Leaming processes of pastoralist stakeholders in the tropical savannas

Project Leader: Professor Allan Arnott, Northern Territory University, Darwin

Project 5.2.3

Summary | Barriers to communication | Key questions | Progress | Project team |

More than can be said: summarises the project's findings

Summary

Learning is recognised as one of the keys to better understanding, awareness and change. It can be argued that change is necessary for sustainable management, as it requires reassessing current behaviour and attitudes. To examine learning of pastoralist stakeholders, it is essential to firstly examine the nature of current communication processes, and some of the related communication issues.

2001 saw the publication of the final report of this project: More than can be said: A study of pastoralists' learning. This report outlined stories of learning and change from pastoralists, which were analysed to characterise the learning process.

Several pastoralists from three areas (north and west Kimberley, WA; Sturt Plateau, NT; and the Georgetown area, Qld) in the tropical savannas were interviewed, and related experiences associated with the management practices adopted on their properties. By developing an understanding of such processes, it will be possible to recommend how the TS-CRC can support the ways pastoralist stakeholders learn and access information. The project aimed to improve the capacity of the TS-CRC to present research information in a useful format and to develop the content and access of education materials.

The study also focused on the desired outcomes of the pastoralists who participated in the project. To this end, another outcome of the research has been to present pastoralists' case studies as a guide for others who may be considering changing their management practice in a similar way.

Barriers to communication

There is a perception that some difficulty exists in communication between landholders and government organisations and other research centres. These 'barriers to communication' may take many forms. For example, landholders often express dissatisfaction with land management research considered irrelevant to their needs, being confronted with too much information from research, and information being presented in unsuitable or unusable forms.

From a research perspective, there is some frustration that results of research are not applied by landholders.

Key questions

Some of the key questions the research addressed include:

• What information and knowledge are landholders likely to access or develop?
• How can landholders be involved so that research is relevant to them?
• How do pastoralist stakeholders go about learning, and learning for change?
• What initiates participants to undertake learning for change?
• What form does the process of learning take?
• What are the issues and barriers associated with the learning process?
• What are the sources and avenues through which information (technological, formal, personal, etc) is gained?

Progress

The final report contains information that provides us with directions for the enhancement of pastoralists' learning practices. Some of these, which particularly affect the ways in which educators and others work with pastoralists, included:

• becoming or using an 'esteemed source'. in other words, either becoming known personally to a group of pastoralists, and/or using a highly regarded information source (such as the journals, newspapers, etc noted in the report) to convey a message;
• establishing contact and developing one-to-one relationships where feasible or possible;
• engaging in practice where possible and thus grounding concepts and ideas in practical exercises on pastoralists' properties;
• using groups to encourage and facilitate informal learning processes as well as to provide credible sources of information and information exchange;
• highlighting informal learning processes and practices within a range of formal education and other programs;
• assisting and supporting pastoralists to be able to access and manage information easily; and
• providing information in a relevant, timely, accessible, personalised, and succinct way.

As well as the final full report, a report on the project's major findings is also available as a PDF. See below to download the report.

For information on ordering More than can be said , see below.

Project team

Dr Allan Arnott, NTU, CTLDEC
Ms Rebecca Benson, NTU, TS-CRC
Mr Greg Shaw, Faculty of Education NTU, CTLDEC
Mr Greg Wearne, CINCRM
Dr Marnie Leybourne, Agriculture WA
Mr Ken Crawford, Muresk Institute of Agriculture
Mr Robert Speirs, NT Rural ITAB
Ms Stephanie Herbert, Consultant,
Professor Rod Gerber, UNE

Participating organisations

Centre for Teaching and Learning in Diverse Educational Contexts (CTLDEC),
Northern Territory University
Queensland Department of Primary Industries
Northern Territory Rural ITAB
Muresk Institute of Agriculture (WA)