Putting the "popular" into labour education, obstacles and opportunities in theory and practice

grantor: University of TorontoThis thesis explores the traditions of popular education and union education with special attention to issues of racism and other oppressions. Effects of modernist thought and liberalism within some popular and union education theory and practices are interrogated. While recognizing and supporting the counter-hegemonic possibilities of popular and labour education, I also argue that power differences and oppressions can go un-addressed within groups using popular education or within union settings. Suggestions for disrupting this phenomenon are explored. Issues raised regarding popular and union education are examined in the context of the 1997 summer school of the British Columbia Hospital Employees Union. This school for 200 union activists was largely conducted in the tradition of popular education. Interviews with participants, planners and facilitators, along with examination of curriculum materials, provides a basis to explore issues of equity in a context of "popular labour education". Several programmatic suggestions are presented.M.A