Pedagogical development in older adult education: A critical community-based approach

Abstract This paper informs pedagogical development in older adult education. It draws on qualitative data of a longitudinal community-based educational action research study. Informed by critical theory, Freirean and postcolonial literature, the educational initiative comprised a critical and praxis-oriented engagement with generative themes co-identified with participants – such as capitalism, consumerism, education and the Internet. Participants’ artistic talents, subcultural affiliations and chaperoning and mentoring rituals that characterised their community context were used as educational tools. Workshop-based sessions elicited critical problematization of the generative themes and co-production of related artistic yields, such as poetry and prose in the community’s dialects and also traditional folk song. Together with interviews, focus groups and participant observations, the artistic yields provided primary qualitative data. Thematic analysis of this varied data informed the development of pedagogy for community-based adult education grounded in participatory democracy and enhanced historicity. However, gaps, contradictions and ambivalences in the data testified to participants’ nuanced engagement. The study showed the educational value of such nuances because they provided spaces for learners to come into presence in an unscripted manner. Recommendations include pedagogical development rooted in the profiling of learners’ community and life stories, and investment in small-scale community-based initiatives.