Universidade Aberta à Terceira Idade: representações da velhice

• Autor(a) principal: Lacerda, Simone Magalhães
• Data de Publicação: 2009
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da PUC_SP
• Texto Completo: https://tede2.pucsp.br/handle/handle/12576
• topic: Gerontologia; Terceira idade; Representações sociais; Velhice; Universidade Aberta a Terceira Idade (Alfenas, MG); Envelhecimento; Idosos; Qualidade de vida; Gerontology; Seniors; Open university; Social representations; Quality of life; Old age; Aging process; CNPQ::CIENCIAS SOCIAIS APLICADAS::SERVICO SOCIAL

This paper brings a reflection that questions representations of old age, issue brought up by the coordinators and students of UNIFAL (Universidade Aberta à Terceira Idade, Universidade Federal de Alfenas-MG/ University Open to Seniors, - the Federal University of Alfenas- Minas Gerais). One of its main objectives was not only to examine the universe of this program in Alfenas centered on the elderly, but to address conceptions related to the aging process and old age itself, which provided subsidies to this program as well as to others of this nature. Accordingly, I explore, on the one hand, how notions of health, education and quality of life are mobilized and articulated to justify the opening of the university to seniors : movement which enabled me to look into representations of old age beyond the health /sickness polarity, axis articulator of organicist discourse. I, therefore, discuss the appearance of the expression seniors and its relationship to old and elderly, pointing out that the notion it refers to is linked to a renewed conception of health (which includes the complex issue concerning human welfare. ) On the other hand, I turn my attention to the history of the constitution of open universities (in Brazil and the rest of the world). In this enterprise, I identify the importance of university extension in the materialization of this program centered on seniors and the two-way avenue that is at issue in this projection outside the university walls : the university opens up to teach but it learns from the elderly. In line with this, I bring to discussion the pair teach / learn in the university realm open to seniors. Finally, I bring to light the result of data analysis, gathered in semi-structured interviews, carried out by the coordinators and students of UnATI-UNIFAL. I make use of the methodological tool used by Lefévre & Lefévre (2000) o Discurso do Sujeito Coletivo (DSC)/ Discourse of the Collective Subject in whose conceptual basis the notion of social representation lies (Moscovici, 1961; Jodelet, 1989). I try to demonstrate that , if there is the possibility of identification of general themes- among them, health/sickness/ teach/learn, losses/gains, life/death, activity/idleness - which are inscribed in the discourse of those interviewed, their unique marks should be acknowledged. Such marks very often subvert socially-crystallized discourses on the aging process and old age