Dynamic literacy by seniors for seniors, motivations and expectations

The focus on lifelong learning, such as the creation of new educational responses that contribute to the empowerment of people and communities, as well as the recognition and valuation of multiple contexts where people acquire and share their knowledge in order to achieve universal literacy, has guided the European policy guidelines. In this article we present some results of a lifelong learning project – PROALFA, which promotes literacy workshops, focuses on learning to read and write and are directed at elderly people in residential structures. The workshops are performed voluntarily by adults, in retirement, who are students of a senior training programme of a Portuguese higher education institution. The aim is to understand the main motives, expectations and the driving forces that leads them to participate in a voluntary way, in these educational activities, meet the participants of the workshop, interact personally with them and their literacy aspects. The data we present is based on a qualitative approach, using: i) techniques of semi-structured interview, for the 4 senior facilitators of the workshop; and ii) documentary research, for the characterization of the 16 participants in the activity. We can conclude that the need to share knowledge and experiences, mutually stimulate cognition and interaction with near generations, are the main reason that lead seniors to streamline a socioeducational activity. In Portuguese society this project can be understood as good practice in adult education and for the future elderly.