Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning Journal

The Open University produces the Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning journal.  Until 2009 it was produced by Staffordshire University.

The journal can be accessed by the link here. From January 2023 the journal is open access so you can read the full articles and a subscription is no longer required.

About the journal

Issues of access, social exclusion and lifelong learning continue to dominate educational policy agendas. Questions of how to widen participation and combat social exclusion in education are both pressing and troubling. Widening Participation & Lifelong Learning is one of the few journals that addresses these questions nationally and internationally.

The journal is based on the belief that there are neglected links between:

• research and theory
• policy and practice

in the promotion of widening participation in post-compulsory education and lifelong learning. It aims to provide a forum for the development of theory, the addressing of policy questions and the dissemination of innovative practice in the field of widening participation and lifelong learning.

The journal is international, interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral, relating widening participation to higher education, further education, community-based learning and schools-based outreach.

Each issue of the journal contains:

• an editorial providing analysis of current key policy issues in the field
• articles drawing on empirical research contextualised within current national and international policy debate 
• critical evaluations of innovative practice, enabling practitioners and researchers to share and discuss projects 
• reviews of important new publications in the field

As appropriate we also include discussion pieces and articles exploring research methodologies relevant to the field.

The journal is of interest to all those who want to understand the issues involved in widening participation and lifelong learning and who are working to create positive change: researchers, policy makers and practitioners.

Copyright statement

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or without the written permission of the publisher.