A doctoral student is looking for retirees to participate in research about how generations communicate with each other.
“I’m looking at Powell River retirees and their motivation for passing down what they know to younger generations,” said Jennifer Salisbury, who attends Walden University. She is working toward obtaining a doctorate in education, higher education and adult learning. In July, she successfully defended the idea to her university committee and in September she received approval from the ethics board to actually conduct research.
She started out with an idea to study colour in classrooms and learning using colour, Salisbury said. However, her degree specialty is in adult learning and she also discovered there wasn’t enough research about that topic to support her work. “I had to completely start all over,” she said. “My professor told me, look at your demographics, look at some of the social issues going on in your community, then choose a topic that is a problem that you see.”
Her topic came right out of studying the community’s demographics, she said.
Salisbury is actively seeking retirees to participate in her research. They have to live the majority of their time in Powell River, which she defines as six months plus one day or more. They may have retired here or they may have retired somewhere else and moved to Powell River. They can be any age, either gender and must speak fluent English.
Based on the demographics of Powell River, Salisbury chose the definition of retiree as “retired from a career and receiving a corporate pension from the career.”
Salisbury said the definition is very specific. “I have lots of people who are talking to me about this study and want to participate that don’t fit that specific criteria,” she said.
Salisbury will be spending one hour with her participants interviewing them, either individually or in focus groups. She needs between 18 and 29 participants.
“What I hope to get from this is solutions that can be implemented in Powell River right away,” she said. “Ideally, it would be great to have multiple solutions that can be married up to organizations that already exist. That’s my hope.”
For more information or to contact Salisbury, readers can call her at 604.485.0564 or email her at [email protected].
