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Some experts say a mental state of relaxed concentration - when the brain produces alpha waves - is the most conducive to learning. Perhaps this is why the friendly atmosphere and ambience in men’s sheds supports the process of informal learning.

Excerpt from publication.

The full report ‘Men’s sheds in Australia: learning through community contexts / Barry Golding … [et al.]’ is indexed at TD/TNC 89.03. Show less

Informal learning has often been seen as formal learning's 'poor cousin'. Our paper explores and discusses new and different ways of thinking about defining, valuing and researching the breadth and importance of informal learning in diverse national and cultural contexts. This includes a consideration of the power relations that can act to devalue informal learning. It is underpinned by a recognition that not only do a relatively small proportion of adults currently engage in formal learning, but those who do tend already to be dedicated and successful lifelong learners. It leads to a discussion about how informal learning might be framed as part of the solution to adult exclusion, seen to be aggravated by unnecessary adult educational hierarchies, accreditation, assessment and formality.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

Our paper explores some recent innovations in workshop-based learning practice that come out of community-based men's sheds in Australia. It deliberately goes beyond an exploration of the 'typical' community-based men’s shed, already explored in our forthcoming National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) research report and looks at some new and productive interactions between sheds and other informal learning organisations. We go to the margins of rapidly evolving shed practice and single out three types of shed-based organisations that work with school resisters, Vietnam veterans and older men in aged care. Our aim is to illustrate, using new Australian narrative data, some theoretical and practical implications and benefits of reciprocal, workshop-based mentoring relationships involving men of different ages. Our focus is on ways in which men with a skill or trade are able, in a situated and authentic learning context, to informally ‘weave magic’ for and with other men, and in some cases with young people. Our paper provides pointers to some of the principles underpinning successful informal and community-based learning practice for older men: particularly the need for a high level of engagement; the choice of an appropriate and safe setting; and to account for the differences associated with age and gender. We articulate an imperative for 'bringing more blokes' into all forms of learning in Australia including through more informal, community-based learning as well as through adult and community education (ACE). Our paper and its conclusions have implications for other workshop and shed-based learning practice in vocational education and training (VET) as well as informal and community-based learning by volunteers in the quintessential and ubiquitous Australian fire and football sheds.

Published abstract.

Available papers from the 10th Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA) Conference are indexed from TD/TNC 89.401 to TD/TNC 89.447. Show less

This paper focuses on evidence of positive interactions between schools and community sheds in Australia to examine what it is about shed-based community programs and pedagogies that are attractive to some early school leavers and school resisters. It is based primarily on interview data from the subset of men’s sheds across Australia with school programs that formed part of our 2007 research into men's sheds. It is complemented by insights from interviews with men's sheds participants and rural fire volunteers about what it was that also led many of them to also 'shed' school early. Our paper identifies links between the success factors associated with informal learning pedagogies in voluntary and community groups identified in the UK and success factors associated with community-based shed programs in Australia. We identify the potential benefits of sheds in engaging both early school leavers and older men with negative recollections of school, in enjoyable, regular, hands-on activity. We also discuss ways in which some of the difficulties associated with shed-based school programs that seek to engage and reintegrate early school leavers might be avoided or minimised. Finally, we pose some unanswered questions about the implications of our research findings for education and training providers.

Published abstract.

Available papers from the 11th Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA) Conference are indexed from TD/TNC 92.459 to TD/TNC 92.499 and from TD/TNC 92.701 to TD/TNC 92.716. Show less

This paper uses new data from research into informal learning through community-based ‘men’s sheds’ organisations, that have proliferated rapidly and recently across much of southern Australia, to ask ‘What is the potential for shed-based community learning in other countries?’ It is based on a continuing suite of Australian research into informal learning occurring in community contexts for men, particularly research into men not in paid work.

The authors’ research report, ‘Men’s sheds in Australia: learning through community contexts’, is indexed as TD/TNC 89.03. Show less

This article reviews research into the genesis and spread of both neighbourhood houses and learning centres in Victoria and community-based men’s sheds in Australia to identify some similarities and differences. Our article asks questions about the gendered communities of practice that underpin houses for women on the one hand, and sheds for men on the other. Our particular interest is with the gender issues associated with the development of the relatively mature neighbourhood house ‘sector’, and those associated with the very recent and developing community-based men’s sheds ‘sector’. Our underpinning research question has to do with the desirability (or otherwise) in each of these sectors of political and strategic decisions being either gender specific or gender neutral. We identify a number of tantalising parallels between the rationale behind the establishment of both sectors, for women and men, albeit in very different circumstances, along with some obvious differences.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

This research uses an analysis of three case studies of innovative programs to explore the way that contemporary approaches to curriculum and pedagogical practice in VET might facilitate blindspots. The inclusions and exclusions of a particular field of study and/or practice can be very revealing and if de-differentiation is about breaking down and blurring the borders of such areas then what might be gained from applying such a process to VET. The concepts of informal, non formal and incidental learning are used to expand what passes as knowledge in this area before work towards an alternative analytical framework is presented. This framework has two distinctive lenses. The first involves aspects of what is generally considered to be innovative practice in enterprise based training programs. The second lens utilises concepts that are aimed at making the political dimensions of such programs more overt.

Published abstract.

The volume of collected papers is indexed at TD/TNC 60.88. Show less

This is a major field-based study for the Western Australia Department of Education and Training by a research team from the University of Ballarat. It is an exploration of the benefits of men’s learning through participation in community settings other than those understood as having a vocational or educational dimension. It is based on an analysis of extensive audio-recorded and transcribed interviews and surveys in 36 organisations in six diverse sites across Western Australia. The six community organisation types explored were: adult and community education; sporting; religious, Indigenous and cultural; voluntary fire and emergency services; age-related and disability; and men’s special interest organisations. The research confirms and explores the important role that all community organisations examined play, in providing contexts in which all aspects of lifelong and lifewide learning can be practiced and enhanced for, by and with men as active participants.

Excerpts from executive summary. Show less

Informal learning has often been seen as formal learning's 'poor cousin'. Our paper explores and discusses new and different ways of thinking about, defining, valuing and researching, the breadth and importance of informal learning in diverse national and cultural contexts. It is underpinned by a recognition that not only do a relatively small proportion of adults currently engage in formal learning, but those that do tend already to be dedicated and successful lifelong learners. It leads to a discussion about how informal learning might be framed as part of the solution to adult exclusion, seen to be aggravated by unnecessary adult educational hierarchies, accreditation, assessment and formality.

Author's abstract. Show less