Men Learning Through Life (and Men’s Sheds)

Abstract

This Futures column shares insights about men's learning beyond work, based on several decades of research in men's learning in international community contexts, summarized in our recent book, Men Learning Through Life (Golding, Mark, & Foley, 2014). In the final chapter, we ask why men's learning and men's sheds have recently been widely embraced in places like Australia but not in the United States and Canada. In the 1960s and 1970s, Australian masculinity was defined by dominance and athleticism; yet, by the 1990s, Australia led a critical examination of masculinities. Weaver-Hightower (2003) provided clues why this perspective tends not to be heard in the United States. He pointed out that gender studies often exclude the male perspective and take place within an ambivalent culture that feels threatened by a critical look into the traditional masculine role. This point is pertinent to our careful attempts in our book to validate some men's learning places and spaces, such as through men's sheds, within the context of these contradictory ideologies. In Australia and many other developed nations, adult and community education has tended to be a women's sector, where many older men do not feel welcomed: Indeed, some men feel patronized. Veronica McGivney (1999) documented the nature and extent of missing men in adult education and training. She found that although the percentages of men and women involved in education are similar in most developed nations, older men are largely absent. In essence, when learning becomes more discretionary and less hands-on or vocational, many older men tend not to participate. In most developed nations, the overwhelming emphasis of adult education is on vocational training. Very little thought is given to what people, particularly men, want and need to learn to re-create and broaden their identities beyond their working lives. Learning Needs of Older Men Beyond Paid Work Although Schuller and Watson (2009) noted research on gender differences in adult education is scarce, my research suggests that any educational system that operates from a deficit model, treating older men as students, clients, or customers, is at best, insensitive and, at worst, patronizing. Most educational programs do not account for personal, social, and community interests and needs of the learners (including their diverse masculinities). Many adults with limited education or resources cannot find appropriate education programs. Adult education often reinforces inequalities through hierarchies, formal assessment, and work- or market-based approaches. Older people have different learning needs: to cope with new non-working identities, changes in mobility, health, financial, and living arrangements, as well as changes in personal and family relationships. As Schuller and Watson (2009) put it, [T]here can be few more important learning tasks than learning to make sense of the life you have lived (p. 109). While older men have much they need to learn to cope with radical changes as they age, they are much less likely to participate in formal educational programs provided to teach skills. In essence, older men tend to avoid programs that patronize or shame them for their lack of knowledge. Off the shelf vocationally oriented adult education and training programs are often perceived by many older men to be unattractive and totally unsuited to them. When I first naively grazed as a researcher into the area of men's learning, which McGivney accurately describes in the foreword of our book as a minefield, I was assured older men were missing because they were reluctant to learn, and there was nothing they needed to know. Our Australian research shows most men need and want to learn, but not necessarily in formal, cognitive, literary, and decontextualized ways. Older men in Australia generally prefer to learn in familiar places and spaces, working hands-on with regular groups, focused on what they know and can share with other men. …