‘They’re funny bloody cattle’: encouraging rural men to learn

Author/s: Soapy Vallance and Barry Golding

Edition: Volume 48, Number 2, July 2008

Summary: Our paper examines and analyses the contexts and organisations in rural and regional communities that informally and effectively encourage men to learn. It is based on a combination of local, rural adult education practice and a suite of studies in Australia and elsewhere of learning in community contexts, most recently into community-based men’s sheds. It is underpinned by both experience and research evidence that many rural men tend to have an aversion to formal learning. The intention of our paper and its specific, practical conclusions and recommendations is to focus  on and share positive and practical ways, demonstrated through practice and validated through research, of encouraging rural men to learn.

Keywords: rural, regional, communities, informal learning, adult education, practice

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Learning to be drier in dryland country

Author/s: Erica Smith & Coral Campbell

Edition: Volume 49, Number 3, November 2009

Summary: This research project, part of a much larger study, considered how people in regional communities learnt to deal with the impact of reduced water availability as a result of drought or climate change. The communities in the Mallee-Wimmera region of Victoria, Australia, were the focus of this study and a range of local people from different sectors of the communities were involved in interviews, which became our main data source. We recognise the limitation that not all viewpoints could possibly be accessed in the participant selection process. The resultant data indicated that significant changes were being made to local practices as a result of the learning taking place and that there were a range of processes which enabled adult learning across the communities.

Keywords: Mallee-Wimmera, local practice, adult learning, communities, climate change

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 49_3. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.