Author: Ajal

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Promoting social inclusion: emerging evidence from the Catalyst-Clemente program

Author/s: Peter Howard, Tim Marchant, Anne Hampshire, Jude Butcher, Luke Egan and Katrina Bredhauer

Edition: Volume 48, Number 3, November 2008

Summary: Catalyst-Clemente is an innovative educational program based upon a collaboration involving Australian Catholic University, Mission Australia and the St Vincent de Paul Society. The program enhances the transformational learning opportunities and re-engagement of disadvantaged people within the community. This paper reports on the origins and rationale of the program and initial research undertaken with the students. Six key themes of self, social interaction, relationships with others, learning, community participation and the future have been identified that represent the ways in which the program impacts upon the participants. The initial study suggests that Catalyst-Clemente is a practical educational solution that has resulted in enhancing the life opportunities and choices for disadvantaged Australians.

Keywords: Catalyst-Clemente, disadvantaged, impacts, outcomes

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An appreciative inquiry into the transformative learning experiences of students in a family literacy project

Author/s: David Giles and Sharon Alderson

Edition: Volume 48, Number 3, November 2008

Summary: Educational discourse has often struggled to genuinely move beyond deficit-based language. Even action research, a predominant model for teacher development, starts with the identification of a problem (Cardno 2003). It would appear that the vocabulary for a hope-filled discourse which captures the imagination and influences our future educational activity seems to have escaped us. Moreover, we seem bereft of educational contexts where the experience for students is holistic and transformative. Appreciative inquiry is a research approach that seeks to facilitate change based on participants’ actual experiences of best practice (Cady & Caster 2000, Cooperrider & Srivastva 1987, English, Fenwick & Parsons 2003, Hammond 1998, Hammond & Royal 1998). Based on assumptions that ‘in every organisation something works’ and ‘if we are to carry anything of our past forward in our lives, it should be the good things’, appreciative inquiry energises participants to reach for higher ideals (Hammond 1998, Hammond & Royal 1998). Rather than giving priority to the problems in our current practice, appreciative inquiry gives attention to evidence of successful practice. In this way, proponents describe it as ‘dream forming’ and ‘destiny creating’. This paper will outline an appreciative inquiry with adult students in the context of a tertiary bridging program. The inquiry was able to capture the students’ stories of transformative learning experiences.

Keywords: change, experience, appreciative inquiry, adult learners, bridging, transformative learning

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Succession planning: does it matter in the context of corporate leadership?

Author/s: Patricia Richards

Edition: Volume 48, Number 3, November 2008

Summary: Corporations invest heavily in human resource management infrastructures intended amongst other things to provide for the future leadership needs of the corporation. Adopting well-known succession planning techniques, human resource managers routinely engage in corporate leadership identification and development processes, often directly involving the chief executive officer. This paper reports on a tendency for chief executive officers not to take all that much notice of these processes when making appointments to their own senior leadership teams. Drawing on three institutional case studies and in-depth interview data with the 12 chief executive officers, the paper shows that what appears to matter most in these appointments is likely impact of a leadership appointment on corporate profitability, though other pet leadership criteria may also be applied. The paper discusses the implications of this situation for human resource managers.

Keywords: human resources, leadership, manager, senior appointments

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Professional development for professionals: beyond sufficiency learning

Author/s: Gerald A. Murphy and Bruce A. Calway

Edition: Volume 48, Number 3, November 2008

Summary: We question the current role of professional associations in developing a culture of learning beyond a sufficiency or competency level. This brings into question the underlying philosophy of Professional Standards legislation. This legislation mandates continuing professional development for professionals without stating what should be achieved and how to achieve it. Professional development for professionals is influenced by the twin economic requirements of work-readiness and risk minimisation. These requirements, while important, do not necessarily account for career development of individual professionals needing to deal with complex and ill-structured paradigms. Therefore the paper argues the need for professional associations to develop learning environments which enable the effective continuing career development of professionals and sets out the essential elements for this learning environment – for example, work-integrated learning, contextualised constructivism and self-directed learning. The paper also discusses the potential within professional associations to develop cultures and communities for learning.

Keywords: professional development, work-readiness, risk minimisation, work-integrated learning, contextualised constructivism, self-directed learning

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“Do the thing you think you cannot do”: The imperative to be an adult learner in order to be a more effective adult educator

Author/s: Janet MacLennan

Edition: Volume 48, Number 2, July 2008

Summary: Despite the fact that we are learning more and more about the particular challenges and possibilities of teaching adult learners, we may still be overlooking – or forgetting – some of the most fundamental aspects of what makes an effective educator of adults. This paper addresses this oversight by reminding adult educators of the imperative of being adult learners to gain continuous new insights into their craft. The reader is taken on the author’s own journey of realising and enacting this imperative.

Keywords: teaching, adult learners, effective, educators

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‘They’re funny bloody cattle’: encouraging rural men to learn

Author/s: Soapy Vallance and Barry Golding

Edition: Volume 48, Number 2, July 2008

Summary: 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.

Keywords: rural, regional, communities, informal learning, adult education, practice

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A volunteer training framework

Author/s: Moira Deslandes and Louise Rogers

Edition: Volume 48, Number 2, July 2008

Summary: Volunteering SA (VSA) has responded to the need to revise and expand the training offered to volunteers. It has developed a volunteer training framework to provide structure and guidance for the sector in making policy and financial decisions about directions and type of training that volunteers require and desire, where the training can lead and what recognition can be given for it. Basic entry-level volunteer training is the focus of the framework. However, other planks in the training framework include training and identifying pathways from basic entry-level volunteer training to accredited training. This approach offers clear linkages and pathways for volunteers and organisations, and it is anticipated this will build a culture of continuous service improvement.

Keywords: volunteering, training, framework, policy, pathways

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Use of development centre methodology to focus workforce learning strategies – case study: NSW Department of Community Services

Author/s: Sean O’Toole and Natalie Ferres

Edition: Volume 48, Number 2, July 2008

Summary: This paper examines the use of development centre methodology to measure the gap in performance for fieldwork staff in a social welfare organisation. The process follows the construction of a capability framework, a set of work-based simulations for participants and the use of a 360-degree instrument. These processes are combined to measure and compare capabilities of both high level performers and a random selection of staff at various levels within the organisation. The results are analysed in the context of a range of organisation development options.

Keywords: social welfare, fieldwork, staff, 360-degree instrument

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The ‘accidental activist’: learning, embodiment and action

Author/s: Tracey Ollis

Edition: Volume 48, Number 2, July 2008

Summary: The 21st century has seen renewed interest in activism, community development and social change globally (Kenny 2006). This paper outlines the educational significance of the learning practices of activists as they engage within and against the state. In an era of adult education which emphasises lifelong learning and learning in the workplace, this article explores the holistic practices of activists as they learn from one another in a social context or ‘on the job’. Adult activists act with agency, their learning is purposive; it is resolute and they are there and act for a reason. This learning is not only cognitive but also embodied; it is learning often associated with the emotions of passion, anger, desire and a commitment to social change. Drawing on current research in Australia, attention is given to an important but at times forgotten epistemology of adult learning.

Keywords: activism, learning practices, adult education, lifelong learning

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Workplace learning: depression as an ‘undiscussable’ topic in eight information and communications technology organisations in South Australia

Author/s: Lisa Davies

Edition: Volume 48, Number 2, July 2008

Summary: More than 800,000 Australians every year are affected by depression. Despite evidence that depression is manageable, that people can be successfully treated in individually appropriate ways and that earlier identification and treatment are associated with  more rapid recovery, depression appears to be poorly recognised and understood. In this paper, I focus on depression in the workplace. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with human resource managers in eight organisations within the deregulated information and computing technology sector in South Australia. I focus on managers’ ability to access information about depression, and their beliefs about the value of work-based education about the illness. I also report on managers’ understandings of prevailing attitudes towards depression and mental health education in their workplaces. The analysis is conducted within a qualitative, interpretive framework.

Keywords: mental health, depression, workplace, managers, access, information

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