"How men are worked with": Gender roles in men's informal learning
- Authors: Golding, Barry , Foley, Annette
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 38th Annual SCUTREA Conference, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK : 2nd-4th July 2008 p. 198-207
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- Description: Our paper critically analyses and theorises the role of women as coordinators and participants in community-based organizations where men comprise the majority of participants. Literature, interview and survey data lead us to suggest that it is "how men are worked with" that determines the effectiveness of women's involvement (author abstract)
- Description: 2003006466
'They're funny bloody cattle': encouraging rural men to learn
- Authors: Vallance, Soapy , Golding, Barry
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Adult Learning Vol. 48, no. 2 (Jul 2008), p. 369-384
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- Description: Our paper examines and analyses the contexts and organisations in rural and regional communities that informally and effectively encourage men to learn. It is based on a combination of local, rural adult education practice and a suite of studies in Australia and elsewhere of learning in community contexts, most recently into community-based men's sheds. It is underpinned by both experience and research evidence that many rural men tend to have an aversion to formal learning. The intention of our paper and its specific, practical conclusions and recommendations is to focus on and share positive and practical ways, demonstrated through practice and validated through research, of encouraging rural men to learn.
- Description: C1
A long and winding road : Autonomous men's learning through participation in community sheds across Australia
- Authors: Brown, Michael , Golding, Barry , Foley, Annette
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 38th Annual SCUTREA Conference, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK : 2nd-4th July 2008 p. 78-86
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- Description: This paper discusses aspects of men's learning derived from our study of mostly older men who are coming together, talking, working and socialising in community sheds across Australia (Golding et al 2007). The paper looks at the social, informal and autonomous learning and considers the significance of the community "work-like" settings (author abstract)
- Description: 2003006465
A profile of men's sheds in Australia: Patterns, purposes, profiles and experiences of participants: Some implications for ACE and VET about engaging older men
- Authors: Golding, Barry
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at Global VET: Challenges at the global, national and local levels Conference 2006, Wollongong, New South Wales : 19th April, 2006
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- Description: This paper uses literature and survey results to explore several issues associated with the emergence and development of community-based men’s sheds in Australia and their relationship to both community and further education and the training system. It develops a series of questions about these developments and their relationship to the development of men as learners as well as the nature of education and voluntary organisations. The confirms for the first time, using compelling and rigorously collected survey data from participants, the critical value of men’s sheds in community settings in Australia to older men’s well being: particularly to their health, social enjoyment, ongoing learning capacity and ability to contribute to the community. The sheds, relatively recently created, now provide a valuable and critically important place for a wide range of mainly older men within safe, supervised settings in where approximately 150 such sheds are now found in southern Australia. They allow men to regularly meet and happily socialise, mainly with other men with tools, in a safe, familiar, shared workspace in a wide range of communities, situations and organisational types. The men who use men’s sheds respond positively to environments that allow them to feel at home and learn by doing, in practical, group situations with other men. This paper confirms the high potential of men’s sheds, if carefully configured and managed, to include and support men experiencing issues associated with retirement, health, social isolation, aging and significant change.
- Description: E1
- Description: 2003002043
About Face : Implications of research into men's learning preferences in rural towns
- Authors: Golding, Barry
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at Emerging Futures 2005: recent, responsive and relevant research Conference, Brisbane : 13th -15th April, 2005
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- Description: E1
- Description: 2003001327
Adult learning through fire and emergency service organisations in small and remote Australian towns
- Authors: Hayes, Christine , Golding, Barry , Harvey, Jack
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Book
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- Description: A1
- Description: 2003000775
Ageing and learning in Australia : Arguing an evidence base for informed and equitable policy
- Authors: Cuthill, Michael , Buys, Laurie , Wilson, Bruce , Kimberley, Helen , Reghenzani, Denise , Kearns, Peter , Thompson, Sally , Golding, Barry , Root, Jo , Weston, Rhonda
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Current Aging Science Vol. 9, no. 3 (2016), p. 196-202
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- Description: Background: Given Australia’s population ageing and predicted impacts related to health, productivity, equity and enhancing quality of life outcomes for senior Australians, lifelong learning has been identified as a pathway for addressing the risks associated with an ageing population. To date Australian governments have paid little attention to addressing these needs and thus, there is an urgent need for policy development for lifelong learning as a national priority. The purpose of this article is to explore the current lifelong learning context in Australia and to propose a set of factors that are most likely to impact learning in later years. Conclusion: Evidence based policy that understands and incorporates learning opportunities for all citizens is required to meet emerging global challenges. Providing appropriate learning opportunities to seniors is one clear pathway for achieving diverse health, social and economic outcomes. © 2016 Bentham Science Publishers.
Bearing the risk : Learning to be drier mid-river
- Authors: Golding, Barry , Angwin, Jennifer
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Adult Learning Vol. 49, no. 3 (2009), p. 472-496
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- Description: This paper investigates learning related to the phenomena of drying over the past decade in the southern Murray-Darling Basin in Australia, as perceived in a mid-river site within the western Riverina of New South Wales, Australia. The insights from audio-recorded interviews, with a wide range of adults across the water-dependent community, mostly relate to the catchment of the Murrumbidgee River in the Shire of Hay. Our overarching theme is about how people are learning about, understanding and bearing the risks, of what is widely regarded as a prolonged drought. For some, the learning is about how to cope with less water in the Basin, and particularly from the river, as predicted in the climate change literature. Our narrative-based, empirical research registers the felt experience of those located, in situ, as a severe 'irrigation drought' extends into 2009. The paper dramatises the many obstacles to learning how to think and act differently, in difficult and rapidly changing ecosocial circumstances.
- Description: 2003007973
Common wealth through community men's sheds : Lives and learning networks beyond work
- Authors: Golding, Barry
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at Fifth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning, University of London, London, UK : 13th-17th July 2008
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- Description: This paper explores the recent phenomenon and benefits of community men's sheds in Australia, focusing on the important role sheds and workshop-based practice plays in creating informal learning and friendship networks for men. It is based on recent studies of organizations and contexts in Australia that informally and effectively engage men. Problems are identified with front-end models of vocational training that disregard or undervalue the lifetime of skills and experiences built up by men in previous paid work roles and in adult and community education sectors that tend not to cater for men or diverse masculinities. Insights are provided into ways in which men's skills and experiences can be shared, transferred, valued and celebrated in men's livelihoods beyond paid work, through regular, shared, hands on activity in gendered communities of practice. It particularly explores the untapped potential of open and flexible shed-based practice for men';s vocational retraining, lifelong learning and inter-generational skills transfer. The "open" and inclusive nature of the community shed and what occurs in it and its pedagogical familiarity with men are identified as its key strengths. The paper identifies what it is about the nature of community-based men's sheds that has proven to be increasingly popular, productive and therapeutic in Australia in the past decade. One of my purposes at presenting at this conference is to seek out, identify and learn about different and similar insights from conference participants from other countries that might contribute to an ongoing international study of men's informal learning beyond the workplace. My paper particularly seeks to identify shed and workshop-type settings and organizations in other national and cultural contexts that might play a similar role in the livelihoods of men, families and communities.
Cross-cultural communication in teacher education : A case study of an Australian pre-service teacher placement in Liaoning, China
- Authors: Jin, Aijing , Cooper, Maxine , Golding, Barry
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Teacher Education Vol. 41, no. 6 (2016), p. 20-34
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- Description: This paper presents a case study of the experiences and reflections of four fourth year pre-service teachers from Federation University Australia who completed their three-week teaching placement in Anshan, Liaoning Province, China, in April 2014. The study also explores the perspectives and opinions of both the Chinese mentor teachers and Chinese students towards the Australian preservice teachers. The research confirms the mutual benefits of crosscultural teacher education professional experiences for pre-service teachers, Chinese mentor teachers and Chinese students. The teaching experiences revealed major differences in educational concepts and teaching strategies and approaches between the two systems because of the different social and cultural contexts. The evidence from the voices of the participants indicates that the professional experience in these two Chinese schools fostered the Australian pre-service teachers’ cross-cultural communication skills, developed their confidence and skills as teachers and generally enriched their personal and professional lives.
Crossing over: Collaborative cross-cultural teaching of Indigenous education in a higher education context
- Authors: Morgan, Shirley , Golding, Barry
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: The Australian Journal of Indigenous education Vol. 39, no. (2010), p. 8-14
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- Description: This paper explores the dynamics and outcomes from a collaborative cross-cultural approach to teaching an Indigenous education elective unit in a Bachelor of Education (Primary) undergraduate degree at the University of Ballarat in 2009. The three facilitators, one non-Aboriginal and two Aboriginal were a lecturer, an Aboriginal Centre Manager and Local Aboriginal Education Consultative Group member from the Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative respectively. The paper explores the open-ended and collaborative approach used to facilitate the learning, including pedagogies, activities and assessment. The paper, and the collaborative cross-cultural teaching approach it arguably embodies, is presented as a model of desirable practice with undergraduate education students, in particular for pre-service teachers undertaking a P-10 Bachelor of Education degree. As we describe later in the paper, these pre-service teachers, with some exceptions, in general had very limited and often stereotyped knowledge and experience of Aboriginal education, Aboriginal students or Aboriginal perspectives in other areas of the school curriculum. The teaching process we adopted and that we articulate in this paper attempted to address this previous lack of engagement with the subject matter of Indigenous education by actively modelling the processes of local Aboriginal consultation and collaboration that we were trying to teach.
Getting connected : Insights into social capital from recent adult learning research
- Authors: Golding, Barry
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Adult Learning Vol. 47, no. 1 (2007), p. 10-24
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- Description: This paper begins by teasing out the nature of social capital and its particular and current relevance to adult learning policy and practice in Australia. The paper identifies a number of benefits and significant problems with social capital as an organising construct for adult learning research and policy in Australia. Some connections are made between social capital and lifelong learning, and important distinctions are drawn between 'bonding' and 'bridging' social capital. I draw on my experiences and insights over the past seven years using network diagrams as a research tool. Network diagrams are identified as a useful tool for charting relationships between learning organisations and individuals. The paper suggests ways of using the network relationships in these diagrams as a proxy for social capital in a range of formal and informal settings in which adult learning occurs in Australia. Network diagrams are seen to have particular utility in situations where communities and organisations become too small for surveys, where relationships become complex and ambiguous as well as in rural and remote communities where distance and spatial relationships affect access to learning.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003005519
Houses and sheds in Australia : an exploration of the genesis and growth of neighbourhood houses and men's sheds in community settings
- Authors: Golding, Barry , Kimberley, Helen , Foley, Annette , Brown, Michael
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Adult Learning Vol. 48, no. 2 (Jul 2008), p. 237-262
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- Description: This article reviews research into the genesis and spread of both neighbourhood houses and learning centres in Victoria and community-based men's sheds in Australia to identify some similarities and differences. Our article asks questions about the gendered communities of practice that underpin houses for women on the one hand, and sheds for men on the other. Our particular interest is with the gender issues associated with the development of the relatively mature neighbourhood house 'sector', and those associated with the very recent and developing community-based men's sheds 'sector'. Our underpinning research question has to do with the desirability (or otherwise) in each of these sectors of political and strategic decisions being either gender specific or gender neutral. We identify a number of tantalising parallels between the rationale behind the establishment of both sectors,for women and men, albeit in very different circumstances, along with some obvious differences.
- Description: C1
Inequity in Australian vocational education training by location
- Authors: Golding, Barry , Pattison, Sandra
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Equity in Vocational Education and Training: Research Reading Chapter 17 p. 108-119
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- Description: B1
- Description: 2003000763
Informal learning : A discussion around defining and researching its breadth and importance
- Authors: Golding, Barry , Brown, Michael , Foley, Annette
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Adult Learning Vol. 49, no. 1 (2009), p. 34-56
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- Description: Informal learning has often been seen as formal learning's 'poor cousin'. Our paper explores and discusses new and different ways of thinking about defining, valuing and researching the breadth and importance of informal learning in diverse national and cultural contexts. This includes a consideration of the power relations that can act to devalue informal learning. It is underpinned by a recognition that not only do a relatively small proportion of adults currently engage informal learning, but those who do tend already to be dedicated and successful lifelong learners. It leads to a discussion about how informal learning might be framed as part of the solution to adult exclusion, seen to be aggravated by unnecessary adult educational hierarchies, accreditation, assessment and formality.
Koalas – agents for change : a case study from regional Victoria
- Authors: Schlagloth, Rolf , Golding, Barry , Kentish, Barry , McGinnis, Gabrielle , Clark, Ian , Cadman, Tim , Cahir, David (Fred) , Santamaria, Flavia
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Sustainability Education Vol. 26, no. (2022), p.
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- Description: We investigated the success of the Koala Conservation and Education Program conducted in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia from 2000-2009 by interviewing 28 individuals, from various stakeholder groups involved in the project. Transcripts were analysed using grounded theory to identify common themes, keywords and phrases. We conclude that the chosen ‘flagship’ species, the koala, was crucial for the success of the project which culminated in the adoption of the Koala Plan of Management and habitat overlays into the City of Ballarat’s planning scheme. Local people were concerned about the koala based on its conservation status nationally and globally rather than because of its local or Victorian status. We conclude that the concept of 'flagship' species in the case of the koala, is more a global than a local construct.
Learner voice in VET and ACE: What do stakeholders say
- Authors: Golding, Barry , Angus, Lawrence , Foley, Annette , Lavender, Peter
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at AVETRA 2012 15th Annual Conference Canberra p. 1-10
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- Description: Our paper presents some initial findings from research funded by the National VET Equity Advisory Council (NVEAC) and conducted in a range of VET and ACE organisations in three Australian states and the Northern Territory with a view to identifying the mechanisms and systems used to capture learner voice. The paper also draws upon recent research in the UK and Europe that has provided critical insights into the benefits to learners' experiences and successes that result from taking learner voice seriously in the Further Education (FE) setting.
- Description: 2003009274
Learning by men not in work : A review of research
- Authors: Golding, Barry
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 5th International Lifelong Learning Conference, Yepoon, Queensland : 16th-19th June 2008 p. 176-181
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- Description: This brief review of learning by men not in work in Australia and the UK is undertaken in the context of recent increases in the population share of such men. It explores difficulties they experience equitably accessing lifelong learning as well as the wellbeing benefits accrued from learning informally.
- Description: 2003006689
Learning through indigenous business : The role of vocational education and training in indigenous enterprise and community development
- Authors: Flamsteed, Kate , Golding, Barry
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Book
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- Description: A1
- Description: 2003001326
Learning to be drier in the southern Murray-Darling Basin : Setting the scene for this research volume
- Authors: Golding, Barry , Campbell, Coral
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Adult Learning Vol. 49, no. 3 (2009), p. 423-450
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- Description: [Australian history] is like a giant experiment in ecological crisis and management, sometimes a horrifying concentration of environmental damage and cultural loss; sometimes a heartening parable of hope and learning. (Griffiths 2003:16, cited in Mackinnon 2007: 73).
- Description: 2003007971