John Field died suddenly and too soon on 25 March 2024, ten years into retirement from paid academic work age 74. I am the same age and retired around the same time. This post is not only about remembering John’s contribution but acknowledging others whose contributions have similarly influenced my thinking, becoming colleagues and friends. Lest we forget.
Professor John Field, as Sir Alan Tuckett summarised in his generous and appropriate tribute in the International Journal of Lifelong Education in April 2024 (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02601370.2024.2344348 , was ‘… a charismatic and distinguished scholar, policy adviser and internationalist. … John was recognised widely as one of the outstanding contributors to the development of adult learning and education of his generation, and he combined serious intellectual rigour with great personal warmth, curiosity and a capacity to make complex ideas accessible.’
John had a huge impact on my own thinking and research about social capital, community, adult and informal learning. Some of these ideas coalesced in my own research over two decades about older men’s informal learning, Men’s Sheds and most recently Women’s Sheds in community settings. I’ve often leaned on John’s work with others for the UK Government Office of Science Foresight Project published as Mental capital and wellbeing in 2009.
Alan Tuckett acknowledged that John became:
‘… an early advocate for the work of Men’s Sheds, and of many of the local community initiatives developed despite the paucity of public support. John looked beyond the boundaries of structured learning to see what motivated and inspired
adults to invent their own strategies to learn effectively. It was an approach that made his blog [The Learning Professor] such an entertaining and illuminating read. More than that, it was what made the time spent with John so richly rewarding.‘
It is appropriate in remembering John Field, that I acknowledge here the invaluable support, friendship, advice and inspiration I’ve had over the decades from others in the field, many who who are still ‘kicking goals’ both in Australia and overseas. This particularly includes Professor Annette Foley (Federation University), Professor John McDonald and Professor Tony Dreise (Charles Sturt University) in Australia; soon to be retired Professor Michael Osborne (Glasgow University) and the late Professor Peter Jarvis, as well as other UK-based researchers, Sir Alan Tuckett and Professor Peter Lavender. Peter and Alan at once stage worked out of the former National Institute of Adult and Community Education (NIACE) in Leicester and more recently at University of Wolverhampton.
It is no accident that Dr Veronica McGivney also worked at NIACE and similarly influenced and encouraged my early thinking around the same time Men’s Sheds started, with Excluded men: Men who are missing from education and training in 1999, and Men earn women learn in 2004. Veronica is still kicking goals in 2024, writing fiction and painting. In Ireland, I have enjoyed strong support and friendship in my research also from Dr Rob Mark and Dr Lucia Carragher, and in New Zealand from Dr Brian Findsen.
Barry Golding 