The 'third age' perspective : enrichment and informal modes of learning in an outdoor sketching group for older adults

James, Fiona

Abstract

The proposed benefits of participatory arts for older adults continue to attract empirical attention, but how informal group participation aids personal enrichment is not yet fully understood. This qualitative case study of a University of the Third Age ‘outdoor sketching group’ explores the meanings its members attach to art-making in retirement and how this informal context supports their preferred modes of learning. Hermeneutic interviews with six members elicited their personal framings of what it means to pursue sketching. Participant observations of group activities and learning interactions therein afforded insights into how this group meets the needs of its members. The emergent theme from interviews, ‘cultivating dispositions’, represents what they consider to be a central endeavour in retirement. It reflects the judicious selecting and shedding of activities depending on whether they are deemed conducive to personal enrichment. Members hone and nurture dispositions they perceive as befitting the way they wish to pursue art-making. The group’s egalitarian ethos, whereby expertise is distributed among the group rather than attached to an instructor, is valued. Within peer dialogue, ways of enmeshing oneself with certain artistic orientations are exchanged. These serve as one of various communal resources members utilise to cultivate their own desired dispositions.

Citation

James, F. (2017). The 'third age' perspective : enrichment and informal modes of learning in an outdoor sketching group for older adults. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 36(4), 406-421. https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370.2016.1262915

• Acceptance Date: Nov 1, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Dec 14, 2016
• Publication Date: Jul 4, 2017
• Deposit Date: Nov 4, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 15, 2018
• Journal: International journal of lifelong education
• Print ISSN: 0260-1370
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 36
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 406-421
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370.2016.1262915
• Keywords: Retirement, Interpretive, Informal learning, Tacit
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/444950
• Publisher URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02601370.2016.1262915
• Additional Information: Peer Review Statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope.; Aim & Scope: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=tled20
• Contract Date: Nov 4, 2016