A Field Study of Arts Education for Elders in Chang Gung Health and Culture Village

• Main Authors: Kuo-Chun Lee, 李國駿
• Other Authors: Ju-I Yuan
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/80135542211642935400

碩士 === 國立臺北教育大學 === 藝術與造形設計學系碩士班 === 99 === This research project has been conducted as a field study of arts education for elders in Chang Gung Health and Culture Village since March of 2007. Developing from a close observation on the programming of the environment and the activities by the executive committee of the village, this paper further explores the senior residents’ actual feelings towards the activities and formulates interpretations to discourse upon the substantial meanings of arts and arts education in the late lives of the residents there. Through the long field work, the results showed that the realization of arts or arts education for elders was not as simple or taken for granted as previous studies had argued. While the elders unconsciously engaged themselves in arts behaviors, their attitudes towards arts and arts education were influenced by their personal characteristics, physical and mental conditions, experiences after retirement, and other stimulations, in addition to traditional cultures. From the perspective of “culture,” the purpose of the study was to discourse upon the role of arts and arts education as the elders encountered culture shocks and adaptation problems in their late lives. The findings were considered under the following aspects: (1) arts lent support to the elders in rites of passage; (2) the elders’ adaptation of life attitudes and lifestyles frequently meant certain adjustment of aesthetics to them; (3) how the elders engaged themselves in art of life; (4) the elders tended to be “enthusiastic at first yet dispassionate at last” in their arts behaviors. The value and the meaning of arts education for elders were also investigated for indigenous compatibility reference in the aged society in Taiwan. Nevertheless, there is a need for future research to examine the guidelines for the practice of arts education for elders, and suggestions on future research have also been included.