A tale of two towns - Learning community initiatives in Bega Valley and Thuringowa

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Elsa

A comparative discussion of learning community initiatives in Bega Valley and Thuringowa shows how local government councils supported projects, with the council library taking an entrepreneurial leadership role. The analysis situates these initiatives within wider national challenges: initiating learning communities across contexts, sustaining them beyond start-up funding, and building collaboration and social capital. It also considers stakeholder expansion beyond Commonwealth and State governments and the implications for adult and community education.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

The wider issues

Wider issues in Australia

Local government and stakeholder roles

Councils, social capital, and partnership

A tale of two towns

Learning community initiatives in Bega Valley and Thuringowa

~~370 Tricia A Fox~~ Australian Journal of Adult Learning Volume 45, Number 3, November 2005 ~~Pascoe, R~~.~~ (1999)~~.~~‘Admission to Australian universities’, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, vol~~.~~ 21, no~~.~~ 1, pp~~.~~17–27 ~~. ~~Smith, L~~.~~ (2004) ~~.~~ Valuing RPL: selected case studies of Australian private providers of training~~,~~ Adelaide: National Centre for Vocational Education Research~~. ~~Stehlik, T~~.~~ (1998)~~.~~‘Recognising prior learning and assessing current competency in the training of adult educators: does it devalue the learning process?’, Australian VET Teacher Education Colloquium, [http://](http://)[ ](http://)[education](education.curtin.edu.au/avtec/pubs/2000/stehlik.html)~~[.](education.curtin.edu.au/avtec/pubs/2000/stehlik.html)~~[curtin](education.curtin.edu.au/avtec/pubs/2000/stehlik.html)~~[.](education.curtin.edu.au/avtec/pubs/2000/stehlik.html)~~[edu](education.curtin.edu.au/avtec/pubs/2000/stehlik.html)~~[.](education.curtin.edu.au/avtec/pubs/2000/stehlik.html)~~[au/avtec/pubs/2000/stehlik](education.curtin.edu.au/avtec/pubs/2000/stehlik.html)~~[.](education.curtin.edu.au/avtec/pubs/2000/stehlik.html)~~[html](education.curtin.edu.au/avtec/pubs/2000/stehlik.html)~~ ~~About the author~~ ~~Dr Tricia A~~.~~ Fox is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Learning & Professional Studies, Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology~~.~~ She is the coordinator for the Bachelor of Adult and Community Learning~~.~~ Her research interests focus on adult learner needs and adult education~~.~~ Specialising in the area of adult education in prison environments, Tricia has numerous publications addressing prisoner adult learner needs and curriculum design to accommodate these needs~~. ~~Contact details~~ ~~School of Learning & Professional Studies, Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove, Queensland 4059~~ ~~Tel: (07) 3864 3798~~ ~~Fax: (07) 3864 3981~~ ~~Email: [t](t.fox@qut.edu.au)~~[.](t.fox@qut.edu.au)~~[fox@qut](t.fox@qut.edu.au)~~[.](t.fox@qut.edu.au)~~[edu](t.fox@qut.edu.au)~~[.](t.fox@qut.edu.au)~~[au](t.fox@qut.edu.au)~~ A tale of two towns: Learning community initiativesin Bega Valley and Thuringowa Peter Kearns Visiting Research Fellow Adult Learning Australia Current learning community initiatives in Bega Valley and Thuringowa illustrate trends that are likely to become more significant in communities across Australia. In both cases, local government councils have supported the projects with the council library taking a leading entrepreneurial role in the initiative. This role reflects the growing interest of libraries in lifelong learning, and in their role as community learning centres. These initiatives are discussed against the background of wider issues in the development of learning communities in Australia. Australian experience in building learning communities since 1998 poses the question as to how learning communities maybe initiated in a range of contexts and sustained over time. 372 Peter Kearns Learning community initiatives in Bega Valley and Thuringowa 373 Whereas early Australian initiatives, such as Victorian Learning Towns and the ANTA National Learning Community Program 2001 received government funding to initiate these projects, progress up to now has been slow when such government funding is not available. Moreover, a number of projects supported by ANTA in 2001 did not continue after the period of start-up funding ceased, so that the question of how to sustain initiatives assumes significance in this context. I have addressed this question on several occasions, and in the keynote address at the 2002 National Learning Community Conference, I suggested that we stood at the threshold of a new generation of learning community initiatives in which development would be supported by a wider range of key stakeholders apart from Commonwealth and State governments

FAQs

What role did council libraries play in Bega Valley and Thuringowa?

In both cases, the council library took a leading entrepreneurial role in initiating and developing the projects, positioning libraries as community learning centres.

Why is sustaining learning community initiatives a key concern?

Progress slowed when government funding was unavailable, and some projects supported by ANTA in 2001 did not continue after start-up funding ended.

Which stakeholders are described as supporting a new generation of learning community initiatives?

Universities, libraries, councils, industry, community organisations, and governments in whole-of-government strategies are identified as key stakeholders beyond Commonwealth and State governments.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Elsa