Lifelong Learning in Paid and Unpaid Work: Survey and Case Study Findings

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Lifelong Learning in Paid and Unpaid Work

Lifelong learning is essential to all individuals and in recent years has become a guiding principle for policy initiatives, ranging from national economic competition to issues of social cohesion and personal fulfilment. However, despite the importance of lifelong learning there is a critical absence of direct, international evidence on its extent, content and outcomes. Lifelong Learning in Paid and Unpaid Work provides a new paradigm for understanding work and learning, documenting the active contribution of workers to their development and their adaptation to paid and unpaid work. Empirical evidence drawn from national surveys in Canada and eight related case studies is used to explore the current learning activities of those in paid employment, housework and volunteer work, addressing all forms of learning, including formal schooling, further education courses, informal training and self-directed learning, particularly in the context of organizational and technological change. Proposing an expanded conceptual framework for investigating the relationships between learning and work, the contributors offer new insights into the ways in which adult learning adapts to and helps reshape the wide contemporary world of work throughout the life course. D.W. Livingstone is Canada Research Chair in Lifelong Learning and Work at the University of Toronto, and Professor and Head of the Centre for the Study of Education and Work in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE/UT). His books include The Education–Jobs Gap (2004) and Education and Jobs: Exploring the Gaps (2009).

Lifelong Learning in Paid and Unpaid Work

Survey and case study findings

Edited by D.W. Livingstone

First published 2010 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2010 D.W. Livingstone for selection and editorial material; individual chapters, the contributors. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Every effort has been made to contact and acknowledge copyright owners, but the author and publisher would be pleased to have any errors or omissions brought to their attention so that corrections may be published at a later printing. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lifelong learning in paid and unpaid work: survey and case study findings / edited by D.W. Livingstone. – 1st ed. p. cm. 1. Adult education–Canada–Case studies. 2. Continuing education–Canada–Case studies. 3. Working class–Education– Canada–Case studies. I. Livingstone, D. W. LC5254.L54 2010 374'.971–dc22 2009042299 ISBN 0-203-85316-4 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0–415–56564–2 (hbk) ISBN10: 0–203–85316–4 (ebk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–56564–6 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–203–85316–0 (ebk)

Contents

List of figures List of tables Notes on contributors Preface 1 Introduction: a framework for exploring relations between lifelong learning and work in the computer era

vii ix xi xvii

1

D.W. LIVINGSTONE

PART I

13

Surveys 2 Work and learning in the computer era: basic survey findings

15

D.W. LIVINGSTONE AND ANTONIE SCHOLTZ

PART II

Case studies of unpaid work and learning 3 Odd project out: studying lifelong learning through unpaid household work

57 59

MARGRIT EICHLER

4 Volunteer work and informal learning: exploring the connections

79

DANIEL SCHUGURENSKY, FIONA DUGUID AND KARSTEN MÜNDEL

PART III

Case studies of paid work and learning 5 Revisiting Taylorism: conceptual implications for studies of lifelong learning, technology and work in the public sector PETER H. SAWCHUK

99 101

vi Contents

6 Women’s experiences of the good, the bad and the ugly of work in a ‘knowledge-based’ society: learning the gender politics of IT jobs

119

SHAUNA BUTTERWICK AND KAELA JUBAS

7 Beginning from disability to study a corporate organization of learning

137

KATHRYN CHURCH, CATHERINE FRAZEE AND MELANIE PANITCH

8 Teachers’ learning and work relations: (shifting) engagements and challenges

155

PAUL TARC AND FABRIZIO ANTONELLI

PART IV

Case studies of transitions between education and work 9 Challenging transitions from school to work

173 175

ALISON TAYLOR

10 Biographical transitions and adult learning: reproduction and/or mobilization

193

PIERRE DORAY, PAUL BÉLANGER, ELAINE BIRON, SIMON CLOUTIER AND OLIVER MEYER

PART V

Concluding reflections

215

11 Reflections on results of Canadian studies and German perspectives on work-related learning

217

BERND OVERWIEN

12 ‘Not just another survey’: reflections on researchers’ working and learning through investigating work and lifelong learning

222

STEPHEN BILLETT

13 Reflections on the WALL research network and future studies of work and learning

234

D.W. LIVINGSTONE

Index

241

Figures

2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7

7.1 7.2 10.1

Distribution of hours of all informal learning, respondents reporting participation in any informal learning, 1998–2004 Informal learning topics related to household work, eligible respondents, 1998–2004 Volunteer work-related informal learning topics, eligible respondents, 1998–2004 General interest informal learning topics, all respondents, 1998–2004 Organizational change over last five years, employed respondents, 2004 Topics of job-related informal learning, employed respondents participating in informal learning, 1998–2004 Age and participation in past year in further education course, learning about computers, and any informal learning activities, all respondents, 2004 Interrelations of human activity The dynamic context for relations of work and learning Age and participation in further education, 2004

21 29 30 30 34 38

45 147 150 202

Tables

1.1 1.2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16

2.17 2.18 2.19

Forms of activity and learning Computer use in paid workplaces in Canada, employed labour force, 1989–2004 Participation in any further education courses in past year, all respondents, 1998–2004 Participation in further education by schooling, 1998–2004 Total informal learning (average hours per week), all respondents, 1998–2004 Incidence of informal learning by level of schooling, 1998–2004 Participation in and duration of general housework, all respondents, 1998–2004 Performance of housework by sex, couples employed full-time compared with all other couples, 2004 Unpaid childcare, all respondents, 2004 Unpaid eldercare, all respondents, 2004 Volunteer work in organizations, all respondents, 2004 Unpaid help friends and neighbours, all respondents, 2004 Participation rates in informal learning related to paid and unpaid activities, eligible respondents, 1998–2004 Average (mean) hours of informal learning by activity, all respondents, 1998–2004 Usual weekly paid hours, 1976–2004 Employment status, all respondents, 1998–2004 Economic class distribution, employed respondents, 1983–2004 Schooling, further education and participation in job-related informal learning participation rates by economic class, employed respondents, 1998–2004 Employer support for courses by economic class of employees, 2004 Computer skills match with requirements of job, employed respondents, 18 to 65, 2004 Credential match, employed respondents, 1983–2004

1 3 19 19 20 22 24 24 25 26 26 27 28 31 32 32 35

36 37 40 41

x Tables

2.20 2.21 2.22 3.1 4.1 7.1 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 10.8 10.9 10.10 10.11 10.12 10.13

Proportion underutilizing educational credential by economic class, employees, 1983–2004 Credential underutilization by age, employed respondents, 1998–2004 Economic class and job experience by credential underutilization, non-managerial labour force, 2004 Major life changes of participants in the past five years Dimensions and categories of volunteer work Forms of activity and learning Incidence of transition and gender, 2004 Types of transitions and prior formal schooling, 2004 Participation in further education and informal learning by type of transition, 2004 Participation in further education and transitions, 2004 Participation in formal adult education according to level of former schooling and occupational transitions, 2004 Participation in further adult education and retirement, 2004 Participation in formal adult education according to gender and retirement, 2004 Participation in further education according to retirement and health, 2004 Participation in further education according to retirement and level of schooling, 2004 Participation in further education according to birthplace and immigration, 2004 Participation in further education according to level of education and immigration, 2004 Participation in further education according to occupational status, birth place and immigration, 2004 Migration and perception of education–job match, employed labour force, 2004

42 43 43 61 81 147 198 198 199 200 200 203 203 204 204 206 206 207 208

Contributors

D.W. Livingstone is Canada Research Chair in Lifelong Learning and Work at the University of Toronto, Head of the Centre for the Study of Education and Work, Professor in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE/UT), and Director of WALL (see www.wallnetwork.ca). His recent books include The Future of Lifelong Learning and Work: Critical Perspectives (Sense Publishers, 2008) (edited with K. Mirchandani and P. Sawchuk) and Education and Jobs: Exploring the Gaps (University of Toronto Press, 2009). Fabrizio Antonelli is a doctoral student at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. He works with university, government and federation partners in areas of research that include teachers’ work and learning, work education and curriculum studies. Originally trained as a secondary school teacher, Fabrizio is currently completing his thesis entitled ‘Workplace Learning in Secondary Schools: An Examination of Ontario’s Venture into Formal Career Education’. Paul Bélanger, after directing research centres on education and work in Canada, became Director (1989–2000) of the UNESCO Institute for Education in Hamburg, Germany. He is now Professor at University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM) and Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Lifelong Learning (CIRDEP). He has published books and articles on lifelong learning, adult education participation, transnational analysis of policies, on work-related learning and on adult literacy. He is President of the International Council for Adult Education. Stephen Billett is Professor of Adult and Vocational Education at Griffith University, Australia. He publishes in the fields of vocational learning, workplace learning and learning for vocational purposes. His books include Learning through Work (Allen and Unwin, 2001) and Work, Change and Workers (Springer, 2006), and edited books include Work, Subjectivity and Learning (Springer, 2006) and Emerging Perspectives of Work and Learning (Sense, 2008). He is founder and editor-in-chief of Vocations and Learning: Studies in Professional and Vocational Education (Springer).

xii Contributors

Elaine Biron is Professor of Sociology in CEGEP Saint Laurent in Montréal. She was a research assistant in the Inter-university Research Center on Science and Technology (CIRST) in the Department of Sociology of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), where she did her doctorate. She is now conducting a project on peer tutoring in the human sciences. Shauna Butterwick is Associate Professor of Adult Education in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia. She has focused much of her research on women’s learning, particularly in informal/non-formal learning contexts. She was the project leader on the WALL case study exploring women’s alternative and informal pathways to information technology jobs. Kathryn Church is Associate Professor in the School of Disability Studies at Ryerson University, where she also directs the research programme for the Ryerson-RBC Institute for Disability Studies Research and Education. Her research practice is an experiment in fusing ethnographic studies of ruling with arts-informed methods of writing and representation. Kathryn is among a handful of academics who have documented the activist work of the Canadian psychiatric survivor movement. She is co-editor of Learning through Community: Exploring Participatory Practices (Springer, 2008). Simon Cloutier is a doctoral student at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and a member of the Work and Lifelong Learning research network. His master’s thesis, using both quantitative and qualitative data, studied the relations between professional transitions and participation in adult education. He has also contributed to various qualitative research projects and is currently a teaching assistant at the UQAM and a research assistant at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute. Pierre Doray is Director of the Inter-university Research Center on Science and Technology (CIRST) in the Department of Sociology of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Within the domain of educational sociology, his current research is focused on post-secondary student pathways, on adult education participation, and on regulation and mode of governance in the domain of work-orientated education and training. He is a member of the Conseil Supérieur de l’Éducation of Québec and President of its Adult Education Commission. Fiona Duguid is a policy and research analyst in the Co-operatives Secretariat with the federal government. In this capacity, she provides advice on policy and programme issues at national and sectoral levels, as well as coordinates the cooperative research agenda for the federal government. She is also a sessional lecturer at Carleton University in the Sociology and Anthropology Department. Margrit Eichler is Professor in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE/UT). Her many

Contributors

xiii

publications deal with feminist and other social justice issues. Her most important concern at present is the climate crisis we are facing, and to conceptualize how it relates to social justice issues. She is Vice President of BIAS FREE Inc., a workers’ co-op, that utilizes an integrative analytical approach to deal with all types of hierarchy problems. Catherine Frazee is Professor of Distinction in the School of Disability Studies at Ryerson University, and Co-director of the Ryerson-RBC Institute for Disability Studies Research and Education. As a writer, educator and activist with particular interests in disability culture and resistance, her work is informed by life experience as a disabled woman and by varied and long-standing involvements in the equality struggles of marginalized groups in Canada. Kaela Jubas is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Calgary. As a doctoral student at the University of British Columbia, she was a research assistant on the case study, ‘Women’s Informal and Alternative Lifelong Learning for Jobs in the IT Sector’. Interested in the pedagogical importance of popular culture, she now explores how identity, ethics and pedagogy are represented in two television shows set in teaching hospitals (Grey’s Anatomy and Scrubs), and how consumption of the shows fosters informal, work-related and social learning among undergraduate nursing and medical students. Oliver Meyer graduated with a BA in sociology from the University of Montreal, which included a certificate in conflict studies from the University of Colima, Mexico. He is currently a graduate student at University of Ottawa in the School of Translation and Interpretation. His research includes studies of students in post-secondary education, e-learning and assessment of immigrant workers’ integration. He is a member of the Work and Lifelong Learning research network. Karsten Mündel is Assistant Professor in the Global and Development Studies programme at the Augustana Campus, University of Alberta. He also directs Augustana’s Learning and Beyond Office, which supports experiential learning in off-campus settings internationally, in the outdoors and in communities. His research areas include sustainable agriculture, the social economy in rural communities, learning through volunteering, and place-based learning. Bernd Overwien is Professor at Universität Kassel in Germany. His main fields include civic education/citizenship education, global education and informal learning. His English publications include ‘Informal Learning and the Role of Social Movements’ (International Review of Education, 46(6), November 2000) and ‘Informal Learning and the Role of Social Movements’ (in M. Singh (ed.) Meeting Basic Learning Needs in the Informal Sector: Integrating Education and Training for Decent Work, Empowerment and Citizenship, Dordrecht: Springer, 2005). Melanie Panitch is Director of the School of Disability Studies, a position she has held since the School was founded in 1999, and Co-director of the

xiv Contributors

Ryerson-RBC Institute for Disability Studies Research and Education. Drawing on her deep roots in the disability rights movement, she has recently published a history of activist mothering in the Canadian Association for Community Living, titled Disability, Mothers and Organization: Accidental Activists (Routledge, 2007). Peter H. Sawchuk is Professor of Sociology & Equity Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. He specializes in the area of work, learning, resistance and technological change. His authored, co-authored and co-edited books include Adult Learning and Technology in Working-Class Life (Cambridge University Press, 2003), Workplace Learning: A Critical Introduction (University of Toronto Press, 2004), Hidden Knowledge: Work and Learning in the Information Age (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004), Critical Perspectives on Activity (Cambridge University Press, 2006) and Challenging Transitions in Learning and Work (Sense Publishing, 2010). Antonie Scholtz is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), and a member of the Work and Lifelong Learning (WALL) research network. He has co-authored a number of publications, including ‘Knowledge Workers and the “New Economy”: Facts and Myths’ (in L. Teperman and H. Dickinson (eds) Reading Sociology: Canadian Perspectives, Oxford University Press, 2007). His doctoral research uses qualitative and quantitative methods to study the relationship among specialized knowledge, changing organizational forms and class. Daniel Schugurensky is Associate Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (University of Toronto), and Coordinator of the Adult Education and Community Development Program. His research and teaching interests include lifelong learning, popular education, citizenship learning, participatory democracy, and comparative and international education. Among his recent publications are Four in Ten: Spanish-Speaking Youth and Early School Leaving in Toronto (Latin American Research Education and Development Network (LARED), and the Transformative Learning Centre, OISE/UT, 2009), ‘The Learning Society in Canada and the USA’ (in M. Kuhn (ed.), New Society Models for a New Millennium: The Learning Society in Europe and Beyond (Peter Lang, 2007, pp. 295–334), and ‘ “This Is Our School of Citizenship”: Informal Learning in Local Democracy’ (in Z. Bekerman, N. Burbules and D. Silberman (eds), Learning in Hidden Places: The Informal Education Reader (Peter Lang, 2006). Paul Tarc is Assistant Professor in Education at the University of Western Ontario. His research in the area of teachers’ work and learning is informed by his experiences as a K-12 classroom teacher in Canada and internationally. Other research interests include international education, globalization and education, pedagogy, media education and teacher education.

Contributors

xv

Alison Taylor is Director of the Work and Learning Network and Professor of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Alberta. Recent publications related to high school apprenticeship and school-to-work transition appear in the Journal of Youth Studies, Journal of Education and Work and Journal of Vocational Education and Training. She is also the co-editor of Challenging Transitions in Learning and Work (Sense, 2010) and author of The Politics of Educational Reform in Alberta (University of Toronto Press, 2001).

Preface

In advanced market societies, many aspects of life have been converted into monetized vendible commodities and most others are prone to conversion (e.g. Slater and Tonkiss 2001). This continuing commodification centrally includes work, which is commonly portrayed in terms of payments received for selling one’s labour or the fruits of one’s labour. It also includes learning, which is often seen in terms of credentials and financial benefits that might be gained through formal education. A very common focus in studies of relations between work and learning is on investment in formal education as human capital and on income gains in the sphere of paid work (e.g. OECD 2007). The basic purpose of this book is to suggest ways of going beneath and beyond apparently simple commodified measures of formal educational credentials and paid labour to comprehend relations between work and learning much more fully. The movement of most married women with children into paid employment and the political influence of the women’s movement since the 1960s have stimulated growing numbers of studies in advanced market societies of unpaid household work that resists commodification. Now human capital theories predicting growing wealth from more investment in formal education have reached their limits with the emergence of chronic overeducation or underemployment; hence, greater attention is being devoted to informal learning in paid workplaces. Widespread accessibility of personal computers may also stimulate informal learning projects. There have been some surveys to ‘monitor’ some basic features of lifelong learning (e.g. OECD 1998) and there is a growing research literature on informal learning in paid workplaces (e.g. Rainbird, Fuller and Munro 2004). But, to date, there have been very few studies of relations between work and learning that have considered both unpaid work and informal learning, or their relations with paid work and formal education. This book suggests a conceptual framework for conducting such expansive studies of work and learning, and applies it to do empirical research. The Centre for the Study of Education and Work (CSEW) at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT) was founded over a decade ago (see www.learningwork.ca) and is sponsored by the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education and the Department of

xviii Preface

Adult Education and Counselling Psychology at OISE/UT. The CSEW mission is to pursue investigations of all aspects of learning that may be relevant to work. ‘Learning’ includes both formal and informal aspects, and ‘work’ includes paid employment, household work and community volunteer activities. The research activities of CSEW have been funded primarily through research network grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The New Approaches to Lifelong Learning (NALL) network was funded by the SSHRC between 1998 and 2002. The NALL research developed an expansive framework for (paid and unpaid) work and (formal and informal) learning studies, and conducted the first national survey in the world of these forms of learning and work in 1998, as well as a series of over 30 exploratory case studies (most now available through the NALL website: www.nall.ca). The Work and Lifelong Learning (WALL) research network was subsequently funded by the SSHRC from 2003 to 2008. WALL further explored the array of learning activities of adults, relations between work and learning practices, and differences in these learning and work relations between socially disadvantaged groups and others. The WALL research team addressed these issues by conducting a large-scale, country-wide 2004 survey and 12 related case studies to provide unprecedented documentation of lifelong learning and work relations (for further information, see www.wallnetwork.ca). Many members of CSEW assisted in the research reported in this book. CSEW coordinator D’Arcy Martin and CSEW secretary Rhonda Sussman, as well as NALL research coordinator Reuben Roth and WALL research coordinator Ilda Januario, played key roles in organizing the various activities in these networks. Both the NALL and WALL networks contained large teams of academic researchers, community partners and graduate students, most of whom are identified on the respective network websites. Thanks for technical assistance are due to Doug Hart and Milosh Raykov, who conducted most of the statistical analyses for both the survey and the case studies, as well as to Fabrizio Antonelli and Susan Stowe. Antonie Scholtz deserves particular recognition; in addition to collaborating on the basic survey findings chapter, he assisted in reviewing and formatting other chapters. The WALL international advisory committee included workplace learning researchers from several countries (Elaine Bernard, Stephen Billett, Keith Forrester, Veronica McGivney, Bernd Overwien and Kjell Rubenson), who offered valuable guidance throughout the project. We are most grateful to the many people who gave of their time to discuss their work and learning with us in the surveys and case studies. The major financial market meltdown beginning in 2008 and the burgeoning threat of global environmental degradation should provoke realization of how fragile human societies preoccupied with commodity exchange can be, and of how narrow conceptions of work as paid employment and learning as formal education are implicated in this preoccupation. This book may make a small contribution to the recognition and valuing of the paid and unpaid labours and the continual learning in these labours that working people actually do – and hopefully can continue to do – to underpin and sustain human societies.

Preface

xix

The book is dedicated to the memory of Karl Marx, who inspired researchers to look beneath the surface of labour market exchanges to comprehend actual labour processes, and to our late colleague and NALL project leader, Alan Thomas, who consistently urged looking beyond formal education. DWL September 2009

References Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (1998) ‘Lifelong learning: A monitoring framework and trends in participation’, in Centre for Educational Research and Innovation Education Policy Analysis 1998, Paris, France: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2007) ‘Lifelong Learning and Human Capital’, Policy Brief, July. Paris, France: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Rainbird, H., Fuller, A. and Munro, A. (2004) Workplace Learning in Context, London, ON: Routledge. Slater, D. and Tonkiss, F. (2001) Market Society: Markets and Modern Social Theory, Cambridge: Polity Press/Blackwell.

Chapter 1

Introduction A framework for exploring relations between lifelong learning and work in the computer era D.W. Livingstone

Appeals for lifelong learning are a common response to the apparently increasing demands of work in advanced market societies. Growing information content of jobs, proliferation of information technologies based on micro-electronics and small computers, and widening global competition to produce more informationladen goods and services more efficiently are presumed to require greater learning efforts from both the current labour force and prospective workers. This book questions this widespread presumption and offers extensive empirical assessments of relations between work and learning. The basic question is: ‘What are the actual learning responses of adults to the demands of work in contemporary advanced market societies?’

A wider conceptual framework The book is distinctive in basing its assessments on a more inclusive framework than prior studies for understanding relations between learning and work. The conceptual frame includes a continuum of formal and informal learning, and considers unpaid household work and volunteer work as well as paid employment. Prior research has ignored learning in household work and volunteer work, and has also given little attention to relations between formal education and informal learning in paid work. An adequate understanding of contemporary relations between learning and labour requires careful consideration of both unpaid as well as paid forms of work, and of informal as well as formal learning activities. As Table 1.1 suggests, in advanced market societies there are at least four conceptually distinguishable forms Table 1.1 Forms of activity and learning Basic forms of activity

Forms of learning

• • • •

• • • •

Paid employment Unpaid household work Community volunteer work Leisure (sleep, self-care, hobbies)

J I

Formal schooling Further education Informal education Self-directed learning

2 D.W. Livingstone

of basic activity (paid employment, household work, community volunteer work, and leisure including hobbies, self-care and rest) and four forms of learning (informal training, self-directed informal learning, initial formal schooling, and further or continuing adult education). ‘Work’ is now commonly regarded as synonymous with ‘earning a living’ through paid employment in the production, distribution and exchange of goods and service commodities. But most of us still must also do some household work, and many need to contribute to community volunteer work in order to reproduce ourselves and society. Both household work and volunteer work are typically unpaid and underappreciated, but they remain essential for our survival and quality of life (see Waring 1988). Household work, including cooking, cleaning, childcare and other often complex household tasks, has been largely relegated to women and gained some public recognition only as women have gained power through increased participation in paid employment. As community life has become more fragmented with dual-earner commuter households, time devoted to community work to sustain and build social life through local associations and helping neighbours has declined, and the productive importance of this work has been rediscovered as ‘social capital’ (Putnam 2000). All three forms of labour should be included in any careful accounting of contemporary work practices. Leisure refers to all those activities we do most immediately for ourselves, albeit often out of necessity, including sleep, self-care and various hobbies. ‘Learning’, in the most generic sense, involves the gaining of knowledge, skill or understanding anytime and anywhere through individual and group processes. Learning occurs throughout our lives. The sites of learning make up a continuum ranging from spontaneous responses to everyday life to highly organized participation in formal education programmes. The dominant tendency in contemporary thought has been to equate learning with the provision of learning opportunities in settings organized by institutional authorities and led by teachers approved by these authorities. Formal schooling has frequently been identified with continuous enrolment in age-graded, bureaucratically structured institutions of formal schooling from early childhood to tertiary levels (see Illich 1971). In addition, further or continuing adult education includes a diverse array of further education courses and workshops in many institutionally organized settings, from schools to workplaces and community centres. Such continuing education is the most evident site of lifelong learning for adults past the initial cycle of schooling. But we also continually engage, as we always have, in informal learning activities to acquire knowledge outside of the curricula of institutions providing educational programmes, courses or workshops. Informal education or training occurs when mentors take responsibility for instructing others without sustained reference to a pre-established curriculum in more incidental or spontaneous situations, such as guiding them in learning job skills or in community development activities. Finally, all other forms of explicit or tacit learning in which we engage either individually or collectively without direct reliance on a teacher/mentor or an externally organized curriculum can be termed self-directed or collective informal learning. As Allen

Introduction

3

Tough (1971, 1978) has observed, informal learning is the submerged part of the iceberg of adult learning activities. It is likely that, for most adults, informal learning (including both informal training and self-directed learning activities) continues to represent our most important learning for coping with our changing environment. No account of lifelong learning can be complete without considering people’s informal learning activities as well as their initial formal schooling and further adult education courses through the life course. As will become evident in the following chapters, all of these basic activity and learning distinctions are relative and overlapping. For example, volunteer work may be done as preparation for paid work and also be paid (see Chapter 4). Among leisure activities, sleep may involve thinking about paid or unpaid work, hobbies such as making crafts may become works sold for pay, and self-care can be seen as work particularly when needed to prepare for paid work (see Chapter 7 and Matthews forthcoming). Most pertinently, virtually all other activities involve learning. To distinguish basic forms of activities, and even more so to distinguish different forms of learning, is primarily a means to emphasize the expansive character of both work and learning. The conceptual frames of many prior studies of work and learning have been preoccupied with paid employment and formal education and are far too narrow. Virtually all forms of human activity and learning are relational processes rather than categorical ones. Valuable flows of knowledge may occur among these four basic forms of learning and the other forms of our activities. The basic assumption in this book is that in information-rich societies all forms of work and learning are implicated in each other and cannot be effectively understood unless their interrelations are investigated.

General perspective We can begin with two evident social facts. First, there has been a very rapid widening and deepening of use of computerized information technologies since the invention of small personal computers in the late 1980s, a period that may be termed the ‘computer era’. For example, Table 1.2 shows the growing prevalence of computer use among the employed Canadian labour force. In 1989, fewer than 40 per cent of workers were using computers in their paid workplaces; by 2004 over 80 per cent were. A greater amount of information is accessible to more people than ever before. Second, whereas the majority of married women with children in prior generations had devoted themselves largely to unpaid work, most now re-enter paid Table 1.2 Computer use in paid workplaces in Canada, employed labour force, 1989–2004

Use computer N

%

1989

1994

2000

2004

38 5332

51 6134

77 24,130

85 1741

Sources: Statistics Canada 1989, 1994, 2000; WALL survey 2004.

4 D.W. Livingstone

employment to continue their careers and/or make household ends meet. Between 1976 and 2003, the participation rate for Canadian women with children aged 6 to 15 grew from 47 to 77 per cent; for women with children under 6, it doubled from 31 per cent to 66 per cent. As a consequence, women’s general participation rate in paid employment reached 62 per cent by 2003. Whereas women made up only 31 per cent of the employed labour force in 1971, by 2003 they constituted 47 per cent (Statistics Canada 2004). While men’s labour force participation rate has declined marginally, the overall participation rate of the working-age population has reached the highest ever recorded level, with over two-thirds of all adults involved in paid employment. So, there has been a very rapid computerization of paid work at the same time as the performance of unpaid work has become increasing problematic as the women who had previously done the bulk of it moved into paid employment. In this context, research attention to the lifelong pursuit of information and knowledge beyond formal educational institutions and particularly in both paid and unpaid work is very timely. The general theoretical perspective used in the present studies posits an intimate connection between the exercise of workplace power and the recognition of legitimate knowledge, with greatest discrepancies between formal knowledge attainments and paid work requirements for the least powerful, including members of lower economic classes, women, visible minorities, recent immigrants, older people and those identified as disabled (Livingstone 2004). The present studies have been inspired by contemporary theories of adult learning that focus on the learning capacities of adults outside teacher-directed classroom settings, such as Malcolm Knowles’ (1970) work on individual self-directed learning and Paolo Freire’s (1974, 1994) reflections on his initiatives in collective learning through dialogue. Both theorists stress the active practical engagement of adult learners in the pursuit of knowledge or cultural change. General theories of learning by experience, emphasizing either the development of individual cognitive (Dewey 1916) or tacit (Polyani 1966) knowledge, also inform these studies. Other theories of cognitive development take more explicit account of subordinate groups’ sociohistorical context (Vygotsky 1978). All of these approaches to adult learning encourage a focus on informal learning practices situated in the everyday lives of ordinary people. The studies of work and learning included in this book can be seen as contributing to increasing attention to this perspective (see Lave and Wenger 1991; Engestrom, Miettinen and Punamaki 1999; Livingstone and Sawchuk 2004). All of these learning processes occur within advanced capitalist market economies, the most distinctive features of which continue to be: (1) inter-firm competition to make and sell more and more goods and services commodities at lower cost for greater profits (see Brenner 2000); (2) negotiations between business owners and paid workers over the conditions of employment and knowledge requirements, including their relative shares of net output (see Burawoy 1985); and (3) continual modification of the techniques of production to achieve greater

Introduction

5

efficiency in terms of labour time per commodity, leading to higher profits, better employment conditions or both (see Freeman and Soete 1994). These features lead to incessant increases in the types of commodities for sale, and shifts in the number of enterprises and types of jobs available. At the same time, popular demand for general education and specialized training increases cumulatively as people seek more knowledge, different specific skills, and added credentials, in order to live and qualify for paid jobs in such a changing society. Technological change, including tools and techniques and their combination with the capacities of labour, has experienced extraordinary growth throughout the relatively short history of industrial capitalism. Technological developments from the water mill to the steam mill to interconnected mechanical and electronic networks continually serve to expand private commodity production and exchange, while also making relevant knowledge more widely accessible. The microelectronic computer era and the rise of global financial circuits have almost certainly contributed to the acceleration of these change dynamics of capitalist economies (Harris 1999). In rapidly globalizing markets, more and more people are drawn into the pursuit of waged labour, with an educational ‘arms race’ for formal credentials and consequent growth of underemployment (Livingstone 2009). Most notably for the current research, these dominant features of advanced capitalist economies drive workplace learning to become increasingly linked to computerization and unpaid work to become increasingly drawn towards paid work. The empirical studies presented in this book emphasize different aspects of work and learning practices. But all studies address a wide array of adult learning responses to the demands of computerization, the redistribution of paid and unpaid work or other recent workplace changes in contemporary advanced market societies; and all address connections between workplace power and recognition of knowledge.

Research methods All studies include theoretically informed decisions in the selection and interpretation of evidence. Ensuring both representative selection and valid interpretation in the same study is extremely difficult – some would say impossible. In survey research, representativeness is typically considered to require random selection of a large number of respondents from a population. In interpretive case study research, more open conversation between the researcher and the researched is deemed necessary to reach valid understanding. Generally, survey researchers do not have the time, resources or disposition to achieve interpretive validity; interpretive researchers do not have the time, resources or disposition to achieve representative samples. Yet, surveys’ statistical profiles cannot tell compelling human stories; case study stories cannot address the question of the extent of the human conditions to which they speak; hence, the continuing quest to combine statistics and stories effectively. The empirical studies reported in this book are based on a research design that attempts to combine survey and case study methods. Building on prior case

6 D.W. Livingstone

studies of self-directed informal learning (Tough 1978), a large-scale Canadian national survey was conducted by the New Approaches to Lifelong Learning (NALL) research network in 1998. This survey included mostly pre-coded questions about formal and informal learning in both paid and unpaid work. Over 30 related open-ended case studies focused on varied work and learning contexts were also completed in the 1998 to 2002 period (see www.nall.ca). On the basis of the NALL research, the Changing Nature of Work and Lifelong Learning (WALL) research network was developed. The WALL research network was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) from 2003 to 2008. The WALL network involved a 2004 national survey of work and learning, and 12 related case studies conducted during the 2004 to 2008 period (see www.wallnetwork.ca). All of these studies included data on paid and unpaid work as well as formal and informal learning. The initial designs of the WALL survey and case studies were developed with dialogue and meetings including the survey and case study research teams. The results of the 2004 national survey were provided to identify some specific questions for further case study inquiries, and preliminary case study reports were shared with the survey research team to assess the consistency of some findings. However, as will become apparent in reading the following chapters, WALL researchers have combined quantitative survey and qualitative case study methods in diverse ways. Of course, there was substantial debate within the WALL network about the feasibility of incorporating the insights of these two quite different research traditions (see Jackson 2005). This debate involved the problem of relying on simple prior definitions of types of learning, the quite different ways of seeing and understanding through survey research and more interpretive methods, and the extent to which specific findings gathered by largely pre-coded survey questionnaires could be reconciled with those generated through more open and intensive engagement with participants in some case studies. As Nancy Jackson (2005: 22) observed midway through the research activities of the WALL network: [Ideally] survey questions mostly build directly upon and thus extend the indepth knowledge already gained in each of the case studies. Done this way, the surveys would add detail about the ‘extent’ of the activities, circumstances or relationships already outlined in the case study. In my view, this is an excellent – perhaps the best? – way to combine these two research methods. The interpretive case studies ‘explore’ for depth and comprehension, on a small scale, and the survey comes along behind and ‘counts’, on a larger scale. It is a winwin situation. But in the work of the WALL network, we have not had this luxury. For a variety of institutional reasons, the timing and staging of different kinds of work has meant that the case studies findings did not come first, and so they could not strongly feed and inform the WALL national survey. Furthermore, the survey is strongly influenced by the need to be ‘cumulative’ in relation to past and future research in the survey tradition. Thus, advantages

Introduction

7

to being ‘guided’ by the kinds of questions and answers found in interpretive research are counterbalanced by other considerations. In some respects, it remained true throughout the life of the WALL network that the survey cart was in front of the case study horse. The WALL survey research did draw on the prior NALL case studies and was also somewhat informed by a deepening array of interpretive case studies of workplace learning (e.g. Billett 2001). Both types of WALL studies continued to exchange and discuss each other’s growing evidence; some studies made concerted attempts to use both types of evidence interactively (see, e.g., Chapters 3 and 8 in this book). Further studies in this field should make concerted research design efforts to place the case study horse before the survey cart, while retaining some linkage to basic survey findings.

Basic survey findings Data from the 1998 NALL and 2004 WALL national surveys provide the main sources of evidence on patterns and trends in work and learning. These data provide the only known estimates to date of the extent of self-reported informal learning1 in relation to unpaid work, as well as evidence on employment conditions, formal education and socio-demographic background based on national population surveys. Some of the general findings of these surveys are: • •

• •

•

a substantial amount of complex learning occurs in household work and volunteer work; self-reported informal learning generally exceeds and is more important to adults than further formal education; Tough’s (1978) metaphor of informal learning as the submerged part of the ‘iceberg’ is confirmed; substantial informal learning continues through the life course into old age, as well as among the least schooled and the chronically unemployed; economic class positions are fairly closely related to schooling, less closely related to further education participation and very little related to informal learning; formal educational attainments increasingly exceed educational requirements for jobs; with increasing levels of underemployment (i.e. surplus of attainments to requirements), especially among industrial and service workers.

The survey findings on the changing relations of formal and informal learning with paid and unpaid work are discussed in more detail in Chapter 2. These findings are intended to provide some general contextual evidence for the following case studies into the complexity of workplace learning in contemporary advanced market societies.

8 D.W. Livingstone

Case studies The WALL case studies investigated learning and work relations in three basic learning contexts: unpaid work, paid work and transitions through the life course. All of these studies provide new insights into little explored dimensions of work and learning.2

Unpaid work and learning In the first ever substantial case study on unpaid household work and learning, Margrit Eichler describes the difficulty in studying learning related to household work: first, there is a near absence of research on the topic; and, second, many people often don’t think about their activities in the home as ‘work’ and therefore have difficulty in identifying learning related to this work. Using interviews with a range of participants, Eichler finds that, contrary to widely held assumptions, household work frequently involves complex tasks, challenging arrangements of child- and adult care, and changes in the type and performance of household tasks through the life course. These and other conditions like disability and immigration lead to learning that is intensive, sustained, usually informal, and often unrecognized even by the individuals engaged in it. Echoing Eichler, Daniel Schugurensky, Fiona Duguid and Karsten Mündel’s study of learning related to volunteer work finds that little research exists on the topic, that such labour is rarely considered work, and that the learning related to it is frequently informal and therefore not captured in research that emphasizes formal learning. Drawing on available definitions of volunteer work, Schugurensky, Duguid and Mündel propose a typology that recognizes the variation and complexity of volunteer labour. Through the different case studies examined in this research, they find volunteer learning is in most cases context specific and involves a diversity of abstract and concrete knowledge. They also find that the type and amount of learning is largely related to the personal histories and motivations of the volunteers, and to the activities and organizational culture of the volunteer organizations. They observe that voluntary organizations provide few opportunities for volunteers to reflect individually and collectively on their learning experiences, and argue that volunteers in community organizations are more likely to affect long-lasting social change when they can reflect on their informal learning, draw explicit lessons and act upon them.

Paid work and learning The case studies focused on paid work and learning examine ways in which recent reorganization and computerization are related to workplace learning strategies from the standpoints of workers coping with these changes. In the first case study, Peter Sawchuk argues that Fredrick Taylor’s Scientific Management approach remains highly relevant for understanding technological and organizational

Introduction

9

restructuring. In examining downsizing of the public sector, where social workers use ‘workarounds’ to cope with wholesale computerization of their relations with clients, Sawchuk finds that Taylorist impulses continue to animate change but there is no clear trend to deskilling (or upskilling). Instead, Taylorism in practice is characterized by worker resistance, the formation of new skills and persistent contradictions. In the second case study on paid work, the learning strategies women use to enter, survive and navigate in the rapidly changing information technology (IT) sector are illustrated. Here, Shauna Butterwick and Kaela Jubas find women’s experience in the IT sector to be diverse and often paradoxical. Participants reported ‘good’ outcomes such as more opportunities to access well-paid jobs, recognition of skills and a lack of gender-based discrimination. Further exploration, however, reveals that gender discrimination was operating when participants identified ‘bad’ outcomes, including heavy workloads that made balancing work and family difficult, and more vulnerability during times of rationalization because of women’s perceived lack of ‘hard’ IT skills. Finally, the authors, in keeping with their ‘Wild West’ theme (with research based in western Canada), identify the ‘ugly’ side of IT work where, for some participants, patriarchal practices continue to shape the way women are perceived as IT workers. Third, Kathryn Church, Catherine Frazee and Melanie Panitch have identified a number of learning strategies created by people with disabilities in the context of employment by a large corporation. The study challenges the organization of a literature base that keeps disability, work and learning as separate rather than relational categories. It proceeds across ‘silos’ to grasp what is going on for disabled employees who are learning in mainstream paid employment. Church and her team found that disabled workers are busy as both learners and informal teachers on the job. Study participants were enthusiastic about the ways that computer technology facilitates their employment – it has created previously unimaginable possibilities for communication – but they worry about the extent to which the ‘invitation’ of computer technology also translates to new demands that are difficult to meet. In either case, technology does not resolve the persistent complexities of social interaction that disabled employees experience in relation to their co-workers and managers. Such difficulties go to the heart not just of their job performance but to their sense of belonging to the socio/cultural world of paid work. This case study points to layers of disability-related tasks located in the mix of work/home/community that, while not job-related, are essential to success at paid work. Of particular significance is the complex relation between disabled employees and support workers in the interweaving of paid work with care work. The final case study on paid work and learning is reported by Paul Tarc and Fabrizio Antonelli. The WALL teachers’ study presents the findings of the first national surveys of Canadian teachers’ formal and informal learning practices, also conducted in 1998 and 2004, and of further focus groups and time diaries. This evidence provides unprecedented insights into the learning activities and changing working conditions of a professional group responsible for guiding effective tran-

10 D.W. Livingstone

sitions of the next generation to adulthood. Key findings suggest that teachers are acutely aware of the value of informal learning and collaborative learning with colleagues, and they have embraced the idea of lifelong learning. However, their educational institutions and professional development regimes have not adapted very effectively to support teachers’ learning needs. The paid work studies collectively show not only the extent of workers’ learning activities but the ways this learning can challenge and reshape official organizational objectives, received technologies and entrenched prejudices. These findings also illustrate how workers’ learning efforts sometimes function to enable and sustain organizational strategies that intensify effort, reduce job security and legitimize socio-technical restructuring that degrades the quality of work.

Transitions The third set of case studies examines transitions from formal education to paid employment, and between education and work through the life course. Three major learning and work transition points have been widely presumed in past generations: school entry, school to employment, and retirement from employment. But the majority of students leaving secondary schools now move back and forth between the labour market and post-secondary and further education programmes, and may continue to do so through much of their careers to enhance their job prospects. As noted above, married women with jobs and with children to care for also increasingly move back and forth. Retirement from paid employment now comes in many forms from early or partial to late or never, while unpaid volunteer work by older people is increasingly being recognized as a valuable and necessary activity. Virtually all attempts to construct distinctive transition points, maturation stages or life passages are revealed on close examination as ideal types with many variants modified through active work and learning choices. First, Alison Taylor offers critical analyses of conventional notions of linear transitions from school to paid work, of formal schooling as primarily instrumental investment in human capital, and of the merits of corporate partnerships. Her study then shows the limitations of the public–private efforts through analyses of recent national survey data on transition patterns, as well as the personal experiences of teachers and students in different trade apprenticeship programmes. Taylor finds that school-to-work (STW) programmes rarely account for inequalities that make linear progress difficult and that, in fact, concerns with efficiency and industry involvement in STW programmes often mean that social inequalities are perpetuated. The second transitions study examines the types and intensity of learning during different kinds of life transitions. Pierre Doray, Paul Bélanger, Elaine Biron, Simon Cloutier and Oliver Meyer trace this transition-initiated learning through the life course on the basis of questions in the 2004 national survey and follow-up interviews with people who indicate major transitions in later life. The team finds that intentional learning is not universal during transitions but instead depends on a

Introduction

11

complex set of structural and personal factors tied to educational attainment, immigration, and if the transition is to a new job or into retirement. In summary, the various WALL case studies draw on the profiles found in the WALL national survey to varying extents. Taken as a whole, they show in substantially more depth that workplace learning is more complex and extensive than normally thought. For example, substantial informal learning related to household work and volunteer work is transferable to paid employment but virtually all of it is currently ignored. The paid work case studies reveal that there is continual learning and job reshaping among even the least formally educated (Livingstone 2009). Similarly, the widely presumed transition points of school entry, school to employment, and retirement from employment are now more diffuse and complex.

Concluding reflections The final part of the book offers brief general reflections from members of the WALL research network’s international advisory team (Stephen Billett and Bernd Overwien)3 and the network leader, Livingstone, on the relevance of this research and implications for future studies of learning and work. If further studies widen their conceptions of work and learning somewhat and attend more fully to relations between different forms of each, the efforts of this network will have been worthwhile.

Notes 1 See Chapter 2 for further discussion of the limits of survey measures of informal learning. 2 Four other WALL case studies were conducted. These focused on: at-risk, low-income manufacturing and nursing home workers (Verma); marginalized immigrant workers (Shragge); pharmaceutical workers (Belanger); and workers involved in union-sponsored anti-racism education programmes (Ng and Jackson). Reports on these projects may be found on the network website: www.wallnetwork.ca. 3 Two other members of this advisory committee (Keith Forrester and Veronica McGivney) retired prior to the preparation of this publication.

References Billett, S. (2001) Learning in the Workplace: Strategies for Effective Practice, Sydney, AU: Allen & Unwin. Brenner, R. (2000) Turbulence in the World Economy, London: Verso. Burawoy, M. (1985) The Politics of Production: Factory Regimes under Capitalism and Socialism, Brooklyn, New York: Verso Books. Dewey, J. (1916) Democracy and Education, London, UK: Macmillan. Engestrom, Y., Miettinen, R. and Punamaki, R.L. (eds) (1999) Perspectives on Activity Theory, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Freeman, C. and Soete, L. (1994) Work for All or Mass Unemployment?, London, UK: Pinter Publishers.

12 D.W. Livingstone Freire, P. (1974) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, New York, NY: Herder & Herder. Freire, P. (1994) Pedagogy of Hope: Reliving Pedagogy of the Oppressed, New York: Continuum. Harris, J. (1999) ‘Globalization and the Technological Transformation of Capitalism’, Race & Class, 40(2/3): 21–35. Illich, I. (1971) Deschooling Society, New York: Harper & Row. Jackson, N. (2005) What Counts as Learning? A Case Study Perspective. Paper presented at the Second Annual WALL Network Members’ Conference, ‘Discovering the Terrain of Learning and Work: Preliminary Analysis’, Toronto, 19–20 June. Online: available at http://www.wallnetwork.ca (accessed 30 September 2010). Knowles, M. (1970) The Modern Practice of Adult Education, New York: Association Press New York. Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Livingstone, D.W. (2004) The Education–Jobs Gap: Underemployment or Economic Democracy (2nd edn), Aurora, ON: Garamond Press. Livingstone, D.W. (ed.) (2009) Education and Jobs: Exploring the Gaps, Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Livingstone, D.W. and Sawchuk, P.H. (2004) Hidden Knowledge: Organized Labour in the Information Age, Aurora, ON: Garamond Press. Matthews, A. (forthcoming) ‘Encounters with the Self: Disability and the Many Dimensions of Self-Care’, in E. Eichler, P. Albanese, S. Ferguson, N. Hyndman, L.W. Liu and A. Matthews (eds) More Than It Seems: Household Work and Lifelong Learning, Toronto: Women’s Press. Polyani, M. (1966) The Tacit Dimension, Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Putnam, R. (2000) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, New York: Simon & Schuster. Statistics Canada (1989) General Social Survey. Cycle 4: Education and Work (computer file), Ottawa, ON: Statistics Canada (producer)/Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Data Library (distributor). Statistics Canada (1994) General Social Survey. Cycle 9: Education, Work, and Retirement (computer file), Ottawa, ON: Statistics Canada (producer)/Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Data Library (distributor). Statistics Canada (2000) General Social Survey. Cycle14: Access to and Use of Information Communication Technology (computer file), Ottawa, ON: Statistics Canada (producer)/Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Data Library (distributor). Statistics Canada (2004) Women in Canada: Work Chapter Updates 2003. Catalogue no. 89F0133XIE, Ottawa, ON: Ministry of Industry. Online: available at http://www.statcan. gc.ca/pub/89f0133x/89f0133x2003000-eng.pdf (accessed 17 September 2009). Tough, A.M. (1971) The Adult’s Learning Projects: A Fresh Approach to Theory and Practice in Adult Learning, Research in Education Series No. 1. Toronto, ON: Institute for Studies in Education. Tough, A. (1978) ‘Major Learning Efforts: Recent Research and Future Directions’, Adult Education, 28: 250–263. Vygotsky, L. (1978) Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes, Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Waring, M. (1988) If Women Counted: A New Feminist Economics, San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row.

Part I

Surveys

Chapter 2

Work and learning in the computer era Basic survey findings D.W. Livingstone and Antonie Scholtz

Introduction ‘Lifelong learning’ is now a mantra invoked to address changing conditions of work and a widening array of other challenges in the contemporary world, but little quantitative research attention has been devoted to estimating the extent of this phenomenon. This chapter reports the findings of the first Canadian survey of formal and informal learning practices in 1998 by the New Approaches to Lifelong Learning research network, the NALL survey. These findings are compared with those from the 2004 Work and Lifelong Learning (WALL) survey of the formal and informal learning activities of Canadian adults. The NALL and WALL surveys address adults’ formal educational attainments, enrolment in further education courses, and participation in informal education and self-directed informal learning activities related to paid and unpaid work and general interests, as well as various questions about paid and unpaid working conditions and social background. The evidence offers some empirical basis for more substantive discussions of dimensions of and trends in lifelong learning. Before the survey findings are presented, a few limitations on estimating learning activities should be noted. Learning is a continual process with moments of greater intensity and identifiability. Empirical identification of forms of learning depends on conceptual distinctions that suggest discrete categories for a process that often occurs in and across a variety of contexts. The distinctions between formal education, further education courses, informal education and self-directed informal learning as defined in Chapter 1 continue to be actively debated and also contrasted with more implicit and reactive forms of learning (see Smith 2000). But for purposes of these survey we assume: (1) that formal and informal learning are best understood as a continuum with interplay and overlap between different learning activities (Colley, Hodkinson and Malcolm 2003); (2) that informal learning activities have tended to be ignored or devalued by researchers and policy makers (Livingstone and Sawchuk 2004); and (3) that survey methods that necessarily rely on respondents’ self-reports can only begin to comprehend the extent of informal learning by documenting self-consciously registered informal education and self-directed learning that respondents recognize (Livingstone 2005). To

16 D.W. Livingstone and Antonie Scholtz

study informal learning using the sample survey techniques normally required for representative readings of human behaviour, we have to focus on those things that people can identify for themselves as deliberate learning activities beyond prescribed curricula and without externally authorized instructors. Tacit or latent informal learning is increasingly recognized as substantial and significant (e.g. Marsick and Watkins 2001) and the following WALL case studies attempt to identify less explicit aspects of informal learning through more in-depth interviewing or other more sensitive methods. But the focus of short surveys of adult informal learning is necessarily on self-reported learning that ignores the depths of everyday tacit learning. In addition, the NALL and WALL surveys focus on adults’ postcompulsory formal education, with ‘adult’ defined in both national survey samples for practical selection criterion as those over age 18. A few other surveys have included informal learning and will be referred to where relevant.1 Again, we remain under no illusion that such survey questionnaires are capable of uncovering deeper levels of either individual or collective knowledge gained in informal learning practices. But, together, the 1998 and 2004 surveys offer fuller empirical evidence than prior research of basic patterns of continuity and change in dimensions of self-reported informal learning, their associations with levels of formal education and further education, as well as their relations with paid and unpaid work.

The 1998 and 2004 Canadian surveys of work and learning practices The 1998 NALL survey of adults’ current learning was the first large-scale survey in Canada and the most extensive one anywhere to attend to the array of adults’ self-reported learning activities, including informal learning as well as schooling and further education courses, and also to address paid and unpaid work. The 1998 survey included 1562 Canadian adults. Detailed information on the NALL survey was reported in Livingstone (1999) and is now available through the WALL website at . Given greater funding, the 2004 WALL survey, conducted in 2004, includes 9063 adults aged 18 and over, who speak English or French, and reside in a private home (not old age/group homes/penal or educational institutions) with a telephone.2 All households and individuals within households were given an equal chance of selection using random-digit dialling. The average telephone interview time was around 30 minutes. Again, the limits of a short self-report survey to comprehend the extent of informal learning should be registered. The general response rate was 51 per cent of the eligible households – 58 per cent if we exclude the households whose eligibility was not determined. The NALL survey was identical in most respects, interview time was very similar, and the response rate was slightly higher at 60 per cent. The data presented here are weighted by known population characteristics of age, sex and educational attainment to ensure profiles are representative for Canada as a whole. A summary of the basic 2004 findings follows, with comparisons to the 1998 NALL survey as well as

Work and learning in the computer era

17

to the few other relevant surveys. It should be noted at the outset that there is no statistically significant difference in the two surveys between actual participation rates in further education or in the general types of informal learning. The NALL and WALL national surveys document changes in work conditions over this six-year period, provide profiles of workers’ perceptions of conditions and changes in paid and unpaid work, and generate the first systematic empirical assessments of changing work conditions in relation to the continuum of adult learning practices. WALL survey questions were constructed to be comparable to many other surveys. These include the 1982–83 Canadian Class Structure (CCS) survey (Clement and Myles 1994), the 2001 Canadian Census (Statistics Canada 2003a), the Canadian General Social Surveys (Statistics Canada 1989, 1994, 2000, 2003b), the 1999 Workplace and Employee Survey (Statistics Canada 2001b), and the 1998 and 2003 Adult Education and Training Surveys (AETS) (Statistics Canada 1999; Peters 2004). Comparable items were also drawn from international surveys such as the 2002 United States General Social Survey (Davis, Smith and Marsden 2003), the 1997 UK Skill Survey (Felstead, Gallie and Green 2002), and the 2000 Third European Survey on Working Conditions (Paoli 1997; Paoli and Merllié 2001).3 We know of no other surveys that have covered such a wide array of learning and work activities. Analyses of these national-level findings include associations among all of these aspects of learning and work, as well the influences of age, sex, economic class, race and disability. The WALL case studies have conducted special focused analyses of the WALL survey data and some have completed their own follow-up surveys in conjunction with their in-depth interviewing. Some of the findings are cited in this chapter, some in the case study chapters. As discussed in Chapter 8, a country-wide 2004 survey of teachers’ learning practices was also conducted that links to a prior survey of teachers conducted by NALL in 1999. Further relevant findings can be found at . The NALL and WALL surveys not only provide extensive estimates of learning and work activities in Canada, but offer interested researchers an opportunity to conduct comparative and longitudinal analyses.4 There are benchmarks here for future large-scale studies of learning and work in advanced market economies. The following sections of this chapter first present general profiles of adult learning, followed by analyses of unpaid work, the relation of unpaid work to learning, then analyses of paid work, the relation of paid work to learning, and finally the incidence of learning through the life course. A short summary of the findings concludes the chapter.

A learning society in practice Much public discourse assumes that most adults are not orientated to learning and need to be motivated into joining the ‘learning society’ so that they can become productive members of a ‘knowledge-based economy’ where skill demands are increasing rapidly. A central objective of the NALL and WALL surveys has been to estimate the range of adults’ recognized learning activities. The results in this

18 D.W. Livingstone and Antonie Scholtz

section are presented in terms of formal schooling, further adult education (or continuing education) and self-reported informal learning generally. Later sections address learning in relation to work.

Formal schooling The NALL and WALL surveys confirm that Canada is one of the most highly schooled societies in the world. Participation in post-secondary formal education has expanded rapidly over the past two generations.5 In 1961, the proportion of the 25 to 34 age cohort that had completed a university degree was less than 4 per cent. By 2001, the completion rate had increased to 28 per cent. The increase in completion of community college diplomas was also rapid, with rates rising from about 4 per cent in 1961 to 21 per cent in 2001. In addition, 12 per cent were qualified in a trade through some form of apprenticeship in 2001. So, by 2001, over 60 per cent of Canadian adults aged 25 to 34 had credentials beyond the secondary level. Of all the advanced market economies, Canada had attained the highest cumulative level of university and college completions by 2002, with 21 per cent of those in the ‘working-age population’ from 25 to 64 having a university degree and 22 per cent having a college credential. Only the USA had significantly higher cumulative university completion rates (29 per cent) but much lower college completion rates. From a small minority in the 1960s, a growing majority of young Canadians are now completing post-secondary schooling. The rapid expansion of post-secondary formal education is a very important contextual feature for understanding the growth of further education.

Further education Participation in all types of further education also expanded rapidly from about 4 per cent in 1961 to 35 per cent in the early 1990s, according to Statistics Canada surveys (Livingstone 2002). The NALL and WALL surveys asked about participation in all types of further education courses in both 1998 and 2004. As summarized in Table 2.1, these surveys found further education rates for the 18 and over population increasing to over 40 per cent by 2004. The available evidence suggests that Canadian further education participation has grown over the past two generations to more than ten times the 1961 rate. But participation remains lower than that of most Nordic countries with more fully developed institutional provisions (Statistics Canada 2001a; Desjardins, Rubenson and Milana 2006). The Canadian further education system still suffers from significant accessibility barriers, most notably inconvenient times and places, as well as the high cost of courses (Livingstone, Raykov and Stowe 2001; Myers and de Broucker 2006). The available evidence suggests that, especially for those with limited formal education, many who are capable of benefiting from advanced schooling and would like to participate in further education face the most substantial barriers (Livingstone and Myers 2007).

Work and learning in the computer era

19

Table 2.1 Participation in any further education courses in past year, all respondents, 1998–2004 Year

1998 2004

Taken any further education (including current students)

Taken any further education (AETS – excluding most current students)*

%

%

43 45

40 42

N

1565 9026

Sources: NALL survey 1998; WALL survey 2004. Notes * This is the measure used by Statistics Canada in the AETS up to 1997. This indicator excludes fulltime students under 20 years of age in high-school diploma programmes or under 25 years of age in post-secondary programmes, unless their education is supported financially by an employer (Statistics Canada, 2001a).

Schooling and further education The most consistent finding in research on education has been the strong association between greater formal schooling and participation in further education. Table 2.2 once again confirms that these two forms of education continue to be mutually reinforcing. With increasing educational attainment, the likelihood of participating in further education courses increases. Both forms of formal education have made huge gains since 1960 and the participation gap in further education may be narrowing. But participation still tends to reproduce prior differences in educational attainments, with university graduates about three times as likely to participate as high-school dropouts. So, in terms of formal education, Canada is now the most highly schooled society in the world; over 40 per cent of adults are now participating in further education courses annually. Other advanced market societies have seen similar growing trends in formal schooling in recent generations. In this formal sense, both Canada and most other advanced market societies can increasingly be described as ‘learning societies’. Table 2.2 Participation in further education by schooling, 1998–2004 Taken any further education (including current students)

No diploma High school diploma Community college University degree Total

% % % % % N

Sources: NALL survey 1998; WALL survey 2004.

1998

2004

18 53 58 70 43 1548

23 48 52 63 45 8863

20 D.W. Livingstone and Antonie Scholtz

Informal learning The design of the NALL and WALL surveys drew on many prior case studies and several prior international surveys of informal learning (see Livingstone 2001). Most research on informal learning has focused on self-directed activities. Selfdirected informal learning is surely a major component of all informal learning since the individual is the final agent, and self-reports naturally will be self-referential. However, informal education by more experienced mentors is also likely to be an essential element in acquisition of basic knowledge on most topics. These social relations of learning processes are inherently difficult to assess through individual survey questionnaires; while some surveys have touched on aspects of informal education with a mentor, informal education and self-directed informal learning are rarely distinguished. The NALL and WALL surveys only begin to address informal education. Respondents were asked if they learned informally over the past year about several topics in relation to respective types of work or to general interests. General interest topics closely paralleled those used by Tough (1978), with the notable addition of computer learning. Work-related learning topics were generated through review of prior case studies of paid and unpaid work, as well as NALL pilot studies. The limited survey administration time allowed only brief responses to general pre-coded topics. The WALL survey repeated the same basic set of questions. The comparative findings are summarized here for informal learning overall. Later sections address informal learning in relation to unpaid and paid work. Tough’s (1978) array of primarily Canadian case studies and a 1976 US national survey (Penland 1977) found that the vast majority of adults reported significant involvement in self-directed learning projects and that the average time involvement was estimated at around ten hours per week in all informal learning activities. The NALL and WALL surveys are not fully comparable with prior research as they are not limited to self-directed informal learning projects, and they inquire about work-specific as well as general interest learning. In any event, as Table 2.3 summarizes, when these different aspects of informal learning are considered in aggregate, the participation rate of Canadian adults in some form of intentional informal learning is very high (92 per cent in 1998 and 91 per cent in 2004). Considering Table 2.3 Total informal learning (average hours per week), all respondents, 1998–2004 Year

1998 2004

Do any informal learning

Average hours per week*

%

%

92 91

16 14

Sources: NALL survey 1998 (N = 1565); WALL survey 2004 (N = 9024). Notes * Average hours per week are calculated as the mean of only those doing informal learning.

N

1565 9024

Work and learning in the computer era

21

all forms of self-reported informal learning for all respondents, the time devoted averaged around 14 hours per week. These time estimates are of similar magnitude to earlier case studies and the few generally comparable prior country-level surveys.6 These estimates can also be considered in the context of available estimates of overall time use based on detailed diaries of daily activities. The most recent Canadian General Social Survey on Time Use (Statistics Canada 2005) found that, based on time diaries covering a 24-hour period in 2005, only 10 per cent of those aged over 15 had participated in educational activities, for an average of half an hour a day. However, the general population also registered over five hours per day of free time beyond paid and unpaid work, sleeping and eating. This translates into over 30 hours per week that could be devoted to intentional informal learning, among other activities. Much informal learning is likely to be interactive with work and other activities, and difficult to distinguish from them. In terms of detailed estimates of general time constraints, the NALL and WALL estimates of informal learning appear plausible. There is wide variation in self-reported time devoted to informal learning. This variation is reflected in Figure 2.1. About a third claimed to spend less than five hours per week in all informal learning, a quarter spent between six and ten hours, a fifth spent 11 to 20 hours, and the remaining fifth spent over 20 hours per week. These are rough estimates. But the overwhelming majority of adults report that they are now spending significant and recognizable amounts of time regularly in intentional informal learning pursuits.

40 33 30 26

25

26

26 23

21

% 20

20

10

0 1/2 to 5 hours

6 – 10 hours 1998

11 – 20 hours

More than 20 hours

2004

Figure 2.1 Distribution of hours of all informal learning, respondents reporting participation in any informal learning, 1998–2004 Sources: NALL survey 1998 (N = 1443); WALL survey 2004 (N = 7423).

22 D.W. Livingstone and Antonie Scholtz

Statistics Canada estimates of time devoted to further education courses in both 1997 and 2003 averaged around 150 hours per year (Peters 2004: 12), less than three hours per week – or close to one hour per week if averaged over the entire adult population. NALL and WALL survey estimates for further education time are very similar. Estimates of time spent in self-reported informal learning activities are much more approximate, given their more seamless, less discrete character. But the NALL and WALL results are well over ten hours per week on average, so the analogy of the iceberg to compare adults’ formal and intentional informal learning activities (Tough 1978) remains quite apt.

Formal education and informal learning Tough’s (1979) studies found no significant relationship between levels of schooling and the incidence of self-directed informal learning. As Table 2.4 shows, the NALL and WALL surveys also find that respondents at all levels of schooling report 80 per cent or greater participation in and similar amounts of time devoted to intentional informal learning. This is not a remarkable finding if one considers that humans inherently cope with their changing environment by learning, and that informal learning can be done anytime, anywhere, whereas higher levels of schooling involve both sustained effort and substantial access barriers. However, the huge, hidden informal part of the iceberg of adult learning should have some further connections with the more visible and easily measured ‘cap’ of formal education above it. A few recent surveys focused on intentional informal learning activities to develop specific competencies have begun to identify some relations with school attainment. The 2003 AETS finds an association between higher school attainment and a few specific job-related informal learning activities over a month-long period (Peters 2004: 17, 44). The 2003 international ALLS Table 2.4 Incidence of informal learning by level of schooling, 1998–2004 Level of schooling

1998 Do any informal learning

No diploma High school diploma Community college University degree Total

% 81 % 97 % 97 % 99 % 92 N 1548

2004 Average hours per week*

Do any informal learning

Average hours per week*

16 15 14 13 16 1407

80 94 96 96 91 8861

15 15 13 12 14 7423

Sources: NALL survey 1998; WALL survey 2004. Notes * Average hours are calculated as mean of those reporting any informal learning.

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(Desjardins et al. 2006: 54–56) finds that those with higher levels of formal education more commonly use computers and the internet, and depend on reading and scientific education, when engaging in informal learning. Longitudinal research in 2004 with the continuously employed sub-sample from the 1998 NALL survey finds that those who did not participate in adult education courses during this period tended to reduce their participation in job-related informal learning over time (Livingstone and Stowe 2007). As Table 2.4 suggests, there may be a tendency for early school leavers to be somewhat less involved in general self-reported informal learning. But the vast majority of school dropouts remain actively engaged in informal learning and devote similar amounts of time to it as more highly schooled people. Further analysis of the WALL survey has found that, regardless of level of schooling, unionized employees involved in organizational and job-design decisions in their workplaces tend to be more involved in informal learning in some areas, such as keeping up with new knowledge in their job fields (Livingstone and Raykov 2008). Recent case studies find that many workers with limited schooling are achieving high levels of competency through informal mentoring and their own informal learning efforts (Livingstone and Sawchuk 2004). Subsequent research on relations between level of schooling and different types of informal learning may reveal other significant patterns. As advanced market economies become increasingly information-based, lifelong learning in all of its aspects is frequently heralded as very important. The NALL and WALL surveys confirm that a very large part of adults’ learning is done informally. The most important point to register here is that a very large part of adults’ intentional learning is done informally and, regardless of their formal schooling, most adults should be recognized as continuing, actively engaged informal learners. The failure of much research and policy making to recognize the significant amount of learning that occurs outside of formal contexts is consequential for all less credentialed people, but in particular it marginalizes the work and learning of those performing unpaid labour.

Unpaid work Both household work and community volunteer work are typically unpaid and underappreciated, still suffering the legacy of marginalization as ‘women’s work’, but they remain essential for survival and quality of life in contemporary societies. Household work is differentiated from and includes ‘housework’. Household work includes not only such housework tasks as cooking, cleaning and managing schedules but also other complex tasks like childcare and eldercare. Volunteer work includes support activities through diverse community organizations as well as assistance to neighbours. Here we estimate the current extent of these types of work based on self-reports, before going on to assess the learning activities associated with unpaid work in the following section.

24 D.W. Livingstone and Antonie Scholtz

Household work: housework, childcare and eldercare Housework According to the 1998 and 2004 surveys, virtually all women and men did some general housework (including cooking, cleaning, shopping, home budgeting, yard work, home maintenance) on a weekly basis in both years. As Table 2.5 summarizes, over 95 per cent of both women and men claimed to have done such work. But, as the table also shows, women still devote substantially more weekly time to housework, an average of 20 hours versus 12 hours for men. The 2005 General Social Survey, with more detailed estimates, found averages of 23 hours and 14 hours per week, respectively (Statistics Canada 2005). The gender gap in general housework may be narrowing but it is still very substantial. Changes in the division of power and labour within the home are complex phenomena, affected by participation rates in paid work, employment hours, earnings, and beliefs regarding gender roles and family, to name just some factors. While

Table 2.5 Participation in and duration of general housework, all respondents, 1998–2004 Housework

1998

Do unpaid housework Average (mean) hours per week*

% Hours N

2004

Men

Women

Men

Women

97 12 1507

99 21

97 13 8508

97 21

Sources: NALL survey 1998; WALL survey 2004. Notes * Includes only those performing unpaid housework.

Table 2.6 Performance of housework by sex, couples employed full-time compared with all other couples,* 2004 Couples’ job status

Always you

Usually you

Shared equally

Usually someone else

Always someone else

%

%

%

%

%

N

Both work full-time

Male Female Total

2 13 8

5 38 21

61 46 54

28 3 16

4 1 >1 3 36

Total all adults

%

100

100

1565

9026

N Sources: NALL survey 1998; WALL survey 2004.

Notes * Unemployed category includes active unemployed, discouraged unemployed and those who are temporarily out of paid work.

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include those who are out of paid work temporarily, in various circumstances, who have not qualified for benefits. Third, there are ‘discouraged workers’ who would pursue employment if they thought there were real prospects of a job but do not report actively seeking it. Only minorities of the small numbers of permanently disabled (around 1 per cent of the population), larger numbers of those who define themselves as homemakers (about 4 per cent of the population) and the very large number of retired people (around 20 per cent of the population) are not primarily orientated to paid work. But significant numbers in these groups would also take paid work if they could get it. For example, around 10 per cent of retired people indicated in 1998 that they were likely to seek jobs in the next year (Livingstone 2002). The proportions of the ‘not employed’ who seek paid work are likely to increase in the near future in response to continuing affirmative action measures, declining family wages, welfare and disability benefits, and the relaxation of mandatory retirement provisions. Unknown numbers among the ‘not employed’ are also employed in the underground economy. The basic point here is that a large majority of the adult population is either actively engaged in or orientated to paid employment. The core labour force employed in permanent, full-time work is shrinking proportionally; the numbers of non-standard, part-time, temporary jobs are growing; and the use of outsourcing and offshoring are becoming more widespread (Kalleberg 2003; Chaykowski 2005). Some workers do choose temporary and part-time arrangements, but recent research indicates that many of those in nonstandard jobs are not there by choice and often experience high levels of job insecurity and low pay (Cranford et al. 2003). This finding is supported by the WALL survey finding that almost half of temporary or seasonal workers want more permanent jobs.

Organizational change Intensified competition between growing numbers of profit-seeking organizations provokes more frequent changes in products, labour processes and organizational structures (Kenney 1997; Kleinman and Vallas 2001). There are several notable recent trends in the organization of paid work. As Figure 2.5 shows, almost 40 per cent of WALL survey respondents indicated that over the past five years there had been: a reduction in the number of employees in established firms; a greater reliance on part-time or temporary workers; and/or a greater reliance on job rotation and multi-skilling in their place of work. While larger firms appear to have relied more on downsizing and increased overtime for remaining employees, small firms have been more likely to depend on more part-time workers and multiskilling (Statistics Canada 2001b: 10). But there is clearly a general trend in existing employment organizations to downsize their numbers of permanent employees while relying on greater overtime hours from remaining employees, more part-time and temporary workers, and greater multi-skilling and job rotation from all types of employees.

34 D.W. Livingstone and Antonie Scholtz

Reduction in the number of employees

39

Reduction in the number of managers or supervisors

23

Greater reliance on parttime or temporary workers

39

33

Increase in overtime hours

Greater reliance on job rotation and/or multi-skilling

39 0

10

20

30

40

50

%

Figure 2.5 Organizational change over last five years, employed respondents, 2004 Source: WALL survey 2004 (N = 5733).

Distribution of economic classes Knowledge-based economy advocates have predicted and empirical studies have documented increases in both managerial and professional occupations (Lavoie and Roy 1998; Baldwin and Beckstead 2003). Lavoie and Roy’s general analysis of census-based occupational distributions over the 1971–96 period in Canada found significant redistribution of jobs from manufacturing to services, data processing, and especially to management and knowledge work. The proportion of people in management occupations nearly quadrupled to 10 per cent of the labour force. People in knowledge-based occupations that mainly involve the generation of ideas or the provision of expert opinion – such as scientists, engineers and artists – grew from 5 per cent to 8 per cent of the labour force. The changing distribution of economic classes (as distinct from occupational categories) over the past generation in Canada, based on the 1983 Canadian Class Structure Survey (Clement and Myles 1994) and the 2004 WALL survey, is shown in Table 2.15.7 Large and small employers (all those owning companies that have any hired employees) now account for about 7 per cent of the labour force. The selfemployed, including consultants, freelancers and those owning businesses with no employees, are more than twice the size of the two employer categories combined. Comparison of the 1983 and 2004 data indicates that there have been small increases in the self-employed labour force over the past generation. Intermediate or middle-class positions of managerial and professional employees increased from around 15 per cent to over 25 per cent of the total employed labour force.

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Table 2.15 Economic class distribution, employed respondents, 1983–2004 Economic class Large employers Small employers Self-employed Managers Supervisors Professionals Service workers Industrial workers Total N

% % % % % % % % %

1983

2004