LIFELONG LEARNING AND CONVIVIALITY AMONG OLDER MEN IN URBAN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES IN PORT HARCOURT NIGERIA

This study examines the various convivial meeting places of elderly men in urban indigenous communities through which men can foster lifelong learning for sustainable lifestyle in the third stage of their life. The study examines learning experiences of the elderly men in these places, the benefits of these learning experiences to the individual and to the community and the challenges of elderly men learning in these sites. The data for this study were drawn from four urban indigenous communities in Port Harcourt Nigeria through a survey of elderly men and FDGs with some elderly men in their convivial meeting places. The study shows multiple sites of informal learning such as medical/health centre, games centre, recreational centre and town hall. Each of these sites fosters diverse learning experiences such as improve social skill, meeting new friends and sharing experiences, sustained literacies, increase community capacity to handle problem, and good community governance. It is concluded that such learning for elderly men is essentially ontological, about being, rather than cognitive, or about knowing and that learning in these sites fosters social capital and creates lifelong learning for sustainable lifestyle among men in later life.