Katarina Friberg Felsted

Navigating the future of gerontology education: curriculum mapping to the AGHE competencies

ABSTRACT The recent adoption of gerontology competencies for undergraduate and graduate education emphasize a need for competency-based education. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the approach one program took to mapping and aligning courses to the newly adopted Association for Gerontology in Higher Education’s (AGHE) competencies in an effort to clarify curriculum needs for a diverse student population, increase the measurability of objectives, and apply for Program of Merit status through AGHE. Assessment of current courses led to mapping objectives to competencies, identifying missing content, and revising courses to reduce knowledge gaps. Barriers and facilitators to this process are examined in an effort to share the implications of one program’s competency alignment process.

Philosophical Antecedents for Post Ageing

We propose that a significant part of post ageing is therefore revolutionary and heterodoxy and iconoclastic if taken from the stance of the established domain and received view of gerontology. We further propose that there is need for the renaissance of an active philosophical examination of the emergence of post ageing scholarship activities. Whether or not one side can convince the other or win the hearts and minds of the general public, the post ageing inflection point has indeed occurred and there is the need to utilize the full range of philosophical tools at hand (e.g., epistemology, ontology, ethics) to understand the underpinnings of how it came to be, and where it is leading us.

The Promise and Challenges of Post Ageing

We are not convinced that the inflection point of optimal ageing is the ultimate culmination and apogee of all that we have done—and will do—in the domain of gerontology and geriatrics. We are most certain that a burgeoning inflection point has arrived and made an impact by challenging our received views within the “ageing enterprise.” We submit that the GRIN technologies will disrupt and flip on its head each and every previous inflection point and its attendant prevailing view. In the past, ageing has been the optic by which we reflect on decline and mortality, problem-solve the symptoms of senescence, enact policies to buffer the demographic transitions, and promote lifestyles, attitudes, diets, and outlooks that will reframe the later years into civic engagement, wisdom, and legacy. But that was then, and this is now, when we will have to make room for this new perspective of “post ageing”, even the radical versions, in our classrooms, conferences, and publications. Despite the heated rhetoric and polemics that have been associated with “anti-ageing medicine” and human life extension, the intersection of technology and ageing is substantial and significant.

[5.0] Post Ageing

To reinterpret the developments and shifts in gerontology from an historical perspective (in hindsight) by using inflection points is one thing, but to offer a prospective prevailing theme (such as [5.0]) before any critical mass has taken place to verify and corroborate the theme actually exists is bound to be a risky venture, a conjecture, even an adventure. But such is the purpose of this book: to tread carefully, but with courage and integrity, so as to look ahead and create the profile for what we think is the next inflection point in gerontological research, teaching, and application.

Viable Criticisms for the Radical Version of Post Ageing [5.5 and >]

The radical version of the “post ageing” inflection point (and its exemplars) is simply not satisfied with scientific advancements to merely compress morbidity, know about the causes of the how and why of ageing, optimize ageing, or to manipulate and modify only the external environments that surround the ageing individual (e.g., assistive technology)—no, the goals are more monumental with dramatic consequences for just about every sphere of human existence. In our opinion, at the very core of the motivation and operations of SENS, and SENSE, and the possibility of a technological singularity (see Goertzel 2007; Kurzweil 2005) is to move beyond ageing so that the modus operandi in the radical version is to modify, rejuvenate, and transcend (see Harris 2010). The goal is not to simply make the best of what we have, rather it is to make more—and better—than what we have (Garreau 2005). The radical version of post ageing will only be satisfied when scientific advancements and the use of technologies can fully intervene with the internal environment of the human body and address the ultimate “limits” of human finitude and uniqueness (the epitome of intelligence). Indeed, it is the specter of mortality, the presence of death as a natural outcome of human existence that is to be reckoned with assertively, and most decisively through SENS, SENSE, and Singularity.

[5.3] to [5.4] Transition Publications from the Moderate Version of the Inflection Point (and Positive Derivative) to the Radical Version

The issues of ethics, morality, limits, purpose, meaning, significance, and the process of science bring us to the crossroads where the moderate version [5.1 to 5.4] of the inflection point will cross over to the radical version [5.5 and >] of the curvature and towards the activities and literature that will propel the movement onward to Post Ageing (ageing as an artifact). But the crossing over is not a simple bridge or even necessarily a smooth transition. Furthermore, we do not want to leave the reader with the impression that there is necessarily a demarcation between the moderate and radical versions of the curvature; rather, the incremental points ([5.1], [5.2], [5.3], [5.4] and so on) noted in the literature represent significant precursors or “portals” toward the radical version and not just a separate category of technology and ageing issues.

[5.5 and >] Radical Versions of the Inflection Point and Positive Derivative

The idea of ageing will have become associated with an experience that was in the past, and humans will have moved beyond the process of ageing into a vastly different living experience permeated by qualitative enhancements and bioengineering. With post ageing, there is the expectation of a longevity that would surpass what we now associate with the “maximum life span” of our species.

Toward Post Ageing

In this work, the authors present a provocative interdisciplinary meta-analysis (contrasting ‘‘paradigms’’ with ‘‘inflection points’’) to describe and understand the emergent and expanding role of technologies that hold both promise and possible peril for transforming the ageing process in this century. This book is directed to professionals who wish to review the continuum of varied constructs and intersects of technologies ranging from those purporting to enhance the ‘‘activities of daily living’’ in older adults, to those that would enable the older worker to stay ‘‘competitive’’ in the labor market, to those who propose to extend longevity, making senescence negligible, ultimately claiming to transcend ‘‘ageing’’ itself— moving toward a transhumanistic domain. There is a discussion of the points and counterpoints of technological advances that would influence a reconstruction of what it means to ‘‘age’’ when embedded in a post-human vision for a postbiological future. While these advancements and intersects represent indicators of ‘‘optimal ageing’’ they may in fact represent the desire and resultant actions that would transcend ‘ageing’ altogether. It is proposed that society has reached critical mass in both literature and technological outcomes, and therefore, we can begin to address the actual, putative, and speculative impacts and influences on the ageing experience. Based on this proposition, it is further claimed that advances in technology would affect epistemological and ethical issues and alter the expectations and educational practices for the ageing experience in our lifetime.

[5.1] to [5.2] Moderate Versions of the Inflection Point and Positive Derivative

In the discussion of the shift from [4.0] to the different versions of [5.x] inflection points, we will introduce a secondary degree typology to categorize the developments along the change in direction (and along the positive derivative) using the labels of moderate and radical regarding the intersection of technology with ageing issues. The demarcation between the two will be determined by the direct relevance to and association with the GRIN technologies (Garreau 2005), (genetic, robotic, information, and nano processes). The moderate versions of the [5.x] inflection point have ample connections and references to technology and Ageing in the publications and still represent the prevailing view, but the topics have primarily focused on assistive technology, the human factor, applied psychology and cognitive science (see Helal et al. 2008).The moderate versions have focused on the use of the Internet by older adults, computer-mediated and computer-based communication, household and safety monitoring, and tele-health applications (see Grierson et al. 2009; Kang et al. 2010; Orlov 2010). In order to reach the radical version of the emergent inflection point—and thus merit a greater inflection point “score” [5.x]—the publication would have to explicitly indicate the intersection of technologies and bioengineering issues with the ageing process to which Garreau (2005) has alluded.

The Use of Inflection Points

In brief, inflection point [1.0]—representing the Philosophy of Ageing as a technique for coping with the shortness of life, or the finiteness of time—has been superseded by several new inflection points, with [5.0]—representing Post Ageing, or ageing as an artifact, with an array of bio-technological advancements and interventions in the ageing process as our current temporal setting. Between these two diametrical poles, one quite philosophical and one quite technological, there have been three other inflection points ([2.0], [3.0], and [4.0]). Each inflection point represents a change in direction in the flow of purpose and praxis for what constitutes a dominant theme in conducting inquiry relating to ageing. Many readers will find the heuristic of inflection points to be closely related to other terms that have been used in the history and philosophy of science, such as paradigms, conjectures, exemplars, disciplinary matrix, and the cognitive apparatus of a given scientific community (Conant and Haugeland 2000; Kuhn 1970, 1977; Popper 1963; Suppe 1977). Similarly related has been the use of terms like research programme, research tradition, representational spaces, critical transitions and threshold of epistemologization (Agamben 2009; Hung 2001; Lakatos 1970; Laudan 1984; Scheffer 2009).