Elderly and Young People's Attitudes towards Intergenerational Learning: The Slovak Perspective

Every generation has their own values, attitudes and identities that are learned, shaped and shared in a cultural context. Intergenerational learning can play a crucial role in achieving many societal, political and educational goals, and it can contribute to solving problems and issues related to active ageing, smart communities, ageism and age segregation, community identity, etc. The paper presents attitudes of the Slovak young people and seniors to intergenerational learning based on questionnaire survey on the sample of 1,447 respondents. In the first two parts, the authors provide an overview of existing approaches to conceptualization of the intergenerational model of learning and related concepts. The third section highlights intergenerational learning in the context of social inclusion and universities' third mission role. Finally, the paper presents a case study of 13 universities – members of The Association of Universities of the Third Age (AUTA) of Slovakia. It is aimed at a comparison of generational reflection of value hierarchy, benefits of intergenerational learning, and barriers to its implementation. The authors conclude by formulating the key findings and recommendations for implementation of intergenerational learning at the level of organisation, community, as well in the national context.