Abstract

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Title:: Retirement Spirit: A Multi-Case Study on the Role Identity of Shanghai Elders’ Learning Team Leaders

Author(s):: Yan Yue; Putuo Branch School, Shanghai Open University, Shanghai, China

Keywords:: retirement spirit; learning team leader for the elderly; role; role Identity

Abstract:: Shanghai, China, is an aging metropolis, and the elders in cities need not only a sense of security in their material life, but also spiritual and cultural aspirations. The leader of the learning team for elders is both the elderly learners and “elderly educators.” The paper use qualitative research method to collect and code the data from six Shanghai elderly learning team leaders through interviews and participatory observation based on Stryker’s role identity theory. I refer to them as “elderly educators” with a significant role identity based on the four dimensions of identity. which are commitment, support, internal and external rewards, and role involvement. The paper interpreted the characteristics of leadership role identification across individual cases using the analysis framework of leader role identification. The framework includes aspects of role cognition, emotion, and interaction. The elderly educators, lifelong learners, organizers, team managers, volunteers, and intelligent elders are shaped. The results reveal that the internalization of a leader’s self demarcation which is consistent with their self-role and social role identification. Additionally, it responds to the process of role cognition, where those “elderly educators” are performing in certain social position through role identification, thereby revealing the mechanism and essence of leaders’ role identity and cultivating elder learning teams and team leaders.