A new study led by Natalia Balyasnikova, associate professor in the Faculty of Education at 91亚色, is calling for a shift in how healthy aging is understood globally.

Published in the , the study responds to the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing, an international framework aimed at improving the lives of older adults through age-friendly environments, better care systems and efforts to combat ageism. While these priorities are important, Balyasnikova and her co-authors 鈥� all co-conveners of the Educational Gerontology Special Interest Group at the British Society of Gerontology 鈥� felt it reflected a recurring gap

鈥淎cross global health and aging policy frameworks, learning is largely absent or treated as peripheral,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e wanted to examine this omission more systematically and, importantly, to offer examples that demonstrate how participation in learning environments contributes to healthy aging and well-being.鈥�

To do so, the researchers turned to three real-world learning initiatives in Canada and the U.K. 鈥� projects they helped design, lead or facilitate. This first-hand involvement allowed them to analyze participant experiences in depth, rather than observe programs from a distance.

In Canada, older immigrants participated in the Seniors Storytelling Club, a 10鈥憇ession, arts-based language-learning program where learners created oral, written and multimodal stories while building community with peers. In the U.K., the team examined two initiatives: a one-day intergenerational co-creation workshop that used movement, drawing and collaborative activities to explore sustainability; and the Ageing Well Public Talks, an ongoing public education series launched in 2019 that has reached more than 90,000 participants worldwide.

Read the full article in the March 20, 2026 issue of Yfile

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Organized by three 91亚色 professors, a two-day conference titled 鈥淧sychosocial Transformations: The School, The Clinic, and The Archive鈥� will consider the connection between psychological and social change in challenging times, while honouring the impact that Distinguished Research Professor Deborah Britzman has had on the field.

The idea for the conference began with 91亚色 professors Lisa Farley, Aziz Guzel and Jen Gilbert (now at the University of Toronto) wanting to highlight psychosocial studies, a field that considers how the personal and psychological interweave with the social world in important but often elusive ways.

Driven by a desire to influence positive change, they decided to put together a conference that would foreground the emotional and social conflicts that accompany change in three contexts: the school, the clinic and the archive.  

鈥淲e chose to focus on the school, the clinic and the archive because the notion of change is implied in the fields they also represent 鈥� education, psychology, and social and political thought,鈥� says Farley. 鈥淧articularly in our own time of great change, we wanted to bring together scholars and practitioners who work in these fields to consider the convergent and divergent issues they face, and to reframe conflicts of transformation as part of a collective effort to imagine and action a more viable present and future.鈥�

The organizers hope to offer a unique opportunity to advance theories, practices, and pedagogies that support meaningful emotional and societal change. As Farley explains: 鈥淲e hope attendees will take away insights that help them raise questions about the necessity and difficulty of change, clarify pedagogical, clinical and scholarly challenges, enjoy thinking with one another, and feel connected to an interdisciplinary community as they go about their work.鈥�

What makes the two-day event stand out, too, is that it is rooted in honouring Britzman, whom Farley credits for changing the way academics think within and study theories of teaching and learning, and whose work has influenced generations of researchers in education and beyond. By design, Britzman and her work are at the core of the event because of her 40 years of inquiries into the interface between psychic life and the social and political world through their scenes of uncertainty, change and conflict. 

Farley and her co-organizers hope the conference will generate theories, initiatives, and practices to drive positive change in educational, therapeutic and scholarly contexts 鈥� all while doing justice to Britzman鈥檚 work.

鈥淲e are most proud of the balance the conference strikes between honouring Britzman鈥檚 enormous contributions to the fields of education, psychoanalysis, and social and political thought, and highlighting the major contributions of invited speakers themselves,鈥� says Farley. 鈥淭his balance is, for us, a true psychoanalytic achievement that brings folks into conversation without the collapse of difference.鈥�

The conference is taking place on Nov. 7 and 8 on 91亚色鈥檚 Keele Campus. For more information and to register, visit the event web page.

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