About

Curriculum Vitae 

Professor  Barry Golding AM, Honorary Professor in adult and community education of Federation University Australia in Ballarat since June 2021. From 2011-13 he was Associate Dean, Research, School of Education & Arts at University of Ballarat, Australia; and founder of the RAVE (Researching Adult & Vocational Education) Group.

Between June 2015 and June 2021 Dr Golding  was Professor (Adjunct) of Federation University Australia.

In June 2016 he was appointed to the Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Australian Queen’s Birthday Honours in recognition of his ‘significant contribution to tertiary education as a researcher and author, to professional organisations and to the community’.

From 2013 to March 2015  Barry was President of the Adult Learning Australia Board. Barry has been a voluntary Patron of the Australian Men’s Shed Association since 2009.

Barry Golding was awarded the Australian Men’s Shed Association ‘Ted Donnelly Award’ in 2013 for his ‘outstanding contribution to the Men’s Shed movement’.

Barry is also founder, in 1993,  former President (2013-16)  and Life Member of the Great Dividing Trail Association, responsible for creating and maintaining four main walking and mountain bike tracks totalling around 270km that now link Ballarat, Daylesford, Castlemaine and Bendigo (collectively called the ‘Goldfields Track’) as well as the Lerderderg Track (connecting Daylesford to outer suburban Melbourne to Bacchus Marsh). He remains an active member of the GDTA Committee to 2022

Aside from a PhD in Education from University of Melbourne, Barry has an Honours Degree in Science (Geology) from Thwe University of Melbourne, a Bachelor Arts (majoring in Philosophy of Science and Feminism) from Deakin University, as well as postgraduate qualifications in Environmental Science (Masters) from Monash University and Education (Graduate Diploma in Education and Graduate Diploma  in Educational Administration) from The University of Melbourne.

His 2014 university course Coordination and lecturing included Indigenous Education for pre-service teachers at University of Ballarat, Collaborative Research and Evaluation  and Global Perspectives in Education.

Barry was a former core member of the eight person Mulga Bill’s Bicycle Band from 1970-76 (see separate page with details).  Barry has lived in the Daylesford area, since 1976 at nearby Kingston since 1980. He has developed a community interest and expertise in current, post contact  and prior landscapes and communities including those existing  locally with the Dja Dja Wurrong Nation in 1838, particularly those associated with the North West Aboriginal Protectorate near Mount Franklin in central Victoria.

Barry has extensive education and research experience in school, VET (vocational education and training), ACE (Adult and Community Education) and university sectors spanning almost forty years. His education-related research in the past 20  years has focused mainly on adult and community education, with particular emphasis on: access and equity in vocational education and training, Indigenous vocational education, adult and community education, inter-sectoral transfer. Men’s lifelong and lifewide learning, health and wellbeing in community settings, including through community men’s sheds, has become his particular, international research interest.

Barry has undertaken many major individual and collaborative, mixed method, field research projects in the past two decades through: Bendigo Regional Institute of TAFE, The University of Melbourne and the University of Ballarat with a wide range of collaborating universities, non-government organisations and researchers. Most of his research and consultancy has been national in scope including for National Centre for Vocational Education Research, state and national government departments. He operates a small research business called. Tertiary Tracks, committed to cutting edge mixed method research.

With RAVE partners, Barry led a major national study of learning through men’s sheds in Australia in 2007 for NCVER. In 2009 he led three major research projects: a UB Deakin study of ‘Learning to be drier in the Southern Murray Darling Basin,’ a national study of older men’s learning and wellbeing through community organisations for National Seniors Productive Ageing Centre, and a study of men’s learning and wellbeing in community settings in Western Australia.

In 2010-12 his research focused on a collaborative investigation of men’s learning and wellbeing in community contexts, through on ground research in Australia, Greece, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, England, Portugal, Samoa, New Zealand and China. In 2012 Barry led a RAVE team that completed the ‘Listening and responding to learner voice’ research project for NVEAC (National VET Equity Advisory Council) in Australia.

He researched, wrote and co-edited a book Men learning through life with Dr Rob Mark from University of Strathclyde, Scotland and Dr Annette Foley from University of Ballarat, published in February 2014 by NIACE in the UK, with chapter contributions from seven world nations (Australia, New Zealand, China, UK, Ireland, Portugal and Greece). His main research focus in 2014-15 is  on the international men’s shed movement. It resulted in publication in August 2015 of ‘The Men’s Shed Movement: the Company of Men’ book by Common Ground Publishing in the US, as part of its Aging and Society series of books. The  book provides a definitive account of the history, diversity and innovation and research evidence about community Men’s Sheds movement in Australia, Ireland, the UK and New Zealand and most recently in Europe.

In 2016 Barry worked on two research projects through his consultancy business, Tertiary Tracks. The first is the Rural Sporting Chance  study, with Dr Maryann Brown, of opportunities for rural vocational education and training (VET),  for the philanthropic Helen Macpherson Rural Foundation based in Creswick. It involved hearing from young people 18-25 years as well as other VET stakeholder in five rural Victorian towns: Dunolly, Terang, Casterton, Kyabram and Warracknabeal.

The second was a research evaluation of ‘alternative’ school  education for young people embedded in five adult education providers in New South Wales. Barry undertook a research evaluation of  the original Alesco program (set up in Newcastle in 2003 by WEA Hunter in 2009. The 2016 project again involved listening to young people’s perceptions of the Alesco-type programs in Newcastle, as well in Dubbo, Bathurst, Wollongong and Albury Wodonga.

For the past 25 years Barry has conducted extensive commissioned research and consultancy beyond his previous salaried work through his consultancy, Tertiary Tracks. In 2017,  this work has included analysis, with Dr Jack Harvey from Federation University Australia, of a number of Australian Men’s Shed Association national surveys.

From 2017-21 Barry has been a member of the Hepburn Shire Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) Community Reference Group, with the responsibility for creating and implementing a plan for Indigenous reconciliation through the Hepburn Shire’s Dja Dja Wurrung Aboriginal Nation footprint. In 2021 our Reconciliation Week 2020 online  films replacing the planned public  field trip (because of COVID) came second with a ‘Highly Commended’ award in Local Government section of the 2021 HART Reconciliation Awards. Sincere thanks to Uncle Ricky Nelson, Donna Spiller, Inge Hamilton and the Hepburn Shire RAP for making this happen.

Honorary Professor, Dr Barry Golding AM

Two Page Curriculum Vitae & 5 Year Research Publication list to 2020

Recent & Former Leadership, Board Positions & Awards:

Professor (Adjunct), Faculty of Education & Arts, Federation University Australia; Founder of the RAVE (Researching Adult & Vocational Education) Group; Leader of the ‘Men’s Learning Beyond the Workplace’ International Research project; Past President, Adult Learning Australia; Patron, Australian Men’s Shed Association (AMSA); Recipient of the AMSA ‘Ted Donnelly Award’, 2013 for ‘Outstanding contribution to the Men’s Shed Movement’; Chair, International Men’s Shed Organisation (IMSO); President & Life Member, Great Dividing Trail Association; Editorial Board, Australian Journal of Adult Learning from 2018; Member of Order of Australia (AM) 2016.

Academic Qualifications:

Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Geology, University of Melbourne; Masters in Environmental Science, Monash University, Bachelor of Arts, Deakin University, Diploma of Education & Graduate Diploma of Educational Administration, University of Melbourne. PhD (Education), University of Melbourne, Centre for the Study of Higher Education.

Research Experience:

Professor Golding has extensive education and research experience in school, TAFE, ACE and university sectors spanning 40 years. His research in the past two decades has focussed mainly on vocational, adult and community education, with particular emphasis on: access and equity, Indigenous TAFE and vocational education, inter-sectoral (higher education-TAFE) transfer and in the most recent decade, older men’s lifelong and lifewide learning in community settings including through community Men’s Sheds internationally. His research has increasingly gravitated towards the diverse interactions between learning and wellbeing in rural, regional and community contexts.

Barry has undertaken a large number of major individual and collaborative, mixed method, field research projects in the past three decades through: Bendigo Regional Institute of TAFE, The University of Melbourne, University of Ballarat and Federation University Australia. This has involved a wide range of collaborating institutions, including: the Centre for Research and Learning in Regional Australia at University of Tasmania; Open Learning Australia; Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander People’s Advisory Council (then based at Kangan Batman TAFE), University of Technology, Sydney; RMIT University, La Trobe and Deakin Universities.

Most of his university and TAFE research and consultancy has been national in scope, primarily involving National Centre for Vocational Education Research projects and national government departments. Barry was for a decade on the Executive of the Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA). Barry’s Victorian research (with others) has included: Adult and Community Education in small and remote towns; A consolidation of ACE research (2000, NCVER) and Building communities: ACE lifelong learning and social capital (2000) for the ACFE Board. NCVER studies have included: Adult learning through fire and emergency service organisations (2003), Learning through Indigenous business (2005), and Creating learning spaces for refugees (2008).

Most research between 2005-9 was with UB RAVE research partners, Dr Annette Foley & Dr Mike Brown. Their 2004 ACFE research investigated aspects of Men’s learning in small rural towns leading to state wide ACFE Research Circles on Men’s Learning (2005-6). Barry led a major national study of learning through Men’s Sheds in Australia in 2007 for NCVER. In 2009 he led three major research projects: a UB Deakin study of Learning to be drier in the Southern Murray Darling Basin, a national study of Men’s learning and wellbeing for National Seniors Productive Ageing Centre, and a study of Men’s Learning in Western Australia for the WA State Government.

From 2010 Barry Golding’s research focused on a collaborative international investigation of men’s learning and wellbeing, working with researchers in Australia, Greece, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, England, Portugal, Samoa, New Zealand and China. In 2011-12 Barry led a RAVE team that completed Listening and responding to learner voice for NVEAC (National VET Equity Advisory Council) in Australia. He is the first editor of Men learning through life, (NIACE, UK, 2014) that includes seven national chapters and fifteen authors.

Barry was sole editor of The Men’s Shed Movement: The Company of Men (Common Ground, USA, 2015), a definitive book about the Men’s Shed Movement in four nations (Australia, Ireland, the UK and New Zealand), summarising the birth, growth and research/practice implications of the community Men’s Shed Movement. His research as an Adjunct Professor of Federation University Australia in 2014-16 included work with researchers in Australia, Korea, Malta, Slovenia, Serbia, Sweden, Denmark, France, Ireland, Cambodia, USA, New Zealand and the UK.

Barry retired from full time paid work at Federation University Australia in mid-2015 but was appointed for three years as an honorary Professor (Adjunct) to June 2018. In 2016 he undertook research for the Macpherson Smith Rural Foundation investigating the scope for VET scholarships in rural Victoria and preparing a research evaluation of the Alesco school network across five regional cities in New South Wales. In the  first three years to April 2018 as a voluntary Adjunct Professor of Federation University Australia, Barry published 31 eligible research publications.

Publications list and availability:

A full list of all Barry’s publications, reports, journal articles and conference papers is provided and regularly updated at http://www.barrygoanna.com/research

Professor Barry Golding: Phone: +61 3 53456343 (Mobile 0427216337)

Email: b.golding@federation.edu.au Postal: 420 Kingston Road, Kingston 3364, Victoria, Australia; Web: www.barrygoanna.com Skype: barrygoanna

Research Business: Tertiary Tracks (Registered Business #1329913P), contact details as above.

NOTE: All 40 years of Barry Golding’s  Publications to 2022 are  separately listed on the ‘Research’ page.