Teaching Through Remembering: Using Written Reminiscences in Courses for Older Adults

This article presents the use of reminiscence work in educational courses for older adults. The author analyzes a course that addresses experiences of time and the process of remembering at a later age. The study demonstrates how reminiscences, written by participants of the course, are used as illustrative material for some of the theoretical points. They are also instrumental in unfolding an answer to one of the key questions of the course, which is, what is the meaning of remembering in later life? The author argues that an educative use of personal reminiscences can improve the insight of the participants in theoretical issues at hand and can help them to develop new social skills, thus enabling them to translate experiences of aging into a sense-making process in later life. In addition, an educational application of reminiscence work broadens the possibilities for the participants to strengthen their feeling of belonging and to reach beyond one dominant version of history.