John Haycock | Monash University (original) (raw)

Papers by John Haycock

$Research paper thumbnail of \u27They are working every angle\u27. A qualitative study of Australian adults\u27 attitudes towards, and interactions with, gambling industry marketing strategies$

As gambling products have diversified so too have the ways in which the gambling industry has bee... more As gambling products have diversified so too have the ways in which the gambling industry has been able to target, reach and engage different sectors of the community. Limited research has explored the ways in which individuals conceptualize and respond to gambling marketing strategies. Semi-structured, qualitative interviews were conducted with 100 adults in Victoria, Australia, who had gambled at least once during the previous year. Participants described the multi-layered ways in which gambling was marketed and were concerned about the role of marketing in \u27normalizing\u27 gambling for some groups. Male participants felt \u27bombarded\u27 and \u27targeted\u27 by sports bet marketing. Most women and older men actively resisted gambling marketing strategies. Older women, younger men, moderate and high risk gamblers and those from low socio-economic backgrounds were particularly influenced by incentivization to gambling. This study highlights the complex ways in which different i...

MERC Monash Education Research Community Annual Conference 2010, 2010

My theorisation of a public pedagogy of protest music is initially located in the persistent and ... more My theorisation of a public pedagogy of protest music is initially located in the persistent and pervasive mythology associating protest music—especially that produced as popular music in the 1960s—with social change. This thesis works to uncover understandings of the public pedagogical dimensions of protest music, as it takes place and is facilitated by protest musicians, as a radical practice and critical form of contemporary mass culture. In order to do this, I identify and explore critical and radical relationships between protest music, adult learning and education, and social change, as interactions between these contexts occur in global mass-(multi)media spaces. Research is carried out in a two-stage methodological approach of domain analysis and case study on the protest music band Midnight Oil. Based on this, my thesis provides a theorisation of public pedagogy as it encapsulates protest music, and those I conceptualise as the critical and radical public pedagogues who prod...

International Journal of Training Research, 2009

Abstract This paper seeks to understand how practitioners learn about, develop and work with educ... more Abstract This paper seeks to understand how practitioners learn about, develop and work with educational theory, and how this informs and influences their practice. It is based primarily on an in-depth interview with one pre-vocational program teacher working in a large, metropolitan TAFE (Technical and Further Education) institute. It also draws on the contributions of several teachers who participated in a small-scale action learning/research project facilitated by the author in his workplace, aimed at exploring relationships between educational theory and practice in a TAFE setting, and assisting participants in developing new understandings of their work, identities and practice as adult educators. In light of the research findings, this paper argues that notions of a ‘TAFE pedagogy’ are clouded in theory and conceptualisations based on and inherited from two main streams of American pragmatism (Finger and Asun 2001), and Malcolm Knowles’ (1990) concept of andragogy. However, this paper suggests that through this ‘clouding’ and perhaps by veering off this ‘Pragmatist Highway’ (Finger and Asun 2001), the development of a personal educational theory, together with an understanding of wider contextual issues shaping the VET system, can significantly empower TAFE teachers in their roles as adult educators.

Contemporary music has played a significant role in shaping the social and cultural history of th... more Contemporary music has played a significant role in shaping the social and cultural history of the last half of the 20th century, and has provided a source of informal adult learning that has led to social change. However, its role in formal adult learning and education is largely undertheorised and underresearched. Given both the prominence of popular music as a cultural form in contemporary mass culture, and the overtly political nature of protest music, the relative lack of interest in its role and influence in processes of social change is rather surprising. This paper explores the educative power of contemporary music-defined as any popular (and not so popular) music that has received radio and later television airplay-and its role in social change. To this end, popular music is first contextualised in the mass mediadominated, modern world. Its ability to motivate and inspire adults to question, challenge and confront authority, and act on and redress social injustices and inequalities is then examined from a historical perspective. Whilst, as Berger (2000) argues, its potential use as a tool in formal educational settings remains largely unexplored, learning through contemporary music is examined in both informal and formal adult education contexts as learning for social change and, in its most powerful form, as a catalyst for conscientization (Freire 1970). As it has done in the past with its power to overturn official versions of 'truth' by offering a critical perspective on issues presented in the global media, it is argued that contemporary music can be used by adult educators and trainers to empower learners to initiate and participate in processes of social change.

Our paper engages with Seddon's (2008) concept of occupational identity as it is lived through th... more Our paper engages with Seddon's (2008) concept of occupational identity as it is lived through the work and learning of vocational education training (VET) practitioners, in technical and further education (TAFE). It is based on a horizontal, qualitative case study of 'trade teachers', who are linked through their participation in a VET 'teacher-education' program, the Diploma of VET Practice. This qualification focuses on developing understandings, knowledge and skills in adult learning and pedagogical theory, and contemporary VET practice. It seeks ultimately to prepare and develop practitioners for their pedagogical work in TAFE. Our research sought to track and trace theory as it developed and is transformed into practice at the same time as the practitioners are in the process of 'becoming'. Our paper discusses the tensions inherent in their dual occupational identities associated with the practitioners' previous industry fields of practice and that of teacher. It seeks to identify the impact of the teacher education program and engagement with educational theory, in enabling the supposed convergence of these dual identities into the somewhat Janus-faced occupational identity of 'TAFE teacher'. Background and approach As part of our pedagogical work, we are required to observe practitioners while they are involved in their pedagogical work, within a technical and further education (TAFE) institute. This observation is carried out in various contexts and comprises a component of a teaching 'practicum' that is attached to the Victorian accredited vocational education and training (VET) 'teacher-education' qualification the Diploma of VET Practice, by the Victorian TAFE Multiple Employer Certified Agreement (MECA), under which the practitioners are employed. Often when commencing these observations we have been confronted by teachers from trade areas, almost apologising for their pedagogical work. There seems a commonly held notion that because their work is not classroom-based, it is not what we (the observers) might recognise as real teaching. Indeed, whilst the practitioners recognise and are able to name the quite experiential work they do with their learners in simulated or 'real' work contexts such as building sites, training kitchens, or workshop spaces simulating work environments, they do not think the assessors consider this 'real teaching' and not suitable for assessment. Our pedagogical work also gives us the pleasure of working with the same practitioners to develop knowledge, understandings and constructions of adult learning and pedagogical theory. In a similar, relevant incident during one of our theory sessions one student (later a participant in this study), took exception to the word pedagogy: "why do we use that word when we can just say teaching? Can't we just call it teaching?" Indeed, another student who also participated in this study later told us that at the beginning of the program he had said: "if she [the facilitator] says that word [pedagogy] or talks about reflection one more time, I swear I'm going to get up and walk out!" Critical pedagogical encounters such as these raise questions for us about how VET practitioners understand and identify themselves in relation to their work and learning. We argue that such encounters also raise critical questions in relation to how practitioners

Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 2015

Since the 1960’s, the transformative power of protest music has been shrouded in mythology. Sown ... more Since the 1960’s, the transformative power of protest music has been shrouded in mythology. Sown by musical activists like Pete Seeger, who declared that protest music could “help to save the planet”, the seeds of this myth have since taken deep root in the popular imagination. While the mythology surrounding the relationship between protest music and social change has become pervasive and persistent, it has mostly evaded critical interrogation and significant theorisation. By both using the notion as a theoretical lens and adding to scholarship in the field, this article uncovers understandings of the public pedagogical dimensions of protest music, as it takes place as a radical practice and critical form of contemporary mass culture. In doing this, this article provides a theorisation of public pedagogy as it encapsulates protest music, and those who are conceptualised as the critical and radical public pedagogues who produce this mass cultural form.

For most teachers working in the largest sector of vocational education and training (VET) in Aus... more For most teachers working in the largest sector of vocational education and training (VET) in Australia – Technical and Further Education (TAFE) – the Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training (recently superseded by the national Training and Assessment training package) is the only mandatory ‘teacher training’ qualification. Largely instrumental in intent and content, this qualification focuses mainly on developing skills to deliver and assess VET learners against national competency standards. While some attention is paid to ‘adult learning principles’, trainees are given relatively little exposure to educational theories relevant to teaching in the contemporary TAFE context. Lacking a sound grasp of curriculum and pedagogical theory, these teachers frequently struggle to make sense of, and understand the possibilities and limitations of, their teaching roles and practices once they begin delivering VET programs in TAFE. This paper seeks to understand how practitioners l...

Brexit, Donald Trump's election as US president, the re-emergence and subsequent re-election of A... more Brexit, Donald Trump's election as US president, the re-emergence and subsequent re-election of Australian Senator Pauline Hanson on her One Nation, anti-Islam/immigration platform, along with a senior government minster holding aloft a piece of coal in parliament as a defiant symbol for the future for energy policy in this country, are occurrences that stand in stark contrast to lingering notions of progressive politics in these economically globalised nation states. Each of these events or actions must also give pause for serious consideration as to the role education and schooling has played in producing a voting public, in these neoliberal democracies, who bring about such startling and apparently unexpected electoral outcomes. More recently, there have been signs of adjustment, correction and even some resistance to this current trend, such as the results of British and French elections and the evident demise of the hard or more extreme right in these. However, there seems little room for any real ongoing optimism, particularly when considering the limited progress of climate change politics and shutting down moves to counter global warming, such as Trump's dictated departure of the US from the Paris Climate Change Agreement. Moreover, there seems to be little compassion among voting populations in Western democracies, for welcoming or harbouring refugees who might be displaced by the disastrous effects of what a growing number of scientists are now forecasting is an increasingly rapid rate for rising sea levels. Nor are there many borders being opened for the millions of peoples around the world already stateless and confined to huge refugee camps, having fled armed conflict in countries such as Syria. Again, such contemporary and impending crises seem to beg the question: whither education? and in particular, education that is focused on citizenship, participative democracy and developing active and informed citizens for a more inclusive and sustainable future? Some of the more pertinent responses or replies to such questions come in the form of the considerable criticism levelled at neoliberalism's unrelenting attacks on education, beginning in the 1980s, such as that found in the scholarship of Henry Giroux. Crucially, Giroux's critique of education and its role in producing the current era's crisis in democracy, has not been restricted to teaching and learning or pedagogy as it might be traditionally held to occur within the bounds of formal, institutionalised education and schooling. Indeed, Giroux locates this in a pervasive " educative force " in broader culture, operating as public pedagogy, which takes place as a " powerful ensemble of ideological and institutional forces " , the aim of which " is to produce competitive, self-interested individuals vying for their own material and ideological gain " (Giroux 2010, p.486). It is here that this paper seeks to take up Giroux's notion, in beginning to work towards a cultural sociology of public pedagogy, through its exploration of relationships between formal education, schooling and work, public pedagogies, neoliberalism and what appears to be taking place as a rise in neo-fascism as this is bolstered by global trends in populism. The framing of this work begins with a navigation and mapping of the terrain, of more recent methodological approaches to understanding the concept of learning and teaching contexts, beyond schooling and institutionalised education settings. It then sets about starting to conceptualise how institutions of civil society, not traditionally or ordinarily known for or associated with formal education, impact upon individual experiences of teaching and learning and can be implicated in producing some of the outcomes previously highlighted here. Rather than engaging in this as lifelong and lifewide learning, however, this paper seeks to interrogate such educative processes as individuals being subject to teaching or processes and practices of pedagogy, coming through all facets of social life, as learners transition through each and every region of their everyday lives. Finally, this paper asks questions and begins to formulate some of the public pedagogical dimensions of this important context of education, and how this plays in shaping representations of self and identities in the diminishing democracies of late capitalism.

The key topics explored in this paper relating to informal and non-formal contexts of learning, a... more The key topics explored in this paper relating to informal and non-formal contexts of learning, are at first constructed around notions traditionally associated with adult and post-compulsory education as evoked by Joni Mitchell in her song 'Woodstock' from 1970, and as used in my title: 'I don't know who I am, but life is for learning'. In terms of the social change sentiments and underlying themes of hope for a better world the lyrics explore, Mitchell's song seems vastly removed and remote from the times, mainstream culture and any part of the official curriculum of formal, institutional education and schooling today. Although looking back on the time when the song was produced tends to bring up a rear view of an era shrouded in mythology as captured in notions such as the " sixties of popular consciousness " (Eyerman & Jamison, 1998:2), a growing chasm exists between the possible imagined futures in Mitchell's song and what has become the present outlook in the societies of late capitalism. In particular, while explored as an underlying theme in Joni Mitchell's Woodstock, there is a distinct absence of optimism in progressive politics and social change in today's mass mediated neoliberal consumer culture. While perhaps not protest music in the same sense as so-called 'finger-pointing', 'topical' or 'message' songs from earlier in the 1960s produced by singer/songwriter/ performers including Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, what Mitchell's critical thought-provoking song does is connect the context of protest music with that of education. Indeed, even in this very small snippet from the lyrical text of Woodstock, Mitchell alludes to or at least evokes notions of lifelong and life-wide learning, as she questions her identity in relation to the world in the present and as it unfolds into the possibilities and very real, potential dangers of the future. However, it is not only the ever-insightful lyrics of Mitchell's song that connects socio-political/sociocultural protest, resistance and dissent produced as popular music with the wider context of education; popular protest music is itself a context of life-wide and lifelong learning. As a radical practice and critical form of contemporary mass culture, it is bound together with adult learning and education for social change through the coinciding mythologies at the ontological core and epistemological intent of both protest music and critical pedagogy: to bring about social change through raising critical consciousness. With its starting point in these coinciding mythologies and in the intersection of the purposes or objectives of protest music with education for social change, this paper conceptualises social protest produced as popular music, as a public pedagogical context. In doing this, this paper: explores the inherent knowledge and cultural production and exchange processes of protest music as a form of mass-/popular music; examines how musicians as performers and producers of popular/protest music texts might be understood as public pedagogues; and investigates how the texts produced through performance by protest musicians might be considered pedagogical. Lastly, this paper grapples with the question as to how consumers/users of protest music might be considered adult or non-traditional learners, as they experience this radical practice and critical form of contemporary mass culture as pedagogy, occurring in informal and non-formal contexts of learning.

This paper intersects with the conference theme of how minor culture or minoritarianism is articu... more This paper intersects with the conference theme of how minor culture or minoritarianism is articulated and narrated
through popular music. Drawing on extensive case study research, negotiations of place and the performance of national identity are examined as a central and organising dimension of the textual production of the Australian protest music band, Midnight Oil. Midnight Oil’s production and exchange of social protest as popular music is conceptualised as a critical public pedagogy, as this is undergirded by the band’s radical project for social change. This paper argues that musically, and specifically lyrically, this key pedagogical dimension of Midnight Oil’s music is expressed as a mythologising around notions of (predominantly Australian) geography, topography, locale, identity and nationhood. Notions of nationhood and
national identity are then played with, reconfigured and contested within the context of the band’s songs and other texts, as they are evoked as references to places and spaces. Often too, these notions are disturbed, disrupted, and at times problematised and politicised. Lastly, this paper finds that Midnight Oil’s evocation of place has sought to move, displace or even transform listeners from local to global citizens, within and against the political context, of the emergent major culture of neoliberalism and economic globalisation.

With its starting point in the persistent and pervasive mythology associating protest music with ... more With its starting point in the persistent and pervasive mythology associating protest music with social change, this paper explores the critical, radical and public pedagogical dimensions of this mass cultural formation. It argues that while these myths are significantly more present around the popular music making of the 1960s, they have persisted, and yet protest music has continued to largely evade significant interrogation as a serious research concern. In order to begin to address this lacuna in research, this paper applies the new theoretical lens offered by public pedagogy scholarship to: conceptualise protest music as social protest produced and performed as a form of popular music in the global mass-(multi)media; theorise the relationship between protest music, critical pedagogy and radical adult education; and, discuss how popular/protest musicians, as purveyors of protest music, understand and can be understood in terms of the relationship between popular music and social change.

International Gambling Studies, 2012

As gambling products have diversified so too have the ways in which the gambling industry has bee... more As gambling products have diversified so too have the ways in which the gambling industry has been able to target, reach and engage different sectors of the community. Limited research has explored the ways in which individuals conceptualize and respond to gambling marketing strategies. Semi-structured, qualitative interviews were conducted with 100 adults in Victoria, Australia, who had gambled at least once during the previous year. Participants described the multi-layered ways in which gambling was marketed and were concerned about the role of marketing in 'normalizing' gambling for some groups. Male participants felt 'bombarded' and 'targeted' by sports bet marketing. Most women and older men actively resisted gambling marketing strategies. Older women, younger men, moderate and high risk gamblers and those from low socio-economic backgrounds were particularly influenced by incentivization to gambling. This study highlights the complex ways in which different individuals interpret and respond to gambling industry marketing strategies.

Contemporary music has played a significant role in shaping the social and cultural history of th... more Contemporary music has played a significant role in shaping the social and cultural history of the last half of the 20th century, and has provided a source of informal adult learning that has led to social change. However, its role in formal adult learning and education is largely under-theorised and under-researched. Given both the prominence of popular music as a cultural form in contemporary mass culture, and the overtly political nature of protest music, the relative lack of interest in its role and influence in processes of social change is rather surprising. This paper explores the educative power of contemporary music – defined as any popular (and not so popular) music that has received radio and later television airplay – and its role in social change. To this end, popular music is first contextualised in the mass media-dominated, modern world. Its ability to motivate and inspire adults to question, challenge and confront authority, and act on and redress social injustices and inequalities is then examined from a historical perspective. Whilst, as Berger (2000) argues, its potential use as a tool in formal educational settings remains largely unexplored, learning through contemporary music is examined in both informal and formal adult education contexts as learning for social change and, in its most powerful form, as a catalyst for conscientization (Freire 1970). As it has done in the past with its power to overturn official versions of ‘truth’ by offering a critical perspective on issues presented in the global media, it is argued that contemporary music can be used by adult educators and trainers to empower learners to initiate and participate in processes of social change.

Our paper engages with Seddon’s (2008) concept of occupational identity as it is lived through th... more Our paper engages with Seddon’s (2008) concept of occupational identity as it is lived through the work and learning of vocational education training (VET) practitioners, in technical and further education (TAFE). It is based on a horizontal, qualitative case study of ‘trade teachers’, who are linked through their participation in a VET ‘teacher-education’ program, the Diploma of VET Practice. This qualification focuses on developing understandings, knowledge and skills in adult learning and pedagogical theory, and contemporary VET practice. It seeks ultimately to prepare and develop practitioners for their pedagogical work in TAFE. Our research sought to track and trace theory as it developed and is transformed into practice at the same time as the practitioners are in the process of ‘becoming’. Our paper discusses the tensions inherent in their dual occupational identities associated with the practitioners’ previous industry fields of practice and that of teacher. It seeks to identify the impact of the teacher education program and engagement with educational theory, in enabling the supposed convergence of these dual identities into the somewhat Janus-faced occupational identity of ‘TAFE teacher’.

Journal Articles by John Haycock

This article seeks to understand how practitioners learn about, develop and work with educational... more This article seeks to understand how practitioners learn about, develop and work with educational theory, and how this informs and influences their practice. It is based primarily on an in-depth interview with one pre-vocational program teacher working in a large, metropolitan TAFE institute. It also draws on the contributions of several teachers who participated in a small-scale action learning/research project facilitated by the author in his workplace, aimed at exploring relationships between educational theory and practice in a TAFE setting, and assisting participants in developing new understandings of their work, identities and practice as adult educators. In light of the research findings, this paper argues that the development of an educational theory, together with an understanding of wider contextual issues shaping the VET system, significantly empowers TAFE teachers in their roles as adult educators.

Conference Presentations by John Haycock

'No one goes outback that's that' is from Australian band, Midnight Oil's, famous earlier single,... more 'No one goes outback that's that' is from Australian band, Midnight Oil's, famous earlier single, Power and the Passion (1982). It says a lot about what must have been a much greater contrast than today, between the coastal population centres and the Outback, especially given Uluru had not yet been handed back to its Aborginal caretakers. It was on the eve of this event when, insisting on Midnight Oil because of their impact in the cities, the Anangu people invited the band to write a song celebrating the birth of Uluru. The song, Dead Heart (1985), would mark the beginning of a shift in Midnight Oil's protest music, to the politics of land rights and other issues around colonisation and dispossession of Indigenous Australians. Drawing on research theorising protest music as public pedagogy, this paper explores how Midnight Oil took the 'curriculum' in these new songs from the outback to the cities of Australia, and then the world. It argues that the band facilitated the public pedagogical travelling of critical consciousness through their music and, while not entirely unproblematic, this became an alternative, radical curriculum in stark contrast to that delivered in the traditional classrooms of the education system. Bio Dr John Haycock is an early career academic working in a field embracing the cultural sociology of education, media studies, and education for social change. As the topic of his PhD thesis, his chief research interest is in exploring relationships between popular and protest music, critical and radical pedagogies and social change.

$Research paper thumbnail of \u27They are working every angle\u27. A qualitative study of Australian adults\u27 attitudes towards, and interactions with, gambling industry marketing strategies$

MERC Monash Education Research Community Annual Conference 2010, 2010

International Journal of Training Research, 2009

Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 2015

International Gambling Studies, 2012

As gambling products have diversified so too have the ways in which the gambling industry has bee... more As gambling products have diversified so too have the ways in which the gambling industry has been able to target, reach and engage different sectors of the community. Limited research has explored the ways in which individuals conceptualize and respond to gambling marketing strategies. Semi-structured, qualitative interviews were conducted with 100 adults in Victoria, Australia, who had gambled at least once during the previous year. Participants described the multi-layered ways in which gambling was marketed and were concerned about the role of marketing in 'normalizing' gambling for some groups. Male participants felt 'bombarded' and 'targeted' by sports bet marketing. Most women and older men actively resisted gambling marketing strategies. Older women, younger men, moderate and high risk gamblers and those from low socio-economic backgrounds were particularly influenced by incentivization to gambling. This study highlights the complex ways in which different individuals interpret and respond to gambling industry marketing strategies.

Contemporary music has played a significant role in shaping the social and cultural history of th... more Contemporary music has played a significant role in shaping the social and cultural history of the last half of the 20th century, and has provided a source of informal adult learning that has led to social change. However, its role in formal adult learning and education is largely under-theorised and under-researched. Given both the prominence of popular music as a cultural form in contemporary mass culture, and the overtly political nature of protest music, the relative lack of interest in its role and influence in processes of social change is rather surprising. This paper explores the educative power of contemporary music – defined as any popular (and not so popular) music that has received radio and later television airplay – and its role in social change. To this end, popular music is first contextualised in the mass media-dominated, modern world. Its ability to motivate and inspire adults to question, challenge and confront authority, and act on and redress social injustices and inequalities is then examined from a historical perspective. Whilst, as Berger (2000) argues, its potential use as a tool in formal educational settings remains largely unexplored, learning through contemporary music is examined in both informal and formal adult education contexts as learning for social change and, in its most powerful form, as a catalyst for conscientization (Freire 1970). As it has done in the past with its power to overturn official versions of ‘truth’ by offering a critical perspective on issues presented in the global media, it is argued that contemporary music can be used by adult educators and trainers to empower learners to initiate and participate in processes of social change.