(H)OLD ON PROJECT - EDUCATION AND PARTICIPATION IN THE COMMUNITY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF LEADERS
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In our day and age, collaborative work is of the utmost importance for the development of research projects as well as the establishment of solid networks in a myriad of knowledge areas. It was in this context that the European project QuILL – Quality in Language Learning – saw its first light. Written and coordinated by Pixel-Italy in cooperation with the project applicant and scientific coordinator, the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (Portugal), it is funded by the Erasmus+ programme, KA2 – Strategic Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness. The partner institutions in the project are as follows: Vilnius University, Faculty of Philology, (Lithuania); Cuza University of Iaşi, Department of Language Learning, (Romania); University of Bologna (Italy); Károli Gáspár University (Hungary); and Universidad de Cordoba (Spain). The first intellectual output (IO) of our international project was achieved, that is the collection of online open educational resources, which enabled us already to put an open-access database together in 18 European languages. This IO followed a collaborative approach, through the interaction among the partners, but also through their multilingual and multicultural teams that oversaw the assessment and validation of these resources by means of case studies, the analysis of the type of resources, the methods suggested, and their application in real learning-teaching contexts. Guided by the same collaboration input, the second IO for QuILL consists in the creation an on-line training package for the identification, use and creation of digital-based language teaching and learning sources for teaching languages at higher education level. Regarding the third IO, we intend to publish a document that seeks to highlight and analyse the technological potential for language learning in European higher education systems. Our aim with this paper is not only to reflect on the outputs already achieved or under development and their added value for an increasingly technological education, but also on the strengths and shortcomings of international collaboration, of which QuILL will be a case in point.
This communication aims to disseminate the research carried out in the (H)OLD ON Project - Civic
participation of older adults in Senior Universities and in the local community. This is a participatory
education and research project, implemented in Senior Universities (SU) in the northeast of Trás-osMontes, Portugal. A culture of education and lifelong learning, centered on the location and with an
impact on the community, values active citizenship in various situations, and in this specific case, in the
contexts of non-formal education in the US. It is worth mentioning the project's intention to start with the
mobilization of participatory dynamics in the various moments of its realization. Leaders play an
important role in this decision-making process and in creating opportunities for active and participatory
citizenship. It is possible to identify different situations in the Portuguese reality, depending on the origin
and management of the US, verifying that in some cases, the leader is, at the same time, managerteacher-student. It is interesting to reflect on the relationship between the effects of leadership decisions
and the consolidation of the role of older adults in education and civic participation processes. The
project asks how the civic participation of older adults in the SU can be a way of maintaining the
awareness of an active citizenship, which continues to contribute to social dynamics, despite no longer
being part of a professional activity. One of the objectives recommended by the project is to analyse the
effects of participation, on the participants and on the community, taking into account the different
dynamics of implementation. Using a qualitative methodology for data analysis, the investigation
included, in addition to other techniques, interviews with SU educators to assess their perception of the
students' potential for participation and, if possible, involve them. in the project and also to the leaders
of the SU, to assess the impact of the project on the institution and on the people involved, as well as
on the communities in which they operate. The evaluation of the project's impact on the community was
considered in the planning process of the community intervention and took into account the
particularities of specific projects developed in each of the SUs. It should be noted that participation in
the project was conditioned by the influence of the Covid-19 pandemic on the functioning of the
institutions. As a result, it is worth mentioning the recognition of the relevance of the project, by the
leaders of the SU and by the participants. Despite the support of the leaders for the project, it is
necessary to continue to promote initiatives of this nature, which promote the effective civic participation
of older adults in the community, in educational processes and in personal and social development.
This work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UIDB/05777/2020
