Australian Journal of Adult Learning
Critical thinking and research in the field of adult learning
Book Review: Popular education, power and democracy: Swedish experiences and contributions, Ann-Marie Laginder, Henrik Nordvall and Jim Crowther (eds.), NIACE: Leicester 2013, distributed in Australia through Footprint Books
Reviewed by: Michael F. Christie, Southern Cross University
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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 53_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.
(i) AVETRA Conference – Fremantle, Western Australia: VET research at the edge – training for diversity and change.
(ii) United Association for Labor Education (UALE) Conference – Toronto, Canada: Across boundaries: What are workers saying and doing?
(iii) Adult Learning Australia (ALA) Conference with ACE Aotearoa – Wellington, NZ: Confident communities – HāporiTū Rangatira
(iv) Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE) – British Columbia, Canada:
(v) International Researching Work and Learning (RWL) Conference – Stirling, Scotland: The visible and invisible in work and learning
(vi) SCUTREA Conference – Glasgow, Scotland: Mobilities and transitions: Learning, institutions, global and social movements
(vii) Comparative education world congress – Buenos Aires, Brazil: New times, new voices
Authors: Various
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These articles are part of AJAL, Volume 53_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.
(i) One Hundred years of the WEA
Author: Denis Binnion, WEA Adelaide CEO (Retired)
(ii) A century of learning: WEA Sydney 1913 – 2013
Author: Michael Newton
(iii) The WEA in Sydney, 1913 – 2013: Achievements, controversies and an inherent difficulty
Author: Roger Morris
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These articles are part of AJAL, Volume 53_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.
Authors: Jean-Pierre Fenech, Monash University; Sylvana Fenech, RMIT University; Jacqueline Birt, University of Queensland
Edition: Volume 53, Number 3, November 2013
Summary: This paper is an exploratory study of the impact of short-term overseas study programs on participants’ personal growth in business school environments. We interviewed students participating in such a program organised by an Australian university. Guided by the literature, we used three factors — pre-academic work, a three-week sojourn, and the participants themselves — in order to understand the association between the program and the participants’ personal growth. We noted several idiosyncrasies amongst the participants that affected their level of personal growth, including language ability, age, gender, extent of previous travel and ethnic background. Overall, all students experienced different levels of growth as a result of the program.
Keywords: study abroad, short-term programs, personal development,
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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 53_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.
Author: Amy Gibbons, University of Tasmania
Edition: Volume 53, Number 3, November 2013
Summary: Results from two 2012 surveys exploring the barriers and benefits of tertiary study for staff within the Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services suggest that encouraging staff engagement with further study benefits both the individual and the organisation. Respondents reported improved job performance, increased self-esteem and motivation to learn. Barriers associated with limited time and competing demands impacted on staff ability to access information about study options. In this context, workplace and management support for study was identified as a crucial enabler. The investigative process of this study has been made explicit in order to encourage replication by other researchers. This mixed-methods research was informed by the ‘three capitals’ approach in order to examine the personal, social and economic benefits of learning. The relative weakness of benefits associated with social capital in the results reflects the experience of these part-time mature-age students employed in a professionally demanding sector.
Keywords: adult learners, three capitals, tertiary study, health and human services,Tasmania
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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 53_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.
Authors: Michelle F. Morgan, Karen B. Moni and Monica Cuskelly; University of Queensland
Edition: Volume 53, Number 3, November 2013
Summary: This paper presents the findings from one part of a participatory research investigation about the literacy strategies used by three young adults with intellectual disability in their everyday community environments. Using data collected through video recording, prompting and think-alouds, information was collected about the range of literacy events that the research partners engaged with and the strategies that they used to negotiate these events. Findings revealed that these young adults engage in literacy in their everyday lives using literacy strategies that are multiple and varied and which draw on learned school-based and context specific strategies. Visual texts enabled more effective construction of meaning. Multiple context specific examples are provided to create a snapshot of how these young adults use literacy in their everyday community environments that broadens our knowledge and understanding of the types of literacy events and strategies that they engage with.
Keywords: literacy, intellectual disability, community, strategies
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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 53_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.
Author: Christina Kargillis, University of Technology Sydney & Flinders University.
Edition: Volume 53, Number 3, November 2013
Summary: This paper explores the role of innovation in overcoming the challenges and negotiations within the ‘lifestyle migration’ or sea/tree change of working people, to places rich in nature but ‘lean’ in industry. It focusses on how they overcome primarily economic challenges in the process of negotiating a new life. The paper is founded upon a qualitative study in conjunction with relevant literature and theoretical analysis. Participants stemmed from diverse socio-economic positions and represented both the coastal and hinterland townships within the study site. The study stems from the need to understand the difficulties within the lifestyle migration phenomenon, where anecdotally approximately two thirds of working aged migrants within the study site ‘fail’ to sustain their relocation for at least five years. This paper attempts to expose how the minority of those who attempt the transition have managed to survive. The research employs a unique approach in exploring the relationship between adult education theories of reflexive identity and innovation, as well as educational perspectives of self-efficacy and emotional intelligence. The paper suggests that reflexivity with external factors positions the process of seachange among working people as a creative act where lifestyle migrants need to demonstrate creativity in order to survive.
Keywords: innovation, lifestyle migration, identity, regional Australia
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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 53_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.
Author: Glenna Lear, University of South Australia
Edition: Volume 53, Number 3, November 2013
Summary: This paper discusses the power of local and experiential knowledge, civic engagement and social transformation on rural third age women’s learning. My passion for learning reflects the methodological stance of heuristic inquiry, which requires the researcher to have a passionate interest in the phenomena under investigation and in this case, includes my tacit knowledge as a third age learner, a former farming partner and a long term resident of the region. Our two informal conversations about their midlife learning gave the six purposively selected women aged 58 – 70 the opportunity to reflect on their learning autobiographies as co-researchers. In their midlife, the women had the freedom and determination to change directions and the generative passions to remain useful, to give something back to their communities and to make them a better place for their retirement years and future generations. They emerged from the relative obscurity of the backrooms, kitchens and traditional supportive roles as farmer’s wives and mothers to become community activists, leaders and change agents who transformed their small service communities into thriving, vibrant, ‘can do’ societies better able to cope with the political, social, economic and environmental changes prevailing in regional Australia since the 1990s. They built new networks within the community and with the wider world and used their local knowledge and personal experiences to develop appropriate strategies for community renewal, which exposed them to diverse experiences, new knowledge and different ways of doing things. Unexpectedly they flourished and experienced personal development, growth and a transformation of the self as a blooming and fruition with the maturation of their potential.
Keywords: third age learning, community engagement, rural women, informal learning, personal transformation
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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 53_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.
Author: Bronwyn J. Ellis, University of South Australia
Edition: Volume 53, Number 3, November 2013
Summary: Undergraduate students enrolled through two regional locations were surveyed on their experience of being university students in later life. Students aged 55 and over were invited to complete an anonymous online questionnaire. This collected demographic information, and sought, through open-ended questions, information on their study motivations and university experience. Participants had the opportunity to describe the highlights and challenges of their study experience, including any needs for additional support and facilities. They were also asked to identify the contributions made possible by their greater life experience, and to comment on their relationship with academic and administrative staff and other students.
Most respondents (70%) aimed to use their new knowledge, skills, and targetted qualification in a vocational context; self actualisation goals also played a part for some. They reported generally relating well to others at university. Challenges arose from conflicting priorities and some technological issues. Their accumulated experiences helped them contribute significantly to class discussions as they understood the context for the theory they were learning.
Keywords: lifelong learning, older learners, motivation, higher education, equity, diversity
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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 53_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.
Author: Barbara Sedorkin, Adelaide
Edition: Volume 46, Number 3, November 2006
Summary: This report has been submitted by Barbara who is writing a book on the history of The Parks High School. It is an extract from her Chapter 6, ‘Decline and closure’.
Keywords: history
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