Our next Open Research Forum will be led by Dr Jane Watts who will be talk on ‘Restor(y)ing Retirement course – new approaches to learning for Transitions in Later Life’.
As Jane explains: ‘The Restor(y)ing Retirement pilot project explores the deliberate use of narrative as an educational tool in later life learning. The talk will use a narrative approach to bring alignment between the methodology of the pilot and its evaluation. Situated in the theory of story-telling within research, the talk will examine the individual stories to extract common themes alongside the individual insights.
In addition to looking at the effectiveness of the approach and methodology, this talk offers an analysis of some of these personal stories, to examine the educational needs of people making later life transitions and how we make sense of such transitions. The talk will reflect on some of the potential contradictions posed by concepts such as ‘positive ageing’, learning, identity, agency and an individual’s responsibility for their wellbeing, which are assumed in the thinking behind the Transitions in Later Life programme interventions.
The talk offers some lessons and recommendations for re-thinking retirement education based on the experience of the pilot project.’
About Jane
Jane Watts, PhD, works on a range of projects, research and development across the lifelong learning sector, focusing particularly on areas of inclusion including refugees, migrant workers, older learners, later life learning and employability issues. Although in theory ‘semi-retired’, she is self employed – carrying out research and development, evaluation and facilitation in the lifelong learning sector. She is a Senior Research Fellow – Learning and Work Institute (LWI, formerly NIACE) and an Associate of the Centre for Policy on Ageing (CPA). In addition to the LWI and CPA, she is currently carrying out work for the Universities of Warwick and Derby, and for Age UK.
Jane is an active member of ESREA’s working group on Education and Learning of Older Adults and the Association of Education and Ageing.
When and where
The talk will take place on 8 January 2019 in the Satta Hashem Hall in the Adult Education College on Belvoir Street. Tea and cake will be available from 5.45. The talk will start at 6.15.
To book your free ticket please email contact@vaughan.coop or book via Eventbrite.