The purpose of this study is to analyze of the older Adults participation in lifelong education program. The participants of this research were carefully selected in welfare facilities, the women center and lifetime education center located in Incheon...
The purpose of this study is to analyze of the older Adults participation in lifelong education program. The participants of this research were carefully selected in welfare facilities, the women center and lifetime education center located in Incheon and Gyeonggi-do. They were selected by the recommendation of educational center's person in charge and the data results from the interviews were included only if the participant agreed to the research.
The research data was collected for two months since Feb. 2008 to Apr.2008 by seven individual interviews with senior learners. Before the interview, the researcher explained three information of the study in detail to the participants: the purpose of this study, practical use of the interview, and a promised anonymity. Then the researcher received an approval by the respondents.
The interview was recorded and a transcription was made out of it to analyze systematically by finding a concept and category according to 'Basic & generic qualitative research (1990)' by Strauss and Corbin. There was a coaching from an expert in making sure the data was appropriately categorized and a help from a colleague who have studied qualitative research before. Through the process of categorizing the concepts from collected data, it came to that the main themewas the main cause for the seniors to participate in lifelong education program. In this study, there are sixty concepts on what made seniors to spend their remaining life in education and eleven more ideas that are abstracted were categorized. Four more categories were found in the process of classifying and combining under the abstracted ideas. As a result of analyzing the research data, four main concepts were found; the continuous desire for learning, participating in social activities, healthy life and the desire of independence.
Firstly, many seniors have lost their chance to study at their school age by the environment of the family and social insecurity. Therefore, a regret of the past and eager to study showed a strong desire for their education of knowledge. In addition, they were participating lifelong education program to help them to get healthier both physically and mentally by freeing their anxiety.
Secondly, the seniors had a strong interaction with each other that they shared information and participated in the program not only for learning but also as a meeting place. They were sharing their own feelings to a person never met before and expecting the relationship getting further. In addition, seniors were participating to the lifelong education program to learn more from the voluntary works.
Thirdly, being healthy is very important in their life and they work hard to maintain it so the satisfaction from the learning process was indeed a well-being. The education was applied in a positive way when there were conflicts between the seniors; therefore, they were healthy physically and mentally stabilized. Consequently, the seniors are participating to the education program for healthier life.
Lastly, the seniors have a confidence that they can do everything and they wanted to become more independent in their work and financially. Losing financial abilities due to their age would only give anxiety and a feeling of uneasiness about the future. In order to prevent from a crisis moment later in their life and get more help from the education, was the reason they were participating the program.
In conclusion, the continuous desire of education, participating in social activities, healthy life, and a desire to be independent were the main reasons for them to educate themselves. One's desire can be found more or less in this study where no other research has aroused. This is the result from using a qualitative research. By analyzing the main causes, we were able to find out why the seniors have been participating in a lifetime education program.