Invisible Education Post-65

Reconstituting everyday lives and learning
Woman preparing to go swimming at Firestone Bay, Plymouth

Invisible Education Post-65

Reconstituting everyday lives and learning
 

Summary

Invisible education is the learning that happens in everyday life – it is invisible because it is often ignored and devalued, and it is education because it is powerful and formative.
With ageing populations living longer, life post-65 needs to be re-thought, but research has shown that discussions about ageing tend to ignore learning. In the UK, these explorations are important because the 2021 UK Census showed that 18.6% of the total population were aged 65 years or older.
This project takes a posthuman approach and explores how invisible education is produced through entanglements in all forms of life, including water, stone, plants, animals and machines.
 
 
 

Objectives

The project aims to develop a nuanced picture of invisible education post-65 and a new posthuman theorisation of life post-65. The Invisible Education Post-65 project has a UK reach conducting fieldwork in Belfast, Leeds, Liverpool, Glasgow, London, Cardiff, Stoke-on-Trent, Oxford, 91porn and Cornwall.
The study seeks to explore what people are learning in everyday life post-65, both intentionally and incidentally, interviewing 100 diverse people post 65 across the UK to investigate:
  • How their everyday learning relates to earlier experiences of formal education
  • How formations and intersections of class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and disability shape their everyday learning
  • How their everyday learning changes understandings of life post-65
  • The implications of their everyday learning for education and social justice.
The study will also conduct 10 creative and collaborative workshops with participants across the UK. Through group discussions and activities, participants will play an active role in designing methods and analysing data.

Expected impact

The study seeks to highlight the vital role of everyday learning in old age. It aims to demonstrate that positioning those over 65 as learning subjects is crucial for rewriting the script of age. 
The project is innovative because:
  • It has an original focus on invisible education post-65
  • It has a broad geographical reach and it is targeting diverse participants
  • It is informed by posthuman theory
The project will have practice and policy implications in rewriting the lifelong learning agenda to recognise the existing learning of people post-65 and build on it. One of the assets older people possess is a lifetime of learning and knowledge generation. Policies that seek to share knowledge intergenerationally would be of benefit to all. 
This Leverhulme Trust funded research project builds on Jocey Quinn's earlier posthuman research and links to the international, transdisciplinary Adventures in Posthumanism group, which she co-convenes.

Interactive workshops

Thank you to our research participants and community members for taking part in our interactive workshops. Engaging with participants' interests, we discussed their experiences of age, everyday learning, and work. The workshops aimed to share emerging findings, and – through people's feedback – inform the project's approach as it progresses. These images show some of the artefacts participants created to show their past and present experiences of learning and working.
Invisible Education workshop participants
Invisible Education workshop participants
Invisible Education workshop participants
Invisible Education workshop participants
Invisible Education workshop participants
Invisible Education workshop participants
Invisible Education workshop participants
Invisible Education workshop participants
 
 

Publications

Quinn, J., (2023), '', Routledge, ISBN 9781032021096
 
 
 

Contact the researchers

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Our research through the lens of posthumanism

This Leverhulme Trust funded research project builds on Professor Jocey Quinn's earlier posthuman research and links to the international, transdisciplinary Adventures in Posthumanism group, which she co-convenes. 
Adventures in Posthumanism