ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on a suite of completed research in Australia into informal learning by older men (age over 45) in community contexts that forms the first part of an international comparative study of men’s informal learning. A number of research projects since 2002 in rural and remote Australian communities sought to look beyond what are conventionally regarded as education providers and to examine closely whether and what learning takes place informally by men, particularly by older men, who participate in community-based organisations. The research began with studies of learning in small and remote towns (Golding and Rogers 2002) including men’s learning (Golding et al. 2004), which identified men as largely missing in many adult and community education providers but very involved in some surrogate learning organisations including sport, fire services and land care. It led to a dedicated study of the learning role and function of volunteer fire brigades and emergency service organisations in small and remote towns across Australia (Hayes et al. 2004). The research then shifted to informal learning through men’s sheds in community contexts (Golding et al. 2007). These shed-based workshops, configured mainly for older men have recently evolved and proliferated across much of southern Australia, largely as a grassroots response to the difficulties men often face coping with changes in their lives beyond the workplace. What has emerged from all of the research is a picture of older men with a strong desire to socialise and learn, particularly with other men, in productive, social and informal contexts but a reluctance to be formally taught. The research on community men’s sheds demonstrated the degree to which many older men’s early and negative experiences of formal learning adversely affected them both lifelong and life-wide. In 2009 the research was broadened to include the important learning that occurs through participation in the diverse range of organisations found in Australian urban, regional rural and remote communities in 12 new sites in four Australian states. One research project for the Western Australia Department of Education and Training (Golding et al. in progress 2009a) is examining men’s learning in community settings. The other research for
National Seniors Australia (Golding et al. in progress 2009b) is focusing specifically on learning by men over age 50 years in three Australian states. This chapter seeks to take what had been learnt from this suite of Australian studies to 2007, and pull together some of the common threads in order to locate the findings against what is known from some of the comparable international research literature about older men’s learning in the community, particularly from the work of McGivney (1999a, 1999b, 2004). It includes an examination of common motivations for older men to learn, common barriers and preferred pedagogies as well as some common and valued outcomes. The ongoing research seeks to determine whether what has been found from this research in Australian community contexts is similar to or different from what has been found for older men in other countries and cultural settings. Part of the chapter includes consideration of issues associated with men’s identities as they age as well as gender issues associated with learning. It also briefly examines the role and legitimacy of creating informal learning spaces and organisations specifically for men, for older men in particular. The research emphasis on men was originally motivated by evidence from reviews of adult and community education (ACE) research (Golding et al. 2001) that showed that a relatively low proportion of men, particularly older men, participate in ACE settings in Australia. It was widely but mistakenly believed that older men (age over 45 years) were less involved essentially because they were not interested in learning. A number of research projects in Australia since 2002, particularly in rural and remote communities (Foskey and Avery 2003) found that most men certainly are interested in learning: the key is to create the right context for that learning. This suite of ongoing research therefore seeks to look at learning beyond what are conventionally regarded as ‘formal’ learning organisations where men tend not to participate, and closely examine whether and what learning takes place informally by men who do participate in community-based organisations and where learning is one of many positive outcomes. The first phase of the research to 2005 into the learning function of these surrogate learning organisations that many men tend to prefer, was summarised by Golding (2006). The second phase of the research involved studies of men’s sheds in community contexts, a relatively new and apparently wholly Australian phenomenon until their recent spread to New Zealand1 and the Irish Republic2 in 2008. The third and ongoing stages of the research involve comparative studies of aspects of men’s learning in Australia (Golding et al. in progress 2009a, in progress 2009b) with men’s learning in other, culturally similar, Anglophone countries including sites and community organisations in which men participate, particularly in the UK and the Irish Republic. While this research programme is seen as an extension of the previous research programme based in Australia it has been informed particularly by some similar findings from the UK about men’s learning by McGivney (1999a, 2004) and about the benefits of informal learning in the community (McGivney 1999b).
