Vocational education practitioners must participate in professional development (PD) activities so they may implement contemporary teaching practices to support their students. Long-term, social types of activity are best because they benefit individuals and groups of practitioners and the training organisations for which they work. However,…

During my 20-year career as a specialist language and literacy educator, I have found that inclusive and experiential classroom pedagogies stimulate and engage learners of all ages and demographics. What is more, these same methods can be effectively implemented to support individuals with diverse learning needs. This article discusses the 8 Ways…

Students who are parents are largely invisible within the Australian higher education sector. We know little about the particular views and experiences of this group at university. This article explores the Potivations perceived challenges to success and self-identified strengths of students who are parents. Our analysis is based on eighteen…

Common sense in practice was a significant finding of a qualitative narrative research project investigating the professional practice and learning of police in an Australian police jurisdiction. Police officers in this research emphasised common sense as an intrinsic attribute of policing. Conceptions of policing as a craft or trade, learned…

Many years of lived experience supervising PhDs and other research-based higher degrees provides the contextual background to reflections on practice and conceptual underpinnings to a specialised branch of adult continuing education for professional managers within industry contexts. Special Attention is focused on the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)…

Australia has no national approach to climate change education, neither for primary, secondary, or tertiary education nor for the informal and community adult education sectors. Inaction has its roots in Australian politics reluctant to engage with scientific evidence or community experience of extreme weather events and hamstrung by the political…

The predicted growth of the aged care sector in Australia, driven by the ageing population, is expected to create an increasing need for workplaces to support the development for all kinds and classifications of workers to undertake their work within multicultural settings. This paper describes and elaborates the necessary and increasing…

This paper proposes a new theory of Conditional Social Equality (CSE) which in some ways challenges the theory of cumulative advantage/disadvantage (CAD), which postulates that inequalities and social divisions necessarily increase over time. Using evidence from informal learning groups in Men's Sheds in three countries, we conclude that some…

Creative arts and performance courses at the community level for mature age individuals. Theatre and drama as education and as therapy. This article charts and reflects on several ACE arts-based courses and community theatre productions that have changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the professional experiences of the teacher. Change for…

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore adult immigrant learners' perspectives and motivations for participating in an ESL program through the lens of McClusky's Theory of Margin. Nine adult immigrant ESL students were interviewed about their learning experiences. Creswell's (1994) systematic process informed the…

This paper addresses the question of why young Australians with intellectual disability (ID) remain underrepresented in open employment despite significant investment by various stakeholders. It uses the analogy of Whack-a-Mole (an arcade game) to draw attention to the complexity young people face during transition, and to illustrate how…

Workplace experiences are central to adults' learning and development, providing opportunities for significant and valuable lifelong learning. Research into adults' learning in volunteer work attests to its significance and value across the spectrum of adult learning, serving instrumental, social, and altruistic purposes for the learner and…

In an ever-changing world of work, workers are expected to maintain currency of changes through lifelong learning to sustain employment and transition into new jobs or occupations - as the need arises. Adult workers rely on affordances from societal, workplace, community and educational institution sources that offer opportunities - intentional or…

This timeline focuses on the main developments in the field of Adult and Community Education (ACE) in Australia from the formation of the first national association, Australian Association of Adult Education, (AAAE) in 1960 to the present association, Adult learning Australia (ALA). It is based primarily on documentary evidence available in the…

This article discusses the contribution of craftivism to climate justice learning through the practices of Australia's Knitting Nannas Against Gas and Greed (aka KNAG or the Nannas). Framing activist adult learning as social movement learning locates environmental and climate justice struggles within lifelong learning practices. Established in…