Men's learning through ACE and community involvement in small rural towns: findings from a Victorian survey: final report to Adult, Community and Further Education Board, Victoria

A local learning centre in a small rural town typically can play a critical role as a focus for ongoing lifelong learning. In many cases it provides the only ongoing public access to ICT as well as to adult and sometimes vocational education programs. However ACE in small rural towns is not currently or usually oriented to the particular and different learning needs of most men. While men have a keen desire to learn, an adult and community education (ACE) provider setting seldom meets men’s particular learning needs, preferences or styles. Men are typically only occasional users and marginally attached to ACE - not only as learners, but also as teachers, coordinators or on management committees. The physical space, the decor, the programs, the staff and pedagogies are typically female and sometimes perceived as hostile to men. Many men don’t relate positively to ACE or know enough about ACE to use it and consequently don’t feel comfortable going there. Most men want learning provided in less formal, less structured, practical group settings, locally and on site through organisations they know and feel comfortable within. Men generally learn best by doing and through practice in familiar situations, through organisations and people they know and trust rather than via abstracted learning ‘about’ something in simulated situations. Men, particularly older men with typically negative previous experiences of school and formal learning, generally prefer to learn through being involved in an activity in real and familiar situations. ACE tends not to be welcoming to or comfortable for such men. Men who are most likely to be ‘put off’ by ACE are older or with the most need (and with fewest opportunities) to learn elsewhere. However even younger men with good ICT skills tend to have dismissive, uninformed and negative attitudes towards ACE and are also less likely to learn through leadership and active involvement in other organisations. Recommendations are provided that seek to address identified issues of gender equity - particularly the need for local incentives to encourage learning by men as well as women in small rural towns, based on men’s identified learning preferences.

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