Search

Many immigrants, refugees, and aboriginal Canadians learn their own languages in the normal, informal way. These minority languages learned informally are not valued as a skill that yields returns in the labor market in the same way the official languages or formally learned languages do. What counts as a skill in a society, in a given point in time, is the product of complex phenomenological, social, economic, ideological, and political processes. Discourse is key to this process of social and cultural reproduction. The discourse of Ontario employers socially constructs the definition of what counts as a skill in Ontario workplaces and thus what warrants value in the labor market. The notion of skill is a construction that is socially created and hence changeable. If we want to change the unjust situation that affects the speakers of minority languages, we need to change the discourse surrounding minority languages to one that truly values minority languages as skills worth conserving, maintaining, and putting to use. (Contains 18 references.) (YLB)

This discussion paper explores issues facing undergraduate education in British Columbia as community colleges there achieve degree-granting status and the needs of students become increasingly diverse. The paper opens by considering the undergraduate student and examining the goals of undergraduate education. The central three chapters discuss various alternative approaches to undergraduate education. A chapter on curriculum concerns the balance between specialized and general education. A chapter on learning environment argues for the importance of creating communities of learners which foster more collaboration between faculty, between students, and between faculty and students. The chapter on faculty discusses ways in which faculty working conditions and expectations influence the learning experience for students. Chapters 5 and 6 examine choices for postsecondary education that would lead to a richer, more diverse system. The concluding chapter presents a vision of a postsecondary system characterized by diversity, consisting of a few research-oriented large universities and a network of smaller alternative degree-granting institutions offering a rich variety of programs supported in principle by public policy, and developed through the creative efforts of faculty in various institutions. A summary of the paper is included. References are included for most chapters. (JB)

This project examined attitudes, expectations, and behaviors that make prostitutes successful in learning to establish their autonomy and work safely. Ethnographic studies were conducted of 47 prostitutes in Canada and 60 in New Zealand through semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and open-ended discussions supplemented by researchers' observations and participation in the culture of sex trade work. Women new to the streets and experienced women involved in various genres of sex work were surveyed as to how they came to acquire a working knowledge about safer sex practices and what specific practices resulted from that knowledge. Findings suggested that, in the course of their daily work, most prostitutes learn to deal with issues of intimacy, decision making, communication, negotiation, and assertiveness. Prostitute practices acquired outside of formal educational systems constituted an alternative body of educational knowledge that could efficiently use community resources to inform and teach about issues concerning safer sexual interactions. Staffed by workers who were in or formerly part of the sex industry, the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective was the first cooperative effort between the government and sex workers to promote safer sex practices in the sex industry. Sex workers wanted to create an organization that would empower them and advance their political and legal cause. (Contains 27 references.) (YLB)

This paper identifies important knowledge gaps in adult education and training (AET) in Canada and starts to explore strategies to fill these gaps. Following an introduction in English and French, each of the next three sections is comprised of a review of the current state of knowledge on three topics (outcomes of adult learning, motivations and barriers to adult learning, and informal learning) and a discussion of major knowledge gaps relevant to each. Section 2, on outcomes, argues that more must be known about outcomes in terms of overall benefits and costs if the adequacy of AET in Canada is to be judged. Section 3, on motivations and barriers, reports that key knowledge gaps include understanding reasons for participation and non-participation, and assessing whether individual decisions to participate or not are somehow unwarranted because they do not fully reflect associated costs and benefits. The section also argues that increasing knowledge of barriers to AET is a complementary strategy to estimating rates of return in the process of judging the adequacy of training levels in Canada and is essential in design of specific policy actions towards the pursuit of equity goals. Distribution considerations are addressed. Section 4 discusses issues related to informal learning and questions whether informal training is the optimal way for some groups to acquire new skills. Section 5 situates the issue of AET in the context of a strategy of human capital investment and provides a sense of what research priorities should be. Appendixes contain a statistical portrait of AET in Canada; summaries of major Canadian surveys of AET; and 48-item bibliography. (YLB)

This working paper lays groundwork for a Network for New Approaches to Lifelong Learning study on informal learning by people displaced from the labor market or chronically unemployed, in the context of community organizations. Section 1 examines the context and two particularly significant features--wider changes in the nature of work and related changes in the welfare state--that arise from structural changes caused by globalization of the economy. Section 2 describes three community organizations working with people excluded from the mainstream labor market that are attempting to create new forms and traditions of labor under considerable pressure to place people in the mainstream labor market. (The Homeworkers' Association is an example of how a labor union responded to work restructuring by departing from traditional tactics of collective bargaining and strike action in favor of creative alliances and innovative strategies for working with displaced workers. Chic Resto-Pop illustrates the complex interaction among business development, job training, political advocacy, and linkages to the wider culture of the community movement. A-Way Express Couriers demonstrates similar connections from within a framework of self help and with a goal of not integration but building an alternative labor market that redefines, accommodates, and organizes the capacities of a heavily stigmatized community.) Section 3 provides comments on directions the research is pursuing into informal learning. (Contains 52-item bibliography.) (YLB)

This document contains four reports on technology and further education (FE) that Lynton Gray and Ann-Marie Warrender prepared for the Further Education Funding Council's Learning and Technology Committee. The first report, "Main Themes from Learning & Technology Committee Press Surveys," examines three themes that were identified during a review of British press coverage of the role of information/learning technologies in FE: technological developments, organizational changes and learning applications. "Learning and Technology in American Community Colleges," which is based on materials presented at an American Association of Community Colleges convention, discusses the following topics: technology and teaching, distance learning, technologies and the Internet, and industry and student-centered learning. "Multimedia and Education," which is based on materials presented at an Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education conference, examines the following topics: technology for teachers, breaching the technological barriers, the impact of national initiatives, publishing and multimedia, and Canada's Open Learning Agency. "Learning Technologies in Industrial Training" explains the uses of information and learning technologies by a small sample of British companies in their own training programs. The implications of the four papers for reform of FE are summarized in a final section titled "Evidence for Action." (MN)

This paper examines aspects of the knowledge content of work and its relationship with workers' education level and literacy skills. An executive summary appears in English and French. After an introduction, Chapter 2 classifies occupations into seven categories based on knowledge content of the work. Chapter 3 develops profiles of the prevalence in each occupational category of work activities--in particular those involving use of literacy skills--using data from the Canadian sample of the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS). The profiles show that, while use of literacy skills and other knowledge-intensive activities is most prevalent in skilled information occupations, these activities pervade all occupational categories. Chapter 4 examines the apparent mismatch between educational qualifications of university graduates and knowledge content of occupations in which they work. IALS data show that university graduates with low levels of literacy skills are far more likely to experience job-education mismatch (work in industries that require less than a bachelors degree) than are other university graduates and that mismatch is associated with sizeable earnings loss for postsecondary graduates. The chapter suggests that the most probable explanation for the increased job-education mismatch for university graduates between 1981-91 is that the number of university graduates in the workforce increased more rapidly than the number of jobs in the skilled information group of occupations. Appendixes contain initial and final assignments of occupations, output of discriminant analysis, and 10 references. (YLB)

This study compared completers of a postsecondary technology program in British Columbia based upon whether they had a university degree prior to entering the applied two-year technology training program. Program completers (n=1,053) were surveyed one year after completion and included nearly 300 university graduates. Subjects had also been surveyed on entering the program concerning previous postsecondary education, previous employment, and views on work and education. Analysis of survey responses found no significant differences between the two groups on such factors as "time to find job,""hours of work week," and "monthly salary". Only "age" was significantly different, a finding explained by the generally older age of those with prior university degrees. Degree holders, however, valued their university experience highly. (Contains 25 references and 4 tables.) (DB)

This study examines the significant role of computers in the transformation of the Canadian employment structure. An executive summary appears in English and French. Following an introduction, Section 2 discusses how the role of computerization of the employment structure is viewed in the literature. Section 3 presents an overview of past developments in computer technology leading up to the contemporary microcomputer. Section 4 describes important trends (capital intensity and computer intensity) in the evolution of the Canadian industrial structure over the last few decades and proposes an industrial taxonomy on which to base analysis. Section 5 examines how these intensity trends affect different categories of employment: management, knowledge, data, service, and goods workers. Section 6 develops a methodology inspired from the production function framework of Berman, Bound, and Griliches (1993) and explains the data used. The remainder of the paper presents empirical results in these three sections. Section 7 deals with relative wages. Section 8 analyzes the capital/skill complementarity. Section 9 discusses the association of computers with different categories of workers. Section 10 includes a summary of the main findings, outlines some broad implications, and indicates avenues for further research. Appendixes contain descriptive statistics by industry in 1971 and 1991, and a 51-item bibliography. (YLB)

Written in English and French, this paper outlines current Canadian intellectual property legislation as it relates to Aboriginal people in Canada, and provides a general review of the implications and limitations of this legislation for protecting the traditional knowledge of Aboriginal people. An initial discussion of Aboriginal perspectives highlights the difference between sacred traditional knowledge, products, and services associated with traditional lifestyles of Aboriginal people, and innovations or new creations of an individual or an Aboriginal company. Not all traditional knowledge is considered to be intellectual property under Canadian law, therefore a web of strategies is suggested to better protect and control traditional Aboriginal knowledge. These strategies include community guidelines for researchers and businesses wanting access to traditional knowledge, codes of conduct, statutory options, and legal agreements and contracts. A section on intellectual property protection of Indigenous knowledge describes ownership, nature of rights, criteria for protection, scope of protection, duration, costs, enforcement, and international protection. A section on intellectual property rules applicable to Aboriginal contexts discusses copyrights, neighboring rights, industrial designs, trademarks, patents, trade secrets, plant breeders' rights, integrated circuit topographies, and licensing intellectual property. The conclusion points out the need for new techniques and laws that are more appropriate for protecting Aboriginal traditional knowledge and recommends educating non-Aboriginals to increase respect and understanding for Aboriginal traditional knowledge. Information sources presented include 17 federal, international, general, and Aboriginal Internet sources; 11 organizations; and 20 references. (TD)

The theme of this paper is how the objective of maintaining ethnocultural pluralism and diversity transforms the criteria for evaluating educational policies and reforms. The discussion is based on analysis of recent Canadian educational experience with respect to linguistic and cultural minorities. During the past 25 years, Canadian education has undergone a transformation that has caused a basic shift in thinking about evaluation related to education of linguistic and cultural minorities. The country has established a system that provides education to English and French speaking populations alike. Ethnocultural groups of immigrant descent and Native peoples have obtained greater school recognition of their languages and cultures. This paper concentrates on issues without attempting to review all that Canadian researchers and educators have said on the topic. The document presents findings of a major cross-national study; they provide a framework for discussing differences in policies for dealing with ethnocultural diversity in school populations. The main body of the paper addresses evaluation, showing how the interweaving of research results, theoretical juggling, and a bit of common sense have begun to give shape to new evaluation practices. Such issues are brought together in a section summarizing new dimensions of concern for those evaluating educational policy in a pluralistic society. (An appendix offers a text extract from "Stages of Policy Development Regarding the Education of Linguistic and Cultural Minorities in the OECD Countries" (Churchill). (Contains 17 references.) (SG)

This paper presents the highlights of a national survey of governing boards and board members of Canadian universities. A total of 45 of the country's 59 provincially-supported university boards responded to the survey, which was followed up by a survey of the individual board members of the 45 responding institutions, which received 583 responses (49% response rate). The survey found that 39 of the responding institutions possessed a bicameral governance structure, with a governing board and a faculty senate. Various demographic characteristics of board members are reported. Board members reported, on average, that they worked on board matters 10.3 hours per month. Compared to governing boards at state-supported universities in the United States, the boards of provincially-supported Canadian universities included more student and faculty members and more females. While 77 percent of American boards were appointed by the state government, Canadian boards were appointed by a variety of methods, with the three most common, each accounting for about a quarter of the total, being appointment by provincial governments, by the board itself, and by constituency groups. (Contains 14 references.) (MDM)

This paper investigates the real living standards and poverty status of U.S. children in the 1990s compared to the children in 17 other nations, including Europe, Scandinavia, Canada, and Australia. The analysis is based on the Luxembourg Income Study database. It was found that American children have lower real spendable income than do comparable children in almost every other nation studied. In contrast, high income U.S. children are far better off than their counterparts in other nations. Persistently high child poverty rates were also found in the United States when compared with other nations. Demographic factors and the effectiveness of tax and transfer policies in reducing child poverty are also explored, and the paper concludes with a discussion of results and their policy implications. An appendix presents two tables of countries studied and poverty figures. (Contains 3 text tables, 8 figures, and 28 references.) (Author/SLD)

The purpose of this study was to identify the initial terms and means of creating and assessing the quality of what the author calls "fear education" (analogous to sex education or health education). Using a review of a random sample of discourses from the educational literature, the author analyzes how "fear" and "education" have usually been discussed and operationalized. This report offers the first known critical summary on the status of fear education in Western society, and probably in the world. The results of studying fear education for the past 13 years casually, and the last four years intensely, have shown that fear education is not yet an entity (or field) self-reflective, never mind critical of itself. According to the author, "fear education" is now as inadequate as sex education was 100 years ago. With such an important topic as fear (and fearlessness), the author also suggests that the lack of systematic study of fear education itself, may be equally as much of a problem to healthy human/global functioning, as fear is. Some recommendations are offered to improve the state of "fear education" in a post-9/11 era. [Published by In Search of Fearlessness Research Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada.]

Men's and women's quality of work in the new Canadian economy was examined. The two data sources used were the 2000 Changing Employment Relationships Survey (CERS), which consisted of telephone interviews of 2,500 currently employed Canadian residents aged 18 or older, and the 2000 General Social Survey (GSS), which examined access to and use of computer technologies in Canada and included telephone interviews of 25,090 Canadians aged 15 or older. Men and women expressed similar levels (70-75%) of desire for interesting work and a sense of accomplishment. Women and men with no postsecondary education placed greater priority on job security, pay, and benefits than did individuals with higher levels of educational attainment. Employees without a high school education--especially women--also placed a high value on communication and collegial relations in the workplace. Among university graduates, female employees were far more likely than males to place a high value on respect, commitment, communications, and workplace relations. Women accounted for 42% of high-intensity computer users and 52% of moderate-intensity users. The study showed striking changes in the labor market role of college-educated women but little change in the role of women with a high school education or less. (Twenty-five tables/figures/boxes are included. Fourteen tables are appended. The bibliography lists 75 references.) (MN)

Informal learning by Canadian seniors was examined through semi-structured interviews with a purposefully selected group of 51 older Canadians (28 women and 23) who ranged in age from 58 to 95 years (average age, 73.7). All were retired or semi-retired, and all had engaged in several learning projects over the previous year in topics such as the following: self-knowledge, health, relationships, current affairs, social justice, history, spirituality, the arts, philosophy, computers, homemaking, and genealogy. Equal numbers of interviewees preferred learning alone and learning in groups. A few preferred one-on-one coaching or dialogue. When asked about their methods of learning, the interviewees mentioned learning by doing (32 times), by reading (33 times), through discussion (35 times), by watching (26 times), and by listening (27 times). The resources they used depended on topic and circumstances, with print media, people, and computers being mentioned by 44, 32, and 14 interviewees, respectively. Thirty-five adults stated that learning had always been important to them. Most participants were enthusiastic about the contributions that learning made to their lives, with 20 describing it as vital to their survival. Thirty-one interviewees stated that they spent more time on learning now than in their younger years, and 11 said they spent less time learning now than previously. (Contains 14 references.) (MN)

Researchers explored the relationships between the great working class communities and the industries they sustained and were sustained by in terms of production, storage, and transmission of skills. First, the ethnographic literature on industrial workplaces and the working class communities associated with them was reviewed. Next, lengthy interviews were conducted with eight steelworkers who had been employed at Stelco in Ontario, Canada, since at least the 1970s. The first part of the study focused on nonformal skills transmission in the community, and the second focused on nonformal mechanical/manual skills in the plant and how they are learned and transmitted among workers. Particular attention was paid to the nonformal skills that have traditionally been sustained by workers among themselves and that are now at risk of disappearing because of the combination of (1)the downsizing that dismantles great working class communities; (2) the technological and managerial restructuring of the steel industry; and (3) the increasing substitution of formalized and institutionally controlled forms of training for the nonformal modes of training among working class men. The study also revealed that the processes of experiential learning that are still occurring at the plant are not well defined and do not appear to be valued by the company. (Contains 39 references.) (MN)

The informal learning practices of bank branch workers were examined in a study of a major Canadian bank. The study included ethnographic fieldwork and secondary analysis of a national survey of branch workers' learning practices during the introduction of a new financial services software system. Activity theory was used to examine workers' informal learning practices as situated and to trace the shift learning at the bank branch during the 1990s from a process based on a largely informal training approach to an increasingly formalized self-study approach. The study established that the bank branch workers continued to rely heavily on collective and individual informal learning practices to perform their day-to-day work, adjust to the introduction of new processes and technologies, and cope with stress even though the restructuring of work processes and learning that had occurred within the bank left the workers with diminishing time for study and learning. The study resulted in nine recommendations, including the following: (1) allocate at least 1 hour of on-the-job time per week for collective and individual learning; (2) create a learning environment within the bank's branches; (3) recognize, build on, and provide compensation for workers' informal learning activities; and (4) consult regularly and systematically with branch staff to identify learning and support needs. (Contains 46 references.) (MN)

Case, Lubotsky, and Paxson (2001) show that the well-known relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and health exists in childhood and grows more pronounced with age. However, in cross-sectional data, it is difficult to distinguish between two possible explanations. The first is that low-SES children are less able to respond to a given health shock. The second is that low-SES children experience more shocks. This study shows, using panel data on Canadian children, that: (1) the gradient researchers estimate in the cross section is very similar to that estimated previously using U.S. children; (2) both high- and low-SES children recover from past health shocks to about the same degree; and (3) the relationship between SES and health grows stronger over time mainly because low-SES children receive more negative health shocks. In addition, researchers examine the effect of health shocks on math and reading scores. They find that health shocks affect test scores and future health in very similar ways. The results suggest that public policy aimed at reducing SES-related health differentials in children should focus on reducing the incidence of health shocks as well as on reducing disparities in access to palliative care. (Contains 17 references.) (Author/SM)

The issue of increasing productivity was examined from an interdisciplinary perspective focusing on the impact of workplace practices on various productivity-related outcomes. First, the following methodological issues were discussed: defining workplace practices that affect productivity; linking employer behavior and organizational performance; dealing with the complexity of interrelated factors; reverse causality; bias from selection into the program; bias from the research and publication process; biases from reverting to normal; the Hawthorne effect; and short-run versus long-run effects. Next, the impacts of the following workplace practices on productivity were analyzed with consideration for those methodological issues: job design; employee involvement; compensation; alternative work time arrangements; training; diversity management; and workplace well-being programs. Most of those workplace practices had positive effects on employees, which in turn positively affected firm performance, productivity, and competitiveness. Success of the workplace practices was enhanced when they were combined in clusters, integrated to fit overall corporate strategy, and supported by managers, supervisors, and unions. The analysis identified 11 barriers to adoption and diffusion of "best" workplace practices, including the following: managerial resistance, employee resistance, union resistance, legislative barriers, short-term focus, workplace practices as a source of competitive advantage, barriers to cooperative actions, and externalities and the fact that trained employees may be lured away by other companies. (Contains 433 references.) (MN)

Canadians' employment and working patterns were examined by analyzing the 1998 survey called New Approaches to Lifelong Learning and other recent surveys by Statistics Canada. "Work" was defined as comprising household labor, community volunteer activities, and paid employment, and "learning" was defined as comprising informal learning activities, initial formal schooling, and adult education courses and programs. The data indicated that Canadian adults generally spent as much time in unpaid household and community work as in paid employment. Canadians were extensively involved in learning throughout their lives. According to their self-reports, Canadian adults devoted an average of 15 hours each week to informal learning activities related to their paid employment, household duties, volunteer community work, and other general interests. Those in the labor force averaged 6 hours each week in job-related informal learning pursuits. A generally positive association between the amount of time people spend in paid employment, household labor, and community work and the time spent in work-related informal learning was found. Employment-related informal learning was more extensive than course-based training across nearly all employment statuses and occupational groups. At least 20% of the employed labor force saw itself as having skill levels exceeding those required by their jobs. (Contains 27 tables and 152 references.) (MN)

A study extended studies on use of prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR) by concentrating on learners/students outside of the college system and exploring student experience with all dimensions of the use of PLAR. Fourteen university students were interviewed. Findings indicated respondents had re-entered formal education by novel means based on an individual assessment of what they knew, and had learned, outside the system of formal education, rather than solely on what they had learned within it; most encountered PLAR by accident; PLAR became the primary basis on which they continued in their educational quest, a welcome add-on that eased and enriched their educational experience, or a minor addition; they used all available PLAR devices, though a larger proportion used portfolios than in earlier research, and all respondents were self-directed students in addition to self-directed learners. (Appendixes include 11 references, interview protocol, summary of interviewee responses, and demographic information.) (YLB)

At the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Ontario, a course entitled Developing and Leading High Performing Teams: Theory and Practice is experimenting with a design that surfaces the action/reflection paradox for the purpose of learning how to manage this polarity. Whether the product is defined as services or goods, the general tendency is to view time spent on specific task completion as the only legitimate form of work. In the workplace, an opportunity for reflection on a lived experience increases productive capacity and individual knowledge and skill and results in personal and, sometimes, organizational learning that is transformative. The paradoxical outcome for an organization is a case of slowing down in order to speed up. The course teaches the skills required to engage in reflection during 7 full-day sessions over 13 weeks. In the mornings, theory is introduced experientially and covers the following: phases of team development; team goal-setting, problem-solving, decision-making, communication and conflict management; managing difference; and dealing with intractable problems as polarities. In the afternoons, an almost two-hour meeting of class groups as working teams is followed by a team debrief--a structured reflective opportunity to examine the team's behavior and provide feedback. Stages in learning to engage in quality conversations are lack of awareness; awareness without action; ability to act on awareness, with effort; and ability to hold the polarities and maintain the communication. (Contains 23 references) (YLB)

A study interviewed 37 Canadian sex workers in 4 cities to determine how they acquire a working knowledge of safer sex practices and what that knowledge constituted. Findings indicated the vast majority exhibited high levels of knowledge and efficacy regarding safer sex practices; sex workers took the initiative to obtain information and engage in safer sex practices; and peer group educators advanced educational messages in their community. Staffed by current or former sex workers, the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective (NZPC) was established as a government-endorsed organization using state funding, infrastructure, and support services for sex workers, clients, and the public. The Canadian government might profit from lessons learned from the successful NZPC to recruit sex workers as peer educators and should consider the possibility of developing a prostitute-centered pedagogy of safer sex practices that affirms the right of women to control the conditions of work and recognizes the skills and knowledge of that work. Providing sex workers with an opportunity to have input into public policy and design and delivery of prevention programs would be a useful way to transmit their skills and knowledge to other sectors of the community. Such knowledge could provide sexual self-determination that might result in greater knowledge, resistance, agency, and empowerment in other aspects of women's lives. (Contains 87 references and 30 endnotes.) (YLB)

This study examined the role of faculty participation on strategic change within higher education. An open-ended questionnaire was completed by seven individuals from Singapore and the United States who had had experience with higher education strategic planning and change as both faculty and administrators in Australia, Canada, Singapore, and the United States. It was found that all of the respondents agreed on the necessity of involving stakeholders, particularly the faculty, in strategic change. Many also pointed to the difficulty of getting quality participation from faculty, due to the fact that faculty often have a narrow perspective, that faculty participation involves a large commitment of time, and that faculty are often reluctant to address complex issues or problems. Respondents emphasized the negative impact of overly hierarchical and bureaucratic organizational structures, which were more typical in Singapore than elsewhere. The comments also emphasized the impact that organizational culture, planning processes, reward structures, and institutional mission can have on faculty participation in strategic change. Suggestions for encouraging and improving faculty participation were also offered. (Contains 32 references.) (MDM)

This study investigated Ontario school council inclusiveness pertaining to Aboriginal peoples. A case study was conducted with a cross section of Native and non-Native Canadians who were directly or indirectly involved in school council-related activities. Researchers audiotaped interviews and focus group discussions with participants and analyzed archival materials (newspaper articles, school council minutes, journal articles, books, and school council materials). Overall, school councils were an externally imposed mandated reform that was not necessarily widely supported by trustees, administrators, and teachers, all of whom appeared threatened by parent and community participation. Council members were not necessarily knowledgeable about their roles and responsibilities. Principals tended to dominate the school council process but lacked the skills to advocate for change, share power, provide appropriate leadership, and develop a vision of school governance. School councils were not inclusive of Native Canadians, so the education, social interests, needs, and expectations of Native parents and community members were not being considered. Results revealed the need for a school council system involving Aboriginal parental, elder, and community participation in order to improve inclusiveness and educational relevancy, excellence, and equity in public education for Aboriginal peoples. (Contains bibliographic references.) (SM)

This paper presents regulatory change proposals from the Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training Board and Department of Advanced Education and Career Development for public discussion and comment. Section 1 outlines proposals relating to regulations: program and process details; the ratio of journeymen to apprentices; and apprentice wages. These proposals include no change to content of program requirements, including entrance requirements; removal of program and process details from regulation; retention by the provincial apprenticeship committees and the Board of the authority to set these requirements; no change to journeyman/apprentice ratios; continuation of adequate supervision as the central factor in determining those ratios; and determination of apprentice's wages by market forces. Section 2 outlines proposals about the designation of trades and occupations: continuation of three categories of designation; the Board's use of new criteria to resume its applications for redesignation of optional trades as compulsory trades; and industry's continued responsibility for training in designated occupations, but no regulation of training. Appendixes include a glossary, apprenticeship and industry training regulatory framework, Alberta-designated trades and occupations, proposals, and comments form. (YLB)

This report describes the University Library Alumni Outreach Research Project. The goals of the project were twofold: to describe and analyze alumni outreach initiatives currently offered by university libraries belonging to the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) as well as the alumni programs and services offered by the universities themselves through traditional organizations such as university alumni associations; and to identify possible future initiatives that might be meaningful to university alumni along with noteworthy examples of technological or programmatic innovation. Phase One comprised a comprehensive survey of the World Wide Web sites of the 112 ARL academic library members to identify pertinent links for alumni outreach and to canvass library development efforts. This phase also included an examination of parent university home pages to identify alumni outreach initiatives stemming from university development organizations such as alumni associations. Results were used to identify issues regarding the actual importance, value, and context of alumni outreach initiatives within each university and to construct an interview instrument to address these issues. The goal of Phase Two was to identify and describe, through phone interviews with university librarians, deans, and directors, the general state of library-sponsored alumni outreach within each of the universities, any planned alumni programs and services, areas of potential future innovation, and general perceptions regarding the current and future role of alumni in the life and vigor of the university library. (Contains 18 references.) (MES)

The effects of three types of work-life conflict in Canada were examined by using data from a set of work and family studies that were conducted in 1991 and 2001. The studies focused on the effects of the following types of conflict: (1) work overload; (2) work-to-family interference (where work gets in the way of family); and (3) family-to-work interference (where family gets in the way of work). The findings were deemed representative of the population of employees working for medium and large public and private organizations in Canada. The following are among the key findings emerging from an analysis of both datasets: (1) work-life conflict increased markedly during the 1990s; (2) parenthood remains more difficult for women than for men; (3) work-life conflict has a negative impact on organizational performance and on employees; (4) employees with high work-life conflict make more use of Canada's health care system; (5) role overload increases when role demands accumulate; and (6) work-to-family interference increases when role demands conflict. The study yielded 27 recommendations for employers, employees and their families, unions, and governments. A list of 37 publications documenting the 1991 study is appended. (Contains 65 references, 26 tables/figures, and 21 endnotes.) (MN)

The conclusion of a 1999 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report that wage gains for training are higher for workers with lower levels of education was revisited using data for males from the 1997 Australian Survey of Education and Training (SET). The study used methods similar to the OECD report (ordinary least squares and treatment effects model) with the following findings: (1) earnings effects for workers with Skilled and Basic Vocational Qualifications were slightly higher than for completers of Year 12; (2) years of occupational experience strongly affected earnings, though effect size declines with experience; and (3) structured training had a positive effect and unstructured training mixed effects. No evidence of a pattern of earnings effects consistent with the OECD results was found. A second study conducted further analyses of the 1997 SET data within the context of the OECD results. For Australia, the OECD had used 1995 Australian Workplace and Industrial Relations Survey (AWIRS). SET results were compared with AWIRS and other results for Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Great Britain. The reanalysis highlighted limitations of the OECD report: focus on employer-sponsored formal training, incumbent employees aged 25-54, and cross-sectional rather than longitudinal data. With multivariate analyses to correct for selection biases, the second study did not support the conclusion of the OECD report. (Study 1 contains 10 references; study 2 contains 24 references.) (SK)

Using the yardsticks of independence and equality, an analysis of the literature on youth from a citizenship perspective can track youth's citizenship status and capacity to become full citizens. For young people, education is an avenue to either exclusion or independence and equality. For example, dropouts are more likely to live in poverty, and economic independence is considered key to achieving full citizenship. Exclusion exists in the school system, as schools continue to stream young women into traditional career paths and allow racial discrimination. Schools fail to provide the knowledge and capacity to make informed, intelligent choices about substance abuse and sexuality. Access to education, student debt, and labor market conditions delay economic independence. Young people face discrimination due to age and membership in a particular community. Examples of differential treatment are found in the areas of work, medicine, social services, and legal system. Their right to protection from harm is infringed upon most by the transportation system and societal problems related to gender, poverty, and marginalization. Having hope for the future and feelings of belonging influence youth participation in politics and resistance to marginalization through formation of subcultures and via political protest. The notion of precariousness best captures the experience of youth citizenship with respect to exercise of rights and responsibilities, access, and belonging. (Appendixes include a 271-item bibliography and roundtable summary.) (YLB)

Changing workplace practices in Canada's government workplaces were examined. The study analyzed 774 responses (response rate, 53%) to the 1998 Survey of Workplace Issues in Government, which was a survey of government managers in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba, and Alberta. The findings of five case studies were also considered. The survey results provided the systematic empirical evidence of how external pressures to "increase emphasis on results" and budget constraints have led some Canadian governments to change the way they organize work and adopt workplace practices such as measuring performance, increasing the volume of work, and divesting service delivery functions. Public managers were increasingly adopting flexible staffing practices and flexible job designs, which in turn meant greater emphasis on training and employee involvement policies. Compensation remained highly centralized, and workplaces remained highly unionized. Employed training increased slightly in all areas compared with 3 years earlier. The case studies provided concrete examples of changing work in government workplaces, including the move from direct service delivery to policy formulation and increasing emphasis on outputs and outcomes. Appendixes include 41 tables of detailed statistics and regression results and a summary of the case study findings. (Contains 18 figures and 41 references.) (MN)

A study explored the ways that front-line community development workers across Canada gained information needed to work with women participants in community economic development initiatives. Data were gathered through focus groups, a preliminary study with 15 key informants employed in community development organizations, and structured telephone interviews. One theme that emerged from the interview data was the existence of a large number of differing knowledge classes related to social situations, the legitimization of knowledge, and the practice of community development. Collisions among these different perspectives appear to create a "discord of knowing." The study also found that while gender affects an individual's experience and participation within a community setting, it cannot be considered in isolation from class, ethnicity, geography, disability, and other social factors. Drawing on anecdotal illustrations from the data, the study found that workers construct a knowledge set derived from a synthesis of formal and informal learning sources and apply the resulting perspective in development work. In the process, collisions occur and boundaries are challenged among and within academic, government, business, and practice orientations. The study concluded that agreement is emerging among practitioners about what is needed for successful development outcomes, but that their insights are not necessarily recognized as legitimate, especially by funding agencies. Changing such structural attitudes toward the value of informal local knowledge is vital for the success of development efforts. (Contains 31 references.) (KC)

This report analyzes developments in Canadian child care policy in the 1990s at the federal, provincial (Ontario), and municipal (Toronto and Peel) levels, highlighting problems that are associated with a male model of citizenship. The report discusses the child care policy process as one in which state bodies are challenged by the diverse and largely women-driven child care advocacy movement. First, the report outlines some of the major developments of the 1990s that have created increasing hardship for women; foremost among these is the diminished accessibility to child care due to stagnation of or cutbacks in the funding of child care services. Connected to this is the ongoing concern among advocates for not-for-profit child care about a shift of services to the private and unregulated sector, arguably lowering quality. Also at issue are the poor and deteriorating working conditions of mostly female child care providers. These considerations are intended to highlight the importance of linking social class and gender inequality in an analysis of social policy. Second, the report discusses the effectiveness of different strategies of child care advocacy, raising some of the most persistent questions among feminists concerning political citizenship (i.e., whether it is possible to obtain social rights for women through the state, and if so, what the conditions are which make it possible). The report concludes by asserting that most women's and advocacy organizations are dismissed by governments as "special interest groups"; based on their outsider status in official politics, and lacking stable alliances, these organizations are drawn toward political solutions that may prove palatable to governments in the short run but may undermine general claims for child care as a universal rather than a targeted service. (Contains a 114 references.) (EV)

Following up on an earlier national survey study of Canadian teachers' formal and informal learning, this study had 13 Ontario secondary teachers keep detailed logs of their day and evening activities, along with notations about what they may have learned as a result of engaging in each activity, for 7 consecutive days in late 1999, and again in early 2000. Following an analysis of the diaries, researchers conducted telephone interviews with four of the teachers to further explore their formal and informal learning, particularly pertaining to several province-wide schooling reform initiatives being introduced at the time. The diaries revealed an average teacher workload of 48.7 hours per week. These actual hours of work represented approximately 17 percent more hours per week than the hours calculated by these same teachers when asked in the earlier Phase One survey simply to estimate their weekly workload. The diaries also indicated that these teachers spent an average of 7 hours per week in informal learning specifically about schooling and teaching-related matters through various intentional learning activities. They spent an average of 6 hours per week in intentional informal learning pertaining to a wide variety of other subjects. Appendixes include the original diary survey package, the February revised diary package, and miscellaneous data from the CIF/NALL Survey, 1998-9. (Contains 55 bibliographic references, 17 endnotes, and 6 tables.) (SM)

This report provides information on the content and nature of labor education in Canada. Section A outlines the study's purposes to explain why labor education should be considered for prior learning assessment and recognition purposes. Section B describes the theoretical framework and methodology and explains the attempt to canvass a reasonably representative sample of labor education provided by and for trade unions. Section C highlights the aims and objectives of labor education, with particular reference to differing objectives of the host trade unions. Section D describes steward training and relates details of this education to functions and expectations unions typically assign to these worksite representatives. Section E completes the descriptions with an overview of content of labor education programs provided by and for Canada's unions. Section F identifies other events and learning activities provided by and for Canada's unions. Section G provides a sample of approaches taken by unions in selecting labor education participants. Section H describes procedures for choosing trainers who deliver labor education and their roles. Section I discusses delivery methods trade unions use for their labor education courses and activities and the rationale for these practices. Section J examines aspects of the labor education program of the Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers' Union of Canada. Section K provides conclusions and observations. (YLB)

A study explored informal learning in relation to online communications and working class people's use of computers as a socially situated practice rooted in collective, communal relationships. It drew on analysis of online learning workshop participation in specially initiated sessions among Canadian labor activist/educators. Findings were based on analysis of interview and survey data and content and interaction analysis of online postings. Survey data indicated participants had computer literacy levels exceeding those of the general population; the majority had access to home and/or workplace computers for workshop participation; and communication with participants and non-participants beyond the formal structure of the workshop was crucial. Interviews showed a better understanding was needed of the dynamics of informal learning in virtual space; key barriers to online learning among activist/educators were resources, time, distance, and extensive reading and writing requirements; and a less obvious barrier concerned "communication literacy," a basic appreciation of the mechanics of interaction, turn-taking, and explicit framing and re-framing of the situation. Strong evidence suggested online learning could be a valuable addition to the labor movement's education/communication capacity, an important part of which revolved around recognition of informal learning, tacit dimensions of participation, broader context of participants' lives, and linkages between the online and offline worlds. (Conains 32 references.) (YLB)

A research project was conducted to determine how and what clown-doctors know on entry to the profession and how and what they learn both formally and informally in a hospital environment; the linkages between informal and formal learning in clown-doctor training and practice in Canada; and "best practices." Information was gathered through personal research (continuing), interviews with clowns and training personnel in Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Toronto; a conference in Europe; roundtable discussions; and informal discussions by telephone and e-mail. The research found that the current clown programs in Canadian hospitals, dating to 1986, take two major approaches: (1) clowns who wear circus-style costumes and make-up work as part of the child life program at a single hospital, work alone, are non-verbal, bring props and toys, do not use music, and play within a "small" and quiet way; and (2) clowns who usually wear a white coat, red nose, and minimal make-up, have unique personalities and names, work in pairs, are not hospital employees or work in several hospitals, and use sound, language, and music. The study found that all 10 clowns currently working in Canada have wide educational backgrounds and have had both formal and informal training that has helped prepare them for their work as clown-doctors. Most of their additional professional development occurs through informal interaction with other clowns, with healthcare staff, and with patients and family members. The study concluded that while all the Canadian clowns are professional and useful in their fields, there is an urgent need to examine, design, and develop appropriate professional development and inservice training models and modules for clown-doctors. (KC)