The Ideological Practice of “Canadian Work Experience”: Adult Education and the Reproduction of Labor and Difference

Migrating Professional Knowledge: Progressions, Regressions, and Dislocations

“…First, I outline the background of Canadian immigration policy, and the research on the labor market outcomes of immigrant professionals in Canada. In the second section I detail the research on deskilling, drawing on three qualitative research studies in particular (Mirchandani et al, 2010;Slade, 2011;Slade & Schugurensky, 2010). The next section details the labor market exclusion of immigrants, either through unemployment or working without pay.…”

“…The result of Canada's robust immigration strategy with its stringent selection process has been the creation of a large pool of professionals with international credentials and work experience, many of whom are unemployed or underemployed (Gogia & Slade, 2011). Research indicates that immigrants' education and work experience is consistently undervalued in Canada, resulting in higher levels of unemployment, lower earnings, and deskilling for individual immigrants and their families (Creese & Wiebe, 2009;Grenier & Xue, 2011;Li, 2005;Preston et al, 2010;Reitz, 2007;Slade, 2011Slade, , 2012. In relation to national productivity, studies have estimated that the lack of recognition of skilled immigrants' credentials and prior learning has a negative impact on Canadian economic performance by approximately $15 billion annually (Reitz, 2001).…”

“…2001) reveals that 30% of newer immigrants indicated that their motivation for volunteering was to improve their job opportunities. Community-based agencies through school boards are points of entry through which many immigrants find volunteer work as they offer employment-related programs with a work placement (Slade, 2011). There is a wide array of stakeholders promoting volunteerism as an effective strategy for immigrants to gain Canadian work experience.…”

“…It is difficult to measure the actual financial contribution of the volunteer labor of immigrant professionals. However, an analysis of one adult education program offered through local school boards in Ontario conservatively estimated that in 1 year immigrant volunteers performed over 1.92 million hours of work, the equivalent of over 923 full-time jobs, representing almost 20 million dollars of unpaid wages (Slade, 2011(Slade, , 2012.…”

Of myths and monitoring: learner-centred education as a political project in Scotland

“…The article is based on analysis of two key documents -the Curriculum for Excellence (Scottish Executive Education Department 2004) and Adult Learning in Scotland: Statement of Ambition (Scottish Government 2014) -interviews (80) with policy and ground-level stakeholders from previous (unpublished) studies, and observations of consultation processes. It draws on existing and ongoing research by the authors on relevant Scottish policies (eg, Britton 2013(eg, Britton , 2016 and international research on learner-centred education (Schweisfurth 2011(Schweisfurth , 2013 as well as analyses of how adult education programmes elsewhere struggle to achieve stated emancipatory aims (Slade 2011), In linking global and national levels, exploring histories as well as the contemporary context, and using both school-level and adult education, it includes horizontal, vertical and transversal axes to build the case (Bartlett and Vavrus 2017). While exploring the content of these documents and the understandings of best practice behind them, we are also concerned with the processes of their development and approval.…”