Search

These notes and questions have been prepared to promote discussion of the ideas set out in the Clarifying paper, 'Living and learning in EcCoWell cities' to be found on the PASCAL International Exchanges (PIE) website. This Discussion Paper sets ten questions for discussion. We are hoping to encourage discussions of these issues around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literacy as a unified concept is no longer valid or useful for today's complex world, where globally we face many challenges and contradictions. Adult literacy is shifting rapidly, and the human need for visually communicating meaningfully and relationally - beyond 'reading and writing' - is vital for addressing wicked problems and difficult times. In this paper we ask, "What does 'literacy' mean for us now, as we prepare new generations of people, as we address severe health issues, poverty, state conflicts and the climate crisis is looming?" How can expanded understandings of 'literacy' offer educational hope and possibility for the many adults who have been shut out of the literacy club? How do we challenge the exclusionary colonial practices of 'literacy' and education that leave many bereft and having to settle for lives with limited opportunities and successes? In the adult education practices we employ, we are looking beyond conventional 'classroom' and 'literacy' viewpoints to develop expanded and inclusive understandings of learning. In this paper, we share stories of encounters we have had with individuals who have, in different ways, been previously excluded from opportunities offered through learning 'literacy.' Using an asset-based lens, we consider ways in which these individuals have learned, and ways we have learned from them, as we collectively question the usefulness of colonial conceptions that limit, rank, classify and assign status by particular 'literacy' standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of providing institutional assistance to adult learners with visual impairment throughout the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be overemphasised. This paper examined the experiences of adult learners with visual impairment, whose studies were significantly affected by the implementation of lockdown and social distancing that led to their dropping out from one university in Eswatini. Using phenomenological design, three adult learners with visual impairment, who dropped out of the university, were chosen to participate in the study. Adult learners responded to a semi-structured interview guide during the individual conversations. The data were analysed using qualitative thematic analysis. Ethical considerations such as informed consent and anonymity were observed. The findings revealed the themes of social isolation, personal challenges, and lack of institutional assistance. Adult learners with visual impairment reported that there was no support received from the institution. Furthermore, adult learners indicated that some lecturers excluded them by not communicating and providing suitable materials for their condition. The participants acknowledged the awareness of using technology during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, they stated the lack of devices, inadequate technology skills, and their reliance on sighted adult learners and peers to read the content for them. This paper suggests that lecturers at this university in Eswatini be trained on how to teach and support adult learners with visual impairment, and the institution should consider developing a comprehensive education policy to cater to all different adult learners. Comprehensiveness has always been a challenge for adult learners with disabilities generally, but the pandemic has escalated it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We ask for suffrage that we may stand side by side with our fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons, working with them ... for a noble political life for the country's wealth. Not for a man's place do we ask, but for the fullness of women's. (The Argus, 1891, p. 9) In the late nineteenth century, adult and public learning pedagogy were the key instruments utilised in the campaign to achieve Victorian Women's Suffrage. The democratic process of changing state government legislation on franchise demanded multiple pedagogical methods. Through the actions of Bessie Harrison Lee (1860-1950), this international women's culture (McLean & Baroud, 2020, p. 506). Part of this culture featured Australian women adopting the petition as a political instrument. The petition had already had a long history in Britain, used by groups with little political influence. Ian Fletcher's conception of the British Empire as "a set of relations, rather than the sum of their parts, as frameworks structuring political, economic and cultural exchanges between metropole and colonies" is useful in understanding how political ideas travelled to and were adapted in the Australian context (Fletcher, Levine & Mayall, 2012, p. xiv). This paper argues that new ways of knowing were made possible by Lee, who, empowered by the evangelical faith (her cultural capital) spoke out confidently in public spaces such as town halls, outside public bars, and on the front doorsteps of women's homes in both cities and rural towns. These spaces were the places of learning, or as Bourdieu described, the field. Also, the meeting places of the WCTU, whether private lounge rooms or church halls, enabled women to support each other in the political process of debate, addressing community issues, and devising strategic plans to improve the lives of women. Through critical discourse analysis of newspaper reports, WCTU's publication The White Ribbon, the Victorian Alliance publication Alliance Record, and Lee's autobiography, this paper identifies these learning spaces. It also explores the community of practice in WCTU meetings, doorknocking, pamphleteering and the physical act of collecting signatures for the 1891 'Victorian Monster Petition'. The language and actions used to enact democratic activity that involves women in ways of saying, doing, and being full citizens are unlocked; however, the WCTU was exclusionary of Indigenous and non-Anglo-Celtic ancestry. Therefore, their learning spaces were complicit in the Great Silence (Stanner, 1968). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Funded by the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) grant, this national study examines arts-based adult education organizations involved in dance, music, drama, and visual arts with a philosophical perspective aligned with a multiliteracies theoretical framework. Multiliteracies considers how cultural and linguistic diversity must be fostered to encourage adults to thrive in all learning environments and recognizes that multimodality provides an expanded way to engage in literacy practices. Utilizing Carey Jewitt's four theoretical tenets to characterize multimodality serves to structure the analytical framework for the findings and discussion of this paper. Multiple case studies and constructivist grounded theory were used for the methodology. Some of the sites discussed in this paper include an art gallery; an immigration museum; and a chamber music organization that offers interactive performances. Participants included adult educators and learners who had options around face-to-face interviews; observations; document analysis of lesson plans or exemplars; or secondary data analysis of original film footage shot in these spaces. This research has found that arts-based approaches can infuse the work of adult educators to engage adult learners in inclusive pedagogy and active citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data from two research projects with adult literacies practitioners based in Scotland are used to illustrate how policies underpinned by ideologies based on Human Capital Theory (HCT) lead to a narrow conceptualisation of the purpose of literacies education. It is argued that HCT ideology permeates international and national policies and thus influences practice. This results in a focus on the economy, rather than the individual, leading to narrow domains of skills-focused knowledge that become accepted as normal and are difficult to challenge. The paper outlines the changes experienced by practitioners, especially those focused on employability programs, but also shows how these changes have been resisted, particularly in relation to how the curriculum is negotiated, and outcomes are assessed with learners. Practitioners were able to maintain values-based approaches and protect democratic practice through interactions with colleagues that reinforced a collective understanding of fundamental principles for delivering social justice-based literacies programs. It is concluded that, while practitioners were critically reinterpreting aspects of the dominant discourse through building on learners' experience and valuing their perspectives, social justice requires that the impact of broader social and economic inequalities on participation in education is addressed through structural changes rather than individual effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The three of us met in 2014 through our shared interest in adult literacy. We are colleagues as practitioners and as researchers; altogether, we have been in the field of adult literacy in Canada since the 1980s. Our experiences working with learners come from our role as volunteer tutors and paid staff in provincially funded programs and grassroots initiatives funded only through private donations. Over the years, we have worked with learners who have diverse physical, mental and cognitive abilities. For many of these learners who have to contend with day-to-day challenges and discrimination stemming from their (dis)abilities, their learning is further compounded with their struggle with poverty due to the paltry financial support from the government. As we develop and evolve our approaches to support learners in their goals, we put into practice the principles from New Literacy Studies (Gee, 2020; Papen, 2023; Street, 1997) to connect literacy education with the social and historical contexts and to support learners in defining their own literacy. In this paper, each of us shares a story from our own practice to highlight how we offer a learner-centred approach to build a social practice of literacy for both the learners and ourselves as educators. While we use our stories to challenge the dominant narrative of literacy education for employment as seen in government policies (Elfert & Walker, 2020; Elias 2023; Walker & Rubenson, 2014), we also share our own learning, unlearning and relearning of how we define adult literacy as educators. The learner-centred approach in literacy education may not appear especially radical on its own; however, under the increasing pressure from the state to use adult literacy as a labour market tool, the possibility of pursuing learning outcomes other than employment could challenge the deficit narratives that are far-too-often attached to literacy learners with (dis)abilities (Elias et al., 2021). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper recounts our journey of changing practice from teaching adult literacy to helping other teachers by creating digital and printed learning resources and tutor training materials to support a foundational literacy program designed to help those who teach English speaking adults to read and write. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of an analysis of course titles and descriptions which are part of core adult education university curricula in the United States. The focus of the analysis was on understanding how well these adult education programs, and their curricula, address the need for developing critical literacy and critical literacies for advancing diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), and social justice. Further, we discuss strategies for promoting critical literacies and DEI in adult education degree programs. The research process included a content analysis of course/class titles and descriptions pertaining to courses/classes offered in adult education programs in almost 50 US higher education institutions, most of which were at the graduate level. The findings revealed that references to the development of critical literacies with a focus on DEI were notably limited among adult education program offerings at identified institutions. Building on these findings, we propose an increased effort in integrating critical literacies (e.g., intercultural literacy, information literacy, racial literacy, etc.) and DEI-related topics that align with critical literacy goals into adult education curricula, which would contribute to adult education students' career success by preparing them to navigate contemporary global, multicultural, and multilingual contexts. By developing critical literacy and related critical literacies, students would engage in critical thinking in a way that supports DEI and promotes social justice within organisations and communities globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artistic Literacies (AL) can be a catalyst to creative, imaginative, and potentially, transformative learning (Blackburn Miller, 2020). Artistic literacy texts include storytelling, creative writing, popular theatre, music, dance, poetry, fiction, or memoir, and visual art. Creative possibilities for diverse adult literacy learners can open when artistic literacies are integrated across the disciplines. This paper will highlight the way that transformative learning theory can enrich our understanding of artistic literacies and adult learning processes. Connections to transcultural literacies, affective (emotional and social) literacies, and environmental literacies within the context of adult literacy education will be explored. Visual art is used to highlight key dimensions of transformative learning and multimodal literacies. In multimodal learning, written-linguistic modes of expression interact with oral, visual, audio, gestural, tactile and spatial patterns of meaning (Kalantzis and Cope, 2012). For example, visual literacies can encourage the exploration, analysis, interpretation, and expression of artistic forms that include painting, sculpture, collage, photography, graffiti art, mobile art installations, protest art, and film. Transformative learning and multimodal learning disrupt singular conceptions of literacy to enable multiple entry points (e.g., aesthetic, narrational, experiential, intrapersonal, etc.) for creative learning and multimodal literacy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During my 20-year career as a specialist language and literacy educator, I have found that inclusive and experiential classroom pedagogies stimulate and engage learners of all ages and demographics. What is more, these same methods can be effectively implemented to support individuals with diverse learning needs. This article discusses the 8 Ways of Aboriginal Learning (NSW Department of Education, n.d.) as a pedagogical approach for engaging and supporting learners with diverse needs and, using a case study example, demonstrates how the holistic integration of different strategies enhances learning opportunities for all students. Whether you see yourself as an educator, teacher, trainer, mentor or supervisor, and regardless of whether you 'teach' in a standard classroom, workplace settings (e.g. office building, health clinic), or a communitybased learning centre, the ideas and approaches presented in this paper will help you construct learning opportunities that will support student success and make lesson planning and preparation more effective and time-efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is an editorial from the Australian Journal of Adult Learning, discussing various topics related to adult learning education. It mentions changes in Ministerial portfolios in the Federal Albanese Government and highlights the Labor government's commitment to adult and lifelong learning. The journal includes four refereed papers on topics such as academic advising for adult learners, Bessie Harrison Lee's fight for suffrage, adult community education in the theatre and arts, and perceptions of adult learning for visually impaired individuals during the pandemic. The article also includes book reviews and emphasizes the importance of pedagogy, policy, and practice in adult education. [Extracted from the article]

The article is an editorial from the Australian Journal of Adult Learning, paying tribute to the late Professor John Field, a highly respected figure in the field of adult and lifelong learning. The article highlights his significant contributions to scholarship, policy advocacy, and international collaborations. The rest of the journal features refereed articles on various topics, including multiliteracies in arts-based organizations, Indigenous-led heritage work, professional development for VET practitioners, and empowerment initiatives for Saudi women through vocational skills. It also includes practitioner papers reflecting on current practices in adult learning education, such as advising senior management leaders on the doctoral research journey and supporting students who are parents in higher education. [Extracted from the article]

This paper provides insight into working-class parents' views of the structural and systemic injustices shaping post-school options and opportunities in contemporary Australia, drawing on interview data with a group of mothers living in growth corridor suburbs in the outer west of Melbourne. Illustrating aspects of Berlant's (2011) notion of "cruel optimism", the paper examines the concepts of diminished society and collective community afforded by success through education, an aspiration and achievement unequal among young Australians. As Reay (2017) argues, an ideological narrative that positions individuals as being responsible for their own achievement through education sets many up to fail. This paper gives voice to the lived experiences of this individual responsibilitisation. We draw on elements of Marxist analysis, a subset of critical theory, whereby economic circumstances are the basis upon which political and ideological realities are built, critiquing the ways in which neoliberal social and economic policy and ideology are normalised (Tyson, 2015). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the question of why young Australians with intellectual disability (ID) remain underrepresented in open employment despite significant investment by various stakeholders. It uses the analogy of Whack-a-Mole (an arcade game) to draw attention to the complexity young people face during transition, and to illustrate how addressing one barrier in isolation is unlikely to result in successful transitions. In response to repeated calls for more holistic understandings of the transition process for young adults with ID, the paper draws upon the work of Urie Bronfenbrenner to present an adaptation of his model to map the ecologies of young people with ID's as they seek to transition from school to open employment. The model illustrates the complexity of transition, a proliferation of stakeholders, and traces how transition is contingent on much more than young adults with ID's capabilities. It invites further consideration of, and utility for, an ecological model as a basis for imagining possibilities to increase the number of people with ID in open employment and concludes by raising some questions that stakeholders might ask. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are growing expectations that tertiary education graduates will be ready for working life, that is, possessing the capacities to participate effectively in an occupational practice in a specific work situation. Yet, graduates are often unprepared to fulfil this expectation. In response, tertiary education increasingly includes workplace experiences (i.e., practicums, internships, & work placements). It is necessary to understand these experiences' efficacy and their optimisation to promote work-life readiness. Drawing on students' experiences of internships, this paper discusses what constitutes the value of internships in post-secondary diploma courses in Singapore. A quantitative analysis of interview data identified the contributions afforded through these experiences in workplaces -- students' intentional engagement, and their readiness for working life. Central here is how these contributions promote the development of the adaptability required for effective participation in contemporary working life. The analysis identifies challenges including students' adapting to new work environments, navigating workplace practices, and developing occupational capacities. Workplace supervisors' and host educational institutions' support suggests interns' adaptability can be enhanced by promoting the relations between the support they received, on the one hand, and their engagement with challenges during internships, on the other. These findings offer an understanding about the experiences and outcomes of interns' learning through workplaces and offer implications for supporting and augmenting transitions into working life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an ever-changing world of work, workers are expected to maintain currency of changes through lifelong learning to sustain employment and transition into new jobs or occupations - as the need arises. Adult workers rely on affordances from societal, workplace, community and educational institution sources that offer opportunities - intentional or sometimes unintentional. Productive engagement in these opportunities leads to positive outcomes in terms of learning and employment, although adults' personal epistemologies, agency, and intentionality determine which affordances they engage with, in what ways, and for what purposes (Billett, Choy and Le, 2023). Moreover, working age adults' learning is largely and necessarily premised on their own constructive efforts albeit with guidance from those with whom they work closely. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the working age population is defined as those aged 15 to 64 (OECD, 2023). In Australia, the working age can be extended to 74 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2023). Working age adults' worklife learning is sustained through permutations of lifelong learning and lifelong education that enables them to navigate different kinds of transitions that may arise due to institutional or personal factors such as life stages, employment status, occupations, re-locations, health and personal preference or trajectories (Billett, Choy & Le, 2023). This means that lifelong educational provisions need to extend beyond those from educational institutions to include experiences in workplaces and the community. The growing realisation of the potency and importance of learning experiences in workplaces and other social settings is now attracting a greater consideration of these sites for ongoing learning of working age adults. This calls for learning in the course of everyday work to be acknowledged and systematised around work practices. In this paper, we illuminate and elaborate on workplace contributions to learning that support individuals' employability across working life. Drawing on the worklife history interviews (n=66) and a survey (n=678) data from an Australian Research Council funded project [DP 190101519], we report and discuss working age adults' perspectives of workplace affordances. The findings from the interviews indicate that three work-based models suggested by Billett et al. (2016) are most appropriate for supporting workers' learning in their work settings. These are wholly work-based experiences, work-based experiences with direct guidance and work-based experiences with educational interventions. The affordances and practices of workplaces are central to supporting workers' lifelong learning in workplaces, but they also need access to lifelong education provisions to maintain currency of knowledge and skills to sustain employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the response by a Vocational Education and Training (VET) provider in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia to the travel and social distancing restrictions brought about by COVID-19. The paper commences with a description of the impact of COVID-19 on the VET sector. The paper then describes the VET regulatory environment prior to February 2020 and the responsibility of VET providers to comply with the requirements of the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), in the delivery of VET programs to domestic and international students. A discussion of the lack of a specific vocational education pedagogy, the complexity of delivering VET programs online as well as current research findings in this area follows. A description of the College provides the context to examine the impact of COVID-19 on the delivery of programs in the Northern Territory VET sector. The paper describes how the College, which had a high international student cohort, migrated their courses online in order to remain viable in the highly volatile and unforeseen circumstances brought about by COVID-19. In order to ascertain the effectiveness of the online delivery of course offerings, a questionnaire and a series of face to face and telephone interviews were conducted with key stakeholders. The mixed method approach employed in this research was consistent with contemporary social and educational research. The paper concludes with the call for a new paradigm and policy shift in Vocational Education and Training post COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crafting has occupied the hands and minds of women over many centuries providing vital connections with cultural skills and with community. While the COVID-19 pandemic has isolated women in their homes, it has also provided opportunities for women to reconnect to crafting through virtual spaces. This paper draws on a thematic analysis of a focus group interview examining the experiences of regional women participating in a crafting group and identifies the ways in which they used craft to support their wellbeing. Drawing on the concept of therapeutic landscapes, the paper highlights that connection in a virtual craft group supports lifelong learning and wellbeing, brings women together in support through a community of women’s practice and facilitates opportunities for producing meaningful and commemorative quilting projects This finding has implications for a society experiencing unprecedented levels of stress, mental illness and anxiety about the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new theory of Conditional Social Equality (CSE) which in some ways challenges the theory of cumulative advantage/ disadvantage (CAD), which postulates that inequalities and social divisions necessarily increase over time. Using evidence from informal learning groups in Men's Sheds in three countries, we conclude that some social divisions between homosocial groups, in this case groups of older men, may actually decrease -- but only under certain conditions. Male-gendered learning groups that were relatively homogeneous by age helped erase class divisions and softened gender stereotypes. Our theory of conditional social equality (CSE) predicts the following: i) in-group homogeneity can enable the acceptance of some aspects of heterogeneity, ii) some other aspects of in-group heterogeneity may not be tolerated, thus maintaining in-group cohesion, and iii), in-group homogeneity and boundary setting towards out-groups may be prerequisites for the acceptance of (some) aspects of in-group heterogeneity. All of this has important implications for adult learning in both heterogeneous and homogenous groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The predicted growth of the aged care sector in Australia, driven by the ageing population, is expected to create an increasing need for workplaces to support the development for all kinds and classifications of workers to undertake their work within multicultural settings. This paper describes and elaborates the necessary and increasing requirement for workplaces to support adult learning in multicultural circumstances. A mixed methods approach was used to collect data from workers undertaking the role of carer in residential aged care facilities across the east coast of Australia. Arising from the collection and analysis of these data are contributions to knowledge including a conceptual model for understanding learning in multicultural settings. This research emphasizes a notion that cultural diversity has a fundamental influence on workplace learning in aged care and identifies practices to support cross-cultural communication, coworking and learning. Further, inter-worker learning is reinforced as a key enabler of performance in aged care work. Such contributions help to understand what influences workplace learning in multicultural settings and how it may be better supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shares my former literacy learner and friend - Marie's journey - and my own. We explore critical approaches to education and beyond and how they offer a potential space for transformation not just for the learner but for the teacher. The ripple impact has supported us on our journey across nearly two decades. Our relationship was forged by a learner driven, and socially empowering model (Freire, 1993; Barton et al 2003; Duckworth, 2013, 14; Duckworth and Smith 2017, 2018) which takes into consideration the cultural, psychological and educational factors related to the Learners and their lives and driven by creating critical spaces for organic transformative tools for consciousness-raising (Freire 1995) and a caring space where hope can act as a change agent that fuelled our life. In this paper we argue that the aforementioned encourages dialogic communication between teachers and literacy learners whereby learners, teachers and communities can share stories, ask questions, analyse and subsequently work through effective and meaningful strategies to take agency over their lives, enhancing their situation and empowering them in the public and personal domains of their journeys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes an autoethnographic account of how Paulo Freire's work shapes understandings of education, social change and the possibilities and practices of social research. Drawing on connections between anthropology and education (Schultz, 2014) that underpin Pedagogy of the Oppressed (McKenna, 2013), I explore spaces and practices through which Freire's seminal text provided me with the critical consciousness to interrogate the human experience of education and learning, and to question my practice as I transitioned from teacher to researcher, paying particular attention to learning through discomfort (Boler, 1999). The paper therefore contributes an applied contemporary reading of Pedagogy of the Oppressed to demonstrate its continued significance for theory and practice in formal and nonformal education, and its relevance for reimagining research practice. As a form of critically engaged reflective scholarship, the autoethnographic enquiry asks educators and researchers to question their own conceptualisations and practices of knowledge and research to consider a significant and urgent proposition: how we do the work to understand education and our imaginations of what and how it might become. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pandemic-induced suspension of international study tours in 2020 permits space within which to examine the specific role of the study tour supervisor and student learning. While there is a significant body of literature on student experiences, relatively little attention has been devoted to the supervisor's role. Drawing on a first-hand account by a nurse educator on Australia's New Colombo Plan (NCP) international study tour program, this paper reveals the role's shifting complexities and uncertainties. This discussion provides the basis from which to explore the dynamics of supervisor-student relationships within unfamiliar overseas settings. The original Grand Tour, particularly the advice provided by Sir Francis Bacon in the early 17th century, serves as a frame of reference against which to evaluate the experiences shared by supervisors and students on international study tours. The frequently hazardous situations they face together required them to assume increasing responsibilities. The paper assesses the strategic and theoretical implications arising from this exercise of responsibility, which is grounded in nursing ethics and the goals of public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI) is currently the principal mechanism for fighting poverty and achieving social inclusion among a plethora of social policies in the European Union (EU). In GMI, education and vocational training hold a major role in fighting social exclusion and promoting social cohesion. The first part of the paper discusses the characteristics and limitations of the GMI scheme. The second part of the paper discusses an alternative model for income support, intended to achieve a fairer and more cohesive society, the Universal Basic Income (UBI). We close by highlighting the potential of UBI schemes on reconfiguring that UBI schemes have on reconfiguring education, with an emphasis on adult education. On its own, UBI cannot challenge the neoliberal hegemony. However, UBI can become a means for shifting attention to alternative conceptualisations of social inclusion based on the creation of adult education for critical and participatory citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the contribution of craftivism to climate justice learning through the practices of Australia's Knitting Nannas Against Gas and Greed (aka KNAG or the Nannas). Framing activist adult learning as social movement learning locates environmental and climate justice struggles within lifelong learning practices. Established in 2012, the Nannas are an older women's anti-coal seam gas and fossil fuel movement that has grown to encompass intergenerational ecological sustainability activism. Data presented in this paper were collected with active KNAG members in Australia as part of a PhD study using surveys, interviews, document analysis of social media (Facebook posts, digital videos, e-news bulletins) and researcher auto-ethnography. The research identified the milieu of craftivism motivated older women to collaboratively build their activist identity, ecological and environmental literacy, and non-violent direct action activist skills. The learning ecology involved a complex web of social interactions and encounters that stimulated opportunities for active listening and critical reflection, which promoted transformative and emancipatory learning dispositions. Craftivism was analysed to be the catalyst and transformative force that activated situated experiential learning and identity formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The origins and focuses of adult education across Western countries are often about meeting adults' needs, and for purposes they have nominated, not those compelled by others. Unlike other sectors (e.g. schools, vocational colleges and universities) that were mainly initiated and sustained by church or state, adult education has long been grounded in communities and provided through hybrid institutions. Across Western countries, the term 'movement,' is often associated with adult education's origins, and it is sometimes regarded as a 'fourth sector' of education, apart from schools, vocational education and training and university studies. In recent times, the concept has expanded and diversified, however, making it more amorphous and less distinctive as an educational 'sector'. Nevertheless, one of the continuing features of 'adult education' has been its concern for adults' learning needs and preferences. This paper proposes that the formation and continuity of adult education have been based particularly on three key premises: i) meeting adults' specific but heterogeneous learning needs; ii) educational purposes and purposes being understood in the local context; and iii) the enactment of adult education being shaped by local considerations. Furthermore, the values underpinning 'traditional' adult education have not only been sustained in what is now more commonly known as Adult and Community Education (ACE) but have expanded into other educational contexts. Informed by considerations of selected research projects the authors have been involved with in recent years, this paper identifies how the three premises have emerged as features of other educational provisions for adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper poses three research questions, based primarily on evidence from six decades of the Australian Journal of Adult Education (AJAL, 2000-present) and its antecedent journals dating back to 1961. Firstly, it asks what was the context for establishing a national adult learning association, Australian Association of Adult Education (AAAE) in 1960, renamed the Australian Association for Adult and Community Education (AACE) in 1989, and Adult Learning Australia (ALA) in 1998? Secondly, it asks how the association, the research in its journals and the field of adult education adapted to the rapidly changing context, opportunities and needs for lifelong learning in Australia? In doing so, the paper critically examines evidence of ongoing tensions and difficulties delivering on ALA's 2020 vision of 'lifelong and lifewide learning for all Australians'. It also asks what the current situation is for Australian adult education, and what possible new courses for the future ALA and AJAL might take. The first two research questions are addressed in the body of this paper. The third question is addressed primarily within the Discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Making appropriate perspective transformations as we age is necessary to meet the demands of the rapidly changing conditions within our world. Accordingly, there has been a growing interest in the role of mindfulness in enabling transformations. Still, how mindfulness may facilitate perspective transformations is not well understood. The present paper draws from empirical evidence from psychology and cognitive science to discuss the theoretical possibility that mindfulness may facilitate perspective transformations. A theoretical model is presented that depicts an incremental transformative learning process that is facilitated through mindfulness. Mindfulness affords the adult enhanced attention to their thoughts, feelings, and sensations as they arise in the present moment experience. This metacognitive awareness may moderate the expression of motivational disposition for the present moment behaviour, enabling a more objective assessment of the conditions of the situation. Nonetheless, in accordance with transformative learning theory, an adult would have to become critically aware of and analyse the assumptions that underlie the reasons why they experience as they do in order to convert behaviour change to perspective transformation. Further empirical studies are necessary to test this assumption of the theoretical model presented in the present paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing number of single mothers are seeking entry to higher education via enabling programs; however, these students face unique struggles to make their dream a reality. There is some research on the challenges faced by student-mothers in higher education; however, research specifically on single mothers in enabling education is limited. This research focused on identifying the competing discourses that single mothers faced during an enabling program, and the ways they can be supported. Interviews were conducted with seven women who self-identified as single mothers, describing their personal struggles, alongside their experiences of great accomplishment. What became evident, was despite the difficulties of raising children as a sole parent, the student-mothers gained noticeable confidence in themselves during and after completing their enabling studies. Analysis of the data identified unique challenges faced by this non-traditional group of students and highlighted specific supports that this student group require. This paper details a range of obstacles that impeded their study; related directly to their status as single parents. These hurdles included financial difficulties, lack of support, negative familial relationships, personal health concerns, and study related challenges. In addition, these seven student-mothers identified the key factors that supported their success: forging strong connections with other students, improved self-efficacy, the observed positive 'knock-on' effect to their children, and quality academic support and pastoral care from university staff. Thus, with perseverance and appropriate support, these student-mothers were able to achieve success in an enabling program. This study voices the personal 'survival narratives' of seven student-mothers; revealing challenges and strategies unique to their circumstances, that in-turn, generated a successful student experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pre-tertiary enabling programs have become an increasingly popular pathway to university in Australia in recent years, however little is published about how well enabling students fare once they start university. This paper examines and compares first-year retention and academic outcomes of students that entered Murdoch University between 2014 and 2016 via successful completion of its enabling program, OnTrack. A greater proportion of students transitioning via OnTrack were from equity and disadvantaged backgrounds than any other entry pathway; thereby demonstrating an important function of this enabling program in boosting the representation of these students at the university. Further, OnTrack-pathway students were retained at a rate that was similar or better than students entering via all other admission pathways, despite poorer academic performance. This persistence suggests enhanced resilience amongst this cohort, potentially built during their enabling education experience. Multivariate regression modelling was also undertaken, revealing that admission pathway, demographic and enrolment factors collectively explained very little of the observed variation in student outcomes for all first year students, and were particularly poor predictors of academic underperformance. Thus, once students are enrolled in undergraduate study, student outcomes may be better explained by student variables not captured in university databases, such as personal circumstances or psychological factors. In summary, these findings provide empirical data to support the notion that enabling programs have been successful in 'enabling' access and participation of students who are capable but otherwise lack opportunity, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, enabling pathway students may experience ongoing challenges that impact their academic performance, and thus future equity and access policy should address appropriate mechanisms for supporting the broader transition experience of these students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Common sense in practice was a significant finding of a qualitative narrative research project investigating the professional practice and learning of police in an Australian police jurisdiction. Police officers in this research emphasised common sense as an intrinsic attribute of policing. Conceptions of policing as a craft or trade, learned on-the-job, and police officers as artisans, have dominated police training. In recent years, in response to global trends to professionalise policing, organisations in most Western nations have established partnerships with tertiary and higher education institutions to provide integrated programs of professional learning and practice for police. This paper draws on Bourdieu's practice theory to examine the narratives of traditionally trained police officers' perceptions of common sense. Police officers' narratives revealed three distinct perspectives that supported the unquestioning acceptance and application of common sense to their everyday practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, police educators delivering academy programs have overused traditional or teacher-centred methods as part of an authority driven command and control culture. In addition to being educationally unsound, this teaching approach has limited the development of the critical thinking skills needed for effective reform in the community policing era. Problem-based learning (PBL), a teaching method linked to social constructivist theory, has been widely advocated in recent years as an alternate teaching method in police academies to promote deeper and integrated learning of content, with the benefit of also developing problem-solving and teamwork skills. However, implementing learner-centred methods such as PBL can be challenging as it runs counter to traditional teaching cultures. Recent research into the teaching and development experiences of police educators by the author has discerned aspects of the facilitator role that can inform and maximise the impact of methods such as PBL. This paper synthesises an understanding of the facilitator role as described in these experiences with the underlying learning theory of Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (ZPD). This theoretical discussion is then applied via a proposed model of police learning to highlight the facilitation's role in developing problem-solving within a policing context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purposes and implementation of adults’ lifelong education (LLE) has been shaped by two imperatives: i) neoliberal reforms and ii) focuses on employability and economic outcomes. This has led to LLE taking similar pathways across many countries, i.e., away from a focus on personal and cultural betterment, to one associated with promoting individual employability. However, policies and practices in Japan offers a nuanced contrast to the general trend. That is, the overall focus on LLE, particularly for older Japanese is premised on social engagement, personal enrichment and often captured in ‘social education’. There is also a focus on sustaining the adult employability, including the re-employment of retirees, in structured ways and tailored to meet their needs and enacted at the local level. This paper reviews the manifestations of LLE in Japan to examine how its goals and educational provisions are being developed, enacted, engaged with and evaluated. Overall, it is suggested that Japan has not wholly embraced the tight economic focus on promoting and supporting LLE associated with employability imperatives. Perhaps through the electoral power of the aged population, the provision of educational experiences is focused on longevity, cultural betterment, further education and reducing the social isolation of older Japanese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social movement learning is now an established field of educational research. This paper contributes to the field by offering a critical case study of Occupy Wall Street (OWS). The paper surveys the claims made by the movement's supporters that transformed utopian subjectivities emerged in and through the process of participation, the prefigurative politics of the movement becoming an educative process of dialogic interaction and a moment of self-education through struggle. Drawing on the extensive range of first-hand accounts, and analysing the anarchist and autonomist ideas animating the movement's core activists, the paper highlights the pedagogical lacunae in OWS and reflects on what we as educators, working in and with social movements, might learn from these. What the experience of OWS points to, the paper argues, is the need to avoid romanticising the creation of alternative spaces of learning and overstating the pedagogical possibilities opened up when people gather together and occupy a space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the power of media in promoting lifelong learning in mobilising the citizenry against 'galamsey' activities in Ghana. 'Galamsey' connotes 'an illegal process of gathering mineral resources, especially gold, and selling them'. It is an activity engaged in by young adults resulting in destroying water bodies and posing water-related challenges to the citizenry. This qualitative study sought to ascertain what informed practitioners in the media space to mount a sustained lifelong learning drive against 'galamsey' in Ghana. The study used in-depth interview and focus group discussions to collect data from 15 participants purposively selected. Six male and female participants also shared their experiences on the 'galamsey' menace and the fight against it. Their thought, views and insightful ideas lie at the heart of this study. It emerged that the 'galamsey' activities were complex and engaged in by both Ghanaians and foreigners using heavy earth moving machines destroying forest vegetation cover and water bodies. The players involved bribe their way for protection. This paper recommends that the Government of Ghana and media houses involved in the fight against 'galamsey' sustain the lifelong learning drive to save water bodies, arable lands, and forest vegetation cover in Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global Occupy! actions gave some pause for thought. At first, some thought that this was a global movement that could change the way politics was conducted and maybe see the end of capitalism as we knew it. The hopes for Occupy! were high, but the highest hopes for the movement were short lived. This paper examines Occupy!'s legacy; what potential remains and where educators might go with it. An argument is presented that Occupy! became an empty signifier: a 'bucket' of discontent into which thousands of disjointed, dissenting voices and discontents were poured, ranging from the original Wall Street encampment to the Umbrella revolution in Occupy Central. The paper looks at the power of the 'empty signifier' as a galvanising mechanism and explores what this could mean for education. The notion of occupying the curriculum in HE will be explored as a unifying mechanism for multidisciplinary teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power engineering certification in Canada comprises a hierarchical, graduated system available to both young and adult learners. This paper offers insight into the knowledge gap regarding factors influencing Canadian power engineers' decision to pursue advanced certification in the Provinces of British Columbia and Alberta, with implications for adult learning in the power engineering sector of Canada. Comprehension of factors that influence intentions for power engineering certification may illuminate barriers and enablers to adult learning and provide evidentiary knowledge to support a format that facilitates advancement of certification. The research methodology was quantitative correlational design in which linear and logistic regressions employing a modified Bonferroni equivalent alpha were utilised. An original survey was developed for the study and pilot tested for validity and reliability. The sample comprised 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Class power engineers in British Columbia and Alberta. The dependent variable (DV) was the power engineers' advancement intention. In the context of this paper, advancement intention is an influence leading to the inclination or reluctance to pursue promotion, succession, or advancement in employment. The independent variables (IVs) were time commitment, educational support, locus of control, time elapsed since previous certification, responsibility, and peer appraisal. Revealed in the results were positive, statistically significant relationships between the DV of advancement intention and three of the six IVs. Time commitment, responsibility, and elapsed time exert statistically significant effects on advancement intention (DV). The three remaining IVs that did not exhibit significant relationships with the DV were educational support, locus of control, and peer appraisal. This indicated that the IVs of educational support, locus of control, and peer appraisal did not significantly influence the DV when compared to the significant influences of time commitment, responsibility, and elapsed time on the DV. Comprehension of the influential factors regarding the intention of Canadian power engineers to pursue advanced certification may assist industry and academia with insight into the barriers and enablers to higher certification, and the correlation of decision factors with advancement intention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the concept of Nannagogy, an innovative pedagogy of informal adult learning enacted by the activist 'disorganisation', the Knitting Nannas Against Gas and Greed (KNAGs). The 'Nannas' are predominantly older women who undertake non-violent direct action using fibre craft, knit-ins, lock-ons, and occasional street theatre to draw public attention to the negative environmental impacts of unconventional coal seam gas extraction ('fracking') and of fossil fuel mining. We identify the characteristics of Nannagogy as a hybrid system of lifelong / later-in-life learning and a complex pedagogy of informal learning that can be understood through social movement learning theory (SML) drawing on Paolo Freire's (1970) original concept of 'conscientisation'. Nannagogy is an act of radical adult education that has its antecedents in feminist collective learning strategies such as consciousness raising as well as the formal education strategies of action learning and communities of practice. Nannagogy is highly effective adult learning practice at the intersection of adult learning theory and social movement theory. Data presented in this paper were collected with active KNAG members in Australia as part of a PhD study using surveys, interviews, document analysis of social media (Facebook posts, digital videos, e-news bulletins) and researcher autoethnography. Framing activist adult learning as social movement learning locates environmental and climate justice struggles within lifelong learning practices and enables researchers to better understand the complex processes of informal, situated and often spontaneous adult learning for creating and sustaining movements for social, environmental and political change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on Australian Journal of Adult Learning have a diverse range of articles representing adult learning in higher education, adult education and its capacity to prevent poverty, and an article on older adult learning. Topics include the concept of a guaranteed minimum income enacted in the European Union to eradicate poverty, the paper focuses on the implications for adult education, and the final paper uncovers the need to understand ageing as a process of lifelong learning.

I consider in this paper the question of balance in popular education between what we can call annunciation and denunciation, inspired by the work of Paulo Freire. By annunciation, I mean the role of love, affirmation, encouragement and profound encounters with otherness; by denunciation, I have in mind the spirit of critique and challenge to the established order of things. In the process, I question the marginalisation of liberation theology in Paulo Freire's work among some radical educators. There has, I suggest, been a sundering of spirituality, and especially religious insight, from rational enquiry in the academic mainstream, which has influenced readings of Freire. Modernity has privileged intellectualism and critical rationality as the only valid way of knowing; matters of faith and varieties of religious experience have correspondingly been privatised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a personal reflection on Freire's influence on one Australian adult educator. I eschew the normal journal article structure and tell a tale of how Freire has influenced my practice and thinking in adult education and community activism over half a century. The narrative is structured as a montage, moving forward in time from the late 194o's, when Freire first began to develop his praxis, to today. The story is framed by two key Freirean concepts, generative themes and codes, and by concepts drawn from adult and professional education, political economy and ecology. These concepts are embedded in the narrative, rather than discussed separately: they help me to tell the story and they are part of the story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ideas of the Cuban 'School of Literacy' are much less well-known in the west than Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. This paper is an exploration of the theoretical and practical links between these two historic examples of popular education. The analysis is informed by our direct experience working and undertaking participatory action research alongside Cuban literacy specialists on adult literacy campaigns in Timor-Leste and Australia. These campaigns utilised a model known internationally by its Spanish name, Yo, Sí Puedo (Eng: Yes, I Can!). We also include material from interviews in Cuba with leading literacy academics and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the potential of feature film to encourage more inclusive, participatory and open learning in the area of employment relations. Evaluations of student responses in a single postgraduate course over a five-year period revealed how feature film could encourage participatory learning processes in which students reexamined their initial perspectives on a series of employment relations topics and debates. Over time, the course became increasingly characterised by a pluralism in which all participants became more open to a range of different views, including those of students from diverse political, cultural and religious backgrounds. Of particular note was how the fictional situations depicted in feature films could expand the opportunities for participation and more complex, multidimensional approaches to learning. Following on from a discussion of how more open learning processes require a reconfigured conceptual framework, the paper concludes with some open-ended questions on the use of film in learning processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After more than a year of living with the COVID-19 pandemic, much experience has been accumulated by countries around the world. There have been many failures, and there have been some things that have gone well. Adult learning and education in some form has played a significant role in public health since, without the ongoing continuing educational interventions mainly via the mass media, the number of doctors and hospital beds would likely have been insufficient. In this paper we focus on the role of group behaviours in relation to the risk of contagion and we argue that any attempts to define a strategy to combat the pandemic must include a strong commitment to information dissemination and to the training of the populations in order to encourage behaviour change necessary to mitigate the spread of the virus. Against the backdrop of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, this article argues for commitment by governments to use adult learning and education as a tool for health prevention and health awareness and to prepare populations for whatever pandemics and national disasters that might emerge in the twenty-first century, the "century of pandemics". We therefore argue that populations must have at least a basic level of literacy and numeracy as foundational skills essential for enabling citizens to receive and act on vital information during a pandemic or disaster in order to engender greater resiliencei. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper focuses on delineating and scoping international Women's Sheds, a movement that has emerged within the past decade, mainly in Australia, Ireland and the UK. It addresses two main research questions. Firstly, what is the origin, distribution, nature and intent of Women's Sheds internationally to March 2021? Secondly, how might Women's Sheds be located within a typology inclusive of Men's Sheds and a range of community development models? We employed a systematic search via the internet in 2020-21, followed up by attempted email or phone contact to publicly reported Women's Sheds and like organisations internationally. In the process, we created a publicly shareable blog including a database of 122 existing, previously active, developing or planned Women's Sheds and like organisations to 13 March 2021. We identify four nations where self-identified Women's Sheds have operated or commenced within the past decade: Australia (61), the UK (30), Ireland (28) and New Zealand (3), particularly during the five years between 2014 and 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic seriously curtailed this previous momentum and development after March 2020. We identify some similarities but also important differences between Women's and Men's Sheds. We propose a typology that accounts not only for the different ways in which Women's Sheds operate and women participate within their communities but also the different ways in which they locally collaborate (or not) with Men's Sheds in different countries. We conclude that Women's Sheds have largely been created by women in order to claim the shed as a positive female gendered space, in order to create an alternative community of women's hands-on practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, the limited number of psychology postgraduate places, coupled with a high demand for mental health and psychological services underscores the need for new, innovative models of psychology training. The objectives of this paper are to describe the 5 + 1 internship pathway; why it was developed; the pedagogy employed and to stimulate debate regarding training models for Australia's future psychology workforce. Information outlined in this paper is drawn from the public domain and our collective experiences as fifth year coordinators and/or stakeholders in developing Australia's psychology workforce. The content of the fifth year program is applied and practical. Content is generalist as opposed to specialist, while pedagogical approaches employed are predominately experiential. The fifth year program lends itself to integration with other training models. Perceptions that the training is inferior to specialist programs need to be challenged. Online offerings are a priority to ensure training is available for students in rural and remote areas or seeking flexible modes of delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a research project: 'FE in England - Transforming lives and communities' (sponsored by the University and College Union) to explore the intersection between women, literacy and adult education, this paper argues for the place of research in affirming localised understandings of education that cut across the grain of contemporary educational reform. In the context of the increasing dominance of a 'skills' discourse in education in the UK and reductions in funding targeted at adult education, this research project exposed how further education can still challenge and address hurt and often spoiled learning identities and counteract the objectification of the skills discourse through creating catalysing bridging bonds of care. The research data illustrate that further education offers organic transformative tools for consciousness-raising (Freire, 1995) and a caring space where hope can act as a change agent that fuels women learners' lives and teachers' practice (Duckworth, 2013; Duckworth & Smith, 2017, 2018b).To support the discussion, our paper draws on a range of learners and teachers' narratives to expand on the conceptualisation of adult education as a bridging space for a curriculum informed by an ethic of what we term dialogic caring. We also develop a theoretical position that anchors the research in learners and practitioners' experience as an empirical antidote to the simulations (Baudrillard, 1994; Lefebvre, 2004) conjured up by the decontextualised knowledge production activities that marketisation has imposed on educational institutions. We position education research as having an important role to play in revealing powerful often hidden social practices and lived human experience beneath the neoliberal, globalised 'grand narratives' of international competition. To that end, we mobilise the term transformative teaching and learning to signify educational experiences that are not only student-centred, but which defy, counteract and work against the neoliberal educational imaginary. We align our research approach with adult literacy education and critical pedagogy as working towards social justice and against deficit generating educational structures that marginalise women, their families and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article is to understand ageing as a process of lifelong learning through a whole variety of experiences, to consider what ageing in a biographical perspective means, and to investigate the process of biographical ageing within identity formation. The method of the project was based on the employment of in-depth narrative interviews with older Polish migrants now living in Sweden. The author argues that ageing is a natural process of the life cycle and is socially and culturally constructed and that consequently everyone experiences this process individually. One of the paper's conclusions is that we do not age according to the numbers of years we live, but due to our life experience and the social-historical contexts in which we have lived. Furthermore, we age due to the biography we re/ construct while we are ageing during our life course. Ageing, from a biographical perspective, is a learning process in which people re/ construct their lives with social, educational and cultural contexts and from which they draw from their experiences relating to social practices and historical events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mature-age postgraduate students are those who are late to higher education or have returned to postgraduate study after an educational hiatus in industry. While some mature-age students seek a postgraduate qualification out of extrinsic motivations such as for vocational reasons, there are older non-traditional students who seek higher status; cultural, social, financial, or symbolic. However, some undertake doctoral study with intrinsic motives (based on an intrinsic desire or love of learning) which may have an extrinsic outcome. Mature-age students, who are a subgroup of non-traditional students are categorized demographically by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as being over the age of 35 years. This paper analyses empirical and peer reviewed journal and book research with additional secondary data collected from contemporary sources to inform the literature of the aspirations, motives, and outcomes of mature-age doctoral students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]