Abstracts
Abstract
Trade unions and other sites of community-labour organizing such as workers centres are rich, yet contested spaces of education and knowledge production in which both non-formal and informal / incidental forms of learning occur. Putting forward a critique of dominant strands of worker education, the authors ask what spaces exist for social movement knowledge production in these milieus? This article critically discusses the prospects, tensions and challenges for effective worker education practice in trade unions, alongside a discussion of informal learning and knowledge production in migrant and immigrant worker organizing. We consider how worker education practices within trade unions might best be built to support critical thinking, the collective power of working people and cultures of resistance, and the significance of knowledge and learning in community-labour struggles.
Résumé
Les syndicats et les autres organisations communautaires de travail, telles que les centres pour travailleurs, constituent des bassins riches, quoique contestés, de formation et de production du savoir, au sein desquels des apprentissages informels et fortuits se produisent. Ébauchant une critique des branches dominantes de formation des travailleurs, les auteurs questionnent l’espace donné dans ces milieux à la création de connaissances liées aux mouvements sociaux. Cet article formule une critique des perspectives, des tensions et des défis d’une pratique efficace de formation des travailleurs. En parallèle, celui-ci aborde la production de connaissances et les apprentissages informels dans les organisations de travailleurs migrants et immigrants. Nous examinons de quelle manière les pratiques de formation des travailleurs au sein des organisations syndicales peuvent être mieux développées afin de soutenir la pensée critique, le pouvoir collectif et la culture de résistance des travailleurs, ainsi que l’importance du savoir et de l’apprentissage dans les luttes menées par les organisations communautaires de travail.
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Appendices
Biographical note
DAVID BLEAKNEY works in the field of labour and adult education. He is currently the national union representative for education (Anglophone) for the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. He has authored several articles and book chapters on adult education and social pedagogy in an activist context.
AZIZ CHOUDRY is Assistant Professor, Department of Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University.
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Appendices
Note biographique
DAVID BLEAKNEY travaille dans le domaine de la formation syndicale et de l’enseignement aux adultes. Actuellement, il est représentant national de l’éducation (secteur Anglophone) au sein du Syndicat canadien des travailleurs et des travailleuses des postes. Il a écrit de nombreux articles et livres portant sur la formation des adultes et sur la pédagogie sociale dans un contexte d’activisme.
AZIZ CHOUDRY est professeur adjoint au département des études intégrées en sciences de l’éducation de l’Université McGill.