Training Older Volunteers in Gerontological Research in the United Kingdom: Moving Towards an Andragogical and Emancipatory Agenda

Abstract

In the UK, very few studies have engaged older people in two or more elements of the research process (design, conduct, dissemination). Although there is a body of work on educational gerontology, there are few publications that specifically focus on training older people as coresearchers. This paper reports upon the training program undertaken as part of the Rural North Wales Initiative for the Development of Support for Older People (RuralWIDe). The RuralWIDe training program was built upon principles of andragogy: the art and science of teaching adults. The trainers used lecturing; modeling (observation of another person conducting a task); and active participation (structured guidance, instructions or trial and error, during which the student discovers for him or herself how to perform the task) to teach older volunteers social gerontology, research methods, interview techniques, and data analysis. This paper describes the methods used in RuralWIDe and highlights instances when these were both effective and ineffective. It assesses the study against Rachal's (2002) criteria for andragogy (voluntary participation, adult status, collaboratively determine objectives, performance-based assessment of achievement, measuring satisfaction, appropriate adult learning environment, and technical issues), and it describes when pedagogical assumptions were made by the research team.

The project on which this article is based was funded by the Big Lottery Fund whose support is gratefully acknowledged. We are most grateful to members of the advisory group: Gwynedd Rural Ageing Network (GRAN). We thank all of the people involved in this study: the coresearcher volunteers (Barbara Jones, Beryl Riley, Roy Oades, Judy Oades, Martin Riley, Carrie Humphries, Delyth Kennedy, Angela Jones, Pauline Williams, Evelyne Tebrock, Elaine Davies, Mike Piercy, Siw Wood, Sheila Carmody, and Millicent Ames); the participants in the survey; participants in the focus groups; and the staff and trustees at Age Concern Gwynedd a Môn who were engaged with the project (John Clifford Jones, Carys Trenholme, Carys Jones, Eleri Jones, Llew Williams, Cledwyn Williams, Huw Williams, and Cathy Ann Robinson).

Notes

¹The paper reports both 2 and 3 user-representatives. Not clear which is correct.

²University accredited research training was provided to older people as part of a study on housing decisions in old age (Bright & Green 2003). When this study concluded, in 2001 14 students launched Older People Researching Social Issues (OPRSI) as a cooperative and a registered private company.