Horse talk : Equine based learning programs and their engagement with individuals
- Authors: Townsend, Rob , Hood, Michelle
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Adult Learning Vol. 59, no. 2 (2019), p. 254-268
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- Description: Studies about equine therapies or equine experiential learning recommend that significantly more research, specifically longitudinal research, across age groups, genders, contexts and client cohorts needs to occur in diverse contexts. There exists diverse equine-related programs which engage with a range of cohorts, specifically; young children who have experienced abuse; adolescents who have experienced abuse and family violence and adults who have experienced family violence, psychiatric disorders, social anxiety and social isolation. The most common outcomes from the equine learning program studied for this article, from the case-studies and the thematic analysis includes; behavioural changes, stress relief, mind and body awareness and control, forming a relationship with an intuitive practitioner, guided meditations as a means of creating independent meditation techniques and re-engagement with education, work, friendships and family relationships. The mind-body awareness that is gained by participants of the program provides skills and techniques for individuals (and families) to utilise in every-day, with lifelong learning a crucial aspect of the program.
Literacy and language policies in Australia
- Authors: Golding, Barry , Thompson, Sally
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: International Conference on the Methods and Applications of Research on Literacy p. 1-18
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- Description: Australia faces a complex, intertwined set of language and literacy issues. Combined with emerging contextual issues, these issues affect access to education and employment for many Australian adults. In this paper, we identify and examine six such intertwined issues. Two of these issues are mainly related to language, specifically for Indigenous Australians and non-‐English-‐speaking migrants and refugees. One of the issues relates to the impact of very low literacy rates for rural and regional Australians, particularly as they age and withdraw from the paid workforce. The other three issues are contextual, including the deliberate swing away from public education towards ‘the market’, the surprisingly low average literacy levels of some Australian adults, and the elevated and increasing levels of youth unemployment. Our paper provides evidence and arguments for much more recognition of and attention to the issues of language and literacy in Australian public policy, research, programs and funding, not only in education but also in many other fields in which language and literacy acquisition and proficiency determine people’s life choices, chances and outcomes. This includes opportunities for more positively embracing and building Australia’s existing multiculturalism.
Constructing narratives in later life : Autoethnography beyond the academy
- Authors: Golding, Barry , Foley, Annette
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Adult Learning Vol. 57, no. 3 (2017), p. 384-400
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- Description: Learning through life experiences as distinct from learning through the academy and courses have become increasingly important themes in later life adult education research and practice. Whilst the dominant discourse for most younger people is still about education and training for students in standardised and accredited courses, there is increasing concern to find ways of giving voice to empower people otherwise excluded, disempowered or missing from mainstream education, learning, research and the community. This paper specifically explores and actively mirrors ways of using techniques developed through academic autoethnography to empower older people to share and make sense of the lives they have lived by exploring some of the unexamined assumptions that govern everyday life, behaviour and decision making including in the many, often very informal contexts well beyond educational institutions, the academy and paid work. In essence, like autoethnography, our paper seeks to identify, interrogate and celebrate ways of revealing and displaying multiple layers of consciousness connecting the personal to the cultural for sharing and celebrating diversity in later life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Australian Journal of Adult Learning is the property of Copyright Agency Limited and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Getting serious: The national ‘vision splendid’ for adult education 60 years on
- Authors: Golding, Barry
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Adult Learning Vol. 60, no. 3 (2020), p. 365-398
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- Description: This paper poses three research questions, based primarily on evidence from six decades of the Australian Journal of Adult Education (AJAL, 2000-present) and its antecedent journals dating back to 1961. Firstly, it asks what was the context for establishing a national adult learning association, Australian Association of Adult Education (AAAE) in 1960, renamed the Australian Association for Adult and Community Education (AACE) in 1989, and Adult Learning Australia (ALA) in 1998? Secondly, it asks how the association, the research in its journals and the field of adult education adapted to the rapidly changing context, opportunities and needs for lifelong learning in Australia? In doing so, the paper critically examines evidence of ongoing tensions and difficulties delivering on ALA’s 2020 vision of ‘lifelong and lifewide learning for all Australians’. It also asks what the current situation is for Australian adult education, and what possible new courses for the future ALA and AJAL might take. The first two research questions are addressed in the body of this paper. The third question is addressed primarily within the Discussion. © 2020, Adult Learning Australia. All rights reserved.
Community learning through adversity and disaster : an Australian case study of rural adaptation and resilience beyond paid work
- Authors: Golding, Barry , Foley, Annette , Weadon, Helen
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Adult Learning Vol. 60, no. 3 (2020), p. 515-537
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Our paper uses a qualitative, case study approach to critically examine the role of community involvement in learning to adapt and develop resilience in the face of disaster. Within a decade, the already disadvantaged, small, Australian rural community of ‘Bellbird’ faced three catastrophic, human induced disasters: the Millennial Drought (1996 to 2010), a March 2013 bushfire and the COVID-19 epidemic of 2020. Our interviews were conducted during late 2019 and early 2020 with men and women shedders as well as their significant others in the usually vibrant and unusually gender inclusive ‘Bellbird Men’s Shed’. For at least six months following the interviews, the Bellbird Men’s Shed was shut as a consequence of the COVID-19 lockdowns. We opportunistically reflect on the data from our interviews and emerging literature on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to critically interrogate the role local community learning plays in responding to and developing resilience in the face of locally experienced global disasters. We conclude that Bellbird is a good example of a small, rural community where formal, top down decision making approaches to adult and community education in 2020 in Australia are sometimes impossible or inappropriate. Bellbird in effect exercised agency to create its unique, place and needs-based form of lifelong and lifewide learning ‘bottom up’ at its atypical community Men’s Shed. The practices and commitments the Shed adopted have provided the community with opportunities for developing personal and collective wellbeing and the necessary resilience for adapting to likely future shocks. © 2020, Adult Learning Australia. All rights reserved.
Why some homogeneous adult learning groups may be nessesary for encouraging diversity : a theory of conditional social equality
- Authors: Ahl, Helene , Hedegaard, Joel , Golding, Barry
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Adult Learning Vol. 63, no. 2 (2023), p. 119-139
- Full Text: false
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- Description: This paper proposes a new theory of Conditional Social Equality (CSE) which in some ways challenges the theory of cumulative advantage/ disadvantage (CAD), which postulates that inequalities and social divisions necessarily increase over time. Using evidence from informal learning groups in Men’s Sheds in three countries, we conclude that some social divisions between homosocial groups, in this case groups of older men, may actually decrease – but only under certain conditions. Male-gendered learning groups that were relatively homogeneous by age helped erase class divisions and softened gender stereotypes. Our theory of conditional social equality (CSE) predicts the following: i) in-group homogeneity can enable the acceptance of some aspects of heterogeneity, ii) some other aspects of in-group heterogeneity may not be tolerated, thus maintaining in-group cohesion, and iii), in-group homogeneity and boundary setting towards out-groups may be prerequisites for the acceptance of (some) aspects of in-group heterogeneity. All of this has important implications for adult learning in both heterogeneous and homogenous groups. © 2023, Adult Learning Australia. All rights reserved.