Its scope encompasses the personal, the local, the regional and bioregional, the national and planetary. In the subordinated Canadian context, the suppression of the languages and cultures of First Nations and Inuit peoples, of francophone and immigrant minorities, and of the deaf has contributed substantially to social inequality. Linguistic factors also intersect in complex ways with unequal relations of gender and class. This focus is devoted to pursuing critical investigations of all aspects of learning that may be relevant to work. Learning includes formal schooling and continuing education courses, but also informal self-directed and collective learning in workplace, household and community spheres.
Work includes various forms of paid employment, domestic labour and community volunteer activities.
Most faculty teaching in this focus are associated with either the Learning, Work and Change focus in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education or the Workplace Learning and Change focus in the Department of Adult Education, Community Development and Counselling Psychology. Much of the relevant research is conducted through the Centre for Study of Education and Work, and the Research Network for New Approaches to Lifelong Learning, which bring together researchers and practitioners from across Canada. This focus is concerned with the forms of thinking and the forms of social action that literacy makes possible, and that make literacy possible, in school and societal settings. Students are encouraged to refer to program requirements in their home department.