Growing old gracefully: social dance in the third age

2002 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 689-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
LESLEY COOPER ◽  
HELEN THOMAS

This paper examines the meaning of social dancing for older people. It is based on a one-year qualitative research project, which is seeking to explore the experiences of social dance for people aged 60 years or more who attend various dance events in Essex and south-east London. The findings suggest that the social dance experience is not only or simply a beneficial physical experience for older people, it also bestows other significant benefits for those who enter the third age and beyond. It can provide continuity within change. It offers an opportunity to be sociable and have fun in ways that both reflect, and avowedly move beyond, the dancers' teenage years. It promotes a welcome sense of a community spirit. It is a way of becoming visible and aesthetically pleasing, and it bestows a sense of worth and achievement in skills learnt through dancing. Last but not least, dancers can experience the joy of a fit and able body in both real and mythic senses.

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 264
Author(s):  
Dina Silvia ◽  
Zulfadhli Zulfadhli

This research aimed to (a) describe the structure of folklore legend of Syekh Katik Sangko in Pasir Subdistrict, central Pariaman District, Pariaman City. (b) describe the social function of folklore legend of Sheikh Katik Sangko in Pasir Village, Central Pariaman District, Pariaman City. The type of this research is qualitative research with descriptive methods. The data analysis technique was carried out through four steps. The first step was to carried out data inventory. The second was the data classification or analysis phase. The third step was a discussion and conclusion of the results of classification or data analysis. The last was reporting the research as thesis. The results of this study were found that in the folklore legend of Syekh Katik Sangko in Pasir Subdistrict, central Pariaman District, Pariaman City has 10 figures. The theme in this story is the spreading of Islam in Pariaman. Social functions found are means of education, inheritance and identity. Keywords: structure, social function, folklore


2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (8) ◽  
pp. 1681-1702 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRIS GILLEARD ◽  
PAUL HIGGS

ABSTRACTThis paper concerns the social divisions of later life. Although research in this field has focused on class, gender and, more recently, sexuality as sources of division in later life, the division between the fit and the frail has tended to be ignored or viewed as an outcome of these other divisions. This paper challenges this assumption, arguing that corporeality constitutes a major social division in later life. This in many ways prefigures a return to the 19th-century categorisation of those ‘impotent through age’, whose position was among the most abject in society. Their ‘impotence’ was framed by an inability to engage in paid labour. Improved living standards during and after working life saw age's impotence fade in significance and in the immediate post-war era, social concern turned towards the relative poverty of pensioners. Subsequent demographic ageing and the expanding cultures of the third age have undermined the homogeneity of retirement. Frailty has become a major source of social division, separating those who are merely older from those who are too old. This division excludes the ‘unsuccessfully’ aged from utilising the widening range of material and social goods that characterise the third age. It is this social divide rather than those of past occupation or income that is becoming a more salient line of fracture in later life.


Author(s):  
Larisa Lezhnina ◽  
Natalia Morova ◽  
Svetlana Domracheva

The article is devoted to the urgent problem of finding ways of social integration of senior citizens  to the conditions of the rapidly changing society. The main idea is to use the resources of life-long education for providing retired people  with the conditions to obtain information about the world on a systematic basis. The subject of the research are the form and the content of senior citizens’ lifelong education that is aimed at preserving their active life style and enriching their intrapersonal potential. The article gives the social-pedagogical model of lifelong uducation of elderly people that corresponds to their needs, and describes  the author's conceptual basis (openness of education, voluntariness, focus on the learners’ needs) and the content of the model (giving knowledge, developing skills, interaction and self-development training). The methods of the research are modeling and pedagogical natural experiment. The five-year experience of implementing the model of senior citizens’ lifelong education in the form of  "University of the Third Age" allows the authors to conclude that it is effective. In the students’ opinion, the educational programs of "University of the Third Age" meet their cognitive needs, provide their social integration, help them to maintain active life style, increase their satisfaction with the quality of their life. Thus, higher educational institutions can and should become the place where senior citizens can get education and training. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (10) ◽  
pp. 59-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. A. Ambarova ◽  
G. E. Zborovsky

Introduction. According to the concept of lifelong learning, vocational education system should cover all age categories of working population, including people of the so-called “silver age” (people of the third age). However, in reality, the proportion of citizens over 45 years involved in continuing vocational training is very small, as the current system does not meet their specific needs. Meanwhile, for many representatives of this social community, the continuation of education, the renewal of knowledge, the acquisition of new qualifications or specialties are now becoming a chance to promote an individual’s employability over a lifetime in a rapidly changing labour market and an unstable “life market”. The aim of the article is to identify the opportunities and barriers to the inclusion of “silver age” people in the practice of vocational education, taking into account the positions of all key actors – the senior generation of Russians, the state, employers and educational organisations.Methodology and research methods. The work was based on the methodological framework of three theories: continuous education, third age, social community. The empirical material was collected through the following methods: the analysis of educational and demographic statistics (2015–2018); the analysis of the content of recruitment agencies’ websites and media publications devoted to the problems of the “silver” labour market; the secondary analysis of sociological data; the survey ofSverdlovsk region residents aged over 45 years old in February – March 2019.Results and scientific novelty. The structure and a number of qualitative characteristics of Russians of the elder generation are clarified. The authors give the definition of the concept of social community of “silver age” people (“third age” people), including the group of pre-pensioners. A new interpretation of this category of citizens allowed the authors to reevaluate the old options and to identify the new options for vocational training for “silver age” people. The problems and trends revealed in the course of the survey in this professional training niche of a particular Russian region were focused on the all-Russian situation. Critical differences between the requests for “silver” vocational education from older people, state, educational organisations and employers are identified. The contradictions and necessity of purposeful formation of educational needs and strategies of people of the “third age” are demonstrated. The state and prospects of development of various types and forms of “silver” professional education are described; the conditions of its transformation into a resource of active ageing are formulated.Practical significance. The urgency and relevance of adjusting the content and specific tasks of educational policy of the state aimed at the older generation of citizens have been scientifically proved. It is planned to create and improve training programmes for older people, implemented by various educational structures. Such programmes and research findings can serve as a basis for developing human resources strategies for older people both in government and commercial organisations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (17) ◽  
pp. 3862 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mateusz Cybulski ◽  
Urszula Cwalina ◽  
Dorota Sadowska ◽  
Elżbieta Krajewska-Kułak

Introduction: Fear of infection with SARS-CoV-2 has become widespread. All over the world, since the very beginning of the pandemic, older adults have been considered one of the groups at highest risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and death due to COVID-19. The aim of the study was to evaluate the severity of anxiety symptoms related to COVID-19 in the older adults who are participants of the Universities of the Third Age in Poland. Material and methods: The study included participants of the University of the Third Age in Poland. A total of 296 persons were enrolled, including 258 women and 38 men. The study was a diagnostic survey, conducted with the use of the following validated psychometric scales: General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI), and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Results: In two scales (STAI and SHAI), the mean scores demonstrated mild symptoms indicative of anxiety disorders in the older respondents. Women and men did differ significantly in terms of the scores obtained in STAI X-1 and STAI X-2. Single respondents differed significantly from divorced ones in terms of STAI X-1 scores. Moreover, widows/widowers differed significantly from divorced ones in terms of STAI X-2, and GAD-7 scores. Respondents declaring their financial status as average differed significantly from those declaring their financial status as good in terms of: STAI X-1, STAI X-2, SHAI, and GAD-7 scores. Conclusions: The subjective experience of anxiety symptoms associated with fear of contracting COVID-19 was increased due to the ongoing pandemic, but was not significantly high in the analysed population of older people. COVID-19-related anxiety was significantly more common in lonely individuals and in those of worse financial status. Women and men differed significantly in terms of perceived state anxiety and trait anxiety measured by STAI. More studies addressing COVID-19-related anxiety in older people participating in the Polish Universities of the Third Age are needed to determine a more accurate distribution of this phenomenon in Poland.


Author(s):  
Silvio Silva Júnior

Among the debates surrounding the area of Applied Linguistics studies, I am interested in this work, those that focus on the reflective and alterative character in qualitative research. I seek to discuss the subject's otherness movements in research actions in Applied Linguistics. From a theoretical-practical perspective, I present the alterity movements that surrounded a research based on the initial research project and the master's dissertation in its final version. The study showed that the linguist's autonomy applied in his practices reveals some movements of otherness, such as: the subject's otherness with the social situation, the subject's otherness with the context and the subject's otherness with the data.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-27
Author(s):  
Khrystyna Kachmaryk ◽  
Sophia Grabovska ◽  
Kateryna Ostrovska ◽  
Viktor Syniev

The aim of the study. The aim of the paper is a comparison of tolerance to uncertainty in two groups of elderly: the students of the University of the Third Age (UTA) and older people who are not enrolled but help to educate grandchildren. A relation to uncertainty was shown to infl uence on decision making strategy of elderly that indicates on importance of the researches. Methods. To obtain the objectives of the paper the following methods were used: 1) Personal change readiness survey (PCRS) adapted by Nickolay Bazhanov and Galina Bardiyer; 2) Tolerance Ambiguity Scale (TAS) adapted by Galina Soldatova; 3) Freiburg personality inventory (FPI) and 4) The questionnaire of self-relation by Vladimir Stolin and Sergej Panteleev. 40 socially involved elderly people were investigated according the above methods, 20 from UTA and 20 who are not studied and served as control group. Results. It was shown that relations of tolerance to uncertainty in the study group of students of the University of the Third Age substantially differ from relations of tolerance to uncertainty in group of older people who do not learn. The majority of students of the University of the Third Age have an inherent low tolerance for uncertainty, which is associated with an increase in expression personality traits and characteristics in self-relation. The group of the elderly who are not enrolled increasingly shows tolerance of uncertainty, focusing on  the social and trusting relationship to meet the needs of communication, and the ability to manage their own emotions and desires than a group of Third Age university students. Conclusions. The results of experimental research of the third age university student’s peculiarities of the tolerance to uncertainty were outlined. It was found that decision making in the ambiguity situations concerning social interaction is well developed in elderly who do not study. The students of the University of Third Age have greater needs in conversation, social interaction than the control group and should learn to make decisionin ambiguity or uncertainty situations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-80
Author(s):  
Ali Sati ◽  
Anhar Anhar

The purpose of this study is to find out how the community's response is toward the study program of Al-Qur'an and Tafsir at IAIN Padangsidimpuan. This research is a qualitative research which in collecting data it uses a phenomenological approach. Data collected is based on inner perspective of human behavior. The main data sources of this study were from Muslim community leaders and were selected by purposive sampling domiciled in Padangsidimpuan. The results found that the community emphasized that the vision, mission and objectives of the development of the Study Program of Al-Qur'an and Tafsir were truly directed towards strengthening scientific and methodological competence in understanding and interpreting the Qur'an. According to the community, the urgent curriculum content was, first, the linguistics of the Qur'an. The second is the sciences concerned the intricacies and various aspects of the Qur'an, which is commonly called ‘ulum al-Qur`an. The third is about the sciences related to the interpretation of manhaj (an approach and methodology of interpretation) that is classical, modern and contemporary. The fourth is the sciences related to the intricacies and various aspects of the hadits which are commonly called ‘ulum al-hadits. The fifth is the sciences related to the philosophy of science and research methodology. The sixth is the sciences related to social science and nature. These aspects are useful for understanding the social and scientific aspects of the verses of the Qur'an.


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