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
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