Gerontology as Pedagogy
By Nancy R. Hooyman

Recruiting students to gerontology field placements, specialized aging courses, and careers in aging is a challenge for most social work programs. Opportunities for personal interaction with older adults are generally found to be both an effective recruitment strategy and teaching tool. One of the Project Directors in the Geriatric Enrichment Project (GeroRich) developed the term Gerontology as Pedagogy, in recognition that experiential learning opportunities are central to changing students’ negative attitudes toward older adults and their subsequent placement and career choices. This concept also articulates the importance of attending to the how of teaching, not just what we teach.

Personal interaction with elders is typically found to be more compelling to students than written documents citing demographics or workforce needs. Experiential opportunities typically include interviewing older adults, oral history projects, service learning, voluntarism, field placements, and joint learning activities for both elders and undergraduates. Effective joint learning activities – or respectful partnerships - encompass lobbying on legislation affecting older adults, intergenerational projects, inviting elders into the classroom as speakers or students, and involving retired social workers in acting out and discussing case studies or participating in classroom simulations and tapings. For students who have had limited opportunities to interact with elders, sensory kits (insert link) can enhance their empathy but should also allow time to debrief the sensory experience and differentiate normal vs. disease-related changes.

Some programs that participated in GeroRich or the Curriculum Development Institute program implemented the expectation that all students interact with at least one older adult before graduation. While this may seem a modest proposal, its implementation could have profound effects. The field of social work will be more inclusive of all groups when opportunities to interact with elders are viewed as normative in the same way as with children and families.

Dr. Nancy R. Hooyman is the co-Principal Investigator of the CSWE Gero-Ed Center and the Hooyman Gerontology Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle.