AccScience Publishing / IJPS / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/ijps.381
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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Lifelong learning, well-being, and climate justice activism: Exploring social movement learning among Australia’s Knitting Nannas

Larraine J. Larri1*
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1 The Cairns Institute, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia
IJPS 2024, 10(2), 1–17; https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.381
Submitted: 30 September 2023 | Accepted: 15 December 2023 | Published: 15 March 2024
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Active Ageing and Educational Gerontology)
© 2024 by the Author (s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

The participation of older people in social movement learning presents a unique perspective on lifelong learning opportunities and well-aging in later life. Australia’s Knitting Nannas Against Gas and Greed exemplifies how older women have challenged the “double jeopardy of old age” embodied in ageist sexism and become well-regarded anti-coal seam gas environmental activists. This article explores how engagement in environmental activism has fostered a learning ecology, which promotes transformative and emancipatory learning dispositions that benefit well-aging. A significant gap exists in transformative environmental adult educational research in relation to the motivation for and engagement of older women in environmentalism. Drawing on my Ph.D. research, I identify how women acquire environmental and ecological literacy, develop activist skills, and cultivate emancipatory learning dispositions. They benefit from being part of a supportive community of older women, enhancing their quality of life. This phenomenon is referred to as “Nannagogy.”

 

Keywords
Ageist sexism
Critical feminist geragogy
Older learners
Social movement learning
Nannagogy
Funding
This research was enabled through funding from the Graduate Research School, James Cook University, and the Australian Government Research Training Scholarship.
Conflict of interest
The author declares that she has no competing interests.
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