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“They gave me back my power”: Strengthening older immigrants’ language learning through arts-based activities
Abstract
Through the case of Jacqui, this article describes a community-based project called Seniors Thrive, which was intended to help immigrant seniors learn English, build social connections, and strengthen their leadership in order to support their health and well-being. The programming merged language learning and leadership opportunities through arts-based programming. Multiple classes offered through Seniors Thrive brought together individuals from all walks of life to learn together and from each other. As a result, many learners, including Jacqui, demonstrated heightened confidence in their English speaking abilities and increased their social connections. The arts-based program enabled the voices of older learners to be heard beyond their closed communities. We pose that arts-based activities have the potential to transform language learning in later life, if arts-based programs follow a flexible and community-driven design.
... Studies revealed that group discussions with shared goals enhanced a sense of belonging which in turn decreased feelings of loneliness (Balyasnikova and Gillard, 2021;Hausknecht et al., 2018;Lager et al., 2012). Exploring and re-connecting with heritage and cultural identity were especially prominent where cultural visual artifacts were created such as indigenous Filipino mask-making (Anguluan-Coger, 2013) and Ethiopian pottery made by immigrant grandmothers (Greenfield et al., 2019). ...
... Participants across different studies reported learning new skills especially when artsbased data collection was embedded in social, arts, or educational programs that expanded beyond the confines of the research project. Examples of skills include advancing English language and writing abilities Balyasnikova and Gillard, 2021) and artistic activities were described as having helped participants reflect on past and present life experiences with positive therapeutic outcomes: "In the past, I took all my talents for granted. But doing what we did with the youth, where I did storytelling and where I demonstrated to then how to do the "dallut" an Ilocano chant and ritual celebration, this has made me feel so much more happiness, pride and fulfillment" (Anguluan-Coger, 2013: 147, participant perspective). ...
This scoping review aims to describe the range of research studies using arts-based data collection methods with immigrant and racialized older adults. A secondary aim is to identify challenges and strengths of using these approaches with this population. This review uses Arksey and O'Malley’s five-stage scoping review framework with a final number of 16 references included for the study. Enhanced social connectedness, increased transparency and quality of findings, and self-empowerment were key strengths of using arts-based approaches for data collection. Challenges identified included resource limitations, cultural and language barriers, and barriers to meaningful engagement. Only a small number of studies have utilized arts-based methods with immigrant and racialized older adults. Arts-based approaches require unique methodological adaptations with this population but have the potential to increase engagement in research activities, authenticity of research findings and empowerment of older adults.
... Creativity is a human impulse that just won't quit (Kastenbaum, 1991), a desire that ebbs and flows throughout the life course. Being creative opens up spaces for self-expression (Zeilig & Almila, 2018), political activism (Sawchuk, 2009), and construction of new powerful identities (Balyasnikova & Gillard, 2021). Being creative in the language use is natural and adult language learners are often able to express themselves more creatively drawing on their plurilingual and pluricultural repertoires (Bernaus & European Centre for Modern Languages, 2007). ...
... Much of the scholarship in the area of adult education and immigration is focused on learning related to the settlement and integration experiences of recent immigrants and refugees and examines newcomers' experiences of learning through state-funded pedagogical interventions, in particular language instruction (Balyasnikova & Gillard, 2021), citizenship learning (Fejes & Dahlstedt, 2020), and employment preparation programs (Maitra, 2017). Given their precarious and temporary citizenship status, SAWP workers have very limited access to formal or nonformal learning opportunities. ...
Grounded in an analysis of interviews with migrant farm workers in Canada, this article explores how learning in the everyday contexts of temporary transnational labor migration is implicated in both migrant identity formation and the social reproduction of an established and growing labor migration regime. The article focuses on thinking through how workers negotiate the intergenerational workplace tensions that permeate life in Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program. The findings suggest that through their sustained participation in the everyday social practices that develop through dormitory-living, transnational laborers learn to become migrant workers. This formation of migrant worker identities in turn contributes to the reproduction of the social relations that support the ongoing practice of circulatory labor migration in the Canadian agricultural industry.
This article explores how learning contributes to healthy ageing, and it reinforces learning as an important aspect of the sustainable ageing process. It begins with an analysis of the framework established by the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing, pinpointing the notable absence of learning as a crucial element of well-being in the later stages of life. Then, it explores the research in educational gerontology, specifically focusing on how learning has been conceptualised as a lifelong endeavour. Subsequently, the article presents three illustrative cases: a language learning programme designed for older immigrants in Canada, an intergenerational somatic co-creation workshop in the UK, and a UK public educational campaign tailored to the multifaceted needs of ageing populations. The article places the three multidisciplinary learning initiatives against the backdrop of the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing. The discussion reveals how each case contributes to the redefinition of healthy ageing, increased knowledge of age-related processes, older peoples’ confidence in self-management and a wider range of lifestyle choices for healthy ageing. By integrating the concept of well-being into thinking about learning in later life, the article showcases how the inclusive, participatory approach and co-production of tailored learning initiatives can powerfully contribute to healthy ageing across diverse groups. To conclude, the authors argue for expanding policy frameworks to include different learning contexts that reflect the diverse needs and experiences of older adults.
Objectives:
Through a process of 'creative ageing', there is increased interest in how active participation in the arts can help promote health and well-being among seniors. However, few studies have quantitatively examined the benefits of a foray into artistic expression, and even fewer employ rigorous identification strategies. Addressing this knowledge gap, we use a series of quantitative techniques (ordinary least squares and quantile regression) to analyze the impact of an arts-based intervention targeting the elderly.
Methods:
Recruited from Saint John, New Brunswick (a city of about 125,000 people in Eastern Canada), 130 seniors were randomly assigned to the programme, with the remaining 122 serving as the control. This intervention consisted of weekly 2-h art sessions (i.e. drawing, painting, collage, clay-work, performance, sculpting, and mixed media), taking place from January 2020 until April 2021.
Results:
Relative to the control group, the intervention tended to reduce participant loneliness and depression, and improve their mental health. Outcomes were more evident toward the latter part of the programme, were increasing in attendance, and most efficacious among those with initially low levels of well-being.
Conclusion:
These findings imply that creative ageing promotes healthy ageing, which is especially noteworthy given COVID-19 likely attenuated our results.
This article helps us see how, through revisiting a range of stories, community‐based participatory theater can create conditions for acknowledging and valuing difference and promoting solidarity.
Researchers investigating learning from primary to higher education have emphasised the crucial role of embodiment in the process of developing knowledge, skills and expertise. In spite of this, the physical or psychomotor aspects of learning are vastly under-researched and undervalued in the literature on vocational education and training (VET). Such a marginalisation of embodiment and the physical is regrettable in that – in addition to its failure to sufficiently acknowledge defining features of much vocational learning – it serves to reinforce the notion that only the cognitive aspects of learning are of interest and value in vocational development. Such a partial and misguided conception contributes to the subordinate and second-class status of vocational studies against liberal/academic pursuits. It will be argued here that a re-examination of the role of the physical in VET can provide – not just a richer and deeper understanding of vocational learning – but also a means of enhancing the status of vocational pursuits within general education systems.
Keywords: embodied learning, philosophy of VET, psychomotor learning, physicalism, craftwork
Drawing on the foundational theories of John Dewey and Kurt Lewin, we examine recent developments in theory and research on experiential learning and explore how this work can enhance experiential learning in higher education. We introduce the concept of learning space as a framework for understanding the interface between student learning styles and the institutional learning environment. We illustrate the use of the learning space framework in three case studies of longitudinal institutional development. Finally, we present principles for the enhancement of experiential learning in higher education and suggest how experiential learning can be applied throughout the educational environment by institutional development programs, including longitudinal outcome assessment, curriculum development, student development, and faculty development.
Research has shown that theatre can be used asa tool for English as a second language (ESL) learning in various contexts. However, ESL studies done in Hong Kong have shown that sociocultural factors impact on language learning. I argue that this implies that sociocultural factors could also have a significant impact on language learning in the context of the process of rehearsal for a theatre production. This paper reports the results of a pilot study on Chinese tertiary students involved in preparing a theatre production.Adopting a Vygotskian sociocultural perspective, the study draws onanalysis of qualitative data. It aims to answer two research questions: (1) What sociocultural factors shape the experience of English theatre productions in Hong Kong as a language learning environment?; and (2) Are theatre productions good language learning environments in Hong Kong? The results revealed that prior to production, students’ sociocultural background were similar to what other studies have already concluded. This sociocultural background has had an impact on the learning environment in thatstudents were predisposed to explicit instruction in the environment as learning outcomes of the experience. These indicate that theatre productions provided students with multiple learning opportunities, which makes it an appropriate language learning environment.
This article reports the findings of a qualitative study that used narrative analysis to explore the role of embodied learning in the writing processes of creative writers. From a theoretical framework that draws on Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of the body, Gendlin’s concepts of felt sense and focusing, and Jordi’s analysis of reflection for integrating mind and body, this study highlights one participant’s narrative and then discusses primary themes that emerged across narratives. Findings revealed a history of encouragement to write, writing that was used for healing, and an expanded sense of body awareness that encouraged flow in the writing process.
This paper is based on a long-term ethnography of an adult creative writing class situated in a major urban art gallery in the United Kingdom. It takes the claims of one group of older adults—that creative writing made them ‘feel younger’—as the starting point for exploring this connection further. It places these claims broadly within theories of learning in later life that advocate creative expression and reminiscence as important practices for educators of older adults. However, the main analysis employs anthropological theories of creativity and ageing in order to question the cultural assumptions about creativity and the period of older age informing theory and practice. The paper argues that the value of creative writing for the individuals studied lies both in the fact that it is a relational (rather than individual) process and a means of being in the present. These findings contradict traditional conceptions about creativity as future-oriented and older people as retrospective; they also raise questions about narratives of empowerment, individual agency and the importance of ‘reminiscence’ in some of the literature on older adult learning.
This article describes a case study of adult learning in a Canadian multisite Community Cardiovascular Hearts in Motion program. The researcher highlights the informal learning of 40 adult participants in this 12-week community-based cardiac rehabilitation/education program in five rural Nova Scotia communities. The effects of this learning and barriers are examined, along with aspects of program design and facilitation that support learning and transformation. The researcher points to the role of emotion in this transformative learning process, and links are made between individual and collective processes in the transformative learning. Transformative learning theorists and health and adult education practitioners can see in this case study how individual and collective health interests can be incorporated into program planning for the community. © 2013 American Association for Adult and Continuing Education.
This article discusses the relationship between persistence in adult literacy and numeracy programs, changes in the participants’ attitudes to engaging in learning and pedagogic practices using data from eight Scottish literacy education organizations. It argues that literacy learning can act as a resource that enables vulnerable adults to change their dispositions to learning, achieve their goals and make a transition towards their imagined futures. Pedagogic practices that operate from an approach that emphasized learners’ strengths, rather than their deficits, and critically interrogated learners’ experiences used as a resource for learning were the most successful in enabling this transition. Holistic provision that creates a supportive community of practice was found to be the most effective in bringing about the positive changes that learners identified they wished to make in their lives.
Research has extensively documented the employment barriers facing immigrants in Canada. Less attention is paid to the employment strategies that immigrants deploy in the host labour market. To address this gap in the literature, two projects are conducted to examine how immigrant women learn to optimize their labour market outcomes. Both projects employ a combination of life history style interviews and institutional ethnographic analysis. Life history interviews offer women ample space to (re)construct their experiences in relation to the social economic and political contexts. Institutional ethnographic analysis starts with people’s experiences, but aims to explicate the social processes and practices constituting people’s experiences. The studies find that the women often resort to re‐training and re‐education as a means to improve their employment prospects. The women’s educational experiences help articulate them to what I call a credential and certificate regime (CCR), or the social processes and practices that attribute differential values to credentials and certificates produced at different places. I argue that in the era of globalization, CCR helps manage the Canadian labour force with an increasing number of immigrant workers, thereby preserving patriarchal and white supremacist power. The CCR that I explicate is predominantly Canadian centred. It is developed out of gatekeepers’ anxiety towards entrance controlling in various sectors that demand and indeed produce local certificates. The CCR also speaks of a transnational trend of credentialization, which is spearheaded by influential international organizations and companies located in the economic west. Both trends have helped create an expansive training market that is instrumental in feminizing immigrant women’s labour. In this paper, I also show different ways in which the CCR in Canada both services and disservices immigrant women, which makes it imperative to rethink the values and practices of training for immigrant women.
The objective of this study was to assess whether authentic arts-based curricula facilitate the acquisition of English as a second language (ESL) without sacrificing proficiency in the first language (Spanish). This question is examined theoretically and empirically. First, the use of an arts-based curriculum is positioned within a Vygotskian framework of learning. This overview is organized by 2 themes: (a) the authenticity of the art experience and (b) the emphasis on social interaction and the cognitive mediation among sign systems. Applicable findings from related literature are reviewed and synthesized within each of these themes. Second, results from an exploratory study are presented and analyzed. This study compared 2 classes of ESL 5th graders, 1 of which was taught through an arts-based curriculum, whereas the other was taught using traditional ESL methods. Students were pretested and posttested to assess their 1st language (Spanish) skills and their English and reading skills. Although the study is preliminary, the results suggest that an arts-based curriculum provides significant cognitive advantages to ESL students by building on the cognitive strengths inherent in bilingualism. The semiotic richness of the arts echoes the semiotic abundance available to speakers of more than 1 language, nurturing an ability to approach symbolization in a creative, nuanced way. Whereas traditional ESL programs treat students' 1st languages almost as obstacles to learning (because the educational goal is narrowly defined as proficiency in English), an authentic arts-based curriculum allows students to embrace diverse modes of expression with the result that their expressive abilities grow in a global way.
This paper presents the results of an investigation into the value of using drama in a Brazilian university classroom. Drawing on Di Pietro (1987) and Via (1976) on the advantages of using drama in language learning, from Mezirow (1990) and Schön (1991) on the importance of reflection for promoting meaningful learning, and from Donato and McCormick (1994) and Lukinsky (1990) on the effectiveness of portfolios as a tool to promote reflection, the paper presents a case study of the use of drama in an oral skill class, describing the course structure and classroom procedures. It includes learners' voices as taken from their portfolios, and evaluates results, presenting setbacks and possible solutions. Finally, it encourages the use of drama and portfolios for transformative and emancipatory learning.
Aging continues to be an important topic of study. For many older adults, the elder years can be a challenging, if not difficult, time. Creativity interventions have been shown to positively affect mental and physiological health indicators. The process of creating and one's attitude toward life may be more important than the actual product or tangible outcome. While many activities are those typically thought of as creative, such as painting, there are also a number of useful interventions that are not traditionally identified as creative ones, but that are, in fact, creative activities. This paper describes recent work with creativity in older adults, including research and clinical projects, and earlier works that could be refined as creative interventions. Recommendations for further investigation of creativity also are presented.
This special issue of the Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Educationincludes nine articles that each explore arts and community-based research and/or pedagogy and the power of these practices to create opportunities for those living on the margins to find their voices, tell their stories, and to have those experiences be heard by others. While adult educators and researchers oriented to addressing social injustices and inequalities have long been concerned with the matter of voice, in this special issue we include accounts of community and arts-based activities that created conditions for those voices to be heard. There is no possibility for change if there is no audience for these voices. Creative expression in various forms has much to offer practices that are concerned with enabling individuals and groups located on the margins of dominant society to speak and be heard.
Resilience is an area of growing interest within critical gerontology and policy agendas. This book critically reflects on ways in which cultural engagement can develop social connectivity and improve resilience for older people, and how the built environment, community living, cultural participation, lifelong learning, and artist-led interventions can all help people to thrive in older age. The book is a multidisciplinary collection examining how cultural engagement can enhance resilience, reduce social isolation and help older people to thrive and overcome challenging life events and everyday problems associated with ageing.
This study examines English language programs offered at a senior citizen center in a working-class neighborhood in Seoul, Korea. Based on classroom observations and interviews with senior citizens and teachers, the study addresses the functional significance of English for an overlooked aging demographic population and discusses the interplay between language learning and social participation as well as language-related ageism and identity issues. The findings of the study indicate that English language anxiety (Lee, English on Korean television. World Engl 33(1): 33–49, 2014) is also observed among senior citizens. However, unlike young professionals, senior citizens’ language anxiety is more domestically prompted and locally based; the elderly fear that they cannot successfully participate in meaningful communication with their grandchildren or act as informed consumers in Korea these days without some knowledge of English. The teachers in the study identify their main teaching objective as helping senior citizens feel less limited in dealing with the increasing presence of English in contemporary Korea. The study concludes that learning English later in life fulfills positive functions of self-actualization and social participation for senior citizens and enables them to reconstruct and reimagine their vigorous past.
When undertaking teaching as an embodied pedagogy, the teacher understands the body as a site of risk and possibility as well as a site of knowing – of self, of others (empathy) and of the world. This article focuses on research undertaken by the authors in the International Centre for Classroom Research at the University of Melbourne into the pedagogical and creative learning practices associated with an embodied approach to teaching, and draws on a growing body of research undertaken by cognitive scientists investigating the role of the body in thinking, learning and problem-solving (Glenberg 2008), and by drama education researchers into the ways that embodiment can substantially enhance learning (Ewing 2010). The authors contend that researchers have focused principally on the processes and characteristics of embodied learning and have given less attention to the pedagogical practices employed by drama educators as facilitators of embodied learning. This article addresses this gap in the research by examining the role of the drama educator in facilitating the conditions for aesthetic embodied learning experiences in a classroom environment. The authors propose a set of principles of embodied pedagogies for implementation in and beyond the drama classroom.
The chapter discusses Theatre of the Oppressed techniques in Higher Education programmes in relation to fostering transformative learning. Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) is a form of popular and participatory theatre that encourages democratic and cooperative forms of interaction (Boal, Theatre of the oppressed (C. A. McBride and M. O. Leal McBride, Trans.). New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1985). How, and to what extent, does TO enact collective dialogical and reflective practices in Higher Education classrooms? In what ways can TO methods shape and enhance transformative teaching and learning in Higher Education settings? This chapter addresses these questions and reflections on the power of TO summarized through a theoretical overview based on my experience as a practitioner. The second half of the chapter explores the precise and varied impacts of this practice based on empirical research.
Understanding how creative interventions can help develop social connectivity and resilience for older people is vital in developing a holistic cross-sector approach towards ageing well. Academics with a wide range of expertise critically reflect on how the built environment, community living, cultural participation, lifelong learning, and artist-led interventions encourage older people to thrive and overcome both challenging life events and the everyday changes associated with ageing. The book uses a range of approaches, including participatory research methods, to bring the voices of older people themselves to the foreground. It looks at how taking part in creative interventions develops different types of social relationships and fosters resilience.
The difficult times in which we live require innovative, creative, and hopeful pedagogies of adult education. This article describes a nontraditional experiential, “empathy-invoking” approach to the teaching of a graduate course on the theory and research of adult learning. The approach begins with the building of a safe learning community, a familiar “knowledge curriculum,” and a structured syllabus with academic readings, small group discussions, student “theory-to-practice” facilitation of learning activities, and an academic mid-term paper. Both the teacher and students design and lead learning activities which elaborate, “unpack,” and critique readings, and develop students’ capacity for experiential, emotional, spiritual, arts-based, and bodily learning as well as group process, all the while reinforcing trust, deeper relationships, cooperation, and better knowledge of each others’ lives, personalities, capabilities, and identities. The class culminates in creative presentations where learners transform the classroom into “living history museums” representing the sites of adult learning they have investigated in field research. Visitors to living history museums engage in a rich array of informal adult learning; they gain new knowledge, participate in hands-on learning and role playing, and at times even experience transformative learning. In this class, the museum and its learning opportunities come into the classroom, and are created by learners themselves.
This paper seeks to understand the engagement of people with dementia in creative and arts-based activities by applying a relational model of citizenship and incorporating concepts of contextual and embodied learning from adult learning theory. A theoretically driven secondary analysis of observational and interview data focuses on the engagement of staff, volunteers and people with dementia during an arts-based intervention in a day centre and care home. The processes through which learning is co-constructed between the person with dementia, staff/volunteer facilitators and peers in the group to co-produce a creative engaged experience involves: increasing confidence for learning, facilitating social and physical connections, and affirming creative self-expression. The role of facilitator is central to the process of creative engagement to reinforce a sense of agency amongst participants and recognise people's prior experiences of learning and engagement in creative activities. People with dementia continue to learn and grow through engagement in creative activities to produce positive outcomes for the individual participants and for the care staff who observe and participate in this creativity. Facilitating creativity requires attention to lifelong experiences of learning in addition to the immediate interactional context to integrate arts-based interventions in dementia care successfully.
This article describes the process of using an ethnodrama while working with older adults learning English as an additional language. By examining a 4-month-long period of Seniors Drama Club, created to offer theatre-based language learning experiences for Vancouver's immigrant senior population, the authors draw attention to the complex learning that occurs at the intersection of drama education and additional language learning. The aim of the article is twofold. First, the authors show the benefits of using adaptable and “living” texts—such as an ethnodrama—in language teaching. Second, the authors argue that framing of language learning as a collaborative theatre project empowers learners to take agency of their language learning and future use. In conclusion, the authors elaborate on some of the promising practices developed as the outcome of this community-based project.
This chapter explores how working with the genre of fashion shows and using fabric are two important additions to the various genres employed in visual arts–based practice. These genres are particularly attuned to feminist approaches to popular education, research, and teaching, enabling embodied knowing and the expression of imagination and emotions.
Purpose of the Study
Although a number of existing reviews document the health and social benefits of arts participation by older people, there are none which focus specifically on theater and drama. This article presents the findings of a study conducted as part of the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council “Cultural Value Project.” The 2-year (2013–2015) “Cultural Value Project” sought to make a major contribution to how we think about the value of arts and culture to individuals and to society. It made 72 awards: 19 critical reviews of existing bodies of research, 46 research development awards to carry out new research, and 7 expert workshop awards to facilitate discussions among academics and practitioners. Together, these awards explored the components of cultural value and the ways in which cultural value is evidenced and evaluated.
Design and Methods
Following an extensive search of academic databases and E-mail requests via relevant organizations and networks, 77 publications formed the basis for our own critical review.
Results
Our findings highlight the benefits and value of older people’s theater and drama participation on health and well-being, group relationships, learning and creativity, and draw attention to the importance of the esthetic value and quality of older people’s drama.
Implications
Despite the recent surge of interest in this field (a third of the reviewed literature was published between 2010 and 2014), we suggest that there are multiple areas for further research.
From the time of its inception in Canada, multiculturalism has generated varied reactions, none more starkly than between French and English Canadians. In this groundbreaking new work, Eve Haque examines the Government of Canada's attempt to forge a national policy of unity based on ’multiculturalism within a bilingual framework,‘ a formulation that emerged out of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism (1963-70). Uncovering how the policies of bilingualism and multiculturalism are inextricably linked, Haque investigates the ways in which they operate together as part of our contemporary national narrative to favour the language and culture of Canada's two ’founding nations‘ at the expense of other groups. Haque uses previously overlooked archival material, including transcripts of royal commission hearings, memos, and reports, to reveal the conflicts underlying the emergence of this ostensibly seamless policy. By integrating two important areas of scholarly concern – the evolution and articulation of language rights in Canada, and the history of multiculturalism in the country – Haque provides powerful insight into ongoing asymmetries between Canada's various cultural and linguistic groups.
Setting the Stage for Social Justice presents effective and replicable methodology for collaboratively developed activist theatre. In this collection of essays, educators and practitioners address social justice issues and tackle political, ethical, psychological, legal, and aesthetic concerns through new play construction.
L'A. met en evidence l'usage qui peut etre fait de diverses formes d'art pour amener les enfants a reflechir sur les objets representes ou evoques; l'education artistique ouvre des perspectives sur tout le champ du reel; il ne reste a l'enseignant qu'a la considerer comme moteur d'une epistemologie capable de faire de ces perspectives des perspectives pedagogiques
This article deals with the following issue: Should senior adult education and teacher training for the elderly be a matter for GERONTOLOGY or a matter for a component of education, namely GERONTAGOGY? Katz claims that gerontology is a multidisciplinary science having no disciplinary object of its own. Peterson and Glendenning have proposed the term Educational Gerontology to refer to the educational intervention for the elderly. However, this concept links education to aging rather than to the elderly in a teach/learn situation. To get out of this dead end, Lemieux et Sanchez propose the concept of Gerontagogy located within a competential model of education positioned after pedagogy and andragogy. The authors finish the article with a description of the different types of programs which exist in Gerontagogy. Finally, in order to know the essential parameters to elaborate a university curriculum in gerontagogy and to develop research in gerontagogy, the reader should refer to two articles already published in Educational Gerontology, namely: The University of the Third Age: Role of Senior Citizens, Educational Gerontology: 21, 337 344, 1996; Essential learning contents in the Curriculum for a Certificate degree in personalized Education for older adults, Educational Gerontology: 23, 143 150, 1997.
The ageing population presents significant challenges for the provision of social and health services. Strategies are needed to enable older people to cope within a society ill prepared for the impacts of these demographic changes. The ability to be creative may be one such strategy. This review outlines the relevant literature and examines current public health policy related to creativity in old age with the aim of highlighting some important issues. As well as looking at the benefits and negative aspects of creative activity in later life they are considered in the context of the theory of “successful ageing”.
Creative activity plays an important role in the lives of older people promoting social interaction, providing cognitive stimulation and giving a sense of self-worth. Furthermore, it is shown to be useful as a tool in the multi-disciplinary treatment of health problems common in later life such as depression and dementia. There are a number of initiatives to encourage older people to participate in creative activities such as arts-based projects which may range from visual arts to dance to music to intergenerational initiatives. However, participation shows geographical variation and often the responsibility of provision falls to voluntary organisations.
Overall, the literature presented suggests that creative activity could be a useful tool for individuals and society. However, further research is needed to establish the key factors which contribute to patterns of improved health and well-being, as well as to explore ways to improve access to services.
Using Kegan’s constructive-developmental theory, this study examines transformative learning among six low-income and homeless women of Color pursuing their GED in a shelter-based literacy program. Narrative analysis of two developmental interview instruments indicated that some participants’ epistemological perspectives and knowledge construction became more complex over time. Some participants also applied transformative learning to other aspects of their lives. The study suggests that groups often regarded as marginalized by race, class, and gender may experience growth in epistemological complexity in environments where transformative learning goals are purposefully supported.
This article presents empirical research exploring adult students' transition to higher education (HE) through a program designed to enable that transition. Wenger's Communities of Practice theory has been applied to informal adult learning by Merriam, Courtenay, and Baumgartner (2003), who suggested its potential for understanding formal education. Using this theoretical framework, adults' transition to HE is explored in terms of learning, participation in practices, and identity. Students were interviewed, and qualitative data analysis revealed that although they perceived themselves to be peripheral participants in the community, university regulations, and academic procedures sometimes undermined their feelings of legitimacy. Their experiences of the community's practices were mediated by individual, shifting identities and a sense of belonging. Their experiences are discussed in terms of the power of practice to include or exclude, and the concomitant identity shifts which may lead to fuller participation. Implications for the design of transitional programs are also discussed.
Situated learning theory understands learning to be a sociocultural activity, and individuals experience identity development as they participate in communities of practice. The purpose of this study was to understand how Korean older adults’ computer learning in a classroom is a situated activity and how this learning influences older adults’ identities. Eleven sessions of an intermediate course for older adults were observed, and 10 older computer learners were interviewed. This study revealed that social interactions, learning tools, the physical setting, and Korean culture were embedded in the course and shaped the learning processes. This study also found that the participants’ learning in the community of practice in the classroom as well as the larger community of general computer users influenced their identity.
Contrary to conventional wisdom about the nature and purpose of education in later life, education for older adults should relate to their gaining power over their lives, to retraining, self-fulfillment, and empowerment. Critical educational gerontology should be based on concepts of emancipation, transformation, and conscientization. (SK)
This article seeks to understand the role of drama pedagogy in second/additional language learning with data drawn from a school-based ethnographic study of English language learners taking a drama-English as a Second Language (ESL) course. Being aware that all drama teaching does not automatically lead into improvement in language learning, it carefully explores the experiences of a group of English language learners taking a mandatory drama-ESL class after having passed a proficiency exam. Drawing from her data and from theoretical work in drama education, second language education and postcolonial discourse, the author proceeds to examine two aspects of multiliteracies pedagogy: situated practice and multimodality. One key finding is that, despite initial resistance from the majority of the English language learners about taking this mandatory class, the drama pedagogy used in this classroom drew on students’ personal and cultural experiences in the creation of identity texts and thereby provided room for a situated practice as well as multimodal representations of meaning. This process of creating performance-based identity texts, the author argues, cognitively engaged students, provided room for identity investment and, therefore, despite initial challenges, helped many students with their linguistic and social performances.
This paper presents, analyses and interprets expressions of the experience of advanced old age based upon the concepts of the French phenomenologist, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and the German philosopher, Martin Heidegger. During 1990, 262 older residents of the city of Jyväskylä in central Finland were interviewed. They were born in 1910 and aged 80 years at the time. In addition to collecting epidemiological data, the narrative stories on the ageing experience of a sub-sample of 20 respondents (10 men and 10 women) were tape-recorded. A five-year follow-up was carried out with the same cohort in 1995, when 17 of the original sub-sample of 20 were still alive. Unlike five years previously, most of the narrators said they had now crossed the line into old age. At the ten-year follow-up in 2000, six women and four men were still alive to describe their experience at 90 years of age. Collective history and objective structures had provided a common foundation for my narrators' notions of the world – of right and wrong and of good and bad. Over their lifetime, this socio-cultural background had gradually changed, and they perceived the changes. Moreover, in the earlier stages of the study, they voiced criticisms of these changes. At age 90 years, however, they no longer criticised society or its people. By this time, it seems they felt they had completed the mission of living a life.
The arts engage our senses, provoking strong, affective responses for both the creator and the witness of art. Our emotions can provide a catalyst for informal adult learning beyond traditional, cognitive ways of knowing.
This study examined the meanings older people attached to successful aging and its relationship to creative activity. Thirty-six contributors to a senior art exhibition participated in this study and ranged in age from 60–93. Interviews with participants explored their understandings of successful aging and creativity, the factors viewed as necessary for each, and the benefits of creative activity and its relationship to successful aging. Qualitative data were coded by two independent reviewers. Content analysis confirmed six features of successful aging: a sense of purpose, interactions with others, personal growth, self-acceptance, autonomy, and health. The findings indicate that creative activity contributes to successful aging by fostering a sense of competence, purpose, and growth. Artistic creativity also facilitates successful aging by encouraging the development of problem-solving skills, motivation, and perceptions that translate into a practical creativity in the way these individuals manage their everyday lives.
The purpose of this mixed methods study was to evaluate the effect of participation in the “Seasoned Arts At the Samford for You” (SAASY) programme, which included a 6-week acting class and four public performances, on the psychological well-being and health-related quality of life of older adults. Twelve older adults with chronic conditions from a low-income senior apartment and a senior living community participated in the programme. The acting class, led by two professional artists, met for a 2-hour class weekly for six weeks. Participants completed the General Well-being Schedule (GWBS) and the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) both at the beginning of the programme and one month after the programme ended. In addition, participants were individually interviewed to explore the perceived impact of the theatre programme on their well-being. Participants reported a significantly higher score in the GWBS and on the physical but not on the mental component summary of the SF-36 at post-SAASY programme. Content analysis of the interview transcripts revealed that participants attained an improved sense of self-worth and self-advocacy and overcame self-imposed limitations. Results showed improvement in psychological well-being and health-related quality of life, most notably in the physical health component of SF-36 after participating in the programme. Practice implications for occupational therapists using drama as a creative leisure occupation to promote health among older adults with chronic conditions may involve analysis of participants' occupational profile, identification of deficit areas and adaptation of the acting programme content to meet specific needs and goals.
University of British Columbia
- M Peterson
Doctoral dissertation. University of British Columbia
- N Balyasnikova
The contribution of immigration to the size and ethnocultural diversity of future cohorts of seniors. (Catalogue no. 75-006-X)
- Y Carrière
- L Martel
- J Légaré
- J F Picard
Carri ere Y., Martel, L., L egar e, J., & Picard, J.-F. (2016). The contribution of immigration to
the size and ethnocultural diversity of future cohorts of seniors. (Catalogue no. 75-006-X).
Available from: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/75-006-x/2016001/article/14345-eng.
pdf?st=CCGacy2Y
- Clover D. E.
- Goulding A.
Seniors Thrive evaluation progress report
- Ubc Learning Exchange
- Winston J.
I Love to Write My Story": storytelling and its role in seniors' language. Canadian journal for the study of adult education
- N Balyasnikova
- S Gillard
Balyasnikova, N., and Gillard, S., 2018. "I Love to Write My Story": storytelling and its role in
seniors' language. Canadian journal for the study of adult education, 30 (2), 81-90.
Exchanging stories: a narrative ethnography of immigrant seniors' English language learning experiences. Doctoral dissertation
- N Balyasnikova
Balyasnikova, N., (2019). Exchanging stories: a narrative ethnography of immigrant seniors'
English language learning experiences. Doctoral dissertation. University of British Columbia.