Chapter 10 Transforming Canada

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Chapter 10Transforming Canadas Education System

• The Impact on Educational Inequalities,
  Opportunities, and Benefits

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formal education contributes to social
inequalities of class, gender, and race...
Wotherspoon
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The Politics of Educational Reform

• Modern education systems
• offer legitimacy to particular views of the world
  
• Correspond to dominant patterns of activity and
  belief, serving in the process to undermine or
  ignore alternatives

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Illiteracy?

• 1987 national newspaper survey more than 1 in 5
  Canadians lacked necessary skills in reading,
  writing or computing to the extent that their
  ability to perform everyday work tasks was
  impaired

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Literacy rate fails to budge 2003 Research
(StatCan)

• The literacy rate among Canadian adults has
  remained virtually unchanged during the past nine
  years
• average literacy score for Canadians had not
  changed significantly during the nine-year period
  since the last major survey was conducted in 1994
• some 15 of Canadians, about one out of every 7,
  scored in level one, the lowest performance
  level. This was down slightly from 17 in 1994
• well over 3 million Canadians aged 16 to 65, have
  problems dealing with printed materials and most
  likely identify themselves as people who have
  difficulty reading
• Skills in literacy are important because, in all
  participating countries, the study found a
  significant wage return for higher skill levels

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• Butsocial problem has been transformed into an
  economic matter that cost business a lot in
  accidents, errors, lost productivity, and extra
  training.
• So Individuals and schools were blamed for their
  failure to produce a literate population.
• While illiteracy was in fact the product of a
  complex set of economic and social relationships
  beneficial to groups such as employers of
  low-cost, poorly qualified labour power.

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• Liberal Perspective
• view of education that addresses the rights
  and opportunities of individuals
• - Meritocracy portraying formal education as a
  vehicle for nurturing the talents and capacities
  of each individual in harmony with his or her
  ability to contribute productively to social
  development
• social and economic rewards, such as prestige and
  wealth, provide an incentive

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• Conceptions of equality of opportunity emphasize
  the need for fairness in social organization.
• Based on an assumption that
• individual differences unequal
  distributions of social rewards and outcomes
  without which society would not be able to
  function effectively and efficiently

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Debates on the future of education

• proponents of a conservative view that schools
  are failing to teach the fundamental knowledge
  and skills required in a core area of academic
  subjects
• parents and employers demand that schooling be
  made more directly responsive to labour-force
  requirements

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Reality

• Education systems are not and cannot be an
  effective panacea for social and labour-market
  problems
• ? Two contradictory dynamics
• 1.- liberal democracies stress on greater
  equality of opportunity and participation in
  economic and political life for all members of
  society
• 2.- fundamental conflict and structured
  inequality upon which a capitalist economy is
  based

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Larry Kuehn - former president of the B.C.
Teachers Federation.

• The environment in which public schools operate
  has changed substantially over the past fifteen
  years With the attack on public spending and the
  focus on eliminating deficits, education has
  taken a big hit. Expenditures on schools have
  been reduced across the country
• Many more young people are finding themselves in
  the contingent workforce, being told they have to
  accept part-time work, low wages, uncertain
  hours, lack of career expectations, over
  qualification for jobs, and constant job changes.
  
• Rather than facing up to the real sources of
  these problems in the economy, critics are quick
  to place blame on the schools, claiming that we
  face a training deficit rather than a job
  deficit. Business groups -- and sometimes labour
  as well -- call for more "applied" courses, for
  more focus on employment skills

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• School boards have fallen out of favour in this
  new environment. Most provinces have reduced the
  number of elected boards, using cost-savings as a
  justification.
• the expanded role of business in the schools.
  With cuts to spending, schools are more
  vulnerable to accepting corporate sponsorships,
  using teaching materials created by companies
  with big bucks to produce glitzy units, and
  especially to welcoming "gifts" of technology.
  Corporate logos and exclusive supply contracts
  are becoming an everyday experience in some
  schools.

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Dimensions of Educational Expansion in Canada

• - Educational conflict and contradictions lead to
  the massive expansion of the education sector
  within the welfare state.
• - annual educational expenditures in Canada have
  increased steadily since WWII
• - strongest growth at the post-secondary level

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• - continuing high levels of fiscal support for
  education have opened opportunities for greater
  segments of the population to benefit from
  participation in educational programs
• - educational expansion and massive investment in
  education programs have made it increasingly
  possible for more people to attain both longer
  exposure to and higher levels of formal education

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• 1961-1996 the proportion of population of 15
  years of age and over who had less than Grade 9
  declined from 44 to 12.6
• - at least some post-secondary education from
  13 to 47.6
• - BUT considerable segments of the population
  continue to be excluded from post-secondary
  educational programs and other formal training
  opportunities beyond elementary and secondary
  school.

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• 1994-95 31 of men and 36 of women in the
  18-24 age group were enrolled in full-time
  post-secondary studies in Canada, while 52.4 of
  the nations adult population had no
  post-secondary education
• Current Data
• Level of educational attainment in the population
  aged 25 to 64, OECD countries, 2002
• Less than college 57
• College 22
• University 21

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Welfare State Reduction

• - The rapid growth in educational expenditures
  has made education a visible target for
  governments preoccupied with deficit reduction
  and fiscal restraint
• - Canada has experienced declining rates of
  increase in expenditures on education and a
  reduction in the level of educational spending in
  relation to other national expenditures since the
  1970s

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Educational reorganization

• - program cuts, curricular reorganizationrestrict
  ions on student loans and bursaries, and closer
  working relationships between corporate and
  educational sectors
• - education is being promoted as a commodity
  that must be managed rationally in order to
  advance the national interest in increasingly
  competitive world markets driven by innovation,
  managerial flexibility and high-tech.
• Contradiction - education system cannot be
  maintained in its existing costly state and
  undereducated populace constitutes a barrier to
  the advancement of national productivity

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Costs to the Individual

• - steady increases in the in the number of
  students who have had to borrow funds from
  student loans programs or other sources and in
  the amounts they borrowed
• - debt loans for university students increased by
  26 (1986-90)
• - access to formal education is increasingly
  subject to limitation based on the individuals
  or familys ability to pay, thereby contributing
  to educational inequalities.

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Student debt 1990/91 - 1995/96

• Postsecondary students borrowed more money than
  ever to pay for their education and found it
  increasingly difficult to pay it back, according
  to a new study on Canada Student Loans
• One in 3 students who left school in 1995/96 had
  repayment difficulties in the first year compared
  with 1 in 5 students in the 1990/91 group
• In total, postsecondary students consolidated
  over 1.1 billion in loans in 1995/96, up 70.6
  from five years earlier
• Students aged 20-21 fall into financial turmoil

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Inequalities of Educational Opportunities

• While increasing numbers of people benefit from
  exposure to formal educational programs,
  disparities persist in enrollment and attainment.
  (Class, Gender and Ethnicity)
• CLASS
• Educational aspirations and enrollment in
  educational programs is based on a students
  socio-economic background as well as the parents
  level of education attained.

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• Anisef and Okihiro
• Ontario Survey of Students (1982) Porter, Porter
  and Blishen
• Guppy, Mikicich and Pendakur (1984)
• National Survey- Clark
• Curtis, Livingstone and Smaller (1982)

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GENDER

• Gender discrepancies in full time University
  Undergraduate programs
• Enrollment in part time studies is higher for
  females
• Females in non-traditional programs- Medicine,
  Law, Dentistry
• Female dominated programs- Nursing, Education,
  Secretarial Sciences
• Male dominated programs- Engineering, Electronics
  and electrical technology programs

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ETHNICITY

• 1981 Census (Ethnic groups and educational
  attainment) Jewish and Chinese
• Aboriginals underrepresented in Educational
  opportunities
• First Nations Initiatives- promoting Opportunity
  for all.

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Inequality of Benefits from Formal Education

• A persons likelihood of being employed and
  having a higher income increases with the level
  and amount of their formal educational
  credentials
• Labour force Participation (1996)- 27.3
  participation among adults with less than grade
  9- compared with 51.6 of high school graduates
  and 82.1 for those with University degrees.
• Wage Gaps- Females make 73.1 of that of males
  Kindergarten and Elementary school teachers
• - males -45 971 and females 37 699

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University enrolment by field of study 2000/01

• University enrolment in fields related to
  technology, such as engineering and mathematics,
  has soared during the past three years, and the
  gains have been particularly prominent among
  women
• From 1997/98 to 2000/01, enrolment in mathematics
  and physical sciences rose 19, the biggest jump
  among all fields of study.
• In both fields of study, the number of women
  enrolled increased more than 20 during the 3
  year period. (the proportion of women increased
  in every field of study except agricultural and
  biological sciences)
• Women accounted for 23 of the enrolment in
  engineering and applied sciences, and 30 of the
  enrolment in mathematics and physical sciences

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Women led growth in all fields of study

• Of the total enrolment of 861,700 in 2000/01,
  some 494,700, or 57, were women, their highest
  proportion ever
• formed the majority in all fields of study except
  engineering and applied sciences and mathematics
  and physical sciences
• The two fields of study with the largest
  proportion of women in 2000/01 were education,
  where they represented 72 of total enrolment,
  and health professions and occupations, at 70
• The number of women in engineering and applied
  sciences increased 20 during the same time
  frame, compared with only 7 for men.
• Among women, enrolment increases at the graduate
  level exceed 13 in five different fields of
  study engineering and applied sciences
  mathematics and physical sciences agricultural
  and biological sciences social sciences and
  health professions and occupations (higher
  increase than in men)

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Higher education pays off for women, U.S. study
reveals By CAROLINE ALPHONSO Globe and Mail

• Prof. Perna found that the incomes of women with
  a bachelor's degree were 24 higher than those of
  women with only a high-school diploma. Young men
  had no significant wage benefit from higher
  education.
• She found that occupations dominated by men with
  only high-school diplomas, such as skilled
  blue-collar work, pay much better than the jobs
  that women without university degrees tend to
  have.
• women with bachelor's degrees earn 50 to 80 more
  a year than those with only a high-school
  diploma.
• Men with bachelor's degrees, on the other hand,
  earn around 25 to 30 more annually than men with
  only high-school diplomas.