Dr Allan Arnott
Research Associate, Project 5.1 Education Tropical Savannas CRC
c/o Faculty of Education NTU Darwin NT
e-mail: arnotta@ntu.edu.au

A number of issues emerge when reviewing notions of education and communication as they impact on rural industries in the tropical savannas. For example, it is perceived that some difficulty exists in communication between landholders in rural industries, government departments and other research centres.

This research project aims to identify, describe and share knowledge and understanding of some of the learning processes of pastoralists in the tropical savannas. It does this by investigating how they go about learning and change. Such learning processes include experiential and informal learning, formal training and engaging in information technologies. It is hoped that examining these processes will highlight some of the more informal and implicit aspects of learning, and how they relate to learning in the workplace. Such information is likely to be useful in developing more effective means of education and communication.

The research will be a qualitative study consisting of in-depth interviews based on stories from practice. The interviews will include participants from three areas of the tropical savannas. The research aims to take a collaborative approach in that it will involve people known to pastoralists and will incorporate feedback stages as part of the interview process.

An important aspect of this project is to ensure that its results are useful and relevant to the intended audience, which includes landholders, extension staff, government policy makers and landcare groups. It is hoped that information from the study will provide an indication as to how best to present results. This project is in its first phase and is expected to be completed by July 1999.

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