Histórias de vida de mulheres idosas: um novo espaço de aprendizagem - UNATI/UFPel.

Abstract

With the intention to integrate quality of life, in addition to social and educational inclusion, in 2016, the Federal University of Pelotas (Universidade Federal de Pelotas, UFPEL) began to offer an Institutional Development Program with non -regular courses for people aged 60 or over, named UNATI, Universidade Aberta à Terceira Idade(Open University for studies on the elderly). The course program expresses a manner of thinking the aging process from a new perspective that legitimize continuous development. Purposing to understand the goals of the women who entered UNATI, the research contemplated the understanding of aging and new ways of learning from it. The study was based on data collected from interviews on the oral history of lives of these older women, as well as, in narratives expressed in the subject: Aging and quality of life: the dynamics of contemporary life, which was provided by the researcher. The research is anchored in female authors who work on the aging theory and the women’s role in several contexts that constitute gender reference in this study. From the narratives, it was possible to notice that these women had different life stories and, as a consequence, different ways of face the aging process. Throughout life, they coped with male world to earn their places by means of resistance and courage to search for themselves, considering their own desires and wishes. They occupied spaces of new learning experiences, with possibilities of sociability, rediscovering new paths and amazements. Although UNATI/UFPEL is nowadays an initial project, the research supports the need for society to take further steps towards the responsibility to integrate the growing aging population in biological, social, environmental, cognitive and psycho-affective aspects.