Sue Kilpatrick

The role of group learning in building social capital

Abstract Social capital assists in building economically and socially viable and sustainable learning communities, where communities can be geographic communities, professional or common interest communities, and groups of businesses such as Executive Link™, the subject of this article. This article investigates the elements of social capital and develops a set of indicators that show social capital is being built. The indicators can be applied wherever groups or organisations with a shared purpose engage in productive interactions which benefit not only the individual member groups, but the ‘learning community’ as a whole. Executive Link ™ consists of farm businesses which meet for non-formal training. It appears to have features of a learning community, including a shared purpose, and learning interactions across the boundaries of individual member businesses. This article identifies networks, commitments and shared values as the elements of social capital which contribute to the quality of learning int...

Education and training: Impacts on farm management practice

Abstract This paper presents the results of a large Australia‐wide survey which collected farm financial information and information about changes to farm‐management practices, as well as information about education and training, and a smaller survey of farmers who attended one of three training courses for farmers. The paper considers the relationship between education and training outcomes at macro and micro levels. At the macro level, education and training as well as prompts for change are considered, while at the micro level the influence of training on changes to practice is examined. Education and training enhance farmers’ ability and willingness to make successful changes to their management practice. The training program is generally only one of several factors which influence participants to make changes in their practice. Training events are opportunities for interaction between participants and with expert trainers. This interaction assists in altering values and attitudes toward new practices.

Boundary crossers, communities, and health: exploring the role of rural health professionals.

Boundary crossers understand the culture and language of community and health service domains and have the trust of both. Rural health professionals living within the communities they serve are ideally placed to harness community capacity so as to influence community-level determinants of health. We analyse five case studies of rural health professionals acting as boundary crossers against indicators of capacity for communities and external agents such as health services working in partnership. A more explicit evidence base for inclusion of community health development in the jobs of rural health professionals is needed.

Multi-level rural community engagement in health

Community participation in health is consistent with notions of democracy. A systems perspective of engagement can see consumers engaged to legitimise government agendas. Often community participation is via consultation instead of partnership or delegation. A community development approach to engagement can empower communities to take responsibility for their own health care. Understanding rural place facilitates alignment between health programs and community, assists in incorporating community resources into health care and provides information about health needs. Rural communities, health services and other community organisations need skills in working together to develop effective partnerships that transfer some power from health systems. Rural engagement with national/state agendas is a challenge. Community engagement takes time and resources, but can be expected to lead to better health outcomes for rural residents.

How Farmers Learn: Different Approaches to Change

This paper presents findings of an Australian study that investigated how farm- management teams go about learning to manage their businesses, including how they learn in order to make strategic and tactical changes. The Australian farming context is one of increasing complexity and risk that demands greater sophistication and professionalism in farm management. Learning is related to increased capacity to manage successful change. Farm-management teams employ four different learning patterns when making changes to their management and marketing practices. Learning patterns are termed local focussed, people focussed, outward looking and extensive networking. These patterns appear to be related to ongoing learning practices of farm-management teams as well as to learning for change. Local focussed management teams learnt for change by accessing only local sources (including government extension services) or a single individual. People focussed farm-management teams preferred to learn for change principally by seeking information and advice on a one-to-one basis from more than one person, most frequently experts, but often other farmers. The remaining farm businesses accessed a variety of sources. The group classed as extensive networkers accessed a large number of varied sources in learning for change. Others who used a less extensive range were termed outward looking.

Rural young people’s work/study priorities and aspirations: The influence of family social capital

The transition from school to secure work has become more difficult as young people bear the brunt of the restructuring of the Australian labour market. Young people raised in a rural community are over-represented in the most disadvantaged labour market group- those who have not participated in post-school training and who have experienced long periods of unemployment. Rural labour markets feature lower paid, less secure jobs than their urban counterparts. Education is a proven way of accessing the ‘better’ jobs offered by national labour markets. Why then do young people from disadvantaged rural areas not take up education and training opportunities to the same extent as their urban counterparts? The research discussed in this paper investigated ways in which family and school/community social capital influence young people’s work/study values and priorities with regard to post-school pathways. Family networks and information that are limited and concentrated in rural areas tend to be associated with a desire to find a job before completing school, preferably located near to home. Incomplete understanding and lack of trust of educational institutions and labour markets in urban centres based on local experience may be transmitted through advice of family and friends and influence young people toward current work rather than the longer term goal of post-compulsory education. The implications for regional and national programs of educational and community development are discussed.

“I Am Working-Class”: Subjective Self-Definition as a Missing Measure of Social Class and Socioeconomic Status in Higher Education Research

This review provides a critical appraisal of the measurement of students’ social class and socioeconomic status (SES) in the context of widening higher education participation. Most assessments of social class and SES in higher education have focused on objective measurements based on the income, occupation, and education of students’ parents, and they have tended to overlook diversity among students based on factors such as age, ethnicity, indigeneity, and rurality. However, recent research in psychology and sociology has stressed the more subjective and intersectional nature of social class. The authors argue that it is important to consider subjective self-definitions of social class and SES alongside more traditional objective measures. The implications of this dual measurement approach for higher education research are discussed.

Information vs training: Issues in farmer learning

Abstract We have observed that seeking information is universally regarded as acceptable behaviour in the Australian farming community, but training is often regarded with suspicion. Those who train are more likely to make successful changes to their farm management practices. We draw on data gathered for a number of studies of farmer education and training to suggest five reasons why farmers might prefer to learn by seeking information rather than training. These are: a preference for independence, familiarity with a highly contextual learning mode, lack of confidence in working in training settings, a preference for information from known sources, and a fear of being exposed to new knowledge and skills. We recommend that farmers be in control of their training and be encouraged to learn within a wider learning community which facilitates participative research and joint enquiry. This approach is consistent with the ways farmers prefer to learn.

Learning in agriculture: building social capital in island communities

Social capital helps communities respond positively to change. Research in agricultural businesses and into managing change through learning in communities has highlighted the importance of relationships between people and the formal and informal infrastructure of communities to the quality of outcomes experienced by communities, businesses and individuals. Communities can be geographic communities—the data drawn on in this paper are from an island community, for example—or communities-of-common-purpose, such as agricultural organisations. This paper reviews research into managing change through learning and social capital, presents a model of the simultaneous building and use of social capital and explores the ways in which learning as part of an agricultural community can be used to bring benefits to geographic communities such as islands. The model presented in this paper stems from studies of the informal learning process that builds resilient communities. It conceptualises the way in which social capital is used and built in interactions between individuals. There are two stages to the model. The first stage depicts social capital at the micro level of one-on-one interactions where it is built and used. The second stage of the model is about the interrelationship of micro-level social capital processes with the community and societal-level social capital resources.

Single-sex classes in co-educational schools

This research investigated social and academic outcomes from single‐sex classrooms in a Tasmanian coeducational government primary school. Interviews, observations and surveys formed the basis of the evidence. Teachers, parents and children reported positive benefits from the class organisation, but these differed according to gender. Staff identified increased confidence and higher self‐esteem among girls, whereas boys developed increased motivation and more commitment to schoolwork. Teachers and parents noted that boys’ accountability and self‐discipline improved. Teachers adopted different strategies from those used with mixed‐gender classes and gained higher levels of satisfaction from teaching, attributable to increased children’s time ‘on task’. Paradoxically, standardised school testing indicated no increase in academic achievements. However, there may be an extended lag between establishing changed social relationships and measurable academic outcomes, suggesting that if the new class structure is to achieve its full potential, it should be established early in primary school and continue to adolescence.