Taking charge at any age - Learning and wellbeing by older men through community organisations in Australia

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Đào

This paper examines and compares learning narratives tied to older men’s participation in three community organisations in an Australian rural setting: an adult and community education provider, an emergency service organisation, and an aged care facility. Using interview data from a larger study of learning in community contexts for men aged 50+, it identifies factors shaping learning and wellbeing through these organisations. Findings show preferred learning often occurs via group participation in practical activities.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages15

Reading Time38 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Literature review

Taking charge at any age: Learning and wellbeing by older men through community organisations in Australia barry golding, university of ballarat Abstract This paper examines and compares learning narratives associated with older men’s participation in three community organisations in an Australian rural setting: an adult and community education provider, an emergency service organization and an aged care facility. The interview data are from a larger Australian study of learning in community settings by older men (age 50+ years of age) . The paper examines what factors influence older men’s learning and wellbeing through community organisations. It concludes that preferred learning for older men in community organisations is typically through group participation in practical situations for pragmatic purposes. Community organisations aside from education providers are shown to provide critically important opportunities for older men to actively redefine and recreate personal meanings and rapidly changing identities beyond those developed through paid work. Introduction Australia is experiencing an increasingly older population. One of the fastest growing cohorts is older men of working age who are not participating in the paid workforce or who are retired from paid work. These men are less likely than other adults to engage in formal learning, including through adult and community education (ACE) organisations. Such men are also vulnerable as they age to social isolation and problems with health and wellbeing. Education and training discourses typically presuppose that adult education participants are either younger individuals preparing for paid work, or pursuing learning ‘out of interest’ through ACE providers. This research looks specifically and deliberately at older men’s learning through community involvement in two organization types beyond ACE: fire and emergency services and an age-related organisation in one rural site (Oatlands) in the Australian state of Tasmania. Oatlands was one of six diverse sites in Golding, Foley, Brown and Harvey’s (2009) broader study of older men’s learning through 48 organisations in three Australian states. The broader study sought to explore what is hypothesized as a broad gulf between work-related learning and the learning that is sought and valued by men through participation in community organisations during later life. This paper explores Golding’s (2011, p.248) contention, framed in a study of age-related community organisations in Australia, that the most effective learning for older men is in situations ‘where men are actively involved, not only in the activity itself, but in the identification, framing and control of the activity in collaboration with other men.’ The learning activities examined in the current study, as Field (2009, p.226) also observed in relation to our 2007 men’s sheds study (Golding, Brown, Foley & Harvey 2007), …would not normally be defined as learning, in that they are not partofany formal learning structures, but provide valued opportunities for the men involved to make transitions from their working lives…to a range of activities [that] provide new learning opportunities as well. Literature review Burke (2006, p.719) noted that the discourse of lifelong learning in the United Kingdom is one that favours individualism and instrumentalism. All sectors of Australian post-compulsory education and training in 2011 can be similarly characterized as having discourses with a heavy emphasis on narrow and individual vocationalism and educational formality (Golding, Foley & Brown, 2009) . Neoliberalism has transformed Australian adult education to an extent that many of the community learning functions of the remnant, statesupported adult and community education providers have been neglected or deliberately defunded by governments. And yet in Australia, as in the UK,‘Community-based informal learning plays a critical role in widening participa

FAQs

Which three types of community organisations are examined for older men’s learning?

The study focuses on an adult and community education provider, an emergency service organisation, and an aged care facility in a rural Australian setting.

How does the paper describe the kinds of learning older men prefer in community organisations?

It concludes that preferred learning is typically through group participation in practical situations for pragmatic purposes.

What role do community organisations play beyond education providers?

They provide opportunities for older men to redefine and recreate personal meanings and rapidly changing identities beyond those formed through paid work.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Đào