This edition of AJAL is available for purchase in pdf format
ALA Members can download a free copy of this edition by logging in to the member area of the ALA website here: AJAL Past Editions
Share this page.
AJAL Volume 57 / Number 2 / July 2017
This edition of AJAL is available for purchase in pdf format
ALA Members can download a free copy of this edition by logging in to the member area of the ALA website here: AJAL Past Editions
Share this page.
Analysis of an organisation: A University of the Third Age (U3A), Mornington, Victoria
Author: Michael Small
U3A, Mornington
Edition: Volume 57, Number 1, April 2017
Summary: The purpose of this paper is two fold: to look at Mornington U3A in organisational terms and then look at U3AM as a loosely coupled system. One outcome of the study would be to undertake further analyses of U3As in Victoria to determine the levels of bureaucracy under which each operates. Questions to be asked: are U3As in Victoria operating as bureaucracies and so need to be loosened up? Or are they run as organisational anarchies and need to be tightened up?
Keywords: organisation, loosely coupled systems, bureaucracy, collegial, rational, mechanistic, anarchic, goals, efficiency, effectiveness
Share a copy of this abstract.
This article is part of AJAL, Volume 57_1. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.
Learning cities on the move
Author: Peter Kearns, PASCAL International Observatory
Edition: Volume 55, Number 1, April 2015
Summary: The modern Learning City concept emerged from the work of OECD on lifelong learning with streams of Learning Cities and Educating Cities having much in common but having little contact with each other. While the early development of Learning Cities in the West has not been sustained, the present situation is marked by the dynamic development of Learning Cities in East Asia – especially in China, the Republic of Korea, and Taiwan. In this context, the paper discusses the evolution of three generations of Learning Cities since 1992 and speculates on the future. The experience of the first generation is discussed in terms of development in the UK, Germany, Canada, and Australia where initiatives, with some exceptions, have not been sustained. Beijing and Shanghai are discussed as examples of the innovative second generation in East Asia, which is seen as a community relations model
in response to the socio-economic transformation of these countries. International interest in Learning Cities has now been enhanced following a major UNESCO International Conference on Learning Cities in Beijing in October 2013, which is to be followed by a Second International Conference in Mexico City. The Beijing Conference adopted the Beijing Declaration on Learning Cities supported by a Key Features document. The paper speculates on possible future development post Mexico City, including the situation in Australia, which is seen as opening opportunities for innovative initiatives.
Keywords: Learning Cities, Educating Cities, Beijing Declaration on Learning Cities, Key Features of Learning Cities, learning communities
Share a copy of this abstract.
This article is part of AJAL, Volume 55_1. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.
Do actions and methods in guidance for older workers exist in Spain?
Authors: María José López Sánchez and José Antonio Belso Martinez, Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche
Summary: Older people suffer discrimination in the labour market, in that their chances of finding employment if they lose their jobs are small, and the longer someone is out of the labour market, the harder it is to return. Although they often do possess the technical and transferrable skills required, these are not always recognised. Those who remain in work also encounter discrimination. They are unlikely to receive ongoing training and encouragement for career development, especially if their existing skills and qualifications are at a low level.
This paper is focusing on the Spanish situation, looking at the actions and methods in careers guidance for older workers. For this purpose 52 websites of Spanish trade unions were visited during 2010. Using the main findings of 131 questionnaires from 48 employers’ organisations, 41 trade unions and 28 public employment services from across the country, we look at guidance from a macro and micro perspective: how guidance is provided and who the main beneficiaries are.
We conclude that in the Spanish labour context, there is a specific need to improve the coordination and effective publicity regarding existing guidance services and their accessibility. Evidence shows that those who make least use of the careers guidance services are the older workers aged 50 to 55 years, and no special attention is given to meeting their needs.
Keywords: Old workers, careers guidance, active labour market policies, social partners, Spain
Share a copy of this abstract.
This article is part of AJAL, Volume 54_2. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.
Educational biographies in Germany: From secondary school general education to lifelong learning?
Author: Harry Friebel, University of Hamburg
Summary: This article addresses the change in the transitional process from secondary school general education to gainful employment within the framework of societal modernisation processes in Germany.
We analyse the relationship between the options for and restrictions upon individual educational mobility under the conditions imposed by the various socially institutionalised educational segments, which comprise a structure of opportunity.
The database for our study consists in the longitudinal findings of the “Hamburg Biography and Life Course Panel” (HBLP) from 1980 to 2007, which examined the processes of vocational education mobility for a sample of the Hamburg graduating class of 1979.
How do these people manage their educational strategies? What do they experience in terms of vocational education and continuing education within the institutional structure of opportunity? Do the career paths differ after gender?
Keywords: Vocational training, Educational Biography, Vocational training mobility, Continuing education, Vocational education policy, Germany
Share a copy of this abstract.
This article is part of AJAL, Volume 54_2. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.
Book review – Popular education, power and democracy: Swedish experiences and contributions
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
Share a copy of this abstract.
This article is part of AJAL, Volume 53_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.
Adult Education Conferences in 2013
(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
Share a copy of this abstract.
These articles are part of AJAL, Volume 53_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.
Experiencing English and cultural learning during study tours
Author: Associate professor Shin Yu Miao, Department of Applied Foreign Languages, Ling Tung University, Taiwan
Edition: Volume 46, Number 3, November 2006
Summary: Significant aspects of my doctorate in adult education, which I studiedover the past few years, were related to the exploration of English and cultural learning through study tours. Now, with the hard task done, and thesis completed, it is motivating to reflect on these aspects and their systematic application.
Keywords: study tour
[wpdm_file id=247]
Vocational educational services by non-government organisations to adult farmers in Oyo and Ogun States, Nigeria
Author: O.I. Oladele, Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Edition: Volume 46, Number 3, November 2006
Summary: The objective of this paper is to examine the vocational education services provided by non-government organisations (NGOs) to adult farmers in the states of Oyo and Ogun, in Nigeria. Two agro-based NGOs, the Diocesan Agricultural Development Project (DADP) and the Farmers Development Union (FADU), were purposively selected because of their relevance to the study. A total of 120 members of these NGOs were sampled for the study, 116 of whom responded. They were interviewed using a structured schedule designed to elicit vital information on the NGO extension services of which they were aware, and the frequency with which these services were administered to the respondents. The data collected from the field were analysed using frequency counts, tables, chi-square and t-test. The findings revealed that the respondents were mostly aware of the extension activities provided by the NGOs. In addition, several extension services were received regularly, with FADU members receiving more extension activities than members of DADP. While a broad range of extension activities were provided by the agro-based NGOs to their members, those most frequently accessed by farmers were mainly advisory. Relationships between some of the demographic characteristics of the respondents and the extension activities of the NGOs were also discovered. Conclusions are drawn concerning the focus of NGO activities provided to farmers and the relationship between these and government-based programs.
Keywords: NGO, DADP, FADU, extension services
[wpdm_file id=244]