Tipología y modalidad de los trabajos publicados

An understanding and critique of the social constructionist approach to research and its relevance to this study are particularly pertinent in discussing the quality and depth of this research. Constructionist studies are concerned with “how to most valuably or beneficially conceptualize” relationships and events in the world (Weinberg, 2008: 15). Constructionism is of particular relevance to understanding the learning taking place within the setting of a reminiscence group because it discourages fatalistic thinking about the world, challenging the idea that aspects of our existence, such as social withdrawal and decline in the Fourth Age of life, are inevitable. Similarly, the approach can usefully be used to reconsider ideas about the stage of life at which learning and education are of most importance and bring maximum benefit to society:

195 | P a g e

The ritual historical positioning of humans in relation to cultural objects and stories that we both make and are made over by – this, perhaps, is the elementary form of an effective social construction. This elementary form casts a social circle of believability around artificially constructed accounts of the world.

(Pfohl, 2008: 645-6) Wortham and Jackson explore the ways in which accepted conceptualisations of the learning process and the subject matter, as well as of the identities and roles of facilitators and participants, are constructs which lead to uncritical thinking about the “social structures produced and reproduced” in educational settings (2008: 107), recognising the role of social, cultural, interactional and psychological mechanisms in maintaining the status quo. Pfohl recognises how “social consensus and common sense” can be distortions of reality (2008: 657) which maintain social inequalities and injustices. Such ideas relate closely to Friere’s work (1970/1993) on the role of education in liberating oppressed peoples.

Despite the social constructionist challenge to the uncritical acceptance of established social norms, Wortham and Jackson (2008: 108) assume that some stable aspects of the social world do exist, namely, the object being constructed, the mechanism of construction and the time during which these occur within the experience of learning. Within this project, these stable elements equate to the narratives within which learning takes place, the social interactions between participants and the recognition of the need for sessions to take place at a particular time, and within a temporal context. Of particular concern to constructionist researchers is a differentiation between what is taking place and how it is taking place (for example Gubrium and Holstein, 2008: 6; Wortham and Jackson, 2008:

108). The mechanisms for learning within a reminiscence-based adult education group include the interactions between participants, the facilitative role of the reminiscence tutor, established reminiscence practices such as the use of creative activities and multi-sensory triggers, and established social positioning within group work which give participants confidence that the leader will provide a structure and

196 | P a g e

activities which will enable the group to function well. Aspects of what is being constructed through these mechanisms include the learners’ concepts of me and mine of them, as well as their self-concepts, and my understanding of my role as tutor as well as my understanding of reminiscence processes. All these factors contributing to concepts of how and what is constructed within reminiscence-based learning activities takes place within previously established objects of construction, such as those relating to society-wide images of old age and disability, ideas about learning and about who reminisces and why, and my understanding of the roles of both reminiscence tutor and researcher. In taking a social constructionist approach to understanding the learning and change taking place within participants during these sessions, it becomes clear that each participant (including me as the researcher) came to the group with preconceived ideas about what was involved in reminiscence-based learning activities. My recollection of the fieldwork sessions combined with participants’ statements about their experiences within the group, suggest that there was a shared expectation that the main focus would be on the actual memories shared, rather than on the social processes involved in and around that sharing. As previously described, my understanding of the reminiscence process altered in retrospect through careful analysis of group interactions and consideration of the changes identified in interactional style of individuals, leading to an understanding of reminiscence as a powerful tool for learning in later life which presents an unobtrusive route to encouraging participants to challenge their own assumptions about themselves, as well as their conception of their own lives in the past, present and future.

Within this research, three principle layers of construction can be seen to exist.

Firstly, each participant has constructed a narrative around their own experiences as a way of generating meaning and promoting self-understanding: “storytellers not only tell stories, they do things with them” (Holstein and Gubrium, 2013: 270). We therefore cannot be certain of the extent to which the memories recounted within the research setting consist of objectively verifiable facts or accounts of events to which others would readily concur. Secondly, I, as the researcher, in carrying out an increasingly in-depth analysis of the interactions between participants, including the

197 | P a g e

changing styles of reminiscence used by each person, construct my own narrative about what is happening within and between participants as they learn through reminiscence-based activities. Lastly, there are a number of society-wide constructions which have influenced the existence and content of this study. These include my acceptance of and understanding of the role of a tutor employed by the local council to facilitate learning experiences for older adults, alongside the existence of a social care system which provides day services for older people within which they can take part in specially designed educational programmes, in addition to dominant social attitudes towards older people and perspectives on old age which led me and my employers to believe that I was able to provide suitable and relevant learning activities for people moving towards the end of life in a way which promotes their well-being.