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International Journal of
Population Studies Australia’s Knitting Nannas lifelong learning

1.2. Critical feminist geragogy overcoming ageist for elders to actively engage in authentic learning to
sexism improve their life chances” (Sutherland & Crowther, 2006,
cited in Findsen, 2018, p. 844).
Older people are negatively affected by ageism, limited by
perceptions of the older learner as frail and possessing a Critical feminist geragogy informs older women’s
reduced capacity for learning. Ageism is defined as “the learning in a woman-centered social movement where
negative social and cultural construction of old age and a ageist sexism is less likely. It can be distilled into the
process of systematic stereotyping and discrimination against following three criteria: (i) Cultivating respectful
people just because they are old” (Doron, 2018, p. 33). relations that seek empowerment and appreciate women’s
experiences of oppressions, including ageism, sexism, and
Ageist sexism exacerbates the issue, leading to older
women being marginalized and disregarded. Anecdotally, their multiple intersectionalities; (ii) valuing each woman’s
individuality by recognizing her capabilities; (iii) providing
women often describe experiencing a sudden onset of enjoyable, engaging, and sufficiently challenging learning
invisibility and condescension as they age, particularly opportunities in a milieu that supports and celebrates
as their hair turns grey. Australian writer Helen Garner success.
(2016) attributes this phenomenon to the withdrawal of the
erotic gaze, as older women “are no longer, in the eyes of Learning is a lifelong process. Motivational conditions
the world, a sexual being.” Feminist scholars have taken up conducive to older women’s learning value individuality
this theme. Cecil et al. (2021, p. 11) consider the “pervasive and inclusivity in an enjoyable atmosphere of respectful
and insidious nature” that goes with the “social shaming of relations, with opportunities for emancipatory personal
older women,” depicting them as “little old ladies, as old growth. Older learners are able to integrate significant
bags, as useless nobodies.” life experience and analytical, reflective, future-oriented
cognitive skills to bear on situations. Older learner activists
In relation to later-life learning and older women’s are generally intrinsically motivated, seeking a legacy of
SML, the literature does not provide definitive answers. social and intergenerational justice.
Apart from physiological and psychological barriers,
learning continues throughout old age. Certain factors 1.3. Older women’s environmental and climate
“may even give older learners an edge over younger peers” justice SML
(Findsen & Formosa, 2011, p. 75), such as the integrity Social movements are educational. Formed from groups
and accumulation of knowledge and abilities acquired of like-minded people, they create cognitive and physical
throughout one’s life (or crystallized intelligence), and an spaces for social learning (Eyerman & Jamison, 1991).
ongoing ability for curiosity and making meaning from Educational anthropologist Niesz (2019, p. 227) agrees
new information. Successful later-life learning depends that “adult education researchers have argued for years
on “a wide repertoire of cognitive resources and brain that social movements are educators; not only are they
structures that work on their own as well as interacting sites of popular education and other forms of non-formal
with one other” (Findsen & Formosa, 2011, p. 63).
education, they are also important sites of learning through
Recent researchers challenge the inherent ageism of the the practice of movement activity.” Social learning requires
elderly as frail and therefore inconsequential, preferring to conversation, which is a social process and a “deeper,
replace it with opportunities for agency and dignity (Kydd transformative and reflexive learning whereby people
et al., 2018). Shifting power to older learners through challenge the values and norms of present business-as-
emancipatory education contributes to the sociopolitical usual trajectories” (Kent, 2016, p. 150).
transformation of ageist structures.
SML draws from adult learning and social movement
Older learners are “citizens capable of being reflexive theories and is inherently situated in transformative and
and knowledgeable [who]… critique societal norms and emancipatory experiences (Larri & Whitehouse, 2019).
practices” (Beck, 1992 cited in Findsen, 2018, p. 844). Different forms of SML involve communities of practice
Critical geragogy (or educational gerontology) recognizes where individuals and groups learn in a range of ways,
that ageism is a barrier to the participation of the elderly including: instrumental skill-based cognitive learning
in work, post-work, and civil society. Conversely, society (peaceful protest strategies, social media use); meta-
benefits from the inclusion of all citizens. Being able to cognitive development of critical consciousness through
draw on and draw out the capabilities of elders as a cohort conscientization, critical reflection, questioning insight,
of active citizenry adds depth to society (Findsen, 2018, and productive problem-solving; and epistemic or
p. 844). Society benefits from their life experiences, and axiological shifts in worldviews through reconceptualizing
“social movements … may provide further opportunities hegemonic power structures (Branagan & Boughton, 2003;

Volume 10 Issue 2 (2024) 3 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.381