Successful Aging And Lifelong Learning Summary

The article “ Understanding and Theorizing the Role of Culture in the Conceptualizations of Successful Aging and Lifelong Learning” by Maureen Tam is an informative and insightful article that examines culture through continuous learning and successful aging as one progresses through life, and being able to accept and appreciate it. This article by Tam explains elderly individuals’ understandings and own value systems about cultural importance to examine the relation between the ideas of successful aging and lifelong learning with culture; it also dives into presenting a culturally relevant theoretical framework to explain these variables. The author is able to draw reader’s attention to the main points of the article by using relevant sources and emphasizing different cultural views on aging and continuous learning. The definition of successful aging has continuously been changing since early literature. In early literature, it was based on a biomedical model in which emphasized on being free from illness. The definition was later changed by two researchers, …show more content…
The author argues that the Kluckhohian model should also be used to explain and account for the differences and similarities by the people within and across the culture. The article thoroughly researched and the author presents the readers with valid sources to achieve the intended goal of the article. The author comes with appropriate conclusions about the East-West dichotomous culture as being too simplistic because it assumes that cultural differences are due to the cultural group in question. The East-West comparison often assumes that cultures are characterized by a fixed condition and does not change. Makes it a point that the Kluckhonian framework sheds light on issues within individual cultures and as well as between