Purpose: If we are to achieve meaningful participation and co-production for older people using care, then more radical approaches are required. This project explores an innovation where older people using social care were matched to community based learning mentors to develop partnerships within which learning interventions were facilitated. We explore how the concept of learning underpinning this innovation might be used as a paradigm to raise the quality of care in institutionalised settings using a co-productive and relationship based approach to promote wellbeing in later life.Design/methodology/approach: A structured evaluation drew on qualitative data captured from individual interviews with older people (n=25) and their learning mentors (n=22) to reflect on the potential benefits and challenges involved when introducing learning interventions in care settings. The data was contextualised alongside interviews with relevant stakeholders (n=10) including a care home manager, social care and education commissioners, Trustees and project staff to assess the interdisciplinary contribution of lifelong learning to quality improvement. Findings:Introducing learning interventions to older people within care settings promoted participation, advocacy and relationship-based care which in turn helped to create a positive culture. Given the current challenges to improve quality in care services, we suggest that a paradigm of learning offers an innovative framework for encouraging older people to retain their independence as care homes strive towards a person-centred approach. Promoting social activities and leisure through the mechanism of learning was found to foster closer working relationships between older people and the wider community. These had a levelling effect through the reciprocity generated and by using an asset based approach. There were benefits for care provider as the partnerships formed enabled people to raise both individual and collective concerns about care and support.Originality/Value: Raising and sustaining the quality of support for older people requires input from the wider public sector beyond health and social care. Purposeful engagement with other disciplines such as learning and leisure offers the potential to realise a more sustainable model of user choice, person-centred support and user involvement. Engagement in learning activities can help to nourish and sustain membership of the community which is significant for marginalised populations such as older people living in care homes.
This article describes a research project designed to understand the experiences of students undertaking higher education in a further education setting in the UK. Since the 1960s, there has been a sustained policy commitment in the UK to widen participation in education to social groups previously under-represented (Thompson, 2000; Burke, 2012), leading in part to the current government mantra that one should be either earning or learning (Burke, 2012). The consequence is a discourse in which it is argued that higher education has been dumbed down to include 'non-traditional students' frequently ill-prepared for academic challenges (Haggis, 2006). This research explored an alternative discourse, proposing that education should be a catalyst for significant social, emotional, and intellectual growth, culminating in a transformative experience (Mezirow, 1978a, 1991; Cranton, 2006). Twelve non-traditional graduates from a full-time BA programme at a Scottish College of Further and Higher Education were interviewed to determine if graduates experienced significant social, emotional, and intellectual growth as a result of participation; what teaching and learning settings make this possible; can it be proposed that graduates can be transformed by the experience of higher education in further education (hereafter HE in FE)? The findings of the research indicate that the participants all experienced some significant shift in attributes such as confidence, independence and willingness to try new things. How they experience, conceptualise and participate in their social worlds has become more discriminating. We conclude by 2 | P a g e proposing that HE in FE can have the potential to provide transformative experiences for non-traditional students. The implications of this study lie as much in the nature of the transformative learning experience as in the structures in which education is provided. Additionally, it is proposed that transformative teaching and learning theory may be as significant now as it ever was in understanding the changes which learners experience in higher education study.
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