Foreword
As the Chinese society is accelerating towards an aging society, the increasing number of the elderly is gaining prevailing attention. Elderly learning has also emerged as a part of research within the field of lifelong education. The construction of learning cities by the Chinese government has led to an establishment of a wide learning network. This allows further learning opportunities for the seniors. This book aims to explore the specific learning situation of the elderly, focusing on learning activities within their lives.The methodology of qualitative case study was used by conducting interviews with elderly learners in community shools in Changning District of Shanghai. Focusing on the narratives of 14 participants describing their daily learning activities, elderly learning and elderly lives were analyzed. Main participants were retired elderly, participating in learning activities. Their lives before and after retirement, learning needs, external conditions on learning, processes of participating in learning, and the changes in their lives were analyzed. Moreover, in order to fully grasp the elderly learning phenomenon in the community schools, perceptions of administrators working in government departments and community schools were considered as well.
This book depicted the vivid reality of elderly learning and lives in China, analyzed elderly lives in four dimensions, and drew interrelationship between elderly learning and lives in the specific cultural and institutional context of a Chinese learning city. Elderly learning is triggered from their lives, and it dissolves into their lives as a constituent. As the elderly engage in learning activities, their lives face changes. New aspects recurrently require further learning, building the continuum of learning activities. Learning forms a continuum, but is not a fixed structure in itself. It consistently moves ahead in a circulating structure. Since this does not have a fixed period of circulation, the relationship between elderly learning and elderly lives seems to halt standstill, or even reverse itself. Yet, the relationship eventually appears as an ascending spiral, in a process of development and new advancements. In the Chinese learning cities of Shanghai, the ascending spiral structure not only drives changes in elderly lives and learning, but also influences community culture and socio-institutional aspects on elderly care.
This book analyzed the ascending spiral relationship of elderly learning and lives in four dimensions of corporeal (physical), mental, familial, and social lives. These dimensions particularly deal with interrelationship between learning and lives of the elderly. The four dimensions of elderly learning and lives show that learning activities in community schools draw changes of the elderly toward social beings, as well as influencing the culture and institutional aspects of the community. Cultural aspects include changes in perceptions toward learning participation, expanding recognitions of the community, and vitalization of activities associated with learning. In institutional aspects, it also suggests a new approach to elderly care services, different from traditional services provided by families and social institutions.
This book analyzed and explicated elderly learning in the perspective of lifelong learning. It shed lights on the influences and meaning of lifelong learning on the lives of the elderly in China. In general, the younger generations face a consistent need to learn in a rapidly changing society. In contrast, however, some people think that retired elderly, moving far away from society, do not have the need to continue learning. This study aims to show the meaning of lifelong learning attached to the lives of the elderly, through analyzing the interrelationship between elderly learning and elderly lives in the Chinese context.
