Establishing Intergenerational Relationships in Unlikely Collaborative Educational Contexts

Abstract

This work presents a project called “ESium Project”, whose main objective is to create new spaces for social participation and a relationship between two different age groups: the young Social Education students and the elderly. It has a double purpose: to promote that reciprocal space for cooperation and interaction in a way that avoids the risk of disengagement and to promote a professional perspective. Target students will become future professionals who will also work with the elderly collective. Furthermore, a research-action method aims to make the participants protagonists of the educational actions that are carried out by using qualitative techniques as essential strategies for the work of collectives. Not only do the results regard the intergenerational stereotypes, they also show the assessment of the satisfaction by the involved participants, the international acknowledgement of the educational activity developed, and the possibility to use this in other contexts. In this way, it can be concluded that there is a need to tackle intergenerationally in teacher education from a wide-open inclusive perspective to take advantage of senior talent and innovation.

Intergenerationality Programs—Between Children and Older Adults—For Portuguese Population: A Scoping Review

“…In this sense, aging can be defined as natural, slow, progressive, continuous, multidimensional, multidirectional and dynamic, affecting all of our organism’s organs and tissue, leading to an inevitable increase in dependency, fragility and vulnerability, as well as the decline in seniors’ functionality [ 5 , 6 ].…”

“…In this sense, according to literature based on some studies developed on the subject, intergenerationality programs/projects seem to be one of the active aging promotion strategies, encouraging mental health promotion, capable of initiating continuous and positive changes during the various phases in people’s life cycle [ 6 , 8 , 10 ].…”

“…According to the literature based on some studies developed on the subject, intergenerational programs/projects are thus considered effective interventions for inclusion and cooperation. These inclusive methodologies, based on these two phenomena, become relevant as they prioritize the social value of equality and seem to be seen as one of the strategies to promote active aging, encouraging the promotion of mental health, capable of triggering continuous and positive changes during the various stages of people’s life cycles [ 6 , 8 , 10 ].…”

“…Intergenerationality is a social interaction between people of different ages and generations through exchanging life experiences, values and principles [ 6 , 13 , 19 ]. Nowadays, expanding these relationships for the whole of society becomes essential as an incentive for intergenerational solidarity [ 6 , 20 ].…”

“…So, intergenerational practices can be defined as a way to unite people with a purpose, resorting to activities that mutually benefit them and promote better respect and understanding between generations [ 6 , 21 ]. Faced with the reality of the aging world population, international organizations have increased and promoted being oriented towards formulating policies that contribute to coexistence between generations [ 19 ].…”