Labour and Education

This course critically interrogates the role formal education has in perpetuating class hierarchy and reproducing precarious labour conditions. It also explores possible avenues of change by learning from the efforts, experiences, and histories of how educators, students, and workers at educational institutions have been organizing to take back the educational space as a space of liberation. The course consists of three parts. In the first part of the course, we examine how the education system has been an apparatus of upholding class divides. In the second part, we gain an understanding of teacher’s social positioning and how teachers and teacher unions organize to both improve their working conditions and learning conditions of their students. Lastly, we widen our perspective to interrogating the educational institution as a whole by understanding the invisible labour that goes into upholding the institution, such as food service workers, janitorial staff, educational assistants, and other teaching support staff. This course is both academic-oriented and community-based. It incorporates labour walking tours, event participations, guest speakers, films, and essays (op-eds and academic articles). Students are expected to prepare and conduct interviews, engage in reflective writing, and compose a creative project in relation to labour issues and organizing in education.  

Syllabus

This course was designed for LBST 330 for the Labour Studies Program at SFU during Fall 2023 semester. See syllabus here.