Midcareer teachers want something new from professional learning. Nearly all of the midcareer teachers the author interviewed described a need for content that is fresh or invites a meaningful extension of their existing skills and understandings. Midcareer teachers have different professional learning needs than novice teachers. To serve their…

This concluding chapter reviews salient points raised in the volume. It considers what stakeholders should play a role in reinventing academic retirement. The chapter also identifies a number of issues each individual retiree must address in order to achieve a successful transition from work life to retirement.

The pace of societal change and the development of societal challenges have speeded up considerably during the last couple of decades, with substantial impact on different levels, i.e. ranging from global to local, or from business to government. When focusing on the public domain, these changes and challenges have had a major impact on public…

In a remarkably prescient chapter, Bertram Cohler (1982) reimagined the problems and the potentialities of psychological development across the life course as a distinctively human challenge in life narration. This chapter situates Cohler's original vision within the intellectual and scientific matrix of the late 1970s, wherein psychologists…

Biographical learning as a conceptual tool for investigating learning in life transitions has gained some recognition over recent years. In this article, we elaborate on this concept against the background of previous research and suggest a number of different modes of biographical learning. We further exemplify and discuss our suggestions in…

Frequent career change is the predicted experience of workers in the global economy. Self initiating career changers are a substantial subset of the total population of career changers. There is currently a dearth of theory and research to help career counselors conceptualize the career change process for the application of appropriate…

Fewer than half of all Americans will be financially ready to retire at age 65, according to a recent Boston College study. Two coinciding needs, purpose and a paycheck, are driving a huge surge of interest in meaningful "encore careers"--paid second acts in areas such as education, human services, the environment, and fighting poverty.…

The economic crisis that peaked in 2009 sent shockwaves that will be felt for years to come. It affected businesses, increased social risk for many and destabilised job and career prospects. Young people, particularly, have been badly affected. They are suffering the highest unemployment rates and their prospects have been damaged most. But,…

The propulsion theory of creative contributions is a theory that focuses on how a creative act or product builds on and adds to knowledge in various fields. In this article, we apply the propulsion theory of creative contributions not to creative discoveries or inventions, but rather to late-career decisions about future directions in which one…

Addressing midcareer transition in post-socialist Macedonia, this work sought to provide practical help to participants through a range of techniques. Four themes are identified as important options for transitioners. Enthusiasm for "entrepreneurship" is tempered by a lack of funds and "portfolio careers" are also viewed with…

In this article, the author shares his experience of being a football coach for 27 years and describes how he moves on after these years. For the first time in 27 years, he is not on the field with boys for two-a-days and scrimmages. And he is not going to be there for the games. So, there is no more football. This is after four years of walk-on…

The concept and the process of retirement are rapidly evolving. As a result, psychologists are in a unique position to understand and explain the dynamics behind the changing face of retirement. We begin this article with a brief overview of the history of retirement and then note the various definitions used when studying retirement. We then…

The transition into menopause can be a time of apprehension and uncertainty; it can also be a time experienced as an emotional upheaval brought on through changes in hormonal levels. However, menopause with the appropriate attitude and motivation can be a time of freedom and rebirth. Menopause invites a powerful review of women's lives and a…

This paper addresses the question of benefits of education from a life course perspective. Using data from a study of 1600 students (response rate 48%) on an open access program at a London University college, it explores educational activity within the framework of a transitions model. In addition to the quantitative evidence, the article uses…

Edgar Degas was not yet famous, but was on the point of aesthetic and commercial success when he left Paris in the fall for his New Orleans visit of about four months, during which time he painted 22 major works. It might be said that he was having a midlife crisis at this time. He had been painting ballet and horse pictures to assist his father's…