Uczenie się „stawania się” osobą starą
Learning to "become" an old person

Author(s): Marcin Muszyński
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Education, Pedagogy
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: starość; personalizacja miejsca; trajektorie uczenia się; badanie jakościowe; cielesność; aktywność; relacje społeczne
Summary/Abstract: The research problem focuses on understanding how individuals learn to become older persons, how such self-identification is constructed at the individual level, what it means to be an older adult, and what image of old age emerges from the narratives of the researched participants. Social constructionism served as the epistemological basis for the research, while social interactionism and the biographical approach were the main theoretical orientations. Efforts were also made to present the empirical data within much broader structures, constituting macroscopic approaches to late adulthood and referring to the specialized gerontological knowledge. Narrative and semi-structured interview techniques, photowalk techniques, and qualitative observation were used for data collection. The research was conducted between 2017 and 2022 in Lodz and selected villages in the Lodz Voivodship. A total of 43 interviews were conducted, including 22 narrative and 21 semi-structured interviews. Forty-three narrators participated in the study. As a result of the conducted research, four agency areas were identified, representing various manifestations of human agency. The analysis also distinguished the internal and external dimensions of experiencing one's old age. All these elements were used to create a model of learning to become an older adult based on strictly defined assumptions derived directly or indirectly from the obtained empirical data. This learning is considered statically and dynamically, indicating the multiplicity of typical scenarios of old person identification.

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