners.’ ‘Oldering’, similar to Foucault’s ‘ordering’, is a concept that emerged from qualitative data to suggest why older people expect less of themselves, put themselves down and often think that they are ‘too old’ for learning.