A Study of the adult learning experiences of Peruvian single women who migrated to Australia in the late 1960s and early 1970s

This thesis constitutes a study of the migration, settlement and adult learning experiences of single Peruvian women who migrated to Australia between the 1960s and 1970s. As relevant background, matters related to the migration of women to Australia generally throughout this country's modern history are also examined. This study aims to contribute to the knowledge of history and the knowledge of adult education. The specific goal is to highlight the migration and settlement learning experiences of single Peruvian women as well as exploring aspects of the adult learning strategies that they have put in place in the course of their new life structure in Australia. The participants' decisions to migrate cannot be seen in isolation but rather as resulting from all or some of their life experiences leading to that decision and their own places in society. Accordingly this research recognises the importance of analysing the participants' narratives of their lives prior to that point and the period since and by so doing, acknowledge the basis of many of the decisions of early adulthood which set each of them on the path to change and learning. The stories of six Peruvian women, who migrated to Australia in the specified period, are presented using in-depth interviews in an unstructured format. Analysed from a feminist theory perspective, their narratives are examined as discursive productions which provide valuable insights into the social order of society and how each person found meaning within the discourses available to them. Additionally interviews were conducted with a number of immigration officers in Australia. Being centred upon the experiences of the women the thesis has been influenced by the ideas of several writers and thinkers on the subject including (but not limited to) John Dewey a 20th century adult education philosopher and his concept of 'lifelong learning', Jack Mezirow and his work on learning as 'transformative and emancipatory' and Jurgen Habermas' 'categories of enquiry'.