Men's health and wellbeing : learning through the lifecourse

In this chapter, I examine how a lack of literacy skills can affect men's participation in learning and the potential impact which participation can have on men's lives and wellbeing. The chapter draws on findings from two research studies of men's involvement in literacy in informal learning settings in Ireland. The studies were funded by the National Adult Literacy Agency (Lalor et al, 2009) and the Changing Ageing Partnership (Mark, Montgomery and Graham, 2009). The research provides evidence about issues affecting men's participation in adult learning and literacy provision as well as how older men learn in non-formal and informal learning contexts.