Lifelong Learning in Intergenerational Settings: The Development of the Swedish Granddad Program From Project to National Association

Abstract

This paper will develop the subject intergenerational learning as a form of lifelong learning. The project in focus was originally called “More men into the schools,” a support program for children attending compulsory school. It was initiated as a pilot project in the autumn of 1996 as the result of the interest shown by a male senior citizen in assisting a handicrafts teacher in school on a voluntary basis. The project, as it has been initiated in Sweden, is based on the understanding that those senior citizens who wish to do so ought to be given the opportunity to work in schools in order to improve the quality of their lives through this engagement and the network in which they thereby participate.

Increased social capital, which has been defined by Coleman (1988, 1990), has been found in the schools that have employed a granddad. The results show that the work of the class granddad, both together with the teacher and outside during the breaks, also influences in a positive way the social capital between the pupils and the teacher. The work of the teacher is greatly influenced by the relationships between the pupils in the group. The recent situation is that one national organization and 10 regional associations support about 1,000 men working all over Sweden. The development and implementation of this model from 1996 to 2011 will be described.

Keywords:

• lifelong learning
• intergenerational learning
• social capital
• schools
• community well-being

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the Korean government (NRF-2010-330-B00259).Address correspondence to Ann-Kristin Boström, Rindögatan 15, vån 8, 115 36 Stockholm, Sweden. E-mail: [email protected]