Professor Annette Foley
Professor, Adult and Vocational Education
Associate Professor Annette Foley’s expertise is in the area of adult education, vocational education and training, community and lifelong learning and youth engagement. Dr Foley is also an expert in post-structural theory, critical theory, critical discourse analysis and narrative theory.
Annette’s key research efforts include access and equity, informal learning, gender, lifelong learning, adult education, education for health and wellbeing, youth engagement in adult education and opportunity and pathways. She has researched extensively in the area of lifelong learning, which has included work on Men’s Sheds and community learning. She has published three books, has had in excess of 50 research outputs and received $361,000 in research funding.
Annette is Associate Dean Accreditation in the School of Education. Before this she has held several leadership positions in Federation University from 2013–2018 as Deputy Dean Education and Head of School Education. Annette is the president of Adult Learning Australia.
Lifelong learning in Australian community contexts: Adult learning 'capabilities' for study, work, and life
Respite, renewal, retirement and tensions: Australian Men's Sheds and the impact on significant others
The Reimagining adult learning in community-based contexts: A framework for social justice education in Australia
A gendered therapeutic learning landscape: Responding creatively to a pandemic
Neighbourhood Houses and Men’s Sheds, Adult learning in community spaces. Transforming the Future of Education: The role of research
Shedding light: A qualitative study of women's view on Men's Sheds in Ireland and Australia
Ties That Bind or Exclude? Knitting and Craft Groups as Contested Spaces of Inclusion and Exclusion
Choosing VET as a post-school activity: What are some influences on non-metropolitan students?
Men's shed research evidence since 2014
Preparation for post-school careers in rural and peri-urban Australia: Connections with employers and labour markets
The Mothership: Exploring the anatomy of one New Zealand Men’s Shed
Therapeutic Virtual Landscapes: An exploration of gendered learning spaces during the COVID-19 lockdown
The women’s shed movement: Scoping the field internationally
Community learning through adversity and disaster: An Australian case study of rural adaptation and resilience beyond paid work
Our paper uses a qualitative, case study approach to critically examine the role of community...
Participant Chinese teacher and student perceptions of an international teaching practicum with Australian pre-service teachers
Insights into local Chinese teacher and student views of an international teaching practicum with...
Young people’s decision-making as they leave school in non-metropolitan areas in Australia: Insights from those working with young people
Constructing narratives in later life: Autoethnography beyond the academy
Learning through life experiences as distinct from learning through the academy and courses have...
Men and Boys: Sharing the Skills Across Generations
Our paper focuses on intergenerational learning in informal community settings between older men...
Men and Boys: Ages and Stages
Men Learning through life
Men's Learning in Australia
Men's Turn to Learn? Discussion and Conclusion
The case for some men's spaces
Promoting 'learner voice' in VET: developing democratic, transformative possibilities or further entrenching the status quo?
In order to critique the notion of 'learner voice' in vocational education and training (VET)...
Learner Voice in VET and ACE: What do stakeholders say
Learner voice in VET: who speaks? Who listens?
Listening and responding to learner voice in vocational education and training in Australia
All over, red rover? The neglect and potential of Australian adult education in the community
'Do you want VET with that?' Some implications for lifelong and lifewide learning in an era of universal VET
VET manager identities: Culture, Philosophy and Professional Practice
Using a post-structural approach this article investigates the working lives of frontline...
Vocational Education and Training Manager Discursive Practices at the Frontline: Alternative Possibilities in a Victorian Setting
This article looks at how the neoliberal reform process is affecting the professional identity of...
Climate Change in the Victorian Alps: Can VET be a change agent?
Informal learning: a discussion around defining and researching its breath and importance
Informal learning has often been seen as formal learning's 'poor cousin'. Our paper explores and...
Water, weeds and autumn leaves: learning to be drier in the Alpine region
Our paper explores how and what adults living and working in the Alpine region of Victoria...
Wicked learning: reflecting on Learning to be drier
A long and winding road: autonomous men's learning through participation in community sheds across Australia
Alternative Possibilities: social impulses in ACE coordinator practices
House and Sheds: an exploration of the genesis and growth or neighbourhood houses and men's sheds in community settings
Houses and sheds in Australia: An exploration of the genesis and growth of neighbourhood houses and men's sheds in community settings
This article reviews research into the genesis and spread of both neighbourhood houses and...
'How men are worked with': gender roles in men's informal learning
Let the Men Speak: Health, Friendship, Community and Shed Therapy
Out the back: men's sheds and informal learning
Shedding School Early: Insights from School & Community Shed Collaboration in Australia
ACE working within/outside VET
Men's sheds in Australia: Learning through community contexts
Old dogs, new shed tricks: An exploration of innovative, workshop-based learning practice in Australia
Shedding some new light on gender: Evidence about men's informal learning preferences from Australian men's sheds in community contexts