STUDENTS OF «THE SILVER AGE»: EDUCATION AS BARRIER TO AGING

The social group of older students (over 50 years) who are taught at the universities in different countries was considered. The subject of the study is the motivation to overcome the contradictions between biological, psychological and social age by continuing education at the university. The task of the study was to show the temporal characteristics and contradictions of older students, their place in the structure of the students’ groups, their social functions of higher education referring to the regulation of the temporal contradictions of this group.

The study is based on the temporal approach principles. The «silver age» students were considered as a specific temporal group. The age is shown as a social factor, which is closely related to education. On the one hand, age is a barrier to education for «silver age» people. On the other hand, some universities formed a positive trend to overcome this barrier by applying education as a barrier on the way to aging. In this study the author also used groups approach. It enabled us to consider the older students in different countries as a united social group, which has similar temporal problems and contradictions, educational attitudes, interests, models of behavior.

Two methods were used in our study:
1) analysis of the interviews with the «silver age» students, published in the media and web-sites,
2) analysis of the educational practices of various universities, where older students are taught.

In addition to this, method of semi-formalized interviews conducted by the author with the «silver age» people was used. This enabled us to identify the attitude of the representatives of this group to age-related strategies aimed at overcoming contradictions through continuing education.

The main result of the study was the knowledge about motivation of «silver age» students to getting higher education (the second higher education, masters, postgraduate). Among the motives of the «silver age» students to receive higher education is their desire to conserve/prolong youth. The basis of their behavior strategy is the need to conserve such qualities as activity, professional need, search for new ways of self-realization, the conservation of mental and physical health. All these qualities are inherent to the representatives of younger generation, therefore «silver age» students are oriented towards them. The author describes this situation as a social and psychological mechanism of transferring behavioral models of age group, which they consider to be the most attractive. A very contradictory attitude of older Russians to educational practices «silver age» students is considered as another result of the following study.