For the following assignment, I will summarise and interpret a portfolio of documents and commentaries I have collected that address the study of Policy and Contexts. First, I will provide full bibliographical reference to each piece of literature, along with a brief background and the main ideas that have been conveyed. I will then draw out and describe some of the discourses in the literature, indicating the assumptions and values about various elements involved in the field of trade union training in the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU).
             Newman, M 1993, 'Union culture', in The third contract: Theory and practice in trade union training, Stewart Victor Publishing, pp. 15-20.
             This chapter is contained in an award-winning book (Houle Award for Literature in Adult Education) written by Michael Newman. He has extensive experience as an adult educator, working in both the United Kingdom and Australia in the fields of community, tertiary and trade union education. Currently, he is a senior lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney, in the School of Adult and Language Education. The aim of this chapter is to provide its audience with an awareness that although there are significant cultural differences between many unions, there are also many factors that contribute to a general union culture that exists throughout the whole union movement.
             Newman begins the chapter by outlining what some people's perception of what 'the union movement' is. He then attempts to enlighten the reader by providing a general definition, along with some examples of how unions differ from each other. An explanation of the structural changes that were taking place within the union movement is then presented, along with some examples of the difficulties that occur when the cultures from different unions have to come together to work as one.
             The remainder of the chapter then looks at five factors that contribut...