The 'Other' in Ourselves : Exploring the educational power of the humanities and arts

Increasingly, scholars from many disciplines have begun to incorporate various modalities from the humanities and arts – novels, films, artwork, and other forms of expression – to help connect students with the experience of aging in deeply meaningful and person-centered ways. This collection examines how these approaches are incorporated into gerontology and geriatrics education. Rather than focusing solely on measurable outcomes, such as changes in learning over time – which is the purview of empirical pedagogy – chapters focus on strategies for successfully incorporating a specific work into the classroom, descriptions of humanities and/or arts exercises with students or older adults, and other ways that explore how the humanities and arts can be applied successfully and meaningfully in educational settings. This book was originally published as a special issue of Geronotology & Geriatrics Education.