Dinah Bisdee

University of Surrey

Background

I’m a mature student. I came back into studying about four years ago after I got made redundant from my job. I did an MSc in Social Psychology at Surrey then stayed on to do a PhD which I got funding for. Before that I worked in market research as a project director. I have three adult children and live in Guildford. I worked on my PhD full-time but am now part-time and in the final stages of writing it up. I’m hoping to submit end September.

Why ageing?

Two main reasons. One was that I felt that when I was made redundant I was a bit of a victim of ageism in that my boss was about 15 years younger than me and I think she had difficulty supervising someone quite a bit older than her. I didn’t have any difficulties with it but she seemed to. I think that was one reason why I volunteered to be made redundant because I was so unhappy. The other thing, to be perfectly honest, I was in my early fifties and I thought that if I studied ageism I would be less likely to be a victim of it myself, in that the university could hardly reject me on the basis of being too old if my subject was ageism! In the event, far from rejecting me, they awarded me a departmental studentship (teaching assistantship).

Studying as a mature age student

When I did my first degree at the normal age when one does these things I’d wanted to do further study but I just couldn’t afford it the. After that, I had a career, mortgages and family commitments and I couldn’t afford to take the time to do it. But when my children started leaving home and I was made redundant I realised I could just about manage it.

I think the main advantage of studying as a mature age student is that I am well aware of the value of time. I’d been self-employed for various bits of my career and I was able to sit down and motivate myself to get on with things. The main disadvantage is that you have so many other responsibilities – when I started, my youngest children were doing A-levels and they needed attention, my house needed attention and so on – these things interfere when you’re an older student.

My previous career helped me because I was used to doing research studies. It’s helped me a lot in qualitative interviewing and survey expertise. My career involved organising and designing surveys so these skills are very relevant.

What do you enjoy most about doing the PhD?

I find the whole process of doing research so interesting. One of the reasons I was unhappy in my job was that they put me in a position where I wasn’t able to do research any more. Because of my seniority and to some extent my age, they had put me in a position involving management and sales, rather than actually doing the research. It dawned on me one day that what I really liked doing was research on subjects I was interested in. That gave me the idea of going back to university to do the Masters and then the PhD. I also enjoyed the teaching – I had a studentship (teaching assistantship) while doing the PhD – I wouldn’t like to make a career of it though – bit late for that now – but I enjoyed doing it.

Your PhD

My PhD is on workplace ageism. I’m interested in all sorts of prejudice; why it happens, what is it about groups that are the target of prejudice that causes it to happen. There’s a theory that threat of some kind is involved in the development of prejudice and discrimination. Early on in the research I found that there was a threat – work environments nowadays are such a threatening environment - everybody’s got these incredibly tough targets; remuneration depends on achieving your target … you can’t have anyone in your team who won’t pull their weight. When you look at the way older workers are stereotyped - they haven’t got energy, they’re not interested, they won’t get training, learn IT skills - this seems to work against them. When given the choice employers will prefer a younger worker, and in the main I’m finding that this threat is underlying the discrimination and prejudice against older workers. I tested this with an experiment where I had experimental conditions of higher and lower pressure of work and ageism was far greater in the higher stress condition than the lower.

Best piece of advice?

To treat doing the PhD like a job, like being employed. But I haven’t been able to do this because I’ve needed to earn money as well. I’ve been doing freelance work which has taken time away. My studentship hasn’t enabled me to work on the PhD full-time without doing extra work – it’s OK, but it’s not enough to live on when you’ve got mortgages and other things to pay and you’re on your own, a single parent.

Advice to others?

I think doing a PhD’s really difficult, not particularly the work itself but the process of it, the need to be very self-reliant. You need to be able to motivate yourself and to set up and try to keep to a timetable. I can’t say I have always managed this! Also, the fact that you have to do absolutely everything yourself – transcribing interviews, data entry, all the analysis – it is very very time consuming and I think it is easy to get demotivated. I think it’s also important to try to manage your relationship with your supervisor, to accept that it’s you who has to do the work not them, they may provide guidance and be a sounding board but it is one’s own responsibility.

BSG/NOGS

I’ve been a member for about three years, since starting the PhD. I think I found out about it through an internet search or through Kate Davidson. It gives me some contact with others working in the field of ageing, a chance to find out about their work. I went to the NOGS conference last year. It would be good to have regional talks and get-togethers for members to discuss their work. This would give more frequent opportunities for contact for both students and people working in gerontology, whatever their university discipline.

 

Future plans?

I’d quite like to work in an academic setting. But I’m in my late 50s now and so not about to start a career. I don’t really want to, or need to, work full-time. Ideally I suppose I’d like a part-time research job if one came up. I’d also like to write as many articles as I can to try to get my research to a wider audience – lay as well as academic.

 

Elizabeth Brooks

Newcastle University 

Background

I’m 44, married, childfree and enjoying life in a Northumberland country town, having spent the preceding 20 years with a very busy life in London.

Why ageing?

I changed career in my early 30s from a very different field. In order to gain experience, I had taken on some care work with older people, and after three years working with adults with mental health problems, I realised I had been much happier working with older people. I’ve never looked back.

Where are you studying?

I’m in my second year of studying at the School of Architecture, Landscape and Planning, Newcastle University. I am delighted to be in an architecture school, as my first MA had an architectural topic. The North East is one of the three areas that we had decided as possible destinations when we left London.

I’m studying full-time and receive a grant of around £15,000 (including expenses and excluding taxes) from joint sponsors ESRC/DCLG.

What’s your PhD about?

My PhD is entitled “Are country towns and villages sustainable environments for older people?” The study aims to identify ways in which sustainability, both personal and global, may be increased or decreased by older people’s rural migrations.

Why this topic?

I saw the award, with the same title as above, advertised online. It was at a point when my husband had just completed teacher training and we were able to move out of London. Since my undergraduate degree, when I was a founder member of a Student Ecology Group, I have been passionate about sustainability issues. The study looked like a perfect way of combining three interests: ageing, sustainability, rural living.

Why now?

I guess the main reason that I’m so late in doing my PhD is that I changed career in my early thirties. I had to redo the first two stages – in this case, Bachelors and Masters degrees - working part-time and paying for myself, as I’d used up my allocation of grant the first time around.

Before moving to Newcastle to do the PhD I was a research and communications manager at a small national charity for older people. It was a time when charities were changing and research was more and more outsourced to academic providers rather than being carried out in-house. I felt left out of research projects I would like to have been involved in, because I simply didn’t have the time and resources to contribute.

What have you enjoyed most about doing the PhD so far?

The best thing has been the immense luxury of having unstructured time and huge online and library resources, so that I can inform myself properly and enjoy my favourite aspect of academic work – writing. Unlike my first career in arts which was an individualistic field, social science work is very collaborative. I gained some experience of group work in my employment, but find I am getting more out of it with the PhD, where I have been able to choose the colleagues I collaborate with.

Challenges?

It was lonely in my first year, when we knew hardly anyone up here in Northumberland. A year and half on, we are enjoying a nice social life, albeit totally different from the London one. Also I think from pressures of my job I had picked up the habit of act first, reflect later, with regard to producing written work to deadlines and it was initially difficult to make myself spend sizeable periods of time in order to gain better, more reflective results, rather than just racing through tasks in order to feel productive.

Impact on life?

It’s been rejuvenating – I feel 10 years younger!

Best piece of advice?

Very few people will enjoy every aspect of a PhD and it’s the bits you don’t enjoy that give you the stress. So try to plan those bits you find hard especially well and surround then with all the stuff you love.

 Advice for others contemplating doing a PhD?

Don’t let the opportunity pass you by.

BSG/NOGS

I’ve been a member since 2006. Ingrid Eyers mentioned it to me at the 2006 BSG conference and I followed that up with an email to Kelly Fitzgerald.

I like the look of the yearly event, although sadly this year, I could not make it. I haven’t really explored the web resources yet, but intend to do so. I’m hoping that it may be possible to get networks of people together on specific topics. I imagine that this happens mainly informally at the events, although I see there is an invitation to do this on the web page, too.

 What do you think about the name NOGS?

The name ‘NOGS’ sounds a bit questionable I suppose – what about NeSteG (Network of Students in Gerontology) – it sounds like a treasure you are building up for the future, which gerontology is, certainly for those of us who live long enough to become our own research interest!

Future plans?

I hope to stay in a field that links older people and sustainability, one way or another.

Key issues for an ageing population which need to be addressed by researchers now and in the future?

Older people are well-placed to make a huge contribution to the sustainability of our places and communities. Research needs to address the ways in which this can be supported to happen.

Tracy Collins

Keele University

Background
I’m 38 years old and live in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. I’m a Lecturer in Occupational Therapy at the University of Salford and have been studying part time for my PhD at Keele since 2003. Prior to that I worked in the United States for six years as an Occupational Therapist and completed an MA in Sociology part time at the University of Memphis. I studied for my degree in Occupational Therapy full time at the University of Leicester following a career in the Royal Air Force.

Why ageing?

Since becoming an Occupational Therapist I have worked primarily with older people and have taken an interest in the many issues and challenges encountered in later life. Since I’ve been at Keele I’ve been welcomed by the gerontology department which has helped to develop my interest in ageing.

Where are you studying?

I’m studying at Keele and chose Keele because my research interests married well with those of the Sociology department. It was also convenient as I was working as an Occupational Therapist in the area at the time. I am just coming to the end of my fourth year, I’m currently analysing my data and writing draft chapters of my findings.

I’m studying part time. Initially as an NHS employee the trust that I worked for funded half of my fees. The University of Salford now fund all of my Fees.

What’s your PhD about?

My research is concerned with how social relationships help older women to manage later life widowhood. The study is longitudinal and has involved three qualitative in- depth interviews focusing on personal communities and the social celebration of Christmas.

why this topic?

My Masters dissertation compared social capital formation in the United States and Britain, so I was interested in social relationships and wanted to continue research in that area. Working with older people heightened my awareness of the many complex transitions which can occur in later life and I wanted to explore how social relationships help to manage change; widowhood was particularly poignant as my father’s recent death had led to my mother becoming an older widow.

Why now?

I came into higher education a little later in life, I studied for A’ levels part time in my early twenties while serving in the RAF, and completed my Occupational Therapy degree in my late twenties. By then I’d got the learning bug and absolutely loved working on my Masters degree, particularly the dissertation and this made me want to go on to do the PhD.

What have you enjoyed most about doing the PhD so far?

I think learning new skills, being challenged and managing a project that is hopefully of interest and relevance to people. Meeting the older widows who have helped me with my research has been a pleasure and a privilege.

Challenges?

Mainly negotiating different stages of the process. You get quite comfortable with one stage and then have to make the leap to another which can be quite intimidating, for example moving from data collection to analysis. I think maintaining motivation can be difficult at times particularly when you are studying part time because it takes that much longer.

Impact on life?

I feel it has become part of my life now! I think I question things more, and I think many of the skills are transferable and have enhanced my work as a lecturer and Occupational Therapist. I’ve also made some great friends at Keele, including my partner.

Best piece of advice?

I think networking with fellow PhDs and attending conferences. It really helps to put things into perspective, you know that you’re not alone and that others are experiencing the same challenges, it’s also great to share your research with others and get some feedback.

Advice for others contemplating doing a PhD?

Make sure your topic is really of interest to you as you’ll be working on it for a long time! Also having a good match of supervisors to your topic so they can inspire and support you through the process.

BSG/NOGS

I think I’ve been a member for about three years now. I got to know about it through my supervisor Pat Chambers and also Tom Scharf invited me to become involved with a NOGS event in London and Keele supported me by covering my travel expenses which was great.

I feel BSG/NOGS provides a supportive ‘home’ for my research and also helps me to develop as a researcher and academic. The annual conference is great as is the journal and review. I’ve also made some good supportive friends through NOGS.

BSG could further encourage and help students and early stage researchers by perhaps having workshops, such as writing for journals or conferences, or maybe even a summer school. This would help develop skills and networking.

What do you think about the name NOGS?

I think the acronym NOGS sounds a little odd somehow - maybe just BSG student network or BSG student forum, so it has a definite link to BSG?

Future plans?

I’d like to develop a career in gerontology. The study of ageing has become a bit of a passion now! Family and friendships in later life are fascinating so I’d like to continue research in this area.

Key issues for an ageing population which need to be addressed by researchers now and in the future?

I think the perception or stereotype that older people are a problem needs to be challenged. I think bringing to the fore issues such as poverty and social isolation/exclusion is essential as often this is hidden or not seen as a priority.

Emma Cope

University of Surrey

Background

I’m working as a Research Officer at University of Surrey on the NDA project work package on care homes looking at sleep of older people. We’re going to compare this with sleep of older people in community. That’s full-time, and out of that I’ll be doing a part-time PhD on older people in care homes, linked to their sleep.

Why ageing?

I finished my Masters in Health Psychology and I’d always tried to choose topics related to older people. I really like older people and I don’t think they’re represented enough, I think this country is quite down on old people and I can never work out why because I’d much rather sit and have a chat with an older person than with my own age really. Working with older people gives me a better perspective, because they’re not so interested in the bigger things, it’s the little things in life, it’s much more simple, it’s about whether they’re happy, whether they enjoyed their dinner that day, whether they’ve had a phone call from a son or daughter, so it brings you back down to reality. They’re not so bothered about qualifications, how big your house is, money, what kind of car you’ve got. It’s nice – it’s a step back.

BSG/NOGS

I’ve only been a member a few months, so not too long. I suppose it’s a ground where you’re coming from, so this is what you fall back to for support, advice – it’s your label, makes you feel you belong to something, involved in something, a bigger picture – because sometimes when you’re working, doing all the research you can feel a bit isolated.

Going to the NOGS event at Keele has been really interesting. The first presentation was so similar to what I’ve experienced in my first data collection. It’s recognition that what you’re doing is all about your feelings as well – you get quite emotionally involved and you’re always told to keep a distance whereas this presentation was about how you do get involved and it’s not such a bad thing because you’re human and you’re talking to other people, you’re going to have some sort of empathy and to sort of respect that rather than try to push against it all the time. Yes, just talking to other students makes you feel you’re part of something a lot bigger and you’re doing some good.

What do you think about the name NOGS?

I think it’s awful, but people keep making a good point that everyone’s remembered it. As for an alternative, I quite like the idea emerging researchers, going though the process of research and emerging – I think that should be somewhere in it. Emerging is nice because it’s saying you’re not quite there yet but you’re going through the process of getting there – emerging is quite a positive word to use.

Key issues for an ageing population which need to be addressed by researchers now and in the future?

I think that we have got a bad attitude towards older people – I don’t think we’re learning enough from older people – we don’t tend to ask them enough about what they want to change. When I sit and talk to them they’ve got some brilliant ideas, especially in the care home, and in terms of the care home staff, they don’t tend to interact so much with the older people but when you sit and chat with them, they’ve got great ideas on what they’d like to see happen in the home and they’re all feasible but there’s no one who can put it into practice who’s asking them – there’s a lack of communication with older people.

I think there’s a need to train the care home staff, to point out the importance of communication – it’s all so based on physical care, incontinence changing, washing, bathing and that’s their structure throughout the day, whether they’ve eaten, had their medication, and there’s nowhere in it about their emotional well-being. Maybe if there was some sort of universal training which spoke about the importance of communicating, having a chat, and involving them – it’s their home, they live in it all the time but they’re not involved in any of the decisions. 

Florence Meng Soi, Fong

University of Sheffield

Background

I’m Florence Fong, from the University of Sheffield and I’m in the third year of my PhD. My topic focuses on intergenerational relationships in Hong Kong, particularly for people in later life.

Why ageing?

I don’t have any grandparents but in Chinese society we take older people very seriously, we take good care of them and show respect. But now the society’s changing and I want to see what’s happening. There is a big impact from socio-economic forces, for example, older people experience very difficult living situations in terms of economic choice, and some aspects of traditional Chinese culture, like filial piety, have changed.

Key issues for an ageing population in Hong Kong?

Intergenerational support in terms of social pensions is a big issue. We still believe that children should take good care of our older people. But older people themselves don’t have very good jobs, their pay is very low and many of them are forced to retire early so they don’t have any support and the government doesn’t support them. We have social security but this is for people who are not able to take care of themselves and who have no children to support them. So older people are financially disadvantaged.

BSG/NOGS

I joined BSG this year because of the NOGS event. It offers me a chance to chat with others about what they do. The name NOGS is easy to remember, I quite like it. It would be good if there were platforms for us to present our ideas in written form. Our work is not good enough yet to go to scholarly journals but we need somewhere to present our research. Some resources which tell us how to write better so that we can get our work published would also be appreciated. It’s not easy to find this information.

Myra Hamilton

University of Sydney

Background

I’m Myra Hamilton and I’m doing a PhD at the University of Sydney. I’m at the beginning of the third year of my PhD studies. My thesis is a comparative study of retirement incomes policy in Australia and the UK. I’m using a particular conceptual framework looking at the relationship between ideas about contract and ideas about citizenship and how they interact and how the relationship between those two things is played out in pensions policy reform.

I double majored in sociology and social policy in my undergraduate degree and I really had this passion for combining theory and policy. My undergraduate dissertation looked at changes to health policy in Australia in the context of the risk literature and I really liked that framework of using a theoretical body of knowledge to help understand a policy area, and indeed using the policy area to help understand the theory better. There isn’t that much on ageing at University of Sydney, there are a lot of people working in the area of social policy but not specifically ageing. So I tend to be involved in broader sociology and social policy circles at university rather than ageing itself.

Gerontology in Australia

There’s the Australian Association of Gerontology which is very good. They have a fantastic annual conference. There’s also a student body of AAG, called the AAG student section and they aim to get PhD students involved in networking across postgraduate students, sharing information and so on. As a student you get a cheaper membership of the AAG and you then become a member of the student section. It’s very affordable to join.

The student body has been building momentum in the last few years. It was originally set up with a grant from the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics, and representatives of the student group travel to the IAGG conferences. The student body offers things like quarterly tele-conferences to discuss research; they’re heavily involved in the organisation of the Emerging Researchers in Ageing Conference which is an annual conference for postgraduate students from all disciplines to present their work on ageing.

Each year the ERA conference has several hundred delegates. It’s fantastic – it really is a multidisciplinary conference with people from the health sciences, nursing, psychology, sociology and so on. It’s run by a centre called the Australasian Centre on Ageing and the student section of the AAG help in the organisation. The ERA conference is a one-day conference that falls the day before the AAG conference in the same place. Although the ERA conference is specifically for people doing research at a postgraduate level, there are a lot of people who attend the conference who are early career researchers.

BSG/NOGS

I was really pleased to be a part of the NOGS conference at Keele; the research presented was really diverse and really interesting. It’s important for students to have their own network. Being a postgraduate student can be a really isolating experience. It’s important to build a network with other postgraduate students doing research in the same area for emotional and psychological reasons; to feel part of a network. It’s also important in the sharing of ideas, getting advice, particularly because the students are often at different stages of their PhD. It’s really useful as a researcher in the earlier stages of their PhD to get advice from people at a more advanced stage.

I’ve been thinking about the possibility of developing some links between the body in England and the body in Australia. I think it could be really useful particularly because a couple of the presentations at the NOGS conference were comparative in nature, so to have a link with another country in a different region of the world might be quite useful.

Key issues for an ageing population in Australia?

Ageing is an area in Australia that’s very politically charged at the moment. There is a lot of change taking place in pensions policy; in particular there is a transition taking place from the age pension as the predominant form of funding retirement to an increasing emphasis on superannuation or private savings. I think unless this change is juggled carefully it could have a negative impact on people reaching retirement because I think the age pension is a very important pillar of the retirement income system in Australia. I think it’s very important that it’s maintained and that it’s legitimacy is maintained.

Future plans?

Ageing is a very new thing for me. I’ve only really been working in ageing for two years since I began my PhD. I’m not really sure at this stage whether I want to carve out a niche in ageing specifically or whether I’d rather settle in social policy more broadly but I look forward to finding out.

Sue Venn

University of Surrey

Background

I’m currently just starting a four-year research project working with Sara Arber, Rob Meadows, and several other institutions and disciplines looking at how older people manage their sleep. We’re particularly looking at older and poor sleep and our particular work package in this 4-year project is looking at older people in their own homes, so people in the community. I’m looking at trying to engage the oldest old as well, so I’m looking at people from 65-74, 74+, hopefully getting a nice mix of class as well. So I’m on this project for 4 years and hopefully will be able to get my PhD out of it.

Why ageing?

I find it really fascinating. I’ve looked at young people and sleep and because I’ve been involved with looking at older people in other projects as well, I think we’re missing an awful lot on it and we’re not engaging so much with older people. I think it’s really important bearing in mind all that we’re hearing now that there’s going to be a lot more older people and we’ve got a declining younger population and I think because we’re all living longer it’s really important we talk to older people, about their experiences and how they manage their sleep.

Why now?

I started in the sociology department as an administrator, working for Sara Arber on some really interesting projects: how doctors diagnose and treat older people and it was really interesting and I enjoyed it so much, Sara said why don’t I start doing some of the interviews. And because I enjoyed that and got a lot out of it she suggested I do the Masters in Social Research which I did part-time in conjunction with working as administrator. And then she got a grant for another project on couples’ sleep and I did the piloting for that and did that as part of my MSc dissertation. From that point on I think she’d applied for this four year project and when that came along she said would I like to be a researcher on it and I said Yes, and as part of doing my PhD it seemed to fit in perfectly. I’ve been really lucky.

BSG/NOGS

I joined BSG/NOGS because I’m fairly new to gerontology. I wanted to get to meet other people who are doing PhDs, who are studying older people, and I thought the event at Keele looked really interesting, the diverse topics, but actually the common theme as well of older people and in terms of methodology and in terms of finding out about how to get out there and talk to older people. I’ve already started to see some nice common themes coming through which I think are going to be very interesting for helping me in my research. Meeting people and then helping me in my research was what I was hoping to get out of it the event and I’ve got loads of notes about things I can take forward and also give to other people – you read things that might be relevant for other people’s research. I’ve actually gained an awful lot.

I think BSG can help support and encourage students and early stage researchers by continuing to provide a supportive environment (as they did at the Keele event), facilitating that, encouraging more networking amongst students, and for us, I’ve already met quite a few people I’ve read articles by and I’m actually meeting these people now. And actually being at Keele for the event, walking around the corridors, all those names keep popping up, was fantastic. So that’s been really useful. It’s been a great help meeting people and making that happen for us has been really good.

What do you think about the name NOGS?

I think it needs changing desperately. We were playing around with the name last night we thought of ‘emerging gerontology students’ (EGS), and then we thought EGNOGS. It needs a complete rethink and revamp. There’s the possibility of ERA but I think it’s around already. There’s something called ERA-Age. We need to think about a name but really test it out on the internet and see what other people think. If you’re going to make a change it’s got to be identifiable with what we do but not mixed up with someone else.

Key issues for an ageing population which need to be addressed by researchers now and in the future?

You’ve got to look at older women, because of the fact that they live longer. What struck me immediately from doing my piloting work is that the older women I’ve been talking to are engaged with their children and their children’s children particularly as it seems there’s a lot more broken families, so the grandparents seem to be taking on a lot of care actually. That’s come out as really interesting to me. It’s important we take into account the fact that these older people who have sometimes been retired for over 20 years are still leading full and busy lives, still have a lot to say and a lot to give, and are actually trying to cope with that as well as keeping their own lives and social networks going. They put themselves still to the background, even in their late 80s, putting their families first, their own homes and other things are in the background.