Exploring intergenerational study abroad to promote Age-Friendly Universities (AFU)

ABSTRACT

Intergenerational study abroad programs can provide opportunities for academic institutions to become more age-friendly. With a robust market of both older adult educational tourists and university study abroad students, there is an opportunity to integrate the age-segregated travel groups by collaborating to provide intergenerational study abroad. By diversifying the ages of study abroad participants, group experiences may lead to transformative learning related to self-awareness. This multi-disciplinary review examines literature from the gerontology, tourism, and education disciplines to determine specific approaches for achieving shared educational outcomes through intergenerational study abroad. This exploratory paper outlines a theoretical framework for college and university-sponsored intergenerational study abroad, identifies overlapping areas of student study abroad and older adult educational tourism, and provides recommendations for creating an intergenerational learning opportunity that extends beyond the academic campus and exemplifies the Age-Friendly University (AFU) initiative. Finally, a discussion of implications for gerontology education and potential challenges of implementation is provided.

KEYWORDS:

• Intergenerational
• community-academic partnerships
• experiential learning
• lifelong learning
• study abroad