Educationalists discuss the topic "Aging and the Elderly"

Interested parties are cordially invited to view the program on the 7th floor of the BTU's Information, Communication and Media Centre (IKMZ). Participation is free of charge.

The focus will be on images of humanity that are thematized in connection with old age and aging. The focus is not only on individual patterns of experience, but also on their social-cultural framing. Buzzwords like 'aging society' show a social thematization in which being old appears as a problem. The conference aims to consider such current, as well as historical, evaluations of aging and the elderly and to discuss their pedagogical significance.

One of the highlights in the program will be the keynote lecture by Dr. Miriam Haller, an educational and cultural scientist from Cologne, on "Passages, Alter(n)sbilder und kulturelle Bildung im Alter." A workshop of the Centre for Continuing Education and the Chair of Educational Sciences of the BTU is dedicated to the topic "Ageing and the elderly in the mirror of digital technologies". In this joint project, participants will familiarize themselves with digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and immerse themselves in the world of virtual reality. They then discuss their experiences with regard to the needs and possibilities of elderly people in order to approach the conference topic.

The conference "Aging and the Elderly" is being organizedunder the leadership of Prof. Dr. Juliane Noack Napoles, who heads the Chair of Education Sciences at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg. The scientist is a member of the DGfE and the Commission for Pedagogical Anthropology.
Referring to her key research area, she explains: "Under the concept of eudaimogenesis, I am concerned with questions about enabling a successful life, which are central especially in socio-professional contexts, but also more generally for all phases of life. In turn, this is linked to images of the human being that have (social) pedagogical implications, which we will explore together during the conference."
In teaching, Prof. Noack Napoles has developed the BTU-specific teaching-learning format EudaPraX (Eudaimogenese Praktisch) for Social Work studies. A cooperation established within this framework over the course of three semesters with the project Ageing Innovations of the BTU and the cities of Guben and Spremberg focuses on the topic of "Aging and the Elderly" both practically and theoretically.

Background:
With the topic "Aging and the Elderly" at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU), the Commission for Pedagogical Anthropologyof the German Society for Education Sciences (DGfE) continuesitsfocus on different ages of life. Thus, the 2015 annual conference in Cologne was entitled "Kinder-Kindheit", the 2017 conference in Klagenfurt was dedicated to "Jugenden", and the 2019 conference in Cologne to "Erwachsene".

The program and the registration form for the 2023 conference can be found here: www.b-tu.de/fg-erziehungswissenschaften/anthropologie23