Tag: adult education

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Exploring the contribution of play to social capital in institutional adult learning settings

Author/s: Pauline Harris and John Daley

Edition: Volume 48, Number 1, April 2008

Summary: This paper explores how play as an educational tool can enhance social capital for adult learners in institutional settings. Framed by conceptualisations of social capital (Putnam 1993, 2000) and play (Melamed 1987, Meares 2005, Vygotsky 1978) and supported by research literature on play in adult learning, our action research in our adult education classes focuses on cooperative forms of play in which pretend, role-play, improvisation, playful activities and a playful mindset were key components. We investigate these play experiences in terms of their implications for nurturing adult learners’ social capital. Our preliminary findings to date reveal that play contributes to social capital by enriching adult learners’ engagement, cooperation and sense of connectedness with one another as well as with people, resources and information beyond their group.

Keywords: Vygotsky, social capital, institutional settings, adult education, cooperative play

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‘A reservoir of learning’: the beginnings of continuing education at the University of Sydney

Author/s: Darryl Dymock

Edition: Volume 49, Number 2, July 2009

Summary: Adult education has often been on the margin of university offerings in Australia and elsewhere, sometimes regarded as ‘non-core’ business or at least as a financial drain on the institution. At the University of Sydney, however, adult education has managed to survive in one form or other for over 140 years, currently through the Centre for Continuing Education. Partly this has been due to the support of influential academics who have believed in the principle of ‘extra-mural’ studies’, if not always agreeing with the way it has been delivered or funded. Research in the university’s archives and through contemporary accounts shows that the pattern of provision was established in the 1890s and first 20 years of the twentieth century, particularly through the development of tutorial classes in a relationship with the Workers’ Educational Association, following a model established in Britain at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. However, the research also reveals that the relationship between the first Director of Tutorial Classes and senior members of  Sydney University was not always harmonious, especially against the background of the conscription debates of World War I.

Keywords: adult education, relevance, funding, Centre for Continuing Education, Workers’ Educational Association

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 49_2. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.

 

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Teaching adult education history in a time of uncertainty and hope

Author/s: Tony Brown

Edition: Volume 50, Number 3, November 2010

Summary: Adult education’s continuing purpose has been questioned by writers for over twenty years and today the re-organisation and closure of some University departments brings this issue to the fore. This paper takes up the theme of really useful knowledge in a changing world from the standpoint of teaching adult education history to graduate students. Many enter their new field of practice unaware of the specific social contexts of the foundations of adult education in different places, or the genealogy of its current manifestations. Examining these different contexts, traditions, practices and practitioners can enable students to better locate themselves, connect with different traditions, understand the past and position themselves for their future. Secondly, the paper considers the idea of locating oneself in a rapidly changing political economy that has emerged from the global economic crisis and recession, the effects of which are expected to continue into the next decade.

Keywords: adult education, history, graduates, social context, political economy

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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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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.

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Arnold Hely and Australia adult education

Author/s: Roger Morris

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

Summary: Arnold Hely (1907–1967) was a most significant figure in the history of adult education in New Zealand, in Australia and internationally. Arnold Hely, a New Zealander, Director of Tutorial Classes (later Adult Education) at the University of Adelaide from 1957 to 1965, was the prime mover in the establishment in 1964 of the Asian South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education (ASPBAE) and was, until his most untimely death in 1967, its General Secretary. He previously had played, as an impartial newcomer/outsider, a leading role in the formation in 1960 of ALA (then called AAAE). In this paper I will focus on Hely’s efforts to bring Australian adult education into the mainstream of world adult education. In telling Hely’s story I will explore the context of Australian adult education in the 1950s and 1960s.

Keywords: Arnold Hely, adult education, 1950, 1960, history

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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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All over, red rover? The neglect and potential of Australian adult education in the community

Author/s: Barry Golding and Annette Foley

Edition: Volume 51, Special edition, December 2011

Summary: Consistent with the ‘looking back, moving forward’ conference theme, in this paper we undertake a critical, research-based appraisal of the current, arguably neglected state of adult education in Australia in 2010, and proceed to paint a picture of how a different and potentially more positive future might be realised. Continue reading “All over, red rover? The neglect and potential of Australian adult education in the community”

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Centres ‘Down Under’: Mapping Australia’s neighbourhood centres and learning

Author/s: Donna Rooney

Edition: Volume 51, Number 2, July 2011

Summary: The overarching aim of this paper is to ‘talk up’ learning in the Australian neighbourhood centre sector, realising this aim is premised on a need to understand neighbourhood centres themselves. Continue reading “Centres ‘Down Under’: Mapping Australia’s neighbourhood centres and learning”

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Pedagogies of doing good: Problematisations, authorities, technologies and teleologies in food activism

Author/s: Rick Flowers and Elaine Swan

Edition: Volume 52, Number 3, November 2012

Summary: In this paper, we apply a framework from Nikolas Rose to analyse the politics of ‘doing good’ in food activist education, what we call food pedagogies. Continue reading “Pedagogies of doing good: Problematisations, authorities, technologies and teleologies in food activism”