Respite, renewal, retirement and tensions : Australian Men's Sheds and the impact on significant others
- Authors: Foley, Annette , Golding, Barry , Weadon, Helen
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Ageing and Society Vol. , no. (2023), p. 1-22
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- Description: The health and wellbeing benefits of Men's Sheds to the men who participate have had significant research attention for over a decade. However, there has been little research into the broader impacts of Men's Sheds, particularly in relation to the impacts on significant others in the lives of the men who participate. Our paper aims to redress this lack of research by focusing on the interrelated perceptions and experiences of men and those closest to them in four Men's Sheds in regional Victoria, Australia. The research shows that the partners and carers of 'shedders' reported that the men's participation not only benefited the men but also had benefits for their significant others. The study also showed that the partners of shedders in the study found that their individual and joint adjustment to retirement was in some cases assisted by the men enjoying the social and structured environment of the Men's Shed, while in other cases it was seen by partners as an over-commitment and impacting negatively on the marriage. The findings also shed some important light on some tensions experienced by the partners associated with carer burden and adjustments to retirement. Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press.
A gendered therapeutic learning landscape : responding creatively to a pandemic
- Authors: Foley, Annette , Weadon, Helen , McDonough, Sharon , Taylor, Rachel
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Adult Learning Vol. 62, no. 1 (2022), p. 8-30
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- Description: Crafting has occupied the hands and minds of women over many centuries providing vital connections with cultural skills and with community. While the COVID-19 pandemic has isolated women in their homes, it has also provided opportunities for women to reconnect to crafting through virtual spaces. This paper draws on a thematic analysis of a focus group interview examining the experiences of regional women participating in a crafting group and identifies the ways in which they used craft to support their wellbeing. Drawing on the concept of therapeutic landscapes, the paper highlights that connection in a virtual craft group supports lifelong learning and wellbeing, brings women together in support through a community of women’s practice and facilitates opportunities for producing meaningful and commemorative quilting projects This finding has implications for a society experiencing unprecedented levels of stress, mental illness and anxiety about the future. © 2022, Adult Learning Australia. All rights reserved.
Shedding light : a qualitative study of women's view on Men's Sheds in Ireland and Australia
- Authors: Carragher, Lucia , Golding, Barry , Foley, Annette
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Health and Social Care in the Community Vol. 30, no. 6 (2022), p. e4355-e4362
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- Description: Older men are less likely than women to meet in social groups and have greater difficulty developing social relationships beyond paid work. Yet they are joining Men's Sheds in ever greater numbers, often with the support of women, as wives, partners and daughters. Little is known about women's perspectives of Men's Sheds and what women get from men's participation in Sheds. Informed by social role theory, the present study explored narratives from 26 significant women of male Shedders in Ireland and Australia. The narratives reveal how gender roles and unspoken rules shape people's lives, with three overarching themes emerging. These include (1) older men being vulnerable, with subthemes men's masculine persona, and women's vigilance, (2) gendered spaces for older men, with subthemes companionship: men mending men and healing in the Shed and (3) the spill over effects of Men's Sheds. Retirement, whether planned or prompted by ill-health, ushers in a new stage of life, requiring new routines and social contacts. For men who lived their life according to gender social roles, which perceive men as masculine, independent and assertive and not inclined to open display of emotion and affection, adjusting to certain aspects of retirement may be difficult, particularly the lack of purposeful activity. Conversely, for women social role identity may be a source of strength for recognising and accepting vulnerability, and for seeking help. Our findings suggest women are central in encouraging older men to join Men's Sheds. In turn, women may experience an alleviation of stress when men participate in Sheds because they are not under the same pressure of their traditional social roles as carers and nurturers. © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Choosing VET as a post-school activity: What are some influences on non-metropolitan students?
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Foley, Annette
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: AVETRA 21 Virtual conference: recover, rethink, rebuild: all eyes on VET, 19-23 April 2021
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- Description: This paper draws on data from recently-completed research funded by the Victorian Department of Education and Training (DET) and undertaken in the State of Victoria, in six non-metropolitan communities: three in rural/regional areas and three in peri-urban areas. The rationale for the research was that, despite decades of effort, education outcomes for rural and regional areas in Australia remain well under the Australian average (Napthine et al, 2019), partly because so many young people need to leave home to attend tertiary education (McKenzie, 2014). There is almost no specific research on peri-urban areas. For this paper we have extracted data, from selected phases of the project, specifically to find out why young people may or may not make VET choices. The method for this paper comprised analysis of data from each site, consisting of: • Interviews with VET-sector organisations; • ‘Snapshot surveys’, completed, prior to interviews and focus groups, by 80 young people in schools and 32 in their second-year out; • Publicly-available government ‘On-Track’ data (DET, 2018), of young people in their first year out of school. Recent related literature looks at VET choices in terms of the perceived and actual financial rewards of VET choices (e.g. Norton & Charastidtham, 2019); or in terms of the perceived status of VET choices (e.g. Billett, Choy & Hodge, 2019). Our research showed a complex picture with a number of factors (personal, environmental, cultural background and geographic) influencing choices; and also a perception that VET means apprenticeships, almost to the exclusion of traineeships or full-time VET. The agency of individual schools and of VET providers or apprenticeship organisations was also found to be important. The findings have clear implications for both policy and practice.
Men's shed research evidence since 2014
- Authors: Foley, Annette , Golding, Barry
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Shoulder to shoulder : broadening the men's shed movement Chapter 11 p. 355-394
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Preparation for post-school careers in rural and peri-urban Australia : connections with employers and labour markets
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Foley, Annette
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: 6th International Conference on Employer Engagement: Preparing Young People for the Future, 1-2 July 2021, Virtual online
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The mothership : exploring the anatomy of one New Zealand Men’s Shed
- Authors: Golding, Barry , Foley, Annette
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Reflections on adult education and learning: The adult education legacy of Sabina Jelenc Kra Chapter 4 p. 67-79
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The women’s shed movement : scoping the field internationally
- Authors: Golding, Barry , Carragher, Lucia , Foley, Annette
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Adult Learning Vol. 61, no. 2 (2021), p. 150-174
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- Description: Our paper focuses on delineating and scoping international Women’s Sheds, a movement that has emerged within the past decade, mainly in Australia, Ireland and the UK. It addresses two main research questions. Firstly, what is the origin, distribution, nature and intent of Women’s Sheds internationally to March 2021? Secondly, how might Women’s Sheds be located within a typology inclusive of Men’s Sheds and a range of community development models? We employed a systematic search via the internet in 2020-21, followed up by attempted email or phone contact to publicly reported Women’s Sheds and like organisations internationally. In the process, we created a publicly shareable blog including a database of 122 existing, previously active, developing or planned Women’s Sheds and like organisations to 13 March 2021. We identify four nations where self-identified Women’s Sheds have operated or commenced within the past decade: Australia (61), the UK (30), Ireland (28) and New Zealand (3), particularly during the five years between 2014 and 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic seriously curtailed this previous momentum and development after March 2020. We identify some similarities but also important differences between Women’s and Men’s Sheds. We propose a typology that accounts not only for the different ways in which Women’s Sheds operate and women participate within their communities but also the different ways in which they locally collaborate (or not) with Men’s Sheds in different countries. We conclude that Women’s Sheds have largely been created by women in order to claim the shed as a positive female gendered space, in order to create an alternative community of women’s hands-on practice. © 2021, Adult Learning Australia. All rights reserved.
Therapeutic virtual landscapes : an exploration of gendered learning spaces during the Covid-19 lockdown
- Authors: Foley, Annette
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Book chapter , Book section
- Relation: Reflections on adult education and learning: The adult education legacy of Sabina Jelenc Krašovec Chapter 5 p. 81-95
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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
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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.
Participant Chinese teacher and student perceptions of an international teaching practicum with Australian pre-service teachers
- Authors: Jin, Aijing , Foley, Annette , Cooley, Dean
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Intercultural Education Vol. , no. (2020), p. 1-16
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- Description: Insights into local Chinese teacher and student views of an international teaching practicum with Australian pre-service teachers are the focus of this paper. A qualitative content analysis was undertaken on teacher and student accounts captured through individual interviews with four teachers and questionnaire survey with 186 students. The paper uncovers how teachers and students perceived what they experienced in the practice of intercultural communication on teaching and learning. Emphasised in the analysis is the importance of situating discussions within the Chinese social cultural context, acknowledging the influence of traditional Chinese cultural values and educational conceptions on their teaching and learning practice. The findings reveal meaningful insights into intercultural comprehension involving teaching strategies, learning content and assessment and classroom management. The study’s findings highlighted that this international teaching practicum was a beneficial and valuable experience for participant Chinese students and teachers. The study also highlighted a potential gap in the preparation of Australian pre-service teachers and the Chinese students and Chinese teachers, regarding culturally specific and culturally aware competencies. © 2020, © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Young people’s decision-making as they leave school in non-metropolitan areas in Australia : insights from those working with young people
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Foley, Annette
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: SCUTREA (Standing Conference on University Teaching and Research in the Education of Adults) Adult Education 100: Reflections & Reconstructions, University of Nottingham, U.K., 2-4 July 2019 p. 107-114
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Masculine Gendered Space
- Authors: Foley, Annette
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Studies in Adult Education and Learning Vol. 24, no. 3 (2018), p. 29-38
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- Description: The article comes from a research program examining the benefits of men's sheds in an Australian context. The author first addresses some of the controversial issues of disadvantage and inequality of women, takes into account the position associated with the implications of unequal distribution of materials and resources by feminists, and assumes that unequal distribution of resources not only limits many women but also some men. The author looks at the health status of men in Australia and discusses, through a research program, the link between participation in men's spades and health and wellbeing benefits. The article uses Sen's capability approach to present men's sheds in the Australian context as a useful space where enabling capabilities developed through meaningful activities can benefit men in relation to health and wellness.
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.)
Men and boys : Sharing the skills across generations
- Authors: Golding, Barry , Foley, Annette
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Intergenerational Relationships Vol. 15, no. 1 (2017), p. 52-63
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- Description: Our paper focuses on intergenerational learning in informal community settings between older men and boys. It examines and challenges narrow definitions of the notion of what is meant by “older” and “intergenerational” learning. It stresses the importance of older men’s capacity to be contemporary in their worldview, while drawing from a deep knowledge and wisdom developed from their life experiences and also from their formative cultural, national, and Indigenous learning traditions. Our paper provides an account of intergenerational stories wherein men informally mentor, share skills, and develop meaningful relationships with disengaged and disconnected young people in the community Men’s Sheds. © 2017 Taylor & Francis.
Architectures for apprenticeship: Achieving economic and social goals
- Authors: Smith, Erica , Gonon, Philipp , Foley, Annette
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Edited book
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- Description: This volume contains the paper of the 6th International Conference of the International Network on Innovative Apprenticeship: Architectures for apprenticeship: Achieving economic and social goals, which was held on the campus of Federation University Australia, on September 1-2, 2015. The papers and keynote speeches offer many aspects for discussion and reflection. This was also the case at the conference itself, which provided two days of topical debates and fruitful deliberations. The papers covered the themes of Governance, Didactics, Quality of Apprenticeships, School-to-work transition, the status of Apprenticeships, and Apprenticeships and Social justice.
Men and boys: Ages and stages
- Authors: Foley, Annette , Golding, Barry
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Men learning through life Chapter 7 p. 97-112
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Men learning through life
- Authors: Golding, Barry , Mark, Rob , Foley, Annette
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Men learning through life Chapter 1 p. 3-17
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- Description: This introductory chapter seeks, through a broad-brush analysis of a wide range of international research and data, to provide context for our book. It consists of four sections. The first sets the broad intentions and the main source of information for the two parts of our book that follow, including some limitations. The second section seeks to make explicit our interest in focusing mainly on men, particularly those men beyond paid work. The third section teases out some of our theoretical presuppositions about the process, purposes and value of learning that men experience. The fourth explains our reasons for overtly including and emphasising the seldom-theorised link between men’s learning and wellbeing. In its totality, this introductory chapter provides an outline of our equity and evidence-based case for acknowledging worldwide changes and trends that have made this book timely, particularly for men not in paid work, including a ‘big picture’ view of men learning through life in international settings. It begins to delineate a range of social and economic factors, including the global financial crisis and population ageing, that have led to an increase in the proportion of men not in paid work in most developed nations. This increase has been accompanied by a decrease in many nations in the proportion of young men completing post-school qualifications
Men's learning in Australia
- Authors: Foley, Annette , Golding, Barry
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Men Learning Through Life Chapter Fourteen p. 205-225
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- Description: Men’s learning, wellbeing and health remained relatively un-problema-tised in Australia until a decade ago. Women have previously (for good reasons) been identified as an equity target group in many areas of edu-cation and health, though this picture is changing. Work in Australia in many sectors of education and health services remains comprehensively gendered. Adult and community education in Australia is attempting to re-invent itself in the wake of two national reports in the 1990s alluding to it as a primarily women’s (Cinderella) sector (Aulich, 1991; Crowley, 1997). New research has identified the difficult situation experienced beyond education and work for men. Australia’s national health policy highlights concerning statistics in relation to some men’s broader health and wellbeing in Australia. Particular groups of men are at risk through effective exclusion from (or opting out of) existing education and health programmes and services, particularly some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) men, older men, men living in rural areas as well as men who have had limited success at school. "From introduction"
Men's turn to learn? Discussion and Conclusion
- Authors: Golding, Barry , Mark, Rob , Foley, Annette
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Men Learning through life Chapter Sixteen p. 244-259
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- Description: Our intention in this final chapter is to argue a case for repositioning men’s learning at any age as a significant benefit not only for the men involved, but also for their families and the community, aside from the narrowly defined vocational benefits which lifelong learning policies often focus on. We seek to identify some generalisable conclusions based on the data and literature examined in the first part of this book and the national research policies and practices identified in the second part. The chapter consists of a discussion, comprising a number of important acknowledgments about the extensive theoretical and practical ground our book has covered. This is followed by a number of broad and over-arching conclusions