Category: Non-refereed article

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Agenda for a national association 50 years on

Author/s: Barrie Brennan

Edition: Volume 50, Number 3, November 2010

Summary: I was honoured to be asked by the current Editor to write a response to W.G.K. Duncan’s 1961 paper, ‘Agenda for a national association’, in the first number of the Australian Journal of Adult Education , the journal of the newly established Australian Association of Adult Education (AAAE). The brief has been interpreted in this way. Duncan viewed AAAE as an ‘outsider’ and proposed challenges for the new association without giving guidance as to how the challenges may have been met.

Keywords: Adult Learning Australia, challenges, relevance

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 50_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Agenda for a national association

Author/s: W. G. K. Duncan

Edition: Volume 50, Number 3, November 2010

Summary: I was reminded of my schoolboy days when I read the opening words of the first number of the Newsletter, to be issued quarterly by the Australian Association of Adult Education. In our textual study of Macbeth (does this sort of thing still go on?), we were asked to say what punctuation mark we thought most appropriate after Lady Macbeth’s famous words ‘We fail’, when trying to screw her husband’s courage to ‘the sticking place’. A question mark, indicating that the possibility of failing had never occurred to her before? A full stop, suggesting resignation, or fatalism? An exclamation mark—to be accompanied by a scornful tone of voice? Which of these alternatives fitted in best with our conception of Lady Macbeth’s character? I plumped for the exclamation mark. (The edition I now have gives a colon—that would have floored us!)

The opening words of the Newsletter were simply “WE ARE!”—and I wondered whether the Editor had used the exclamation mark to indicate surprise, relief, triumphant satisfaction at difficulties overcome, or a sense of exhilaration at future prospects.

Keywords: Adult Learning Australia, Australian Association of Adult Education, relevance, future

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 50_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Recollections on the Association over five decades

Author/s: Arch Nelson (1960s), Barrie Brennan (1970s), Dianne Berlin (1980s), Alastair Crombie (1990s) and Roger Morris (2000s)

Edition: Volume 50, Number 3, November 2010

Summary: In 2010, fifty years after the establishment of the association now called Adult Learning Australia (ALA), the association still faces the dilemma about how to sell its message that adult learning matters. The dilemma is one of philosophy: in the nineteenth century, it was liberalism versus utilitarianism; in the mid-twentieth, the instrumental versus cultural; today, the dichotomy is couched in terms such as ‘social inclusion’ versus ‘productivity’.

Keywords: Adult Learning Australia, relevance, philosophy, social inclusion, productivity

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 50_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Diversity and excellence: prompts from the history of the tertiary education sector

Author/s: Francesca Beddie

Edition: Volume 50, Number 3, November 2010

Summary: In 2010, fifty years after the establishment of the association now called Adult Learning Australia (ALA), the association still faces the dilemma about how to sell its message that adult learning matters. The dilemma is one of philosophy: in the nineteenth century, it was liberalism versus utilitarianism; in the mid-twentieth, the instrumental versus cultural; today, the dichotomy is couched in terms such as ‘social inclusion’ versus ‘productivity’.

Keywords: adult learning, relevance, liberalism, utilitarianism, social inclusion, productivity

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 50_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

 

 

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Training, L&D, OD, HRD—What’s in a name?

Author/s: Sean O’Toole

Edition: Volume 50, Number 2, July 2010

Summary: This article describes the various aspects of human resources development and highlights the intersections and the differences between what are often mistakenly viewed as interchangeable concepts. It argues that, while it is generally accepted that developing staff is fundamental to good organisational health and business outcomes, a clear understanding of how this should be achieved is often hampered by an identity crisis in the field itself.

Keywords: human resource, development, health, business, outcomes

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 50_2. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Study circles and the Dialogue to Change Program

Author/s: Mary Brennan and Mark Brophy

Edition: Volume 50, Number 2, July 2010

Summary: The origins of study circles can be traced back to the Chautauqua movement in the USA in the late nineteenth century. However, interest diminished in the USA and the Swedes discovered and enthusiastically imported the study circle idea as a remedy to their problems of poverty and illiteracy and to educate the broadest possible spectrum of society in the art of democracy. Over the next 100 years, Sweden developed the process to such an extent that the Government now subsidises this form of education and uses it not only to educate people about government policies, but to receive feedback from the public.

Keywords: study circles, change, feedback, public

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 50_2. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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The powerful and the powerless: Unwritten rules

Author/s: Susan P. Shaver

Edition: Volume 50, Number 1, April 2010

Summary: Many people giggle when asked to define power. Other people tell me power corresponds with position title. They believe the higher you are on the organisation chart dictates how much—or how little—influence you have, over anything. I’m not convinced this is true. I believe that power is not always indicative of position, and power tactics are not limited to people in more senior positions. Power and politics are all about competing interests and control strategies that ultimately influence workplace relationships.

Keywords: power, workplace, position, power tactics, relationships

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 50_1. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Becoming an Australian citizen: Some dimensions of assessing a citizenship-type literacy amongst adults

Author/s: James A Athanasou

Edition: Volume 50, Number 1, April 2010

Summary: This paper evaluates a 20-item assessment of citizenship literacy in an adult sample comprising 179 persons of English-speaking and non-English speaking background. The results indicated that the assessment was internally consistent and that as expected it distinguished English-speaking from non-English speaking participants. The pattern of answers provided an initial, albeit partial, understanding of what might constitute citizenship information but it also highlighted some limitations. The assessment failed to tap the ability levels of those with higher knowledge. Nevertheless, the results also indicated some deficits in adult general knowledge. The potential failure rate even with a cut-off point of 60% correct was quite high. Just over one-in-five failed to pass. The results have implications for the proposed revisions to the Australian Citizenship Test.

Keywords: citizenship test, literacy, NESB

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 50_1. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

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Looking forward: Community Gateways at Victoria University

Author/s: Christine Mountford

Edition: Volume 51, Number 4, Special edition, December 2011

Summary: The mission and values of Victoria University provide the underlying criteria for the development and implementation of the Community Gateways initiative, which aims to transform the lives of those living in the west of Melbourne through the power of further education. Community Gateways takes the university into the community by providing career education and counselling, skills recognition, recognition of prior learning, workshops and short training opportunities to engage the community ‘on their own turf’, and to support their access and success through career-aligned course choice. To be truly effective in the community, Community Gateways has utilised a cooperative approach to engage with over forty community organisations, including community centres, neighbourhood houses, local councils, youth centres, libraries, and ACE and ACFE providers.

A resurgence of interest in values associated with community, social cohesion and cultural diversity has provided the platform for these relationships to develop. Community Gateways strengthens access to learning and employment in the region for many people who currently are unsure of how to access education and training opportunities. Through the provision of complimentary, professional careers counselling, community members are encouraged to consider their career options as the basis for making appropriate training or further study decisions. In this paper I will explore the development of the program and share the learning and achievements to date.

Keywords: Victoria University, community gateways, ACE

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 51_4_Special Edition. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

 

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Art, disability, learning and the dance of my life

Author/s: Faith Thorley

Edition: Volume 51, Number 4, Special edition, December 2011

Summary: I use my passion and skills as an artist to deal with my various disabilities resulting from brain tumour surgery. The ‘artvantages’ of this approach have been many: improved self-esteem and a greater sense of wellbeing, to name just two. On reflection and after revisiting the experiences of my healing journey, I now know when this journey began. Today I’ve come to recognise its beginning as the onset of my personal transformation.

My aim in this paper is to explain how I believe my personal transformation happened after my brain tumour surgery and to describe the transformative learning process that followed. I will support these explanations with valuable insights that I’ve gained from research in adult education and my involvement with others with disabilities. Next, I will introduce my interpretation of a phenomenon that I call ‘arts-based resistance learning’. This has been a major phase in my personal transformative journey and the subject of my current PhD inquiry. I am strongly committed to my research inquiry because it is uncovering new ways of using art to enhance life, which gives me hope, and may inspire and so assist other like afflicted people, health professionals and concerned individuals.

Keywords: disability, transformation, brain tumour, adult education, wellbeing

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 51_4_Special Edition. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.