Currently, the proportion of older adults in the global population is significantly increasing (1). The changes in population structure are caused by the decline in global birth rates and improvements in healthcare and living conditions. According to United Nations data, the population aged 60 and above is expected to double to approximately 2.1 billion by 2050 (2). The acceleration of global population aging has brought special challenges, such as changes in disease prevalence, increased medical expenses, scarcity of labor force, utilization of educational resources, and potential issues with retirement income security (3). To address the challenges of global population aging, several studies showed the need for a comprehensive and proactive approach to meet the needs and well-being of older adults (4–7). Collaboration between the government, healthcare system, community, and individuals was crucial for successfully addressing this demographic shift (8).

Several studies demonstrated that education and learning for older adults were crucial, efficient, and beneficial in addressing population aging (9–12). However, all aspects of society, such as the economy, politics, culture, ecology, and education for older adults, were seriously affected by the COVID-19 pandemic (13). Due to school closures, difficulties in accessing educational resources and hindering preferred learning methods were major challenges (14). It is crucial to find effective solutions to ensure that older adults have access to quality education and learning opportunities during the pandemic. Nevertheless, there is a lack of extensive discussion in the academic community on this key research field. Although some studies investigated the impact of COVID-19 on older adults’ education, learning, and life, and proposed solutions to provide education for older adults in nursing homes and other institutions (15–17), these measures were mostly implemented in developed countries with appropriate social welfare, but may not be feasible in developing countries that use emerging information technology. Unfortunately, the current research on how developing countries respond to the challenge and experience of education for older adults caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has not been involved. It needs to be recognized that education solutions must be tailored to the unique challenges faced by various countries for older adults.

With the rapid aging of the population, China is undergoing a major demographic transformation. According to the seventh national population census data released in 2021, the population aged 60 and above reached 264 million, accounting for 18.7% of the total population (18). Various departments, including older adult education, are facing the challenge of population aging. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the educational challenges faced by older adults (19). The COVID-19 pandemic has led to nationwide lockdowns, the closure of educational institutions, and restrictions on social gatherings, which have seriously disrupted the traditional education model for older adults (20). Due to the need to adapt to distance learning or complete lack of access to educational resources, educational inequality among older adults has intensified (21). However, China is striving to address the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure that older adults can continue to receive education through a combination of online learning platforms, offline activities, and community participation (22). In fact, during COVID-19, China has made effective progress in addressing the educational needs of older adults (23). The experience gained in this process helps to realize the educational rights and learning needs of older adults. Unfortunately, these relatively successful and beneficial experiences have not been widely disseminated through academic research. The insufficient dissemination of these experiences hinders the practical progress and theoretical exploration of global education for older adults. Therefore, this study aims to explore the learning challenges and potential solutions faced by older adults in China during the COVID-19 pandemic. The value of this study can be observed from two different perspectives. Firstly, it provides new knowledge on older adults’ education in China, which has certain theoretical value, thus contributing to the establishment of a diversified older adults’ education system worldwide. Secondly, it provides specific enlightenment for policy formulation, especially for countries with similar national conditions to China to cope with the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The introduction provided a global perspective on the challenges faced by older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. The literature review critically analyzed the previous studies on the challenges and potential solutions for older adult learners to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and assessed the progress and limitations. The methodology introduced China’s education policies for older adult learners during the COVID-19 pandemic and the in-depth interviews with 12 participants. The research results showed how personal initiative, family intergenerational learning, and social support can help to enhance the ability of older adults to overcome the learning challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. The conclusion and discussion emphasized the theoretical and practical significance of the research while acknowledging potential limitations. In addition, this section outlined the prospects for further investigation in the context of research findings.

Overall, the perception and potential impact on older adults, especially those who are vulnerable and multifaceted. Among them, scholars were most concerned about the significant physical and psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on older adults (24, 25). The COVID-19 pandemic has replaced the face-to-face activities of older adults with online activities, severely limiting their physical activities. A study on older adults in Australia found that although online exercise helped improve physical health, alleviate depression, and life quality, its effect was far less than outdoor exercise before the COVID-19 epidemic (26). Another eight-week online aerobic dance program held at home showed that online exercise programs were feasible, fun, and safe, providing strong support for older adults who were unable to engage in outdoor exercise (27). In terms of psychological impact, the sudden COVID-19 pandemic has brought older adults from the real world into virtual life, and strangeness, discomfort, and fear have become the daily psychological reflections of many older adults. For example, a survey of 105 older adults in Israel found that not all older adults benefit from online activities such as interpersonal communication and alleviating loneliness, and there were a large number of negative mental health issues. Older adults exhibited tension and fear when facing information technology (28). Another example, a survey involving 315 older adults in Spain showed that the COVID-19 pandemic led to severe age discrimination against older adults, and anxiety, pressure, and fear became the main psychological state of most older adults (29). In general, these studies, which received much attention from scholars, were aimed at exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the physical and mental health of older adults (30). Unfortunately, these researchers have not yet explored some approaches to improve the mental health of the older adults, such as education or learning.

Globally, it is generally believed that older adults who follow the principles of continuous education and lifelong learning are more likely to achieve active, successful, healthy, and productive aging than those who do not participate in learning activities in their daily lives (31–34). In response, some studies explored the provision of education and learning support to older adults who faced obstacles to the right to education and learning opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic (35–37), to help older adults cope with unexpected crises that may occur in their daily lives. It is worth noting that most of the studies on older adults learning during the COVID-19 pandemic were conducted in school educational institutions or nursing homes. A study pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on older adults learning. Fortunately, public health nursing education outside the family provides an important way for older adults to participate in learning (15). Another study in South Florida also highlighted the positive value of social and educational programs for older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis (38). In fact, many studies emphasized the value of social organizations or institutions such as schools and learning centers for older adults, enabling them to access education and learning opportunities (39). It should be pointed out that most of these studies were conducted in developed countries with high welfare societies, where a developed social economy and comprehensive public services can provide important support for the education and learning of older adults. However, some developing countries may not be able to access these supportive measures aimed at safeguarding the learning rights and opportunities of older adults. For example, in China, where the population is rapidly aging, social public services face challenges in meeting the educational needs of each older adult within a limited time frame (40, 41). Therefore, family and community were expected to become one of the effective ways for older adults to obtain lifelong education and practice lifelong learning (42). However, the education and learning experiences of developing countries need to be further developed and disseminated to enhance our understanding of the diverse educational models for older adults.

Cultural capital, which is composed of physical health, education level, economic level, and professional characteristics, is an important indicator to measure individual social status and has become the premise of almost all social science research (43). This general viewpoint has also been confirmed in many studies on lifelong education and older adults’ learning (44, 45). In addition, older adults with higher social and cultural capital are more likely to obtain relatively high-quality educational resources and learning methods (46), while older adults with lower social and cultural capital tend to lose opportunities for education and learning due to physical and mental health problems (47). In the post-modern society with outstanding achievements, older adults with high social and cultural capital are often seen, while older adults with low social and cultural capital are often ignored (48). This phenomenon is also reflected in the research on how to provide educational support for older adult learners during the COVID-19 epidemic. For example, in the context of big data society, some studies specifically discussed the advantages and convenience of urban older adults in access to education resources (49, 50), but had not paid attention to the challenges and solutions of rural older adults in access to education rights. In addition, other studies also made similar or even consistent claims (15, 51). Older adults living in rural areas often find it difficult to obtain lifelong education and learning support and assistance, and education and learning have almost become a priority for healthy older adults in urban (10). To change this situation, educational researchers proposed to broaden the research perspective and include older adults with low social and cultural capital, aiming to break the monopoly of older adults with high social and cultural capital on lifelong education and learning (52–54). However, it is regrettable that the current research on providing educational resources and learning opportunities for vulnerable older adults in rural areas during the COVID-19 epidemic is still insufficient. It will undoubtedly become an important force restricting the current theoretical construction and practical promotion of global older adult education.

This study began with the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the educational rights and learning opportunities of rural older adults with low social and cultural capital. This research question dates back to December 2019, when multiple cases of unexplained pneumonia were detected one after another in Wuhan, China. On February 11, 2020, the World Health Organization named this respiratory infection with acute features ‘Corona Virus Disease 2019’ and highlighted its potential to become a global pandemic (55). In the face of the sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, the Chinese government adhered to the people-centered concept of governing the country and led Chinese people of all ethnic groups to fight against the social crisis (56). This situation tests both China’s awareness and ability to cope with social crises during special times and its achievement in developing a modern socialist system with unique features.

To better outline and understand education policies and practices for older adults in response to the COVID-19 epidemic, it may be necessary to explain China’s administrative division. China’s administrative structure is a six-level unit comprising the Nation, Province, Municipality, County, Township, and Village (57). China’s policies and regulations are predominantly implemented through top-down transmission (58). The Chinese government implemented various policies to mitigate the adverse effects of the COVID-19 epidemic on education for older adults. For example, on January 27, 2020, the Ministry of Education issued the Notice on Postponement of the spring Semester 2020, requiring local educational administrations at all levels to make arrangements for postponing the start of the semester and suggesting that the older adult schools provide support for the older adults to study at home (59). As another example, on March 6, 2020, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued the Notice on Strengthening Care Services for Older Adults with Special Difficulties during the Epidemic Prevention and Control Period, calling on social work organizations, psychological counseling organizations, and other professional forces to provide timely educational support, psychological comfort, and other services for older adults with special difficulties in need through a combination of online and offline methods such as network counseling hotlines and door-to-door services (60). Since achieving uniformity between policy formulation and implementation is challenging, implementing these policies may be difficult. Nonetheless, these policies provide crucial guidance and direction for vulnerable older adults in rural China to acquire educational and learning support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study was conducted in Wuyi County, Jinhua Municipality, Zhejiang Province, China. Covering a total area of 1,577 square kilometers, Wuyi County is located between latitudes 28°31′–29°03’N and longitudes 119°27′–119°58′E. The selection of this study case was based on two factors. First, I established long-term cooperative partnerships with educational administrative departments, community schools, primary and secondary schools, as well as principals, teachers, students, and parents in Wuyi County. These partnerships focus on integrating educational theory and practice, fostering rural home and school cooperation, and promoting intergenerational learning. This strong collaboration provided a solid practical foundation and a conducive environment for conducting this study. Second, the initial investigation revealed that, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the vulnerable rural older adults in this region had access to lifelong education and learning. This observation is an appropriate response to the research questions we formulated.

From June to October 2020, I conducted a research on intergenerational learning to help students’ grandparents bridge the digital divide in collaboration with a classroom teacher Shuli (pseudonym) at Quanxi Primary School in Wuyi County. Shuli, a 48-year-old woman with an outgoing personality, was good at telling me about her practical experiences in classroom construction, home and school cooperation, intergenerational learning, and other program research. Along with the continuous and in-depth development of this study, I established a long and solid relationship with Shuli in terms of educational theory research and educational practice change. Considering the convenience and practicability of conducting the research, I still wanted to collaborate with Shuli to investigate the learning difficulties and solutions experienced by rural older adults who were disadvantaged during the COVID-19 pandemic. In January 2021, I contacted Shuli via WeChat, an online social networking platform, to explain the value of this study, and wanted to work with her on this study from an international perspective. I was pleased to find that Shuli was enthusiastic and willing to participate in this study as a practitioner. With the strong support and assistance of Shuli, I initiated the process from research design to implementation. Note that there were 36 students in her class, 29 of whom were from rural with relatively low social and cultural capital. Deeply influenced by Confucianism, the living together of grandparents, children, and grandchildren has become the dominant cultural practice in Chinese families (61). Twenty-three students from rural with low social and cultural capital lived with three generations. The grandparents of the 23 students were invited to participate in this study to explore the learning challenges and solutions experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic with the support of Shuli. Adhering to the principle of voluntariness and non-coercion, I recruited 12 older adults from 12 families to participate in this study. The demographic information of them is below (Table 1).

To obtain more unanticipated results, I chose in-depth interviews as a data collection method in comparison to questionnaires (62). At the time of data collection, China had not yet implemented a policy of complete freedom of travel due to the uncertain global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. To facilitate the research process as planned, I conducted interviews with older adults by calling and using WeChat online. Before the interviews were formally conducted, I informed 12 older adults about the purpose, timing, and confidentiality of the interviews to encourage the participants to freely express their learning challenges and potential solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The interview consisted of two questions. First, what are the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic to your learning? Second, how did you persist in continuing your studies in the face of these challenges and what help did you receive in seeking out education resources and learning ways? Each older adult participated in an interview lasting between 40 and 60 min. Four older adult participants were interviewed two to three times due to temporary disruptions and suboptimal internet connections.

Audio recordings of interviews were transcribed verbatim, then translated into English and thoroughly checked and verified for accuracy. The interview data were analyzed using thematic coding (63, 64). By using the interviewed older adults’ linguistic expressions to present the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic posed to their learning, as well as to illustrate what they looked for to help them successfully navigate the social crisis. To ensure consistency in coding, two colleagues with similar research interests to mine were invited to participate in coding the interview data in addition to me. After a small amount of tweaking and modification, a more consistent consensus was reached between the coding of my two colleagues and myself (65). By comparing and adjusting for consistency, the subjective biases of the coders were eliminated to the greatest extent possible (66).

The sudden COVID-19 pandemic has had a tremendous and profound impact on the world’s economy, politics, culture, ecology, and education (94). The physical and mental development of older adults, who are the typical representatives of socially disadvantaged groups, has been seriously harmed by this uncontrollable and immeasurable social crisis (13, 14). This study explored the learning challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic to older adults with low social and cultural capital in rural eastern China, and how they successfully coped with these uncertain challenges from personal initiative, family help, and social support. This study took home and school cooperation in China as the background and conducted in-depth interviews with 12 older adults with the help of Shuli from a rural school in Zhejiang province. This study found that the COVID-19 pandemic brought at least two more prominent challenges to older adult learning. On the one hand, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, China formulated a policy of working, studying, and living at home to prevent older adults from going to educational institutions outside school. This undoubtedly further affects the right of older adults to education and learning opportunities. On the other hand, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the pace of society entering the digital era. Older adults who have lived in traditional industrialization for a long time find it almost difficult to survive in a society full of information, numbers, and technology. With education shifts from traditional models to digital forms, older adults often face challenges such as a lack of knowledge, inadequate skills, and psychological setbacks. This study further found that older adults were not forced to accept these challenges passively and helplessly, but created lifelong learning practices with Chinese characteristics, connecting individuals, families, and society through internal redemption and external help. Firstly, based on the subjective initiative of older adults, they tended to construct self-directed learning methods through television, mobile phones, and tablets. Secondly, under the influence of Chinese family culture characterized by “raising” and “filial piety,” they created intergenerational learning activities in the family. Third, the e-learning platform developed by enterprises and schools for older adults under the guidance of the government provided them with an important guarantee and strength to maintain lifelong learning.

In the literature review section, I already presented in detail that existing studies on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on older adults focused more on physical rehabilitation and psychological counseling (26, 30), relatively neglecting the value and significance of lifelong education and learning for coping with the social crisis (16, 17, 24). Some studies in the field of pedagogy began to pay more attention to the right to education of older adults, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a strong demand for learning, and further provided practitioners with necessary and even rich educational resources and learning opportunities (31, 35, 38). However, these studies on educational rights and learning resources mainly focused on older adults with high social and cultural capital in the urban of developed countries and relatively ignored the older adults with low social and cultural capital in rural developing countries to some extent (49, 54). Obviously, the current research horizons and results on the challenges and coping methods of the COVID-19 pandemic to older adults were not broad enough from the perspective of the human destiny community (95). Therefore, to further explore and disseminate the theoretical exploration, policy support, and practical experience of how to provide educational resources and learning opportunities for the rural disadvantaged older adults in developing countries during or after the COVID-19 pandemic (49), this study as a typical case attempted to take the successful and effective practice of lifelong education and learning of the rural older adults with low social and cultural capital in eastern China. By analyzing the learning challenges and solutions faced by older adults with low social and cultural capital, this study helped to make up for the deficiency of the existing literature which tended to discuss the lifelong learning of older adults with high social and cultural capital rather than older adults with low social and cultural capital in developed countries. In addition, this study further provided wisdom and solutions with Chinese characteristics for building a more inclusive, fair, and high-quality education and support service system for older adults in the sense of a community with a shared future of mankind.

This study further emphasized that in the dialog and discussion with existing literature, in addition to the two challenges mentioned above and the theoretical value of the Chinese education system for older adults constructed by individuals, families, and society, this study enlightened significance for policy formulation and practical reform of lifelong education and learning. Policymakers should maximize the scope of influence of the policy, and strive to ensure that the position, content, and implementation of the policy take into account the different social and cultural capital of older adults so that all older adults can practice the concept of lifelong learning in their interactions with family and society. In addition, practitioners engaged in education for older adults should adhere to the humanism of inclusiveness for all, establish intergenerational learning, friendly schools for older adults, and online education, as well as help each older adult to choose their own educational model and learning methods. In addition, at a time when population aging is intensifying, education digital transformation is fully launched, and education for older adults is more important, actively building a harmonious society and promoting human beings to move toward fairness and justice are important issues that countries around the world must think deeply about.

Although this study on the learning of rural older adults in some areas of China during the COVID-19 pandemic from a global perspective has some inevitable limitations, such as small sample size and cultural differences in some countries, this study is in line with the existing social culture, information technology and education for older adults. Future research may continue to expand to sample older adults in central and western China and attempt to invite them to critically reflect on the current Chinese education service system for older adults, especially when studying their strategies for building education for older adults. This not only opens up a possible way for older adults to improve their self-reflection awareness and self-improvement ability, but also provides richer possibilities for researchers to challenge their dominant ideas in education for older adults, cultural differences, social capital, and information technology.