Connecting Urban and Rural Learning Initiatives – Meeting Notes, 24 March 2022

The second meeting of the Connecting Urban and Rural Learning Initiatives LCN was a presentation by Professor Barry Golding AM, entitled Learning from Men’s Sheds: Reflecting on the movement’s Australian origins, global trajectories & its radical implications for learning in the community.

General Discussion:

Learning from Men’s Sheds: Reflecting on the movement’s Australian origins, global trajectories & its radical implications for learning in the community.

Participants were able to interact with Barry about the ‘Men’s Sheds’ movement which became an important field of his research in rural Australia over 20 years ago. The Men’s Shed movement has grown globally and diversified to include ‘Women’s Sheds’. Barry spoke of the pedagogy involved which he has playfully terms ‘Shedogogy’. The learning is collaborative and ‘hands on’ in communities of informal practice. There is no curriculum, no assessment, and no formal teachers and the environment is non-confrontational, and welcoming. The movement has grown rapidly and is Australia’s gift to the world in terms of adult education and practice!

This presentation,' Learning from Men’s Sheds: Reflecting on the movement’s Australian origins, global trajectories & its radical implications for learning in the community'certainly did illustrate Barry's contention that we can learn much from looking at learning in the least obvious, small rural communities, powered by the most unlikely group of older people in the community, transforming their lives well beyond the formal and the academy.

A recording of the meeting is available at Meeting Recording:

https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/rec/share/xjSAdHv1RFNpy5H3hDrrlBfoCO1AUi4SF6bC0k-ATtRR-n4u1qZM5NBtb6H9uWDN.ELZFyI5-WcSnpYH-

Read more about Professor Barry Golding, AM at https://barrygoanna.com/about/

Barry has written two books on the subject The Men's Shed Movement: The Company of Men (2015), and Shoulder to Shoulder: Broadening the Men's Shed Movement (2021). Illinois-based publisher, 'Common Ground Research Networks' (CGRN) is offering a 50% discount off the total price for both books: using the discount code 'SHOULDER2021'

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY FOR THESE SEMINARS:

PASCAL Conference in Tampere, Finland 20 -22 June 2022.

PASCAL Conference 2022 | Tampere Universities (tuni.fi)

Next Meeting

Date for the next meeting: Thursday 19 May 2022 at 10 pm (AEST)