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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)

A study analyzed the schooling, further adult course participation, and informal learning of organized and unorganized workers in different occupational classes across Canada. Data were obtained from the first Canadian national survey of 1,562 adults' informal learning practices, conducted in 1998, and field notes and interview transcripts drawn from participants in the auto plant case study of the Working Class Learning Strategies project conducted at five union locals in southern Ontario in 1995-2000. The study found that unionized and non-unionized industrial and service workers in Canada are increasingly highly educated, increasingly participating in adult education courses and devoting substantial amounts of their time to informal learning activities outside organized education and training programs. In addition, the study found that working people are generally engaged collectively and individually in an extensive array of employment-related and other informal learning activities that are neither fully recognized by most employers or union leaders nor given prior learning credit by educational institutions. The study concluded that underestimation of the current range and depth of workers' knowledge and skills by union leaders represents a significant barrier to further growth of the labor movement. Recommendations for strategies to facilitate union growth are suggested, based on what has worked most effectively in these locals of differing general organizational strength and demographic profiles. (KC)

Noting that there has been no national policy on child care, Canada has relied on non-profit organizations and privately owned businesses to provide most of its child care services. Historically, federal funding policies and provincial choices have produced wide differences across the country in the distribution of non-profit, for-profit and government-operated services. After many years of relative political inattention in Canada, the federal and provincial governments committed to developing a national early learning and child care program by agreeing to bilateral agreements. As Canadian child care was poised for growth in 2005, important policy decisions about how best to deliver child care services needed to be made. This paper presents new evidence as well as reviews existing evidence that supports reasons to look to the non-profit and public sectors as the optimum sites for the expected growth of Canadian child care services. It makes the case that if Canada is to avoid "big-box" child care (and more for-profit child care generally--both international and home--grown), then careful attention must be paid to the research and policy evidence about what happens when public funds and public policy support for-profit child care. (Contains 11 footnotes, 4 tables, and 2 figures.)

There is growing evidence that students throughout the world no longer see the US as the primary place to study; that in some form this correlates with a rise in perceived quality and prestige in the EU and elsewhere; and further, that this may mean a continued decline in the US's market share of international students. There clearly are a complex set of variables that will influence international education and global labor markets, including the current global economic recession. Ultimately, however, we think these factors will not alter the fundamental dynamics of the new global market, which include these facts: the international flow of talent, scientific or otherwise, is being fundamentally altered as nations invest more in educational attainment and human capital; the US will continue to lose some of its market share over time--the only question is how quickly and by how much; and without a proactive strategy, nations such as the US that are highly dependent on global in-migration of talented students and professionals are most vulnerable to downward access to global talent, with a potentially significant impact on future economic growth. This study provides data on past and recent global trends in international enrollment, and offers a set of policy recommendations for the US at the federal, state, and institutional level. This includes our recommendation of a national goal to double the number of international students in the US over the next decade to match numbers in a group of competitor nations, and requires recognition that the US will need to strategically expand its enrollment capacity and graduation rates to accommodate needed increases in the educational attainment rate of US citizens, and to welcome more international students. Attracting talent in a global market and increasing degree attainment rates of the domestic population are not mutually exclusive goals. Indeed, they will be the hallmarks of the most competitive economies. (Contains 6 figures and 41 endnotes.)

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 is one of several intended to consider early childhood care and education within the context of Canada's National Children's Agenda. The paper takes the position that a blended, coherent system of early childhood development programs incorporating child care, early childhood education, and family support services should be available in every community. The current array of policies and programs in Canada is examined, and options are considered for developing the proposed system of early child development programs. The paper is organized into five sections: (1) an introduction to early child development programs; (2) the roots of early child development programs in Canada; (3) a description of existing early child development programs; (4) a discussion of dominant public policy directions; and (5) a proposed agenda for creating a system of early child development in Canada. (Contains 53 references.) (EV)

This discussion paper provides a rationale for the development of professional teaching standards in Australia. It is the result of a 2000 national forum on professional teaching standards held in Melbourne, Australia, which included 150 educators who explored contemporary issues associated with such standards and constructed a framework for collaborative and strategic action. The paper is designed to stimulate discussion about the need to identify and deploy standards of professional practice for accomplished school teachers. Nine sections examine: (1) "Purpose of This Discussion Paper"; (2) "The Broader Professional Teaching Standards Agendas"; (3) "Some Threshold Questions and Issues"; (4) "What Constitutes a 'Profession' and What Does it Mean To Be a 'Professional'?"; (5)"Why Does the Teaching Profession Need Standards of Accomplished Professional Practice?"; (6) "Who Would Benefit From the Identification and Use of Standards of Accomplished Professional Practice?"; (7) "How Have Some Other Countries Addressed the Issue of Professional Teaching Standards?" (8) "Upon What Premises and Principles Ought the Identification and Use of Standards of Professional Practice for Accomplished Teaching in Australian Classrooms Be Based?"; and (9) "What Should the Accomplished Australian Classroom Teacher Know, Understand, Do, and Value?" (Contains 33 references.) (SM)

This paper explores the impact of policies and institutions on employment and unemployment of OECD countries in the past decades. Reduced-form unemployment equations, consistent with standard wage setting/price-setting models, are estimated using cross-country/time-series data from 21 OECD countries over the period 1982-2003. In the "average" OECD country, high and long-lasting unemployment benefits, high tax wedges and stringent anticompetitive product market regulation are found to increase aggregate unemployment. By contrast, highly centralised and/or coordinated wage bargaining systems are estimated to reduce unemployment. These findings are robust across specifications, datasets and econometric methods. As policies and institutions affect employment not only via their impact on aggregate unemployment but also through their effects on labour market participation -- particularly for those groups "at the margin" of the labour market, group-specific employment rate equations are also estimated. In the "average" OECD country, high unemployment benefits and high tax wedges are found to be associated with lower employment prospects for all groups studied, namely prime-age males, females, older workers and youths. There is also evidence that group-specific policy determinants matter, such as targeted fiscal incentives. The paper also finds significant evidence of interactions across policies and institutions, as well as between institutions and macroeconomic conditions. Consistent with theory, structural reforms appear to have mutually reinforcing effects: the impact of a given policy reform is greater the more employment-friendly the overall policy and institutional framework. Certain more specific interactions across policies and institutions are found to be particularly robust, notably between unemployment benefits and public spending on active labour market programmes as well as between statutory minimum wages and the tax wedge. Finally, it is shown that macroeconomic conditions also matter for unemployment patterns, with their impact being shaped by policies. (A bibliography is included. Contains 144 footnotes, 9 figures, 3 boxes and 27 tables.)

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 discussion paper explores interactions among formal learning, informal learning, and life conditions and opportunities experienced by aboriginal people in Canada. The contradictory importance of education for aboriginal people is examined with respect to three related aspects of these relationships. First, the paper summarizes students' accounts of their experiences in conventional and alternative school settings in three Saskatchewan communities, exploring how these relate to the students' broader cultural and home environments. Second, it examines the formal and informal educational experiences of a small group of adults surveyed in an urban Indian and Metis Friendship Center. Finally, the paper explores issues that arise around the emergence of entrepreneurial training and entrepreneurship, areas posed by many commentators as a possible way of bridging formal and informal learning and overcoming the longstanding marginalization of aboriginal people from labor market and economic participation. The paper concludes that gaps remain in the attainment of educational success by aboriginal people, relative to the general population, when viewed in terms of conventional educational indicators. However, the aboriginal youth and adults involved in the study place a high value in formal schooling, mainstream economic activities, and entrepreneurial opportunities to provide routes for individual and community advancement. The study suggests that the aboriginal peoples could benefit more if the educational system better integrated their skills and culture and acknowledged the strengths that the aboriginal people bring to learning. (The paper lists 40 references.) (KC)

This study addresses the issue of how new forms of work organization (NFWO) are affecting job skill requirements. Practices such as job rotation, problem-solving teams and self-directed workgroups are thought to increase job skill requirements because they tend to broaden job responsibilities. The study uses the 1999 and 2000 waves of the Workplace Employee Survey (WES) to examine how participation in these three new forms of work organization affects skills needs. As with studies from other countries, this study suggests that these new forms of work organization do lead to new job skill requirements. Moreover, to some extent firms use training to meet the increased skill needs associated with these practices. It is also likely that firms make greater use of existing skills possessed by their employees or to some extent forsake training, because it is too costly. It is also found that employees reporting increased technological complexity since the start of the job are much more likely to have increased skill requirements. This suggests that "more complex," often computer-based, technologies tend to eliminate routine tasks from jobs and introduce more cognitively demanding tasks. Given this tendency, the principal issues for public policy are to what extent the use and benefits of NFWO are limited by skill deficiencies amongst segments of the working population and to what extent the introduction of NFWO may limit the labour market prospects of individuals without a post-secondary education. Appendices include: (1) Employer and Employee Questions on Job Rotation, Problem-Solving Teams and Self-Directed Work-Groups; (2) Employee Questions on Job-Related Training Provided or Paid by the Employer; (3) Definitions of Selected Independent Variables Used in this Study; and (4) Variable Means, 1999 and 2000. A bibliography is also provided. (Contains 9 tables and 21 footnotes.) [This paper is available in French under the title: "Nouvelles formes d'organisation du travail, competences et formation."]

Using the qualitative research method known as folknography, the authors led a research team to the heart of Illinois farm country to ask the question "What are the perceptions of the people of the Midwest concerning math and math education?" A review of the literature includes Canadian and Australian references on the topic, as well as information from the United States, and the targeted geography and population is described. Research followed the pattern of a similar study conducted in Appalachia in 2004. A preliminary survey was planned to gather benchmarking statistical data and to open respondents up to the possibilities of a folknographic interview. Folknographers entered the field in May 2006 to perform focused and intensive field research. Findings include: (1) belief that young people can not perform simple math; (2) perception that too much technology has a significant and negative impact on developing minds of students; (3) connection between acquiring math knowledge and achieving a dynamic career; (4) recollections of tyrannical or cruel math teachers; (5) desire for a school or school system that makes learning math an exciting and motivating experience. Folknographic narratives are included to illustrate each finding. Bibliography is included. Four appendixes conclude the document: (1) Perceptions of Math in the Mid-West Interview Questions: Adults (18-55); (2) Perceptions of Math in the Mid-West Interview Questions: Seniors (55-Over); (3) Perceptions of Math in the Mid-West Interview Questions: Youth (Ages 10-17); and (4) Perceptions of Math Survey Mid-West. (Contains 4 charts.)

Germany and Canada are at opposite ends of the debate over language integration and ascension to citizenship. German naturalization contains an explicit language criterion for naturalization. The first German immigration act will not only concentrate on control aspects but also focus on language as a criterion for legal immigration. Canada does not base entry or citizenship on knowledge of either of its official languages. Acquisition of a second language in Canada is voluntary and largely dependent on labor market incentives. This paper offers a comparative review of Canadian and German legal and educational programs. Nine sections focus on the following: "Canadian Immigration Policy: Post 1945"; "Canada's Citizenship Act and Language Requirements"; "Historical Development of Germany's Immigration Policy"; "Confirmation of German Citizenship"; "'Aussiedler' Language Tests"; "Canada's Market-Based Language Tests and Instruction"; "Canada's Language Benchmarks"; "German Language Training"; and "Evaluation of Second Language Acquisition in Canada and Germany." Five appendixes contain excerpts from the German and Canadian law and data on the language support program for ethnic Germans and foreigners in Germany, status 2000. (Contains 3 figures, 11 tables, and 64 references.) (SM)

This study provides an overview of the return on investment to post-secondary education in Canada, by gender. In it, three time series are developed respectively on the cost-effectiveness of non-university post-secondary diplomas (1981-1996), bachelor's degrees (1989-1996) and university degrees (1981-1996), including bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. The method used is based on a calculation of internal rate of return (cost-benefit approach) and is applied to the data from the Consumer Finance Survey. The results as a whole indicate that rates of return to post-secondary education are positive and vary by gender and level of education. The results are also consistent with those of Canadian studies on rate of return to education over a single year. In addition, the analysis indicates that rates of return are sensitive to the state of economic activity, and there is a positive correlation between rates of return and unemployment rates. Lastly, after screening the data to adjust for the effects of the economic cycle, the authors identified a slightly positive trend in rates of return to university degrees. According to their estimates, the trend rates of return increased by approximately one percentage point between 1981 and 1996. The structure of this paper is as follows. Part 2 examines the conceptual questions related to the rate of return to education and considers various definitions. Part 3 discusses the main methods used to measure the rate of return to education. Part 4 provides a brief review of empirical studies on the question. Then the methodological approach, assumptions and basic concepts used are discussed in Part 5, and the authors' findings are set out in Part 6. Lastly, in the conclusion, the authors summarize study highlights and make some suggestions for future research. Two appendixes include: (1) Table of Main Findings; and (2) Technical Aspects. (Contains 12 footnotes, 4 tables, 6 charts, and a bibliography.)

Recent research suggests that changing maternal employment and family composition are associated with children's behavioural development. This report assesses whether, and if so to what extent, changes in these areas may affect the behavioural development of children, using information from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY). The study investigates how maternal employment, employment transitions, and spells of unemployment, are related to children's behavioural development from 1994 to 1998. The analysis focuses on the quality of maternal jobs using, for example, number of hours worked per week. As well, the report also investigates how changes in family composition such as becoming a lone parent family or entering into new two parent families, may affect children's behavioural development. Three behavioural scales are used in the paper as dependent variables: indirect aggression, emotional disorder-anxiety and conduct disorder-physical aggression. Using cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, evidence is found to support the existing literature, although it is relatively weak. Maternal employment, in particular the number of employment transitions (expressed as periods of unemployment), is found to be associated with higher levels of behaviour problems in children, particularly for indirect aggression behaviour. As well, stable family composition is associated with relatively better behaviour scores. Family composition which changes over time tends to be associated with relatively worse behaviour scores for children. More research and analysis of this area is necessary to uncover the complex interplay of the variables. A bibliography is included. (Contains 13 tables and 3 endnotes.)

This paper analyzes the effects of language practice on earnings among adult male immigrants in Canada using data from the 1991 Census of Canada. It examines whether destination language skills are complements to or substitutes in generating earnings with respect to other kinds of human capital (schooling and pre- and post-migration labor market experience). Results show that earnings increase with schooling, pre-immigration experience, duration in Canada, and proficiency in the official languages (English and French). There is complementarity between language skills and both schooling and pre-immigration experience. Greater proficiency in the official languages enhances the effects on earnings of schooling and pre-immigration labor market experience. Language proficiency and post-migration experience appear to be substitutes, in that among people with greater language proficiency, the impact of time in Canada on earnings is smaller. (Contains 15 references.) (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education) (SM)

The experience of long-term poverty affects many child outcomes, in part through a family stress process in which poverty is considered to be one of the major factors causing family dysfunction, depression among caregivers and inadequate parenting. Recent scholarship extends the classical Family Stress Model by researching the ways in which neighbourhood contexts might mediate or modify these relationships. Neighbourhoods vary from the affluent to the economically deprived and since the long-term poor rarely live in well-off neighbourhoods, measures of neighbourhood disadvantage add little to family poverty in the prediction of child health and behaviour problems. But neighbourhoods also differ in the degree to which they are socially organized, cohesive and supportive to the enterprise of raising children. Sociologists refer to this as the "social capital" of neighbourhoods and propose that such social capital may ameliorate the effects of poverty and help parents raise children to achieve their full potential. This study reports the construction of measures related to social capital (Collective Efficacy and Social Support) at the neighbourhood, rather than the individual level, and the use of these along with a battery of census characteristics and other explanatory variables in the prediction of outcomes for longitudinal children aged 4 to 15 in the NLSCY [National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth]. The authors used statistical modeling to study the impact of higher or lower amounts of social capital in a national sample and in a smaller sample of some 200 neighbourhoods (as defined by census enumeration areas). The results support some aspects of an expanded family stress theory in that the effects of long-term poverty upon child outcomes are mediated, but also moderated by neighbourhood social capital, and by family "burnout" (dysfunction and parental depression). The study confirms previous research showing that certain parenting styles are strongly associated with children's health and behaviour problems, and that neighbourhoods account for small but significant proportions of the variation in child outcomes. An innovative result is that the degree to which long-term poverty impacts child outcomes varies according to the characteristics of neighbourhoods. The authors caution that their study cannot provide national estimates of the impact of neighbourhood social capital on child outcomes. A bibliography is included. (Contains 3 figures, 12 tables, and 30 footnotes.) [This paper is available in French under the title: "La pauvrete, le capital social, les competences parentales et les resultats des enfants au Canada."

Insights from a variety of research streams were synthesized to identify the key ingredients of a high-quality work environment in Canada's health care sector and ways of achieving high-quality workplaces in the sector. The following sets of interacting factors were considered: (1) the work environment and the human resource practices that shape it; (2) job design and organizational structure, including technology; (3) employment relationships; and (4) industrial relations. The study documented the links between work environments, employment and industrial relations, and "healthy" outcomes for workers and organizations and drew on a broad base of evidence to formulate a model of a high-quality work environment. The evidence established that Canada's health care organizations can and must achieve a virtuous circle connecting work environments, individual quality of work life, and organizational performance. The following were among the 11 recommendations emerging from the study: (1) policymakers should provide a stable policy and funding environment in which to make workplace improvements; (2) although different health care unions and professional associations have unique needs, their leaders must develop a common, long-term workplace improvement agenda; and (3) managers should promote workplace cultures that value employees as assets and work to rebuild commitment and trust between employee and employer. (Contains 93 references.) (MN)

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)

Young people from lower class origins continue to face major barriers to university education in Canada. This paper documents both substantial inter-generational class mobility and continuing inequalities in formal educational attainments by class origins. While Canada now has the world's higher educational attainments in its youth cohort and has experienced rapid growth in adult education participation as well, those from professional/managerial families remain more than three times as likely to attain a degree as those from working class origins. There is also mounting evidence that escalating financial costs are again increasing the relative class inequalities in university education. These large and increasing class inequalities are compared with the much more equitable and extensive participation in informal learning found in a recent national survey, as well as the underemployment of working class people in the Canadian job structure. In light of these educational and economic inequalities, needs-based student subsidies and democratic workplace reforms are seen as major means to address persistent discrimination against the learning capacities and aspirations for university education of those from lower class origins. (Contains 4 tables and 37 references.) (Author)

The Skills and Knowledge Profile (SKP) is a tool developed in Canada to document learning styles and strategies of adult learners. The instrument was developed as a systematic approach to capturing the learning styles of unemployed and employed adults across sectors. It is made up of these six sections: (1) Learning Access and Personal Information; (2) Personal Informal Learning; (3) Job-Related Informal Learning; (4) Non-Formal Courses and Workshops; (5) Future Learning Plans; and (6) Your Comments on the Profile. The SKP was created through action-based research using learners in a unionized factory, community-based women's employment program, and community-based literacy program. Volunteers at all three sites committed their time and efforts to filling out the SKP and then provided feedback on the clarity, usefulness, and ease of using the tool. Feedback has been incorporated into the SKP in a continuous process. The evaluation can be used by individuals to sort out their skills and to focus their efforts on a career path. The SKP is not only a tool, but also a reflection of a positive trend in adult education by which adult learners build on and share their own wealth of knowledge and skills. (This paper documents the evolution of the SKP from its inception in the spring of 1997 to the end of 1998.) (KC)

This paper highlights the religious accommodations that Ontario (Canada) universities have undertaken to create an inclusive, supportive learning community for all students, faculty, and staff. It outlines the demographic changes and public policy surrounding religious accommodation issues in Canada and in Ontario in particular, focusing on the Ontario Human Rights Code policy on creed and accommodation of religious observance. The paper then discusses some of the multifaith tensions present in Ontario university communities, including the lack of clarity of basic definitions, secularism, ambivalence toward religious expression, discrimination, diversity within diversity, intergroup tensions, and discrepancy of views concerning current accommodation measures. The paper describes the accommodation needs of different groups, including Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and other groups, along with successful accommodations for worship and ceremonial space, athletic facilities, residence life, and classroom and food service issues. Finally, the paper discusses social climate issues, such as harassment, dress and modesty requirements, curriculum, and counseling and health services. (MDM)

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)