Authors
Lisa S Wagner, Tana M Luger, Matthew Calamia
Publication date
2021
Publisher
American Psychological Association
Description
Age represents a unique social/demographic category for educators to tackle. An inevitability of aging is that every person will progressively change membership into different age groups throughout their lifespan (eg, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle-aged, older adult). This chapter offers dilemmas that have arisen in authors' classrooms to illustrate their different perspectives and experiences in addressing ageism in social justice courses. Instructors should model the aging process and how older people should be treated. If discussions of aging always focus on frailty and dependence, students will internalize these ideas. Failing to recognize age and its intersections (eg, race/ethnicity, gender, socio economic status) as an element of diversity and ageism as a pervasive social problem illuminates a significant blind spot in social justice work. Instructors can help to combat societal ageism by …