1. Learning for life: Lifelong learning and older women

2. Learning for life … Dr Sue Jackson
Director of Birkbeck Institute for Lifelong Learning
Senior Lecturer in Lifelong Learning and Citizenship
Head of School of Continuing Education
Birkbeck, University of London
London, UK

3. Outline: About BILL Background to the research
Learning for older women
The women in the research
Pedagogies of informal learning
Learning citizenship
Moving on

4. The research of the Institute is located in four main areas of research, and pedagogies of lifelong learning form part of each of these areas:
citizenship, community development and community-based learning
lifelong learning and the lifecourse
social justice, equality and diversity
in-situ and ex-situ interpretation and learning (for example museums and heritage sites)

5. BILL aims to: develop and sustain research into lifelong learning
provide a research base for academics, policy makers and practitioners working in lifelong learning
promote research excellence
develop collaborative research work with individuals, research centres and other institutions
publish and disseminate results of research activities to academics and policy makers
provide programmes of seminars, colloquia and conferences to develop scholarly exchange.

6. Themes:
2005/6: Pedagogies of Practice –
Researching part-time adult learners
Researching informal learning
Researching workbased learning
Researching active citizenship
2006/7: Innovations in Lifelong Learning

7. Lifelong learning and older women

8. Key issues 1 In 30 years time, half the population will be over 50
Two out of three of those aged 50 or over left school at 15 or earlier
This is especially true for women, working-class people and minority ethnic groups
Urban / rural divide
Lifelong learning is essential for older women
The less you have had the less you are likely to have
‘If at first you don’t succeed, you don’t succeed’

9. Key issues 2 Women are less likely than men to:
have received workplace learning
received an apprenticeship
hold educational qualifications
have an occupational pension

10. Key issues 3 Women are more likely than men to be poor live alone
live longer

11. Economic and social benefits of LLL for older learners
People who engage in lifelong learning are more likely to:
- be active citizens
- engage in volunteering
- enjoy better intergenerational relationships
- enjoy better social networks
- enjoy better physical health
- enjoy better mental wellbeing
Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning:

12. Background to the research

13. National Federation of Women’s Institutes
The National Federation of Women's Institutes (NFWI) is the largest organisation for women in the UK with 215,000 members in England, Wales and the Islands.

14. Mission
The WI exists to educate women to enable them to provide an effective role in the community, to expand their horizons and to develop and pass on important skills.

15. Denman College

16. The 5 Federations in the project:
The largest Federation, with 248 institutes and 9500 members. It covers a large geographical area from the industrial south east to the rural villages of the region.
Large geographical area, sparsely populated and mainly consisting of rural farmlands and market towns. It has a total of 101 institutes.
The smallest Federation, with 33 institutes. It covers a largely urban area, including institutes in socially and ethnically diverse communities in on the outskirts of a large city.
With its headquarters in a city centre, and also including socially and ethnically diverse communities, the fourth Federation has 45 institutes in industrial towns as well as in a range of villages.
The fifth Federation has 95 institutes with 4000 members. It covers a diverse geographical area, from a major city to the Welsh valleys.

17. Who are the Women?

18. Age of WI members across the 5 Case study Federations (Provide update)

19. Activities taking place
Monthly WI meetings
Invited speakers
Practical demonstrations
WI Walks
WI Visits
Denman College
Campaigns

20. Informal learning: For enjoyment and friendship!

21. Benefits of lifelong learning at times of transition
‘After the death of my husband I don’t know where I would be if it hadn’t been for the support from the WI’
‘when you are newly widowed … you feel certainly vulnerable’. (The WI is) ‘a good thing and it is a good place to start doing things’
‘(A new member) ‘has been widowed within the previous year and it is the first time she has gone anywhere without her husband … ‘

22. Increasing Confidence
‘I feel safe here … It’s a safe place to come on one’s own’
‘I would come on my own, I feel very comfortable, because once you get here you are not feeling alone at all’.
‘It’s a non-threatening situation’
‘We have had members here (who had) never been away from home on their own before’.
‘It’s so confidence building …’.
‘This is an enormous place for building your confidence in lots of ways’.

23. “I’m suddenly somebody”
“I was now the President
and on my first day out
in the village…. ‘Hello Vera’;
‘How are you Vera?’;
‘Nice to see you Vera’
– Suddenly I was somebody!”

24. Benefits of lifelong learning:
“Better health and keeping active”
“Being seen as a valuable member of society”
“Enjoyment”

25. Human capital
Developing the skills to survive into (gendered) older age …?
Skills for retirement, financial benefit and healthy living

26. Learning citizenship:
‘I mean you wouldn’t think two weekend courses on public speaking - now you cannot shut me up’’
‘I did, I got there – I am a chairman of my parish council’
‘I was president of my WI, I was chairman of the parish council, that was fine, but then I became treasurer and I became chief executive …’
‘I am vice-chairman of the parish council … that’s where the WI led me’.

27. Learning citizenship:
‘I mean every WI does something for the community even if it’s just a few people going in to help in a primary school – they get involved in all sort of things. They are great volunteers which is great – the community keeps them young and their minds active and there is also – I think there is a big emphasis now on health as well and I think that a lot of our members would be very pro - what’s the thing going on at the moment – “walking your way to health”? - I think you will find a lot of women getting involved in that within their WI’

28. Learning through campaigning:
Adult education
Renewable energy
Sport for a healthy population
Fair Trade
What women want Campaign
Care of the Environment
Farmgate milk prices
GM foods
Children’s diet
Save rural post offices
Trafficking

29. Social Capital
The concept of social capital is defined in terms of networks, norms and trust and draws on its possibilities for interweaving diverse sets of relationships and linking community and society (see Schuller 2001, Schuller et al 2000)

30. Social capital: inclusion or exclusion?
“Communication may not be shared with outsider groups, and new ideas and skills may be ignored because they come from outside the network” (Field, 2000: 129)

31. ‘People like us’?
‘you realize that the human race is not quite so terrifying - you know - speaking to a stranger of your own sort of calibre’
‘I joined to get to know kindred spirits’
‘I joined for the company of like minded people’

32. Conditions for active citizenship:
Values and attitudes from influences such as family, friends and religious and cultural affiliations;
Critical incidents which trigger more active social roles;
Critical awareness of social conditions coupled with a perception of conditions as perceptive
(Merricks and Edirisingha, 2001)

33. Identity capital
‘respectability is one of the most ubiquitous signifiers of class. It informs how we speak, who we speak to, how we classify others, what we study and how we know who we are (or are not)’ (Skeggs, 1997:1)
identity is understood ‘as the constancy to oneself of a responsible being that is predictable … in the way of a well-constructed history’ (Bourdieu, 2000: 299).

34. Identity capital and cultural capital
“analyses of social class must include a consideration of the way class identities (including middle class identities) are (re-) created and perpetuated in different contexts” (Jackson, 2006)

35. Jam, Jerusalem and Calendar Girls

36. Moving on …
“The Older Women's Network NSW provides support for a number of state-wide projects that promote the rights, dignity and wellbeing of older women. The focus of our projects is on skill development, social action, empowerment and having fun!”

37. OWN’s vision:
The Older Women's Network in NSW believes in a society rich in social capital, where mutual respect and trust are paramount, where diversity and debate are valued and where people and their networks have a legitimate voice.

38. OWN’s Sydney Theatre Group
The Group draws attention to the fact that older women are no longer content to remain invisible and silent about their lives and political concerns. Our Theatre Group is currently made up of fourteen women between the ages of 65 and 79, most with no previous stage experience.

39. OWN performances:
Showing our OWN age: skits about surviving the health system
Our OWN time of life: skits and songs sending up media portrayals of older women
Our say: send-up of Hospital Casemix and its impact on older women
Superwoman: critique of superannuation and its effects on older women
The older person’s show: lived experiences of older women and emphasises the importance of intergenerational connections
Wow!: skits and songs which highlight current issues that concern older women. Issues include hospital waiting lists, nursing homes, GST and banks
Doing our OWN thing: volunteering, mutual obligation, reconciliation and multiculturalism!
Older women on show: government decisions and ethics, peace, and company directors who assist their companies to go down the gurgler!

40. And in conclusion?
“participation in learning sustains active, independent lives and empowers citizens. … (O)lder people have a huge contribution to make, from their accumulated experience, valuable to younger generations and to the whole community. Real lifelong learning must include older as well as younger people, learning together”