Lifelong learning in age-inclusive higher education: The case of a Catalonian university and its plurilingual and intercultural classrooms

Adopting a case study approach within the Inclu-Linguam research project on inclusion, multilingualism, and interculturality in higher education, this article reports on the challenges and opportunities encountered by older learners at a highly internationalized university in Barcelona. At this university, which welcomes older students through an intergenerational life-long learning program, formal instruction is provided in the two official local languages, Catalan and Spanish, alongside English as the primary language of internationalization. This study explores both the sociolinguistic and educational barriers that older learners may face when attending classes alongside younger undergraduate students as well as the opportunities for engagement and inclusion generated by an intergenerational and multilingual educational context. The data consisted of semi-structured interviews eliciting personal narratives of twelve volunteer participants. By means of interdisciplinary data analysis, this study engages with the theoretical frameworks of narrative gerontology, educational sociolinguistics and positioning theory, and foregrounds the voices and lived experiences of older students. The ultimate aim of the study is to offer recommendations that accommodate diverse learner profiles, enhance age-inclusive educational practices, advance equity, diversity, and intergenerational dialogue in higher education, and promote active citizenship in later life. The study will be of interest to scholars in educational gerontology, age studies, intercultural education, as well as policymakers and advocates of age inclusivity in higher education and broader society.