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Research
Domain: Group Three - Informal Learning Cultures
Title
of Project: Working -Class Learning Practices: Home-Based
Perspectives
Start
Date: April 1, 1997
Academic Investigator: Dr. D.W. Livingstone
Student Researchers: Jennifer Stephen (OISE/UT), Rachel
Gorman (OISE/UT), Reuben Roth (OISE/UT)
Very
little attention has been paid to the actual array of
learning activities that working people are engaged in, how
and why they choose to learn, and the relevance of existing
education programs to their needs. There is some adult
education research which indicates that people do a lot of
learning outside of formal educational settings, but this
research has virtually ignored working class people. Our
previous SSHRC-funded research project, "Working Class
Learning Strategies in Transition: Union-Based
Perspectives" (WCLS), has documented the richness and
diversity of the actual learning practices of unionized
workers in this period of widespread change in paid workplace
relations. We have used a participatory action research
approach and semi-structured interviewing techniques. In the
initial stage of research, two basic interviews were done with
each participant union member, one focussed on current
learning activities, the other on a more general life history.
We generated detailed profiles of the range of working class
learning activities in terms of objectives, strategies,
processes, content, obstacles and effective outcomes. We look
at the entire spectrum of learning sites, including formal
school and post-secondary education programs,
on-the-job-training and apprenticeships, retraining and
upgrading programs, nonformal adult education, informal and
self-directed learning projects and collective learning in
community settings. We explored similarities and differences
in learning practices according to employment status and
household type, as well as by age, sex, race/ethnicity, levels
of schooling, participation/non-participation in retraining
programs, and union activism. The primary research sites have
been union locals in the Greater Toronto Area. We
received the cooperation of USWA, CEP, OPSEU, CAW and ILGWU/UNITE,
as well as MLEC, to select appropriate union locals and to
assist us in working with local union members. Interviewees
were chosen on the above criteria. Research reports were
completed and given back to the union and the general
membership at each site. New education committees and new
program for members have been initiated at some sites.
With
the agreement of all 5 unions, we are now continuing this
research with other family members in the households of
some of our previous respondents, including both partners and
children over the age of 15. Our total sample will be a
minimum of 50 people. Limited comparisons may also be made
with non-unionized workers and with executive and professional
households. The main interviewing will be conducted by
graduate students from OISE/UT who aspire to work with the
union movement after graduation.
Social
theorists typically conceptualize working class forms of
knowledge negatively, for example as an absence of
"cultural capital" or as based on
"restricted" language codes. Most heralds of the
"information society" and "learning
enterprises" similarly presume that working people have
serious knowledge deficiencies that must be filled to ensure
societal and enterprise viability. Our prior positive findings
require a reconceptualizing "cultural capital",
revising the connections between informal and organized adult
learning, and rethinking the relations of adult learning with
compensable work and citizenship. The research is based on an
activity-based theory of learning derived from the work of
Vygotsky and Freire.
After
completion of the in-depth family interviews, discussion
groups will be conducted at each union site to explore the
educational significance and implications of the preliminary
findings, just as has been the case in the first phase of this
study. A small number of follow-up interviews will then be
conducted. Prior to completion of the final report, a series
of workshops will be held with union representatives and
family members to explore in detail the potential benefits of
the findings in relation to employer, union and general
provision of new educational programs for union members and
their families. The general findings will also be published in
standard research journals as required by the SSHRC. We will
also aid in disseminating beneficial results within the labour
movement and more widely.
The
major research activities in the WCLP project will occur in
years 4, 5 and 6 of NALL. The first two years (years 1, 2 and
3) have involved appropriating information from the concluding
WCLS project, updating a literature review, consulting with
union representatives on research design, and conducting some
preliminary family interviews. Years 4 and 5 will be devoted
to gathering, analysing and verifying the interview data from
family members. The latter part of Year 5 and Year 6 will be
devoted to educational program development for union members'
families.
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