Shedding school early insights from school : Community shed collaboration in Australia
- Authors: Golding, Barry , Foley, Annette , Brown, Michael
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Full Text:
- Description: Our paper focuses on evidence of positive interactions between schools and community sheds in Australia to examine what it is about shed-based community programs and pedagogies that are attractive to some early school leavers and school resisters. It is based primarily on interview data from the subset of men’s sheds across Australia with school programs that formed part of our 2007 research into men’s sheds. It is complemented by insights from interviews with men’s sheds participants and rural fire volunteers about what it was that also led many of them to also ‘shed’ school early. Our paper identifies links between the success factors associated with informal learning pedagogies in voluntary and community groups identified in the UK and success factors associated with community-based shed programs in Australia. We identify the potential benefits of sheds in engaging both early school leavers and older men with negative recollections of school, in enjoyable, regular, hands-on activity. We also discuss ways in which some of the difficulties associated with shed-based school programs that seek to engage and reintegrate early school leavers might be avoided or minimised. Finally, we pose some unanswered questions about the implications of our research findings for education and training providers.
- Description: .
- Description: Adelaide :
- Description: 3rd - 4th April 2008
- Description: 0
Serving multiple masters : Reviewing the role and recognition of VET within the Victorian Senior Secondary School Certificates
- Authors: Brown, Michael , Sutton, Daryl
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at AVETRA 2008 Conference, Adelaide : 3rd-4th April 2008
- Full Text: false
- Description: This paper reviews a selection of the policy, curriculum, operational and research literature associated with the recognition of Vocational Education and Training (VET) within the Victorian senior secondary certificates; the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE), and the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL). The central tenet of our paper is that VET in Victorian schools serves multiple purposes and in doing so it offers both risks and opportunities. While the achieved outcomes of the Victorian VET programs achieve national recognition, the recognition of these programs for broader educational certification has become diverse and complex. We use statistical participation data to argue that the incorporation of VET into these senior secondary certificates, appeals to students and offers increased options and pathways in the post-compulsory years of schooling. A range of assessment strategies and procedures have been developed to assist in the recognition of VET within these senior secondary school certificates. In particular, scored assessment and its contribution to national tertiary entrance (ENTER) scores is at the centre of the debates over recognition of VET within VCE. Also in this mix for recognizing VET within the senior secondary certificates are pre-apprenticeship programs, (included as part of the VCE VET suite of programs), school-based apprenticeships and traineeships. The operational, procedural and research literature associated with the complexities of the tandem usage of competency-based and scored assessment are reviewed as they apply in the Victorian context. As with the VCE, VET is also incorporated into VCAL programs through the industry specific and work-related skills streams. VET is mandatory within the intermediate and senior levels of VCAL. Our paper tries to identify and discuss the complexities in this area of VET provision.
- Description: 2003006632
Let the men speak : Health, friendship, community and shed therapy
- Authors: Foley, Annette , Golding, Barry , Brown, Michael
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at AVETRA 2008 Conference, Adelaide : 3rd-4th April 2008
- Full Text:
- Description: Our paper is based on our recently published NCVER project on Men's sheds in Australia, Learning through Community Contexts (Golding, Brown, Foley, Harvey & Gleeson, 2007), which showed that men';s sheds informally cater for non vocational, social, health, wellbeing and learning needs of mainly older men. We deliberately used unedited transcripts from the NCVER project in the form of narratives or stories to give the men an opportunity to speak for themselves about the benefits of participating in men's sheds. The paper highlights some of the limitations of the methodology used in the attempt to allow the men themselves to make sense of the benefits they experience and enjoy from participating in men's sheds as conveyed through their own voices.
- Description: 200300647