Agile manifesto of non-formal education for older adults - a co-design experience

ABSTRACT

In educational gerontology, non-formal education emerges as a possibility for lifelong learning because it is more flexible and less bureaucratic than formal education. In this context, agile culture offers a potential strategy to enhance non-formal education. While there are four manifestos for agile culture in education, their application in later life is lacking in the literature. The objective is to discuss the agile culture in education and present the concept of the agile manifesto for non-formal education in later life. A co-design process was conducted to develop this manifesto, in which specialists in education, educational gerontology and agile culture, as well as an older person, participated in an active and collaborative way. The manifesto, which has four values and 18 principles, will serve as a guide for educators who intend to develop educational activities based on agile culture, for older adults, in the non-formal instance. It is proposed that the agile culture of non-formal education for older adults is fundamentally about collaboration, democracy, independence and autonomy, considering the needs of everyday life, as well as the multidimensionality and heterogeneity of those involved.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) for their support. This study was funded by the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio Grande do Sul (IFRS), Brazil

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Extreme Programming (XP) was created by Kent Beck in the 1990s and covers many technical aspects of software development. https://www.caroli.org/extreme-programming-xp/

2. Framework that helps teams and organizations generate value through adaptive solutions to complex problems. https://scrumguides.org/docs/scrumguide/v2020/2020-Scrum-Guide-US.pdf#zoom=100

3. https://academy.agileinstitutebrazil.com/ead/

Additional information

Funding

This research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of University of Passo Fundo [Number 5.546.857].