GraniteNet phase 2 evaluation report

The GraniteNet vision is to establish a sustainable community designed, owned and managed portal that will support Stanthorpe’s development as a learning community. Typical of smaller, rural communities west of the ‘great divide’, Stanthorpe has an ageing community, a low median income, a lower proportion of the population with post-compulsory education qualifications and lower use of information communication technologies (ICT) in comparison with Brisbane metropolitan and larger coastal centres in Queensland, all of which are considered risk factors in terms of the community’s continued prosperity and longer term sustainability. The GraniteNet project, as a learning community initiative, aims to maximise the use of Information Communication Technologies to support community and individual development and capacity building. The project is a Participatory Action Research (PAR) partnership between the University of Southern Queensland and the Stanthorpe community. Perceived benefits of GraniteNet for Stanthorpe include that it will be a tool that people of all ages and from all sectors of the community can use to share information, promote community activities and events, and promote and foster learning opportunities. It is hoped that GraniteNet will become a valuable community asset that will enhance existing social networks, provide opportunities for growth and development and bridge the ‘digital divide’ that is said to exist between rural and metropolitan communities. With funding from the Queensland Government Department of Communities, the GraniteNet Interim Board commissioned this evaluation of the second phase of the GraniteNet project in order to ensure that Phase 3 – the proposed twelve-month pilot of the community portal – is informed by a sound evidence base. The evaluation was facilitated by the USQ Principal Researcher in collaboration with members of the Granite Belt Learners Group, who acted as the Critical Reference Group (CRG) for the evaluation, during the period March to November, 2008. Using data from surveys, questionnaires, interviews, workshops and Critical Reference Group meetings, and an online collaborative workspace established to supplement the face-to-face evaluation activities, formative, summative and research evaluation activities were conducted focusing on project governance, community engagement and the GraniteNet portal environment

A learning community two years on: reflecting on successes and framing futures

This paper reports the results of a participatory action research (PAR) evaluation conducted with the members of the Granite Belt Learners Group in their rural 'learning community' in South East Queensland, and presents an action research and evaluation framework to guide the community on the next stage of its journey

Promoting lifelong learning partnerships, pathways and andragogies: issues in evaluating and redesigning the postcompulsory teacher education professional experience at The University Of Southern Queensland

[Abstract]: Drawing on criticality, critical theory and the humanist tradition in education, the authors explicate several issues in evaluating and redesigning the postcompulsory teacher education professional experience at USQ. The challenge rests with developing partnerships, pathways and andragogies that simultaneously fulfil stakeholder expectations and promote lifelong learning for all participants

An inquiry into learning in rural community informatics: understanding, facilitating and accounting for learning in the GraniteNet Project

GraniteNet is a Community Informatics and Learning Community initiative that began in 2006 as a collaboration between USQ researchers and members of the rural community of Stanthorpe, a small town located in the Southern Downs region of Queensland, Australia. The project’s vision was the development of a sustainable community-designed, owned and managed web portal that would promote digital inclusion and support Stanthorpe’s development as a Learning Community. Emerging Education practice problems related to this researcher's desire to better understand the nature and dynamics of people's informal, community learning in this context led her to focus her doctoral study on an investigation into learning in GraniteNet. Using phenomenography as the primary research approach within GraniteNet conceptualised as a single site instrumental case study, the study investigates the qualitatively different ways in which GraniteNet participants perceive and experience learning within the context of their community volunteering work. The experience of learning across various content domains is explored with a purposive sample of 20 community volunteers drawn from among GraniteNet’s diverse communities and networks of interest and practice. Particular emphasis is given to interrogating conceptions and experiences of learning about and learning to use digital technologies in GraniteNet’s face-to-face, virtual and hybrid community learning and working environments. Seven qualitatively distinct, yet logically related ways of experiencing learning in GraniteNet constitute the study’s phenomenographic outcome space. These results are then interpreted in the context of the case study report to illuminate the experience of informal community learning in GraniteNet and to theorise about the nature and dynamics of this learning. As part of the elaboration of respondents’ conceptions of learning, reference is made to seven interrelated domains of learning content and their related learning processes and also to conditions for learning afforded by GraniteNet as the learning context and environment. A typology of learning grounded in the phenomenographic findings theorises the nature of individual and collective informal learning in GraniteNet and in so doing, contributes to emerging understandings of learning that enable us to 'think more creatively and productively about learning in all of its manifestations' (Hager, 2004, p. 15), including how people learn about their own and others’ learning. The findings thus contribute to knowledge in a number of areas of interest to researchers and practitioners in the fields of Adult Education and Lifelong Learning, Community Informatics and Community Development, with new insights generated about the diverse forms of learning in which people engage as they use digital technologies to learn with and from each other in the context of Australian rural community and associational life in the digital era. Firstly, the findings show how the significant educational effect of people's participation in rural community associational life is magnified for the digital era by a learning-based approach to Community Informatics. This knowledge will enable Adult Education and Community Development scholar-practitioners working in comparable settings to make more informed decisions about how to use digital technologies effectively for individual, organisational and community learning and development. Secondly, a comparison of the study's findings with conceptions of learning in selected phenomenographic studies contributes to our understanding of informal learning from the learner's perspective, confirming the enduring relevance of phenomenography to theorising about the nature of adults' everyday learning in the digital era. Thirdly, the study’s contribution to methodological knowledge is related to particular techniques and instruments that can be used to investigate the so-called ‘submerged iceberg’ of informal adult learning. Recommendations for policy, practice and further research emerging from the study include a philosophical and conceptual framework for a learning-based approach to Community Informatics with implications for adult community educators' roles and purposes, and concomitantly, for the further education of adult educators and community development practitioners

Supporting vocational and career development learning in ACE: implications for VET teachers and VET teacher education

Increasing numbers of diverse learners are seeking Vocational Education and Training (VET) opportunities to develop the skills and capabilities they need to negotiate the challenges of living, learning and working in an increasingly globalised and uncertain 21st century world. The ability to successfully navigate career pathways and transitions is a 21st century skill that requires an ongoing engagement in learning to manage change (Field, Gallacher & Ingram, 2009). However it has been argued that “privileged social groups enjoy a seamless integration of different types of learning that is denied to the disadvantaged” (Colley, Hodkinson & Malcolm, 2003 p. 109). These so-called ‘disadvantaged’ include people who are marginalized due to unemployment, geographic or social isolation, poverty, disability, language and literacy barriers, learning difficulties and cultural differences. As the education sector firmly located closest to the community and embracing an informal and learner-centred approach, the Adult Community Education sector (ACE) and community-based models such as place-based learning communities and community volunteering and service learning programs are well situated to support delivery of the kinds of vocational and career development learning opportunities that cater for these diverse learners (Arden, 2016a, 2017). But what kinds of pedagogies can teachers and trainers use to facilitate their students’ vocational and career development learning? And how can VET teacher educators empower VET teachers to use their influence to help learners make the all-important connections between different learning types and settings in order to successfully navigate their lifelong learning transitions and pathways? To propose some answers to these questions, the author draws on the findings of a phenomenographic case study investigating younger and older community volunteers’ experiences of informal learning in a Community Informatics project called “GraniteNet” (Arden, 2016b). Informed by the work of Eraut (2004, 2007), Illeris (2006) and others, this lived experience of community-based learning is analysed and interpreted to shed light on the processes, mechanisms and incentives for vocational and career development learning. Some implications for VET teachers’ pedagogies and VET teacher education are discussed

From frontier learning to blended community learning: a phenomenography of informal learning in rural community informatics

In Australia, in spite of a policy commitment at the national level to an investment in national broadband internet infrastructure across the country, the problem of an enduring digital divide – along with the probability of an associated learning divide – persists, particularly for so-called disadvantaged groups in rural and regional communities. Therefore, like their counterparts in many countries around the world, Australian rural communities are working on strategies to build the capacity of their citizens for active participation “in an information society that includes a concept of civil society as a target for skills development, engagement, decision-making, and societal cohesion” (Taylor, Schauder, & Johanson, 2005 p. 4). Such strategies include the Learning Communities movement, in which towns, cities, and communities adopt a “learning-based approach to community development…with a framework in which lifelong learning is the organising principle and social goal” (Faris, 2005, p. 31) and grass-roots community technology (Community Informatics) initiatives that seek to leverage digital Information Communications Technologies (ICTs) and the Internet in the interests of supporting the achievement of community development (Gurstein, 2001) and digital inclusion (Alamelu, 2013) goals. One such initiative is GraniteNet, established in 2006 in the town of Stanthorpe in South-East Queensland with the aim of harnessing the possibilities presented by digital technologies and the Internet for enhanced social connectivity, community networking, and citizen engagement in lifelong and life-wide learning. The author concurs with Merriam et al (2007, p. 430) that “informal learning contexts, including social action and community-based learning, are where much of adult learning takes place [and that as adult educators and researchers] we need only see them as sites for learning” to be able to explore and better understand, and make visible, the dynamics and complexity of this learning. Using phenomenography as the primary research approach, the author explored the experience of learning with a purposive sample of 20 community volunteers drawn from among GraniteNet’s diverse communities and networks of interest and practice at a high point in the organisation’s development in 2012. Although learning across various content domains was explored, particular emphasis is given to the interrogation of conceptions and experiences of learning about and learning to use digital technologies in GraniteNet’s face-to-face, virtual and hybrid community learning and working environments. Phenomenographic analysis of interview transcripts and respondent-generated mind maps identified seven qualitatively distinct, yet logically related ways of experiencing learning in GraniteNet, representing the collective learning consciousness of GraniteNet at the time of the study. This constituted the study’s outcome space, which is interpreted in the context of the case study description to illuminate the experience of learning in GraniteNet and to theorise about the nature and dynamics of this learning. The study’s findings confirm those reported in the literature on learning in associational life and volunteer work that emphasise the variety of learning opportunities afforded by small-scale voluntary and community-based organisations “across the spectrum of adult learning” (Kerka, 1998, p. 1) along with the breadth, depth and significance of this learning for participants. They also demonstrate how individual and collective learning is further expanded through the “combination of digital interactions with offline encounters” (Field, 2005, p. 148) afforded by GraniteNet’s hybrid socio-technical working and learning environments. Related to this are new understandings and insights generated about informal learning as a phenomenon linked to younger and older adults’ growing capacity for metacognition and reflexivity in the interests of understanding and furthering their own learning, providing evidence to support the assertion that, under the right conditions, digital technology can be used to “support sustainable environments where learners gain new perspectives on their learning, share and learn collectively, and master their own drive for learning” (Eden17, Conference Scope)

Re-engineering Education research to investigate learning in community informatics: using phenomenography and variation theory to understand and account for learning in GraniteNet

GraniteNet is a Community Informatics project which began in 2006 as a research and development collaboration between university researchers and members of the rural community of Stanthorpe, a town of approximately 10,500 residents located on the Granite Belt in the Southern Downs region of Queensland, Australia. The vision for this Participatory Action Research project was a sustainable community designed, owned and managed web portal that would promote digital inclusion and support Stanthorpe's development as a 'learning community'. Eight years on, GraniteNet has continued to evolve as a community-based social enterprise operated exclusively by volunteers, providing a range of digital inclusion facilities and services to residents of Stanthorpe and the Granite Belt, including a community technology hub located in the CBD and a community web portal (www.granitenet.com.au). Using phenomenography as the primary research approach within an instrumental, single site case study, this research investigates the qualitatively different ways in which the members of GraniteNet's diverse communities of interest and practice understand and experience learning in the context of their involvement in GraniteNet's digital inclusion activities and use of the community web portal. Although learning across various content domains is explored, particular emphasis is given to interrogation of conceptions and experiences of learning related to digital technologies and digital literacies in these environments. Presenting her account of the study's methodology and findings, the author grapples with the challenges of using phenomenography - a research approach originally developed to investigate learning in formal education - to investigate adults' informal and non-formal learning experiences in a community setting. The benefits and limitations of phenomenography and variation theory as theoretical, conceptual and methodological frameworks for researching learning in Community Informatics are explored, and implications for locating community-based research in wider theoretical and practice frameworks and accounting for community benefit from a lifelong learning perspective discussed

Exploring cross-cultural perspectives of teacher leadership among the members of an international teacher leadership research team: a phenomenographic study

This presentation is based on a study that explores the culturally diverse understandings, experiences and perspectives of teacher leadership among the membership of an International Study of Teacher Leadership (ISTL) research team comprised of 20 academics working in universities in Australia, Canada, Latin America, South Africa, Tanzania, the United Kingdom, China and Europe. The impetus for this study emerged as a direct result of discussions at a 2018 conference in which ISTL team members expressed interest in exploring perspectives of teacher leadership among the team to inform their ongoing collaborative ISTL research. Literature on educational leadership and teacher leadership suggests that both teachers' and researchers' understandings of these concepts are widely varied (Webber, 2018). It is also well recognised that notions of what constitutes effective leadership are context specific and subject to cultural bias (AHRC, 2018; Rogoff, 2003; van Emmerick, Euema & Wendt, 2008), with the literature on teacher leadership typically found to offer interpretations, conceptual frameworks, and recommendations reliant on a knowledge base in which Western notions of leadership are embedded as if they were culturally transferable (Hallinger & Walker, 2011; Webber, 2018). This study aims to address these issues by paving the way for fuller, richer, more inclusive, and thus potentially more sophisticated understandings of the concept. Using phenomenography – an approach to qualitative research focused on capturing how the world and phenomena in the world appear to other people (Marton, 1988; Marton & Booth, 1997), the researchers (also members of the ISTL research team) use mind mapping (Arden, 2016; Buzan & Buzan, 2003) and semi-structured, online interviews to explore the ways that the participants related with the phenomenon of interest, 'teacher leadership' (Larrson & Holmstrom, 2007). A phenomenographic data analysis procedure is followed to discover conceptions and experiences of teacher leadership reflected in the data, identifying and highlighting the critical differences, or variation, therein. The findings – in the form of categories of description in the phenomenographic outcome space – constitute a map of the qualitatively different ways that teacher leadership is viewed and experienced by teacher leadership researchers from different geographical contexts and cultural and linguistic backgrounds. In this presentation, the researchers present the rationale for the study, an overview of the methodology and some preliminary findings. A discussion will follow with Symposium participants to explore how the findings can contribute to the work of the ISTL research team by providing an 'experiential framework' (Pham, Bruce & Stoodley, 2002) for thinking about cross-cultural understandings of teacher leadership and teacher leadership research

Community enrichment program: developing digital learning in rural aged care

Project Overview The ‘Community Enrichment Program’ enabled technology training for selected aged care volunteers in Stanthorpe, Queensland, so that they may assist frail or otherwise debilitated aged care residents to use computer tablets for personalised learning activities. A main aim was to enhance the quality of life for residents and recipients of aged care services, as well as further develop the digital skills and capabilities of volunteers who work in rural aged care