Men Learning Through Life

Concerns about men's attitudes to and involvement in lifelong and life-wide learning have recently emerged in many countries. There is a growing interest in finding ways to increase men's participation and promote practices that will contribute to men's learning and wellbeing, particularly in contexts and life stages for men beyond paid work. Men Learning Through Life, the definitive text on this subject, showcases expert international contributions presenting and examining evidence from theory, research, policy and practice, illustrated with case studies. It does so through comparison of the learning and wellbeing experiences of women. As an implicitly connected issue, the book also presents evidence and builds a case for the initial education of boys to receive particular attention, in order to break intergenerational cycles of aversion to learning for some men and some communities. The book will inform national and international policies and practices related to the learning and wellbeing of men. This is of particular importance in the current context of rising men's unemployment as an outcome of the recent and ongoing global financial crisis; population ageing; early withdrawal of predominantly working-class men from paid work; and concerns about men's functional literacies, health and wellbeing in many developed nations.