Abstract:

By engaging in educational practices, older Russians carry out a complex transfer of knowledge, everyday and professional practices, and life experience. The prospects for the development of «silver» education can be studied from the point of view of a multi-sided social exchange of knowledge and experience between different generations of people. This research approach allows us to specify what older Russians learn in the system of formal and non-formal education and what problems they solve with the help of education. At the same time, this approach shows what can be taught to the middle and young generation of students by older people who are both teachers and students.

The purpose of the paper is to analyze «silver» education in Russia as a sphere of social exchange of knowledge, experience, and trust between different generations of Russians. Research questions are:
1. Identify the key competencies that older Russians are currently learning in the system of formal and non-formal education.
2. Study the main areas of knowledge and life experience that older teachers and older students transmit to the middle and younger generation of students.
3. Description of educational practices that promote inter-generational exchange of not only competencies, but also symbolic resources such as trust and tolerance.

The empirical base of the paper is the data of a sociological study conducted in 2019-2020 in the Sverdlovsk region of the Russian Federation. Methods of research are:
1) sociological survey of people aged 45 years and older conducted in the Sverdlovsk region (quota sample, n=415 people, the sample covered residents of megalopolis, large, medium and small cities, towns and rural settlements);
2) expert interviews with University teachers and teachers of retraining courses (n=20);
3) students' essay on «What can be learned from the older generation» (50 essay);
4) case-study of successful educational practices of older Russians (7 cases). All research materials were analyzed and structured according to research questions.

Results:
1. The key competencies that older Russians are actively learning today in the formal and non-formal education system are digital knowledge and skills, models of new economic behavior in crisis economic conditions, knowledge necessary for civic activity (social, political, and volunteer activities), and socio-psychological competencies. All of them proved to be in demand for continuing professional and working life and improving the quality of everyday life of older Russians.
2. The main areas of knowledge and life experience that older teachers and students transmit to the middle and young generation of students are related to pedagogy, health care, and the social sphere. These are mainly areas where human and cultural capital is reproduced. Older teachers and students in educational situations are carriers of unique knowledge that is in demand by the young and middle generation of Russians who were brought up in a «fluid» depersonalized society.
3. Educational practices based on an integrative model (mixed age academic groups) contribute to the intergenerational exchange of such important symbolic resources as trust and tolerance. In addition, they provide the development of an intergenerational language and morals that «glue» not only educational communities, but also the Russian society.

Keywords:

«Silver» education, knowledge transfer, elderly students, tolerance, trust in education.