Barry Golding

I am an Australian Professor of adult education from Federation University Australia. My passion obvious in my writing and presenting is learning 'through' rather than learning 'about'. I have come to regard learning as an essentially social and relational activity that is enhanced by and through the company of others. This rich vein of relational learning flows through much of my published work. I am gravely concerned by the way formal learning has become indistinguishable from the market in most education sectors. For the past two decades my research has increasingly gravitated to going beyond the question about why older men tend to be missing from formal learning to ask what men are already learning through contexts beyond formal education and paid work, and what value that learning is.