ERIC Number: EJ1162114
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018
Pages: 10
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0360-1277
EISSN: N/A
Retirement and Learning: A Longitudinal Qualitative Approach
Tam, Maureen
Educational Gerontology, v44 n1 p54-63 2018
This paper discusses retirement as a learning process, where learning, be it formal or informal, enables retirees to adjust to the transition from work to retirement. Such discussion is important given the fact that the world population is aging and that more people are retiring in the next few decades. Moreover, people are experiencing an increased length of retirement due to longer lifespan. Promoting the retirement experience as a productive learning process will bring huge social benefits to impact all involved, including the individual retirees themselves. Much early retirement research considered retirement as a monolithic event, which affects all retirees in similar ways, thereby justifying a cross-sectional approach to take a snapshot of the adjustment process. Such approach falls short of capturing the dynamic process that is characteristic of the retirement transition; and masks individual differences as retirees conceptualize, experience, and negotiate their own ways through the process of adaptation as it unfolds during the transition from work to retirement. This paper argues that in order to obtain in-depth understanding of the individual experiences in the retirement transition and to gain insight into the role of learning in the process, we need to use a qualitative, longitudinal approach to track and reflect the different patterns of change for retirees at different points in time. By examining the process of change and the retirement experiences of retirees using a longitudinal qualitative approach, we should be able to illustrate, how an individual learn to experience and adapt to retirement, so as to support the claim that the retirement process is unique and that learning is an integral part of that process.
Descriptors: Qualitative Research, Longitudinal Studies, Retirement, Preretirement Education, Learning Experience, Learning Processes, Interviews, Questioning Techniques, Research Methodology, Educational Gerontology, Andragogy
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: Adult Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A