Tag: social capital

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Social capital outcomes: The new focus for adult literacy and numeracy courses

Authors: Stephen Black, Northern Sydney Institute of TAFE; Jo Balatti, James Cook University; & Ian Falk, Charles Darwin University

Edition: Volume 46, Number 3, November 2006

Summary: Since the early 1990s in Australia, adult literacy and numeracy courses in vocational education and training (VET) have been focused on human capital outcomes, that is, on developing the literacy and numeracy skills believed to improve the economic performance of individuals, enterprises and the nation generally. However, some researchers have expressed the concern that these outcomes are insufficient in explaining the socio-economic impacts of these courses. This paper reports on a recent study of the social capital outcomes of adult literacy and numeracy courses (Balatti, Black & Falk, 2006). The findings indicate that it is a complex mix of findings of both human and social capital outcomes from these courses that results in socio-economic impacts. The authors contend that social capital outcomes should be recognised and accounted for, along with human capital skills, in a reframing of adult literacy and numeracy policy and practice.

Keywords: human capital, social capital, VET,

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Adult, community and public education as primary sites for the development of social capital

Author/s: Rob Townsend

Edition: Volume 46, Number 2, April 2006

Summary: This article reviews current literature and discussion about the policies and sites of Australian adult education and training and their potential impact on the development of social capital in a regional context. The review stems from a current research project examining the impact of participation in adult education by people from diverse cultural backgrounds in a regional town in northern Victoria. There is evidence that adult education can transform individuals via access to new knowledge and skills, but can it impact on the social cohesiveness of groups, communities and regions in Australian society? Access and equity policies and strategies form the centre of adult, community and public education in Australia and it is time for these to be significantly reviewed in the context of a culturally diverse twenty first century society.

Keywords: adult education, social capital, diverse cultural backgrounds, northern Victoria, social cohesiveness

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Transformative pedagogy for social capital

Author/s: Peter Willis

Edition: Volume 47, Number 3, November 2007

Summary: This paper explores ways in which pedagogy for an elaborated form of transformative learning can be a useful catalyst for the development of social capital in community and workplace groups and networks. I begin with an example and then explore ideas of learning challenges embedded in building and maintaining social capital. I consider the usefulness of a four-dimensional approach to transformative learning as a suitable pedagogy for its development and maintenance. The paper concludes with brief profiles of four educators whose work, in different ways, could be said to have promoted forms of social capital, directly or indirectly: Desmond Tutu, Anne Sullivan, Jesus and Socrates. Each of these educators, without excluding other approaches, tended to emphasise one of the four transformative pedagogies.

Keywords: transformative pedagogy, transformative learning, social capital

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Getting connected: insights into social capital from recent adult learning research

Author/s: Barry Golding

Edition: Volume 47, Number 1, April 2007

Summary: This paper begins by teasing out the nature of social capital and its particular and current relevance to adult learning policy and practice in Australia. The paper identifies a number of benefits and significant problems with social capital as an organising construct for adult learning research and policy in Australia. Some connections are made between social capital and lifelong learning, and important distinctions are drawn between ‘bonding’ and ‘bridging’ social capital. I draw on my experiences and insights over the past seven years using network diagrams as a research tool. Network diagrams are identified as a useful tool for charting relationships between learning organisations and individuals. The paper suggests ways of using the network relationships in these diagrams as a proxy for social capital in a range of formal and informal settings in which adult learning occurs in Australia. Network diagrams are seen to have particular utility in situations where communities and organisations become too small for surveys, where relationships become complex and ambiguous as well as in rural and remote communities where distance and spatial relationships affect access to learning.

Keywords: social capital, adult learning, policy, practice, research, lifelong learning

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Diverse pleasures: informal learning in community

Author/s: Phoenix de Carteret

Edition: Volume 48, Number 3, November 2008

Summary: In this paper I suggest that social dances and local markets are examples of resilient practices of place-making and community that involve active participation. These two activities create mobile and pliant communities of participants that involve considerable informal and incidental learning. With dances and markets in mind, I look at the two concepts, social capital and community, that are used to link adult education and development and explore the notion of place. Place is conceived here as necessarily involving the inter-relationship of environment, social and economic landscapes. Somerville’s place pedagogy framework is introduced as a methodological approach to research informal learning in the two activities and explore the pedagogies that sustain social attributes broadly conceived under the umbrella of social capital. The paper establishes dances and markets as a nexus of people, place and purpose, a ground from which to research the informal learning that occurs in these diverse pleasures.

Keywords: resilience, active participation, dance, social capital, adult education

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Adult education, social inclusion and cultural diversity in regional communities

Author/s: Rob Townsend

Edition: Volume 48, Number 1, April 2008

Summary: This article presents the outcomes of recent research into adult education programs and experiences in the Shire of Campaspe, a region in northern Victoria. Research data of people from diverse cultural backgrounds reveal how individuals can utilise adult education as a space to explore their own social and cultural isolation in a regional context. The research reveals patterns of migration, internal population mobility, social isolation and cultural identity within the context of this one regional shire. The article discerns the roles that adult education providers play in creating specific kinds of space for people to discover new social networks while interacting with informal and formal structures and processes of adult learning. Adult education programs and practices can play an important role in providing space for the exploration of social, cultural and economic experiences. However, individual adult education organisations manage their spaces and programs in such a way that excludes some people from social and economic activity crucial to the development of individual and community social capital. Adult learning policies, programs and practices in regional communities need to address the holistic nature of adult learning for people from culturally diverse backgrounds in order to contribute to the development of sustaining social capital for individuals, families and communities in Australian society.

Keywords: adult education, policies, programs, practices, regional, social capital

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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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