Search

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 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)

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)

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.]

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)

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)

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 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)

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 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)

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 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)

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)

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)

A research project studied in depth four organizations using organizational learning approaches to embed continuous learning within actual work processes. The most sustainable benefits, in terms of both individual and organizational needs, tended to result from "action" or "situated" learning that is informal and accrues directly from work-related activities. This learning took place in the interstices of organizational life and was characterized by relationship and interpersonal interaction through basic social processes such as individual informal learning, team learning, learning through dealing with conflict; making and reflecting on mistakes; and shared leadership in support of informal learning. These three sets of activities were identified as key factors in ensuring an organizational climate conducive to learning: creating a values-based shared vision of both the task-related goals and the internal functioning of the organization; examining and revising systems, procedures, and processes, so that they clearly reflect the vision and values in action; and continuously evaluating progress towards achieving the vision, so the gap between the vision and the current reality is progressively decreased. (Contains 39 references.) (YLB)

Traditional Ojibway education is currently being delivered by eight First Nations communities on Manitoulin Island and the north shore of Lake Huron, in Ontario. Integration into the formal school system, with the exception of language programs, is not formally established. Elders and traditional teachers are only invited by individual teachers. Integration of the formal education system into the traditional Ojibway system also takes place, through field trips, albeit to a limited extent. Cultural knowledge is transmitted via one-to-one transmission, home-based learning, talking circles, community cultural events, workshops and conferences, and traditional Ojibway institution-based learning. Traditional educational approaches are profoundly different from those of the mainstream educational system. Wholistic (physical, mental, spiritual, emotional) growth and development of the person, experiential learning, oral tradition, and student-centeredness are key elements of the traditional approach. Further, and of vital importance, is the fact that education is grounded in spirituality. Western mainstream education has a narrower scope in that it emphasizes intellectual development to the exclusion of other dimensions. There are a number of concerns related to integrating informal Native education into the formal education system. These include research methodologies utilized; protection of cultural and intellectual property rights; and recognition of traditional indigenous knowledge, traditional teachers, and elders. (Contains 31 references.) (TD)

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)

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)

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)

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)