Working Teacher

Publisher:  Vancouver-based Collective of teachers, parents,students,artists & U. profs, Vancouver, Canada
Year Published:  1979
Resource Type:  Serial Publication (Periodical)
Cx Number:  CX1029

Suggestions by Vancouver teachers on how to teach students about South Africa as well as how teachers can affact Canadian political structures by allying with other workers' unions.

Abstract: 
This issue focuses on development education in general and on South Africa in particular. One article describes how Vancouver Secondary school students have organized demonstrations and a conference on South Africa. There is an interview with the ex-teacher/trade unionist from South Africa who gives a first-hand account of that country's social and educational systems, the growth of black consciousness among the students, and a description of the Soweto uprisings. A teacher describes how s/he teaches South Africa to junior high students and includes a list of resources. There is a brief analysis of development education, reviews and excerpts from two curriculum guides, and an annotated list of five organizations working on devlopment education.

There follows Part II of an analysis of the "Political Economy of Schools in Quebec" in which Pauline Vaillancourt points out that, with increasing budgetary restrictions, the modern state opts for increased centralization. As a result, teachers find themselves increasingly alienated as curriculum and how it is to be taught is imposed by the Education Ministry. Teachers have found that they are not as different from other workers as they had once imagined. One way teachers can modify our society's political structures is by pushing their unions to affiliate with other unionized workers' groups and by supporting other workers in their struggles.

Additional articles are entitled: "Teaching: A Declining Profession for Women" and "An Open Letter From a Substitute Teacher."

Periodical profile published 1979