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УДК 378 ЗАВИЦ М.
Педагогический факультет Университета Коменского (Братислава), Доктор Педагогики, Теологии, Философии, доцент
E-mail: zavis@fedu.uniba.sk
UDC378 ZAVIC M.
Pedagogical faculty of the Komensky university (Bratislava)
Doc. PaedDr. ThDr. PhD., docent E-mail: zavis@fedu.uniba.sk
ОБУЧЕНИЕ ПОЖИЛЫХ ЛЮДЕЙ: ПОЖИЛЫЕ ЛЮДИ КАК СТУДЕНТЫ, ИЗУЧАЮЩИЕ РЕЛИГИОВЕДЕНИЕ* TEACHING SENIORS: OLDER ADULTS AS STUDENTS OF RELIGIOUS STUDES*
Обучение пожилых людей - задача, которая требует от преподавателя надлежащей базы знаний, культурной, эмпирической и личной зрелости, которые должны быть на гораздо более высоком уровне, чем в образовательном процессе с молодежью, переживающих только первую возрастную часть своей жизни. Обучение религиоведению также означает способность адекватно реагировать на духовные вопросы и потребности учащихся, поскольку они обычно возникают спонтанно из темы нашей лекции в области религиоведения. Это означает, что когнитивный и духовный уровень накладываются друг на друга, и в этих ситуациях мы ощущаем большую пользу от опыта преподавателя как педагога, так и духовного наставника. Студенты пожилого возраста Университета Третьей Эпохи (Возраста) в Университете Коменского в Братиславе проявляют наибольший интерес к дальнейшему саморазвитию, изучению практических навыков и полезному проведению свободного времени, что является стимулом для их возвращения в университет после длительного периода нахождения вне образовательной среды. Когда они выбирают определенную программу в этом университете, их первым критерием является предмет, затем лектор, а также день и час лекций. Полная занятость определенного количества слушателей, изучающих религиоведение, означает для нас - для преподавателей, как личное удовлетворение, так и высокую ответственность из-за доверия, которое мы получаем от наших любимых возрастных студентов.
Ключевые слова: пожилые люди, старение, университет третьего возраста, учеба, студенты, преподаватель, духовность, религия.
Teaching seniors is a challenge, which requires from the lecturer proper knowledge base, cultural, experiential and personal maturity which are supposed to be at much higher level than in the educational process with youth, who are going through just the first age part of their lives. Teaching Religious Studies also means to be able to respond adequately to spiritual questions and needs of the students, because those use to spotaneusly arise from the topic of our lecture in Religious Studies. It means that cognitive and spiritual level overlap and in these situations we perceive a great benefit of lecturers' experience both as educator and pastor. Senior students at the University of the Third Age at Comenius University in Bratislava show the highest interest in further development of themselves, learning practical skills and spending their free time usefully, and these motivations bring them after many years being out of educational process back to university. When they choose the concrete programme at UTA, their first criterion is the subject, then comes the lecturer and the day and the hour of lectures. Full occupancy of a specified number of listeners of Religious Studies at UTA means to us as to lecturer at the same time a personal fulfillment and both commitment to high responsibility because of the trust that we get from our beloved senior students.
Keywords: older adults, senescence, university of the third age, study, students, lecturer, spirituality, religion.
Introduction
Scientific literature analyzes older adulthood almost exclusively from the aspect of body and psyche degeneration. On the contrary, our contribution will be about seniors as students looking for new knowledge and clarification of spiritual questions. As Jackson et al. found out of their analysis of the literature dealing with the topic of spiritual need in aged care, for professionals providing care to older people can be meeting their spiritual needs considered lower priority than physical needs especially when health care resources are constrained or demands of employers are high [1, p. 1]. What kind of
situation do we have with older adults who want to be educated in Religious Studies? Can we talk about linking their spiritual needs or even more broadly - linking spirituality and desire to get to know different religions of the world, their teaching and practice? To what extent are the spiritual and cognitive aspect in students interconnected during listening to lectures and engaging in discussions at Religious Studies at the University of the Third Age? Is it possible to talk about some spiritual care that a lecturer can provide to an older listener at the same time as giving information and facts arising from lectures? Should be a lecturer, respectively a theologian, interested in spiritual needs of senior students at all? What have we found out of our
* Печатается в рамках работы Международной научно-практической конференции «Современное профессиональное образование: опыт, проблемы, перспективы», 14-15 ноября 2018 года, г. Орел.
© Завиц М. © Zavic M.
own 16 years lasting experience of teaching at the University of the Third Age of Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, in years 2002 - 2018? These will be our key questions, which we will try to answer building on our theoretical research, but also on the basis of pedagogical, empirical, longitudinal observation. In order to answer responsibly these questions, we will come out of the theory on seniors' education, the seniors' spirituality, the perception of the elderly in different religions and cultures, and the experience of 8-year pastoral care practice at the retirement home in Bratislava in 1997-2005.
Seniors as students
The exact definition of the period of old age is still polemical. According to older Christian pastoral manuals senescence begins at 55 years. Newer pastoral manuals shift this limit to 60 years [2, p. 64]. The familiar categorization of the ages of the older population includes the third and fourth age. This division is based on multidisciplinary findings in demography, biodemography, gerontology and sociology. The third age refers to the period from retirement and the end of active participation on state productivity, whereas the criteria for the 4th age have not yet found the agreement among the researchers. According to WHO there are four age groups in aged population: 1.) 45 - 59 years (mid-age), 2.) years 60 - 74 (ageing persons), 3.) years 75 - 89 (old generation), 4.) years starting from 90 (senile group) [3, pp. 102-103]. The body loses every year an average of 0.8% of its energy and physical performance. Knezovic and Ralbovska claim, that „in humans, aging is a slow process, and it is difficult to determine reliable criteria for objectively measuring this process" [4, p. 78].
The positive trend of the last decades in Europe is that there is more attention given to senior citizens - the quality of their lives and their study opportunities, as is reflected in the frequency of expert conferences, discussions, exchange programs of lecturers teaching older adults, publications and the creation of study programs that meet the requirements of seniors and that are constantly improving. Gerontology uses the phrase successful aging [5, p. 193]. Basic principles in relation to the elderly are provided by the UN [6, pp. 28-30]. 1993 was declared the European Year of Seniors, and 2012 was declared European Year of Active Aging. Likewise, the medical community is paying more attention to senior citizens, for example by issuing a WMA (World Medical Association) document Statement on Ageing, which was approved at the 67th WMA General meeting in Taipei, Taiwan, October 2016. The requirements for education and practice of doctors in relation to the treatment of seniors also include the following: aging is to become one of the main focuses of the medical study curriculum, as well as the principle of providing holistic health care to seniors, which will include also psychosocial and environmental aspects [7, pp. 9-10].
Memory of aged people needs constant stimuli. It has been found out that the performance of their memory is influenced by the type of given stimuli. Krivohlavy says: „The most noticeable is the decrease in memory performance when the older person has to learn a certain name he/she just read. Their performance is better when they hear this name. The best results are reached, when he/she himself/herself pronounces this name, which is supposed to be remembered. When an older person remembers something and keeps it in mind, his/ her retention capacity (retention in memory) is relatively the
same as in young people" [8, p. 142]. Uniqueness of working with older adults in educational process lies, among others, in their inner motivation to grow and broaden their knowledge [9, p. 88], or even to gain completely new information, knowledge and know-how in those areas they were not able to cover during their professional growth, but always were interested in. As we will see further on, Religious Studies belong to this kind of study programmes for seniors in Slovakia. Attending universities of the third age can fulfill these needs in seniors: a) safety and surety, b) love, acceptance and companionship, c) apprecation and respect, d) self-upgrading [3, p. 103].
Teaching seniors at the University of the Third Age of Comenius University in Slovakia
Seniors have become as students a group of interest in Slovak educational system particularly starting from the year 1989. The first University of the Third Age was established at Comenius University in 1990. Before that, seniors have been perceived as a group of citizens that needed to be imprimis cared for. Bluskova claims: „Seniors have been not primary focus group of socialistic ideological coverage. The centre have been notably children, youth and labourers (contemporary labeled as working class)" [10, p. 207]. The first University of the Third Age was founded by prof. Pierre Vellas in Toulouse, France, in 1973. Already in the year 1975 the AIUTA (Association Internationale des Universités du Troisième Age) was founded and their members are active worldwide in Europe, Asia, Africa and America [11, p. 17]. The Head of the University of the Third Age (UTA) of Comenius University in Bratislava, PhDr. Nadezda Hrapkova PhD., has been leading this institution for 25 years and she stood at its birth. In 2000 she has become a member of AIUTA Governing Board and in 2011 she has become a member of AIUTA Executive Board as General Secretary in years 2011-2016. Hrapkova is continually monitoring the situation and is looking for feedback from senior students, and then actively innovates and improves the offer of programmes and the work of the UTA of Comenius University in Bratislava. Her recent research shows, that UTA has yearly about 89% female and about 11% male students out of more than 2000 registered persons. There are about 300 lecturers together teaching in all programmes of UTA. Three year study programmes are held in four cities: Bratislava, Nitra, Martin and Namestovo. It is interesting, as Hrapkova and Grunwald found out, that „from the group of respondents there are many of them who attend UTA for more than 10 years (13%) and other 24% attend our courses for more than 5 years. It means that after graduation in one course they enrol in new study subjects and do study circles again. We can see high satisfaction with the educational process, activities and the level of teaching at our UTA" [12, p. 86].
For instance, in Austria also exists education of seniors, but it is not labeled as university of the third age, because it is a integrational model of education. Seniors are studying together with their younger colleagues - students that have recently finished their secondary education. Older adults are in such a education actually full-time students at universities. Bluskova specifies, that seniors in Austria have an opportunity to study at whichsoever university because of the integrational model of education [13, pp. 18-22]. Kobylarek informs about integrational model of education which is a popular intergenerational form of education also in Poland, at the University of Wroclaw. He
mentiones four basic levels of cooperation: 1.) between seniors and pupils (seniors teach children, children teach seniors), 2.) joint projects (seniors and students), 3.) school programmes of education in aging (seniors as teachers and experts), 4.) cooperation between all generations (joint projects involving seniors, students, university researchers) [14, p. 28].
Religious Studies as one of 40 academic programmes for seniors at Comenius University in Slovakia belong to programmes of constant academic offer for seniors. Religious Studies have been for many years included into lectures provided at UTA by theological faculties and have been labeled as History of Religions. Starting from academic year 2017/2018 a new, separate programme was created: World Religions. It focuses on doctrine and praxis of 5 world religions - Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. Its' curriculum is divided into 3 academic years. Every semester is focused on one world religion. Theological faculties still continue to provide lectures within UTA, but are exclusively focused on Christian biblical, historical and doctrinally questions, what practically means, that it is more or less a theology for laity. On the contrary, in the World Religions programme, which is of great interest and has the maximum of participants'capacity, we are studying all religions as equivalent cultural phenomena. In addition to classical lectures, discussions and workshops, we also offer students the possibility of excursions and we invite guests who can talk about their religion based on their personal experience. The final knowledge quizes at the end of each semester (both in History of Religions and later in World Religions) confirm excellent mastery of the theory by seniors. Their desire to continue in the following year shows their persistent interest in the topic of world religions. Our senior students are extremely active listeners with always prepared meaningful questions; interested to read also the literature that relates to our lectures, but certainly exceeds the scope of compulsory reading and preparation for lectures. Spending a time together means a lot of joy both to the lecturer and the students.
How do various religions perceive old people or ancestors?
In the Bible, in the Psalms 90:10 is written, that human age reaches 70, and in better case 80 years. Explicit direction how to behave in the presence of the senior is: „Stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord." - Bible, Leviticus 19:32 [15]. Nation, which has no respect for old people is in the Old Testament labeled as cruel nation. Devoted believer is praying for God's help even in farther future, ergo for the period of his/her old age and grey hair. Prochazka asserts, that Judaism apprehends senescence as active period of spiritual growth of individual: „In Jewish tradition has been senescence prehended as Sabbath of the life; Sabbath here has not meant passivity, but an opportunity to do those things, that has not been possible to do before and those that are liked by Lord God, e.g. more intense study of the Bible or to deal with ethical questions of society" [2, p. 68]. The New Testament speaks of old men and women who have found the meaning of their life in God, and who can therefore serve as an example of respectability, judiciousness, love, faith and tirelessness - Bible, Titus 2:2-3
[15].
In the Quran we find this very clear instruction on attitude towards old people: „Your Lord has commanded that you
worship none but Him, and that you be kind to your parents. If one or both of them reach old age with you, do not say to them a word of disrespect, or scold them, but say a generous word to them. And act humbly to them in mercy, and say: My Lord, have mercy on them, since they cared for me when I was small" - Quran, 17:23-24 [16]. Sunnah includes several references connected to older adulthood and ethics of treating seniors, e.g. that honor to grey-haired Muslim is a way of showing glory to Allah (Abu Dawud); who does not honor the elderly is not a believer (Al-Tirmidhi), etc. [17, online].
Not just reverence to, but frankly worshiping ancestors is the common feature of big religions of the East. Respect for the ancestors and worshiping them in Japan includes, in particular, the continuous individual and social cultivation of the obedience, loyalty and honesty. Chinese word xiao (piety) is a key term for expressing the quality of human relationships that must exist under the Confucianism both in family and state. It concerns both alive and deceased ancestors [18, pp. 389, 269].
Spirituality and spiritual needs of aged auditory: theory and experience
In health care context, the fulfillment of spiritual needs usually gets less or no attention in comparison to somatic needs of patients. However, the spirituality of an individual has a key role when we are trying to understand persons' attitudes, searching and expressing the meaning, interconnecting with others, nature, time, sacred, etc. It is not easy to define spirituality, and a uniform, generally accepted definition of it still does not exist at this time [1, pp. 1-2]. Spiritualitual care and religious care are not synonyms according to definition of National Health Service Scotland: „spiritual care is usually given in a one to one relationship, is completely person-centered and makes no assumptions about personal conviction or life orientation;... religious care is given in the context of shared religious beliefs, values, liturgies and lifestyle of a faith community" [19, p. 6]. Spiritual care is not an exclusive issue of health care or pastoral workers, but could be provided by everyone, who is able to have a trusting relationship to the needed one. During our 8 year lasting pastoral care of women of advaced age at one of retirements homes in Bratislava, we have experienced, that for building a realtionship between me as a pastor and clients it was very important, what was our impression of each other at the first meeting. We have mutually observingly examined our eyeviews, face-play, gestures, mood, openess, frankness, concernment of our being togehter, warm-heartedness, etc. These initial interactions have created a road to my entrance to their mind, emotions, experiences and finally their acceptance of myself as an inseparable part of their lifes. Authenticity of our relationship has come from our mutual honesty in perception of each other as a gift, blessing and joy to our lifes. This beautiful confidence that was based upon our authenticity led us to conversations on variable topics, commiting my clients to me, sharing of sorrows, losses, sufferings, but also delights, triumphs and achievements of whole their life. Active listening, being beware of judging, focusing exclusively on the client, supporting, tactful humor, embracement or just holding their hand, are some of the main conditions of authentic pastoral care and responding to pastoral needs. We undoubtedly recommend to all interested in doing a pastoral care professionally, that they ask themselves first, if their interest comes from profoundness and cordial longing,
because clients will recognize it very soon. Likewise, if a pastor comprehends his pastoral care just as a duty or one of the scopes of employment, he/she will be rapidly out of his/ her energy, patience and persistence to help. Consequently, expected positive results of pastoral care will not be possible.
When we are analysing spiritual needs of the students of universities of the third age in the context of their craving to study Religious Studies, we can perceive their attendance at lectures as a kind of ritual, which benefits their mental condition: regular meeting of the same group of people at a well-known place, with exerted schedule of lectures and workshops, reminds of rituals regularly done at church with its typical interior, symbols, order of service, a community of mainly the same people, etc. Both give their participants a strong feeling of belonging to someone, somewhere; being interconnected; provide them with status of being enrooted; fill them with the sense of meaning and personal growth. Jackson et al. discuss inter alia also the importance of reading Scriptures, reminiscence and story telling as some of the elements of spiritual care in aged care [1, p. 8]. We surely agree with these elements similiter in the context of attendance at the lectures of Religious Studies. Although Jackson et al. have not made provision for the content of religious or theological literature dealing with spiritual care in aged care, we have realized multiple consistencies between their conclusions and our pastoral experience. Perhaps the last one which should be mentioned is the stance, that „numerous studies on nurses' attitudes toward spirituality have revealed a positive relationship between spiritual education and nurses' spiritual awareness and spiritual care practice" [1, p. 11]. We can only agree, that equally works the relationship between the knowledge of Religious Studies and spiritual awareness of the lecturer on one side, and his/her spiritual care practice on the other side. Lecturer is in the same time confronted with topics that belong to provenience of Religious Studies, but also to personal experience with sacred or reception of spiritual relations. Lecturer is the one, who gets questions during the lectures, but also before and after the lectures. Those questions often go beyond the content of the study programme, and go existentially further towards a deeper personal understanding of spiritual. Certainly we can place them in the domain of spiritual or pastoral care. We do not apprehend the answers to these questions as something that goes beyond our acting as a lecturer; on the contrary, we perceive these questions as evidence of the listeners' confidence and their hope that we can upgrade them even in the aspect of the meaning of their lives, which is a tremendous honor.
Teaching seniors is not just a one-way presentation of facts
and knowledge, but it is primarily a relationship that builds both the student and the lecturer. As a lecturer we perceive a exemplary humility of college-educated senior students, in front of whom we feel a huge responsibility. Although in age, when they could be grandparents of the lecturer, they are receiving new knowledge and know-how from the lecturer with respect, wishing to grow both scientially and personally. This is also accentuated by the rabbinical tradition: no matter how much a person is educated, he/she can always learn something new from the other [20, pp. 73-74]. Every lecturer would like to have such a audience.
Conclusion
Older adults who wish to be educated in Religious Studies at UTA at Comenius University in Bratislava sensibly perceive, how do interfere topics of lectures with value system of invididual (of themselves and that of their lecturer) and functional society. Although their interest is primary focused on attaining new knowledge and understanding, no matter what they believe in or do not believe in, they are also examining questions from the domain of personal spirituality. They are interested in the way of perception of own religion by its followers, personal practicing religious principles in everyday life of these followers, and want to know real arguments of these followers, why do they cultivate such kind of religiosity or spirituality. After that, they confront these information with their own attitude towards various spiritual issues. To understand the attitudes, which are strange to them, they normally use rationalization method. Spiritual and cognitive aspect of prehending the lecture and also in discussion following from it, are in senior students highly overlaping. If a lecturer listens to his/her senior students and follows the direction of their thinking attentively, he/she can act also as a pastoral care giver. This does not mean a rational enloignment from the subject of the lecture, but a sensitive response which is a constitutive part of the holistic approach to sentient seniors. Based on our experience with teaching senior students, we would surely recommend to every lecturer working with senior students (in particularly, when the topics of his/her study programme deal with existential questions) to be open to seniors' suggestions connected to their spiritual needs and to support them not only in the acquisition of knowledge, but also in the personal search for the meaning of the events, values, and total direction of their life. Dimension of meaning plays a key role in seniors and if we, as lecturers, handle it carefully, we can contribute to overall improvement of quality of their lives.
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