@prefix vivo: . @prefix edm: . @prefix ns0: . @prefix dcterms: . @prefix skos: . vivo:departmentOrSchool "Education, Faculty of"@en, "Educational Studies (EDST), Department of"@en ; edm:dataProvider "DSpace"@en ; ns0:degreeCampus "UBCV"@en ; dcterms:creator "Brown, Maria Johanna"@en ; dcterms:issued "2011-04-11T17:05:03Z"@en, "1972"@en ; vivo:relatedDegree "Master of Arts - MA"@en ; ns0:degreeGrantor "University of British Columbia"@en ; dcterms:description """This study surveyed the education and information seeking activities of Local 389 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees covering the period from March 1971 to March 1972. One hundred and three respondents were interviewed in a random sample of 141 union members. Participation rates were established for union education, labour education, other adult education, self-directed learning projects, and other information seeking activities. Socio-economic and psycho-social characteristics of participants and non-participants in these various educational activities were also studied. In view of the repeatedly expressed union assumptions that unions are responsible for all educational needs of rank and file members, this study also established how important members of Local 389 perceived their union's role to be in providing education in four different areas: union education, vocational education, labour education and leisure time education. It was found that the members studied accepted the union's role in providing union education, rejected the union's role in providing labour and leisure time education, and were divided in their opinion about the union's role, in providing vocational education, depending on their formal level of education. Only the poorly educated, unskilled members studied were willing to accept union responsibility for vocational training. In view of the surprisingly large amount of self-learning reported by the respondents, a t-test found that there was no significant difference in mean hours spent in self-directed projects for participants and non-participants in formal courses. Participation in union education was found to be limited to active union members only (8.74 per cent of the respondents). No participation in labour education was reported by the respondents studied, while 35.92 per cent participated in other adult education courses. Participation in self-directed learning projects and in other information seeking activities was high, with percentages of 99.03 and 96.12 respectively. Union participation (the extent to which a member participates in the life of the union), age and sex were found to be significant factors for participation or non-participation in formal courses. No significant differences were found in types of subjects in which respondents in different occupational categories were interested."""@en ; edm:aggregatedCHO "https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/33488?expand=metadata"@en ; skos:note "a ADULT EDUCATION AMONG MEMBERS OF A NORTH VANCOUVER LABOUR UNION by MARIA J. BROWN B.A., University of B r i t i s h Columbia,. 1971 I A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Faculty of Education (Adult Education) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA September, 1972 In present ing th i s thes i s in pa r t i a l f u l f i lment of the requirements fo r an advanced degree at the Un ivers i ty of B r i t i s h Columbia, I agree that the L ib ra ry sha l l make i t f r ee l y ava i l ab le for reference and study. I f u r the r agree that permission for extensive copying of th i s thes i s for s cho la r l y purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representat ives . It is understood that copying or pub l i c a t i on of t h i s thes i s f o r f i nanc i a l gain sha l l not be allowed without my wr i t ten permiss ion. Maria J. Brown Department of Adult Education The Un ivers i ty o f B r i t i s h Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada Date September.27, 1972 A B S T R A C T This study,surveyed the education and information seeking activities of Local 389 of the Canadian Union of Pub-l i c Employees covering the period from March 19 71 to March 19 72. One hundred and three respondents were interviewed in a random sample of 141 union members. Participation rates were estab-lished for union education, labour education, other adult edu-cation, self-directed learning projects, and other information seeking a c t i v i t i e s . Socio-economic and psycho-social charac-te r i s t i c s of participants and non-participants in these various educational activities were also studied. In view of the repeatedly expressed union assump-tions that unions are responsible for a l l educational needs of rank and f i l e members, this study also established how im-portant members of Local 389 perceived their union's role to be in providing education in four different areas: union edu-cation, vocational education, labour education and leisure time education. It was found that the members studied accep-ted the union's role in providing union education, rejected the union's role in providing labour and leisure time educa-tion, and were divided in their opinion about the union's role, in providing vocational education, depending on their formal level of education. Only the poorly educated, unskilled mem-bers studied were willing to accept union responsibility for vocational training. i i i i i In view of the s u r p r i s i n g l y large amount of s e l f -learning reported by the respondents, a t - t e s t found that there was no s i g n i f i c a n t difference in mean hours spent i n s e l f - d i r e c t e d projects for parti c i p a n t s and non-participants in formal courses. P a r t i c i p a t i o n in union education was found to be li m i t e d to active union .members only (8.74 per cent of the respondents). No p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n labour education was re-ported by the respondents studied, while 35.92 per cent par-t i c i p a t e d in other adult education courses. P a r t i c i p a t i o n i n s e l f - d i r e c t e d learning projects and in other information seek-ing a c t i v i t i e s was high, with percentages of 99.03 and 96.12 respectively. Union p a r t i c i p a t i o n (the extent to which a mem-ber p a r t i c i p a t e s i n the l i f e of the union), age and sex were found to be s i g n i f i c a n t factors for p a r t i c i p a t i o n or non-p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n formal courses. No s i g n i f i c a n t differences were found i n types of subjects i n which respondents i n d i f -ferent occupational categories were interested. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION 1 Purpose of the Study 3 Scope of the Study 4 Definitions and Terms 5 Plan of the Study 6 II. A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE. . . . . . . 7 Introduction 7 Union Attitudes to Education 7 Pa r t i c i p a t i o n Rates 9 Chara c t e r i s t i c s of Participants and Pa r t i c i p a n t s . . . .11 Attitudes of Adult Educators 13 Attitudes of Union Members Toward Their Local and Its A c t i v i t i e s 14 Summary 17 III. METHODOLOGY 18 Introduction 18 Construction of the Instrument 18 The P i l o t Study 22 Revision of the Instrument 24 Data C o l l e c t i o n 25 The Population 25 Sampling Method and Description of Subjects 26 F i e l d Procedures 28 Data Analysis 28 IV. ANALYSIS OF DATA 30 Introduction 30 Univariate Analysis 30 Char a c t e r i s t i c s of the Sample .30 Bivariate Analysis 33 Perceived Importance of the Union's Responsibility for Education 33 Extent of P a r t i c i p a t i o n 36 Union Education 36 Labour Education 38 Adult Education 38 Self-Directed Learning Projects 40 iv V Chapter Page Other Information Seeking Activities 42 Characteristics Related to Participation 44 Other Factors Related to Participation . . 63 Factors Inhibiting Participation in Union Education . 66 Reasons for Formal Participation in Adult Education . 68 Multivariate Analysis 69 Multiple Regression Analysis 69 V. SUMMARY, IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . 73 Introduction .73 Summary of Findings 73 Implications for Union Education. . . . . . . . . . . 78 Implications for Adult Education 78 Conclusion . . . . 80 REFERENCES 82 APPENDIX 85 LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Participation Scores in Hours of Educational Level of Respondents in the Pilot Study. 23 2. Means, Standard Deviations and Range of Sample Characteristics 32 3. Percentage Distribution of Respondents by Perceived Importance of the Union's Role in Providing Four Types of Education 34 4. Distribution of Number and Mean Number of Educational Activities by Four Occupational Categories 37 5. Distribution of Mean Number of Hours Participation in Educational Activities by Four Occupational Categories 39 6. Distribution of Union Education Courses by Four Occupational Categories 46 7. Distribution of Adult Education Courses by Four Occupational Categories 47 8. Distribution of Self-Directed Learning Projects by Four Occupational Categories 49 9. Distribution of Sources for Other Information Seeking Activities by Four Occupational Categories.. 51 10. Percentage Distribution of Participants and Non-Participants by Four Categories of Union Participation 54 11. Percentage Distribution of Participants and Non-Participants in General Adult Education by Four Age Categories 55 12. Percentage Distribution of Participants and Non-Participants in General Adult Education by Sex 56 vi v i i Table Page 13. Percentage D i s t r i b u t i o n of Respondents i n Four Occupational Categories by Level of Education. . 58 14. Correlation C o e f f i c i e n t s for A l l Respondents 60 15. Multiple Correlation Coefficients Between Six Socio-Economic Cha r a c t e r i s t i c s and Types of P a r t i c i p a t i o n 70 16. Percentage of Variance i n Types of P a r t i c i p a t i o n Accounted for by Selected C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of Respondents 71 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Education provided for labour union members is a separate branch of adult education, meeting the specialized educational need of labourers, as other adult education agencies meet the needs of farmers, businessmen, and others (Mire, I960). Tradi-tionally, therefore, labour union education programs have been concerned with labourers as union members only, restricting content to those subjects which were of direct practical im-portance to the maintenance of the institution they served. Such \"tool\" subjects as shop steward training, collective bar-gaining, organization and administration of a democratic i n s t i -tution, labour union history and others have made up the bulk of the educational content, in the belief \". . .that there are many internal union matters and problems related to policy which can be handled adequately only through the union's own program.\" (Hepworth, 1960). A recent study showed that there is a shift away from the s t r i c t l y function point of view and that labour education is beginning to be concerned with the worker as an individual member of society. (Robinson 1969). Confirming this trend, for instance, is Kertheimer's Handbook for Trade Union Program-mers, Exploring the Arts (1968), and a recent report of the Labour Education Information Center (N.I.L.E. 1968), which stated: 1 2 Labour education programs are i n -tended to enable workers to function more e f f e c t i v e l y as unionists, to help them understand their society and f u l ^ f i l l t h eir obligations as c i t i z e n s , and to prompt i n d i v i d u a l development. And as early as 1960, Joseph Mire, Executive Director of N.I.L.E. stated that \"Unions have a r e s p o n s i b i l i t y to the educational needs of rank and f i l e members.\" (1960). As yet no studies have been undertaken to s o l i c i t the opinion of rank and f i l e members as to t h e i r educational needs and preferences, nor i s there any great agreement between union leadership and union educators i n the matter of union r e s p o n s i b i l i t y and the educational needs of members (Rogin and Rachlim, 1960) . There i s a tendency on the part of adult edu-cators to assume that those who are less educated than themselves need \"upgrading\" or need th e i r values changed to resemble more nearly those of the middle classes (Carlson, 1971). As Wert-heimer puts i t , \"One of the big challenges for unions i s how to stimulate m i l l i o n s of members and win them away from the easy chair and t e l e v i s i o n . . .\"(Wertheimer> 1968). But i s that what union members want? Do they themselves see such a 'challenge' as the legitimate r e s p o n s i b i l i t y of the union to which they be-long? The fact that i t has proven so d i f f i c u l t to entice members of the manual labour force to p a r t i c i p a t e i n non-vocational adult education programs might well argue the reverse. The present study i s an attempt to help determine what union members think about labour education; to what extent they 3 par t i c i p a t e in union and labour education or in any other forms of adult education; to what extent they engage in self-educa-t i o n and other forms of information seeking a c t i v i t i e s or whether they think they need educating at a l l . Purpose of the Study P a r t i c i p a t i o n i n formal educational a c t i v i t i e s may not be an unbiased indicator of whether or not an in d i v i d u a l or a class of individuals is interested i n learning. Most of the emphasis on patterns of learning has been from the point of view of p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n i n s t i t u t i o n a l settings, neglecting larg e l y the p o s s i b i l i t y that a great deal of deliberate learning may take place outside of i n s t i t u t i o n a l settings. Bearing t h i s i n mind, the present study w i l l seek to answer the following questions: 1. Do union members believe that labour unions have a r e s p o n s i b i l i t y to meet t h e i r educational needs apart from union-related knowledge and s k i l l s ? 2. To what extent do union members par-t i c i p a t e in fi v e types of educational a c t i v i -t i e s including a) union education b) labour education c) other adult education d) s e l f - d i r e c t e d learning projects and e) other information seeking a c t i v i t i e s ? 3. Is there a difference in the nature and number of learning a c t i v i t i e s of various types engaged in by union members in d i f f e r e n t occu-pational categories? 4 4. Is there a difference i n the charac-t e r i s t i c s of members who do and members who do not p a r t i c i p a t e i n adult education? 5. If one includes a l l educational a c t i -v i t i e s an adult engages i n under adult learning, what personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c w i l l be the best single predictor of whether or not an in d i v i d u a l union member i s l i k e l y to p a r t i c i p a t e in adult learning? Scope of the Study The Canadian Labour Congress has undertaken an ov e r a l l study designed to discover the extent of the edu-cat i o n a l services provided for union members by p r o v i n c i a l federations, labour councils, national and in t e r n a t i o n a l unions, and by union l o c a l s across Canada. A l l this information is being c o l l e c t e d from the point of view of the union organizations. The present study i s designed to determine how union members react to and p a r t i c i p a t e in these union-directed educational a c t i v i t i e s , in other forms of educational a c t i v i t i e s , i n s e l f - d i r e c t e d learn-ing projects, or i n any other kind of information seeking a c t i v i t i e s . Since union Locals are far from uniform regarding s i z e , job categories and educational a c t i v i t i e s , no attempt w i l l be made to generalize from the randomly selected sample interviewed to a population other than the Locals which this sample actually represents, and Locals comparable to i t i n si z e , make-up and a c t i v i t y . 5 D e f i n i t i o n of Terms Union education i s education that fosters the growth of the union movement by providing members with the knowledge, s k i l l s and attitudes necessary for e f f e c t i v e p a r t i c i p a t i o n in union a c t i v i t i e s . Such educational opportunities are, for pur-poses of this study, offered only by unions and u n i o n - a f f i l i a t e d organi zations. Labour education is education concerned with the im-provement of workers' i n d i v i d u a l c a p a b i l i t i e s to function with-' in society; courses i n labour education are administered by many groups such as unions, government agencies and u n i v e r s i t y departments. Adult education i s a l l educational a c t i v i t y , outside of formal schooling, consciously and systematically organized by an educational agent for purposes of imparting knowledge, i n f o r -mation or s k i l l s . This includes union and labour education un-less otherwise stated. Self-directed learning projects are those learning a c t i v i t i e s which are d e l i b e r a t e l y planned and executed by the learner himself without the formal aid of an educational agent, outside of any i n s t i t u t i o n a l s e t t i n g , and at which the learner spends a minimum of seven hours or more. 6 Other information seeking a c t i v i t i e s are those tem-porary attempts at finding information an i n d i v i d u a l decides he wants or needs at any given moment, which may be sparked by an in t e r e s t in p o l i t i c s , i n current events, i n contemporary issues, by job requirements, etc., but which are not part of a systematic learning project. Plan of the Study Chapter II consists of a review of the r e l a t e d l i t e r -ature. In Chapter III a l l aspects of methodology are discussed, such as the construction of the instrument to be used, the P i l o t Study, and data analysis to be employed. Chapter IV i s devoted to the analysis of the data c o l l e c t e d , while in Chapter V the findings from the analysis are used to answer the questions posed in Chapter I. In Chapter V implications for union education and for adult education i n general also are discussed, as well as a concluding statement given. CHAPTER II A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE Introduction This chapter discusses the l i t e r a t u r e related to union and labour education, both from a t t i t u d i n a l and p a r t i c i p a t o r y points of view. Special attention i s given to union attitudes to education, to p a r t i c i p a t i o n rates in union, labour and other adult education courses, to c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of par t i c i p a n t s and non-participants, to attitudes of adult educators i n general to-wards the lower socio-economic c i t i z e n r y , and to the attitudes of union members themselves towards th e i r union Local and i t s a c t i v i t i e s . Union Attitudes to Education No research has been done regarding the p a r t i c i p a t i o n of labour union members i n any form of adult education i n Canada, and few such studies have been carried out i n the United States. The l a t t e r have been, for the most part, of an h i s t o r i c a l and philosophical nature. The most recent of these, Labor Education in the United States: A Survey of Adult Education Opportunities for Labor, d i f f e r s from a l l previous e f f o r t s i n that i t has \"attempted with some success to compile s t a t i s t i c s for some kinds of (educational) a c t i v i t i e s . \" (Rogin and.Rachlin, 1968). Some of i t s findings are that labour education in the United States i s 7 8 fragmented, and that this fragmentation generally extends to the organizations of labour educators, so that the l a t t e r are not drawn together to enable them to exchange views and exper-iences. The authors suggest that possibly labour educators can-not do this i f they are to take t h e i r unionism seriously. We w i l l come back to this l a t e r . In general, according to thi s study, union leadership i n the national unions and the state federations does not understand and support education. Three factors were c i t e d to explain this lack of support and under-standing: 1. The i n a b i l i t y of union educators to interpret union education to the leadership. 2. The i n a b i l i t y to integrate education into the t o t a l union a c t i v i t y . 3. The acceptance, by union educators, of i n f e r i o r status within the union. a The decentralization of labour education was c i t e d by one labour education dire c t o r interviewed as a major source of weakness of the whole educational enterprise of the unions. The authors conducted t h e i r survey from the organizational point of view, c o l l e c t i n g data where and i f available from enrolment f i g -ures, which were far from uniform and complete, and . . .while i t i s not possible to say how many unionists are actually involved i n labor education, i t is clear that only a small percentage p a r t i c i p a t e in any given year. The one great advantage of labour education as the authors see i t , i s that i t has at least a chance to involve i n education 9 those adults who are conspicuously absent from formal adult education programs, the blue-collar workers. The same point of view is expressed by Joseph Mire, Executive Director of the National Institute for Labor Education, when he states: It is largely through labor organizations that workers appear as actual or potential con-sumers of education. Efforts to reach workers through general adult education groups and pro-grams have, with few exceptions, been unsuccess-f u l . (1960). Participation Rates One study, investigating the learning habits of Ameri-can adults, found that the most frequently cited obstacles which prevented adults from participating in adult education were f i n -ancial constraints (43%), busy schedules (391), and lack of physi-cal energy at the end of the day (37%) (Johnston and Rivera, 1965). Women identified more obstacles than men, older adults more than younger, persons from lower socio-economic positions more than persons from higher ones. The authors, using the data from a national sample survey undertaken by the National Opinion Research Center, and consisting of three successive waves of data collec-tion, analyzed interviews made with 11,597 households (90 per cent of the probability sample) to provide a comprehensive over-view of the numbers and characteristics of adults engaged in studies of various subjects, the methods of study employed, and the institutional settings within which instruction was received. 10 Self-directed learning projects were treated as a residual cate-gory, but the authors found that so many people at one time or another engage in self-planned learning that they came to the conclusion that \"self-instruction is probably the most over-looked avenue of activity in the whole f i e l d of adult education.\" Subjects in the home and family l i f e area were studied more often without than with the help of an instructional agent; 80 per cent of those interviewed who studied gardening, for instance, did so independently. But other areas, too, provided ample opportunity for self - instruction: 60 per cent of those who studied, a foreign language, 50 per cent of those who studied music, and 44 per cent of those who studied speed reading did so without benefit of for-mal instruction. Allen Tough of Toronto found that in his survey of adult's learning projects 68 per cent of a l l projects were self-planned and executed, and that another nine per cent were of a mixed nature, i.e., par t i a l l y self-planned and executed, and par-t i a l l y relying on help from others (Tough, 1970). Tough and his research team carefully interviewed small samples from seven pop-ulations: blue-collar factory workers (N=10) , men and women from the lower end of the white-collar scale (N=10, 10), female element-ary school teachers (N=6), social science professors (N=10), mun-ici p a l politicians (N=10) , and upper-middle class women with pre-school children (N=10). Although the samples were too small to allow for generalization to the populations from which they were randomly drawn, an interesting phenomenon emerged when mean number 11 of hours spent at each learning project reported was tabulated: the mean number of hours for the factory workers, none of whom had gone beyond Grade Twelve in high school, was higher at 146 than for the lower white-collar men (111) or women (48), ele-mentary school teachers (42) , and the upper-middle class mothers (47), but not as high as that for the politicians (190) or the professors (171). Although the highly suggestive nature of the questions in the Tough interview schedule render these findings somewhat suspect, they indicate the possibility that although blue-collar workers do not participate in formal adult education programs to a great extent, they may participate in learning in-dependently. Since most previous studies have concentrated their attention on the institutional settings in which adults participate in learning, such individual efforts may have gone undetected. Characteristics of Participants and Non-Participants Another group of researchers approaching the study of adult education through i t s potential clientele concentrated i t s efforts on the city of Oakland, California, using both descriptive and analytic methods (London, Wenkert and Hagstrom, 1963). Apart from conducting a survey of sponsoring agencies, modes of instruc-tion and types of program being offered, this team used a matched sample of participants and non-participants in order to trace the connection between adult education participation and such socio-economic and psycho - social characteristics as types of vocation, 12 jobs, prior educational attainment, leisure time pursuits and others. Heavy emphasis was placed on differences between the higher and lower socio-economic groups. These researchers con-firmed the usual phenomenon that level of formal education is the best single predictor of whether or not a person is li k e l y to participate in adult education, as also reported by Brunner (1959), Booth (1961), Verner and Newberry (1965), Watson et al. (1963) and Dickinson (1971). Booth, treating data obtained by the Bureau of Census 1957 Current Population Survey (U.S.A.) with a ratio technique,, found that the non-participant is most often found in that por-tion of the population which is 45 years or older, has less than a high school education, and is either in the lower echelons of the labour force or not in the labour force. Johnston and Rivera (1965) found that the participant in icollege and university ex-tension courses was almost exclusively a person with one or two years of college already. Dickinson, however, studying patterns of participation in a public night school program in Surrey, British Columbia, found l i t t l e of no difference in the percent-age rate of drop-outs with less than a Grade Eight education and those with high school or even one or two years of university edu-cation, indicating that those with more education are sometimes just as li k e l y to drop out as those with less (1966). Delle-f i e l d (1965) , studying the aspirations of low socio-economic status adults, found that non-participation was primarily due to 13 the fact that such adults do not regard education as the means of realizing their l i f e goals. This concurs with the conclusion of Watson et al. (1963), previously cited, and Cram (1965) be-low. Dellefield sees the gap between the educated and the non-educated growing as a result of the fact that adult education seeks to f u l f i l l its purpose as defined by the educators rather than by the to-be-educated. Attitudes of Adult Educators Cram, investigating the attitude of Co-operative Ex-tension educators towards the lower socio-economic citizenry found that one of the barriers to be overcome by Extension ad-ministrators was the assumption that: . . . a l l people are dissatisfied with some aspect of their l i f e situation, and whenever occasions present themselves, the people w i l l take advantage of any education-al opportunities which are made available to them. Research reveals that many of the low income people do not feel dissatisfied with their present status in l i f e . This rather sweeping 'revelation' was supported by c i t -ing one document only. London et al. (1963)put the blame for the blue-collar workers' lack of participation squarely on the shoulders of the adult educators (in the United States) for per-petuating a number of myths about the semi-skilled and low-skilled worker in a way that inhibits these people's entrance in-to institutionalized educational a c t i v i t i e s . Some of these myths are: 14 1. Workers are nat u r a l l y apathetic to-wards society and i t s i n s t i t u t i o n s . 2. Workers are not capable of sustained i n t e l l e c t u a l e f f o r t and therefore are not able to benefit from continuing education. 3. Blue-collar workers do not have an interest i n or appreciation of education. 4. I n t e l l e c t u a l a b i l i t y is demonstrated early i n l i f e -- i f i t does not appear then i t never w i l l . 5. People lose the a b i l i t y to learn with increasing age. If such opinions are r e a l l y as prevalent as the Oakland study indicates, i t seems that, i r o n i c a l l y , greatly p r i o r i t y ought to be assigned to educating the adult educators. Attitudes of Union Members Towards Their Local and Its A c t i v i t i e s There i s , however, another aspect to the question of the union member's p a r t i c i p a t i o n in union and labour education, and this i s related to the rank and f i l e union member's attitude towards his union i n general rather than to his attitude towards education in p a r t i c u l a r . As mentioned above, Rogin and Rachlin (1968), commenting on the fragmentary state of labour union edu-cation i n the United States, remarked that possibly labour union educators could not draw together and share ideas and experiences i f they were to take their unionism s e r i o u s l y . The implication that there is an inherent paradox between p a r t i c i p a t i o n in the 15 l i f e of the union and p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n labour union education was not enlarged upon by the authors and remained somewhat puzzling to the present writer u n t i l reading another study e n t i t l e d The Local Union (Sayles and Strauss, 1967). This l a t t e r study did not deal with labour union education at a l l , but with rank and f i l e as well as leadership views on the Union Local and i t s a c t i v i t i e s . The authors used a \"behaviour-a l approach,\" based on p a r t i c i p a n t (in union a c t i v i t i e s ) obser-vation and on informal interviewing in 20 l o c a l unions (in the United States). No use was made of s t a t i s t i c a l sampling tech-niques, but projective tests were used to e l i c i t members' re-actions towards th e i r union and i t s a c t i v i t i e s . The findings presented r e l a t e p rimarily to unions in the manufacturing indus-t r i e s , but also involved were the building trades and some white-c o l l a r unions; the findings seem to apply quite c l o s e l y to these l a t t e r groups as w e l l . The authors found a deep-seated ambivalence between allegiance to the union and apathy or even h o s t i l i t y towards i t . The overwhelming majority of the members supported the union's economic a c t i v i t i e s , but, with the exception of the \"active minority,\" showed l i t t l e or no intere s t in the union's i n t e r n a l l i f e . The researchers detected a subconscious sense of shame --the American middle class ideal i s one of s e l f - s u f f i c i e n c y and of i n d i v i d u a l i n i t i a t i v e . Being a member of a union, [which is often not a voluntary state of a f f a i r s ] , brings home to a worker 16 that as an individual he is weak and powerless, and the union is p a r t l y blamed for getting him into this dilemma. The re s u l t is some h o s t i l i t y as well as l o y a l t y towards the union. For a small group, the authors found, the union is a way of l i f e ; for the majority i t i s but a method of economic representation, a l b e i t an important one. For them i t is only a means to an end, a way of gaining greater security on the j-ob, c e r t a i n l y not a great s o c i a l movement. The vast majority of the members r e a d i l y accept the union's economic functions, but deny i t s s o c i a l purpose. And herein l i e s the crux. The dichotomy between labour union educators' views of the union's r e s p o n s i b i l i t y . . .to enable workers to function more e f f e c t i v e l y as unionists, to help them understand t h e i r society and f u l -f i l t h e i r obligations as c i t i z e n s , and to prompt i n d i v i d u a l development. . . (Mire, 1960) and rank and f i l e union members' denial of the union's s o c i a l purpose (and so, by extension, the union's r e s p o n s i b i l i t y to educate them), must be resolved before the problem of rank and f i l e p a r t i c i p a t i o n in labour education can be successfully dealt with. As long as union members do not perceive education to be the legitimate concern of their union they are not l i k e l y to p a r t i c i p a t e i n labour union sponsored education. 17 Summary In general, the picture which emerges from the l i t e r -ature can be summed up best by summarizing the findings of Johnston and Rivera (1965): learning and education are perceived in r a d i c a l l y d i f f e r e n t ways by persons on d i f f e r e n t rungs of the s o c i a l ladder. Lower class adults not only value education less, they assess i t s worth s t r i c t l y in terms of the tangible advantages to be gained from i t . Whether one agrees with the statement or not may depend in part on what one understands by education. CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY Introduction This chapter's f i r s t section i s concerned with the construction of the instrument, the information to be co l l e c t e d and the scales used, the way in which v a l i d i t y and r e l i a b i l i t y were established by a p i l o t study, and the subsequent r e v i s i o n of the instrument. The next section gives a description of the population from which the random sample was drawn, the sampling method used, a description of the subjects, and f i e l d procedures u t i l i z e d , followed by a section describing the methods used for analyzing the data c o l l e c t e d . Construction of the Instrument In order to f a c i l i t a t e the c o l l e c t i o n of data required for the purpose of the study, i t was decided to design a struc-tured interview schedule. The problems of the r e l i a b i l i t y and v a l i d i t y of an instrument designed s p e c i f i c a l l y for a single study are discussed at length by a va r i e t y of a r t i c l e s and books on the subject, e.g., S e l l i t z , Jahoda et al. (1967), Moser (1967) and others. Not only the attitudes, expectations motives and perceptions of the respondents are important, of equal importance, and influencing the responses, are the a t t i -tudes, expectations, motives and perceptions of the interviewer 18 19 (Kahn and Cannell, 1968). Since questions can obtain only such information that the respondent is able and willing to give, the interviewer must be aware of the fact that many people have never learned to make the inferences necessary to an ade-quate verbal report ( S e l l i t z , Jahoda et al. 3 1967). Cannell and Kahn (1968) cite three conditions necessary for successful interviewing: 1. The accessability condition: does the respondent have the required data in conscious form? 2. The cognitive condition: does the respond-ent understand what is required of him? 3. The motivating condition: is the respond-ent willing to give the required information? Special care was taken in formulating the questions in order to meet the requirements for these three conditions. The instrument used to collect the data about par-ticipation in 1) union education, 2) labour education, 3) other adult education, 4.) self-directed learning projects, and 5) other information seeking a c t i v i t i e s , was a structured inter-view schedule constructed by the writer. It consisted of ques-tions e l i c i t i n g information concerning the usual demographic data such as l ) occupation, 2) age, 3) marital status, 4)level of education, 3) number of children livi n g at home, 6) number of years of union membership, and 7) sex of respondent, as well as questions about educational participation in the aforemen-tioned a c t i v i t i e s . The Chapin Scale of Social Participation, a 20 standard t e s t , scores on which have been found to correlate with socio-economic status, income and occupation (Bonjean et al, 1967), was used to determine how active the respondents were s o c i a l l y . In addition, a union p a r t i c i p a t i o n scale was constructed, measuring frequency of attendance at union meet-ings, at committee meetings and/or l o c a l executive meetings, in order to arrive at a measure of p a r t i c i p a t i o n in the l i f e of the Union Local. A \"readership\" index was also constructed, to determine whether or not respondents read the union i n f o r -mation materials, how much time they spent reading these, and whether or not they passed on information from these materials to other union members. (During the course of the interviews i t gradually became clear that t h i s index was at best of doubt-f u l v a l i d i t y , as th i s year (1972) turned out to be the negoti-ating year for Lower Mainland lo c a l s of CUPE. Nearly a l l mem-bers interviewed read the news sheets assiduously, where in other years they might not have done so to the same extent. Consequently the Index was not used in the data a n a l y s i s ) . In order to f i n d out whether the members of Local 389 accept the assumption that unions are responsible f o r the educational needs of rank and f i l e members, a f o u r - f o l d scale was included designed to ascertain how important respondents believed union r e s p o n s i b i l i t y to be in the areas of: 1. Union education. 2. Vocational education. 21 3. Education for c i t i z e n s h i p and s o c i a l r e s p o n s i b i l i t y , i n this study defined as labour education. 4. Leisure time education. The answer to each of the questions ranged from 6. . .'very important' to 1. . .'definitely not the union's r e s p o n s i b i l i t y ' . These ' b e l i e f questions, e s p e c i a l l y i n areas 3 and 4, released much latent h o s t i l i t y towards the union, not generated by any of the other questions. Lastly, a modified version of the Adolph and Whaley scale, measuring attitude towards union education, was included. Occupations were c l a s s i f i e d according to the Blishen Scale • Age, educational l e v e l and marital status categories were those used by the 1961 Canada Census. (See Appendix for complete i n -terview schedule). To e s t a b l i s h the r e l i a b i l i t y and v a l i d i t y of the instrument, a p i l o t study was undertaken, the r e s u l t of which is discussed below. In summary, the independent variables included in the instrument were: number of years membership i n the union, union p a r t i c i p a t i o n , s o c i a l p a r t i c i p a t i o n , the four ' b e l i e f variables, attitude towards union education, occupation, age, marital status, formal l e v e l of education, number of childr e n l i v i n g at home and sex of respondent. The dependent variables were: p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n union education, p a r t i c i p a t i o n in lab-our education, p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education, p a r t i c i p a t i o n 22 in s e l f - d i r e c t e d learning projects, p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n other i n -formation seeking a c t i v i t i e s and t o t a l p a r t i c i p a t i o n , a l l par-t i c i p a t i o n being scored at hours per year for the 12-month period under survey. The P i l o t Study Before proceeding with the p i l o t study undertaken to test the r e l i a b i l i t y and v a l i d i t y of the interview schedule, the schedule was submitted to a panel of judges consisting of an adult education professor and seven graduate students in adult education, who s c r u t i n i z e d i t c l o s e l y and made valuable suggestions and recommendations. These were subsequently i n -corporated into the schedule. The revised schedule was then used to interview eight members of the same population from which the random sample was drawn, but not belonging to the sample. During the course of the interviews, i t became cl e a r that Cannell and Kahn's three conditions for successful i n t e r -viewing were being adequately met: the respondents did indeed have the required data i n conscious form, they understood what was being required of them, and they were able and w i l l i n g to give the required information. Most of them actually enjoyed the interview. The respondents ranged from 24 to 62 years of age; t h e i r formal education varied from eight to 16 years of completed schooling. Their occupations ranged from night jan-i t o r to business manager for the school board. Six were male, 23 two were female. Only one of them had ever taken a labour education course, and none had taken a union education course during the period covered by the survey. Two had taken other adult education courses. But without exception they a l l took part in self-directed learning projects, spending anywhere from a low 30 to a high 1,100 hours during that 12-month per-iod. Table I shews the participation scores in hours in the various educational activities by educational level of the respondents. TABLE 1 PARTICIPATION SCORES IN HOURS BY EDUCATIONAL LEVEL OF EIGHT RESPONDENTS IN THE PILOT STUDY OTHER LEVEL OF UNION LABOUR ADULT RESP. EDUCATION EDUCATION EDUCATION EDUCATION SELF-DIRECTED PROJECTS TOTAI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 12 14 13 11 12 11 8 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 80 0 0 0 40 615 1100 50 550 100 250 120 30 622 1100 50 630 100 250 120 70 It is not possible, with such a small sample, to make any inferences about educational level and participation. The respondent with the highest educational level reported the lowest 24 number of hours in s e l f - d i r e c t e d learning projects, but the respondent with the second highest educational l e v e l attained the highest score i n s e l f - d i r e c t e d learning projects. Nor i s i t possible to make any inferences as to what extent the respondents' b e l i e f i n union r e s p o n s i b i l i t y for education i n -fluenced p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n union education, since none of the respondents had taken any union education courses. The dicho-tomy which Messrs. Sayles and Strauss mentioned, of accepting the union's economic functions while r e j e c t i n g i t s s o c i a l func-tions, did appear to a large extent. The four ' b e l i e f v a r i -ables nearly s p l i t down the middle towards both ends of the continuum 'very important'. . .6, ' d e f i n i t e l y not the union's r e s p o n s i b i l i t y . . .1, with the b e l i e f that the union should be responsible for providing union education and vocational edu-cation towards the high end of the scale, while the other two areas of educational r e s p o n s i b i l i t y (labour and l e i s u r e time education) were rejected outright as d e f i n i t e l y not the union's business. Some respondents became quite h o s t i l e at the thought of any int r u s i o n on the part of the union into t h e i r private l i v e s , a tendency which continued to be expressed during the entire interviewing period. Revision of Instrument One additional question was suggested by the results of the eight interviews, in connection with the s u r p r i s i n g l y 25 large number of s e l f - d i r e c t e d p r o j e c t s : why do respondents elect to study 'on t h e i r own when in most topics they choose, courses are r e a d i l y available? Although a l l other questions were closed ones, this one was included as an open question, in order to discover what factors i n h i b i t formal p a r t i c i p a t i o n in adult education. Data C o l l e c t i o n ' The population. The population were the members of Local 398 of CUPE with a membership of 873 (November, 1971).. This is an unusual Local, consisting of f i v e d i f f e r e n t groups of employees, and comprising inside as well as outside work-ers. The l a t t e r feature made the Local e s p e c i a l l y suitable for purposes of the present study, since i t is one of the very few Locals counting among i t s members both b l u e - c o l l a r and white-collar workers. The f i v e d i f f e r e n t groups were: (1) employees of the North Shore Health Unit; (2) employees of the School Board of North Vancouver ( D i s t r i c t No. 44); (3) employees of the City of North Vancouver; (4) employees of the D i s t r i c t of North Vancouver; and (5; employees of the North Vancouver Centennial Recreation Centre. 26 Since group one consisted of f i v e nembers only, a l l Health Inspectors, one of whom was about to r e t i r e , i t was decided not to include this group i n the population from which the sample was drawn. The members from group f i v e were combined with those of group four, since this was how they were represented i n the membership l i s t . For the pur-pose of the study, then, there were three groups: 1, the North Vancouver School Board (N = 215); 2, the City of North Vancouver (N = 230); 3, the D i s t r i c t of North Vancouver (N = 421), with a t o t a l membership of 868, both male (N = 631) and female (N = 237). The Local is f a i r l y active educationally. It avails i t s e l f of the programs provided by the Western Regional Education Department of CUPE which puts on weekend seminar at least three times a year. The regional head o f f i c e is in Vancouver, where most of these seminars are held, making i t easy for members to attend i f they wish to do so. As w i l l become cle a r , only a small number of members make use of the opportunities provided them. Sampling method and description of subjects. A 15 per cent s t r a t i f i e d random sample was drawn, using a table of random d i g i t s , r e s u l t i n g i n a sample of 126 names. Fift e e n alternate names were randomly drawn to of f s e t possible sample mortality,giving a t o t a l of 141 po t e n t i a l respondents. Once 27 the sample was drawn, no further d i s t i n c t i o n was made between the d i f f e r e n t groups. The sample, including the alternates, consisted of 113 male and 28 female subjects, ranging be-tween 19 and 72 years of age, with a mean age of 43.97 and a s.d. of 13.18. Their occupations ranged from garbage man and labourer i n a survey crew (26 on the Blishen Index), to accountant and j u s t i c e of the peace (68 on the Blishen Index), from j a n i t o r and truck driver (29 on the Blishen Index) to design technician and e l e c t r i c a l inspector (55 on the Blishen Index), with a l l the necessary gradations i n between (mean 38.81, S.D. 10.55), thus giving a f a i r spread between blue and white c o l l a r occupations. Only union members who had been with the Local for at least 12 months were included i n the sample, since the survey covered a period of 12 months, from March 1971 u n t i l March 1972. Formal l e v e l of education ranged from gix to 20 years of schooling, with a mean of 11.32, S.D. 2.71. One hundred and three interviews were successfully completed, 73.05 per cent of the t o t a l sample. D i s t r i b u t i o n of the 38 unsuccessful attempts was as follows: one was deceased; three were too busy (one of these held two jobs); nine were not interested and refused to be interviewed outright; one had gone to England for the summer, and four were l a i d off but retained t h e i r membership in the Local i n the hope of being rehired; they were, however, not available for interviewing. The remain-ing 20 had l e f t t h e i r employ and were no longer members of Local 28 398 of CUPE. When the large number of people included i n the membership l i s t who were in ef f e c t no longer members, were queried, some embarrassment resulted: i t turned out that the Local leadership had purposely retained these names i n the i r membership l i s t because of the pending salary negotiations --their strength i s in numbers! So due to l o c a l union p o l i t i c s the number of actual respondents was smaller than i t otherwise might have been. F i e l d procedures. The writer conducted a l l i n -terviews personally, a f t e r making i n i t i a l contact by telephone, or where this was not possible, by a di r e c t house c a l l . No attempt to interview a subject was abandoned unless a d e f i n i t e reason was obtained why a poten t i a l respondent could not or would not be interviewed. Data Analysis The University of B r i t i s h Columbia's MV-TAB and TRIP programs were used to analyze the data. Bivariate tables were constructed to arrive at percentage d i s t r i b u t i o n s of number and mean number of f i v e types of educational a c t i v i t i e s (including union education, labour education, adult education, s e l f - d i r e c t e d learning projects, and other information seeking a c t i v i t i e s ) and of t o t a l p a r t i c i p a t i o n by four educational categories, as well as tables showing percentage d i s t r i b u t i o n of participants and non-participants by union p a r t i c i p a t i o n , s o c i a l p a r t i c i p a t i o n , occu-29 pation, age, marital status, formal education, number of children at home and sex. Chi-squares were calculated where applicable. A c o r r e l a t i o n matrix was also constructed corre-l a t i n g a l l dependent and independent v a r i a b l e s . Multiple regression techniques were used to f i n d : (a) how much predictive power the personal variables (occu-pation, age, formal education, marital status, number of children at home and sex) have as a set; (b) whether the be-l i e f variables add anything to what the personal variables con-tribu t e to prediction about union education; and (c) which i n -dependent variables are s i g n i f i c a n t i n predi c t i o n for p a r t i c i -pation in union education, other adult education, s e l f - d i r e c t e d learning projects, other information seeking a c t i v i t i e s and t o t a l p a r t i c i p a t i o n . F i n a l l y , a t-test was performed to see i f the mean scores i n s e l f - d i r e c t e d learning projects for participants i n adult education (including union and labour edcuation) d i f f e r e d s i g n i f i c a n t l y (at the .05 level) from that for non-participants in adult education. The information obtained by these s t a t i s t i c a l methods was then used to answer the questions posed in Chapter I. CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS OF DATA Introduction This chapter is devoted to the analysis of the data c o l l e c t e d . Univariate, b i v a r i a t e and multivariate methods were used to describe the respondents; the perceived importance of the union's role in meeting the educational needs of the respond-ents; the extent of p a r t i c i p a t i o n in f i v e educational a c t i v i t i e s (union education, labour education, other adult education, s e l f -directed learning projects and other information seeking a c t i v i -t i e s ) and i n t o t a l p a r t i c i p a t i o n ; the c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s related to p a r t i c i p a t i o n and non-participation; other factors related to p a r t i c i p a t i o n and non-participation; as well as socio-economic and psycho-social c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s accounting for variance in p a r t i c i p a t i o n scores. A t - t e s t was performed to see i f mean number of hours i n s e l f - d i r e c t e d projects for par t i c i p a n t s in union, labour and adult education d i f f e r e d s i g n i f i c a n t l y from that of non-participants. Univariate Analvsis Chara c t e r i s t i c s of the Sample. Table 2 provides a summary description of the sample c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . The respondents reported an average length of membership i n the union of s l i g h t l y over nine years. Their mean score on the union p a r t i c i p a t i o n scale (measuring frequency of attendance 30 31 at union meetings, at special committee meetings and/or l o c a l executive meetings) was 7.62, and on the s o c i a l p a r t i c i p a t i o n (Chapin) scale 8.3. Their mean socres on the fo u r f o l d ' b e l i e f scales, measuring b e l i e f i n t h e i r perceived importance of the union's role i n providing four types of education (union, vo-cat i o n a l , labour and l e i s u r e time education),were respective-ly 4.75, 3.92, 2.34, and 1.63, with the scale ranging from 6 -1. Their mean score on the attitude towards union education (Adolph and Whaley, modified) scale was well over 57, with a range of 24 - 78, while the scale i t s e l f ranged from 21 to 78. Their occupations averaged 38.81 on the Blishen Index (range 26 - 68), and they reported a mean age of over 43 years. Their average l e v e l of education was s l i g h t l y over 11 years of com-pleted schooling, and they had a mean number of 1.34 children s t i l l l i v i n g at home. 32 TABLE 2 SUMMARY TABLE OF SAMPLE CHARACTERISTICS CHARACTERISTIC MEAN S.D. RANGE Years membership in the union 9. 03 7. 04 1 - 26 Union participation, attendance at regular meetings, committees and executive meetings 7. 62 15. 60 0 - 55 Social participation (Chapin Scale) 8. 30 11. 62 0 - 51 Perceived importance of ^ union's responsibility for: Union Education Vocational Education Labour Education Leisure Time Education 4. 3. 2. 1. 75 92 34 63 1. 1. 1. 1. 27 90 81 43 1 1 1 1 - 6 - 6 - 6 - 6 Attitude to union education (Adolph and Whaley) 57. 63 14. 37 24 - 78 Occupation (Blishen Index) 38. 81 10. 55 26 - 68 Age 43. 97 13. 18 19 - 72 Level of education (years completed) 11. 32 2. 71 6 - 20 Number of children at home 1. 34 1. 34 0 - 6 Measurement of belief in importance of union's role in providing education in these four areas: Very important - 6 Quite important - 5 Somewhat important - 4 Not important - 3 Undecided - 2 Definitely not the union's responsibility - 1 (This last item allowed for expression of hostility) 33 Bivariate Analysis Perceived Importance of Union Responsibility for Education. In order to fi n d out how union members perceived the importance of the union's role in providing four types of education -- union education, vocational education, labour education and l e i s u r e time education -- a b i v a r i a t e table was compiled, giving a percentage d i s t r i b u t i o n of respondents by perceived importance in these four educational areas (Table 3). The overwhelming majority of the respondents accepted union r e s p o n s i b i l i t y for union education, but rejected any no-tio n of union r e s p o n s i b i l i t y for education concerning th e i r s o c i a l and private l i v e s : 85 out of the 103 claimed varying degrees of importance for union r e s p o n s i b i l i t y i n union edu-cation; the same number rejected union r e s p o n s i b i l i t y for leisu r e time education unequivocally, and 63 did so for union r e s p o n s i b i l i t y ir. the s o c i a l realm (labour education) . Only three members did not believe the union was responsible for union education. The figures were less clear cut for the area of vocational t r a i n i n g , with 69 out of 103 b e l i e v i n g that union r e s p o n s i b i l i t y in th i s area was important, seven declaring such r e s p o n s i b i l i t y unimportant, one being undecided, and 26 claim-ing that vocational education was d e f i n i t e l y not the union's r e s p o n s i b i l i t y . In toto, the response rate was s t a t i s t i c a l l y s i g n i f i c a n t . Because the responses were somewhat ambipuous for the vocational area, a separate chi square was calculated comparing b e l i e f i n union r e s p o n s i b i l i t y for vocational t r a i n -34 TABLE 3 PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION OF RESPONDENTS BY PERCEIVED IMPORTANCE OF THE UNION'S ROLE IN PROVIDING FOUR TYPES OF EDUCATION (This scale to be tipped, starting with 6) DEGREE OF IMPORTANCE TYPE OF EDUCATION UNION NO. \\ VOCATIONAL NO. % LABOUR NO. \\ LEISURE NO. % Definitely not 1 3 2.91 26 25.24 63 61.16 85 82.52 Undecided 2 2.91 .97 2.91 0 0.00 Not Important 3 12 11.65 7 6.79 2.91 1.94 Somewhat Important 4 16N 15.53 12N 11.65 14 13.59 7 6.79 Quite Important 5 34 TOTAL ^33.02 35 Very Important 6 35 ' \\ 33.98 15 14.56 4.87 33.98 22 J 21.37 5 4.87 4 3.88 103 100 103 100 103 100 103 100 MEAN SCORES 4.75 3.92 2.34 1.63 Chi square = 178.60, d.f. =15, p < .001 35 ing with that for union education, which yielded a chi-square value of 24.11 s i g n i f i c a n t at the .05 l e v e l . Much h o s t i l i t y was generated when respondents were asked how important they believed union r e s p o n s i b i l i t y to be in providing labour and lei s u r e education. Given the unions' assumption that they have an all-embracing r e s p o n s i b i l i t y for the educational needs of their members, \". . .to help them understand t h e i r society and f u l f i l l t h e i r obligations as c i t i z e n s , and to prompt in d i v i d u a l development,\" (Mire, 1960) they have conspicuously f a i l e d to convince the rank and f i l e membership with any degree of success. Certainly the members of Local 389 of CUPE disagree very strongly with the assumption. It must be understood that the respondents did not deny the existence of their educational needs, they only de-nied union r e s p o n s i b i l i t y for meeting these needs i n labour education and l e i s u r e time education. The extent of t h e i r p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n s e l f - d i r e c t e d learning projects and other information seeking a c t i v i t i e s suggests that rank and f i l e mem-bers are well.able to look aft e r t h e i r own educational needs as they perceive them, and that they can and w i l l f i n d the r e l e -vant resources as the need for them ari s e s . Again, the dicho-temy reported by Strauss and Sayles, of accepting the union's economic function bat denying i t s s o c i a l function was stronq-ly cinfirmed. 36 Extent cf Participation. Of the 103 respondents in-terviewed, nine (8.741) had taken a total of 19 union edu-cation courses. None had taken any labour education courses (the only member interviewed who had taken a labour education course appeared in the pilot study -- the course in question was a course in Traffic Engineering). Thirty-seven respondents (35.921) had taken an aggregate of 82 adult education courses, exclusive of union and labour education. One hundred and two out of the 103 respondents (99.03%) took part in a total of 396 self-directed learning projects, while 99 (96.12%) engaged in 345 other information seeking a c t i v i t i e s . Table 4, showing the percentage distribution of the respondents in four occupational categories according to the Blishen Index by participation in the various educational acti v i t i e s , shows that the total mean number of activities increases as the members move up the social ladder: Group I (Blishen Index 20 - 29, N=35) took part in 264 activities with a mean number of 7.54. Group II (Blishen Index 30 - 39, N=28) took part in 217 activities with a mean numeber of 7.75. Group III (Blishen Index 40 - 49, N=15) took part in 125 activities with a mean number of 8.25, while Group IV (Blishen Index 50 and over, N=25) totalled 236 activities with a mean number of 9.44. Union Education. Only nine of the 103 respondents (8.74%) participated in union education courses between March 1971 and March 1972, the period covered by the survey. They TABLE 4 DISTRIBUTION OF NUMBER AND MEAN NUMBER OF EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES BY FOUR OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORIES (BLISHEN INDEX) EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY Group I (20 - 29) N » 35 Group II (30 - 39) N = 28 Group III (40 - 49) N = 15 Group IV (50 and Over) N = 25 TOTAL N = 103 No. Mean No, No. Mean No. No. Mean No. No. Mean No. No. Mean No. UNION EDUCATION .23 .28 .20 19 .18 LABOUR EDUCATION 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 OTHER ADULT EDUCATION 20 .57 20 .71 14 .93 28 1.12 82 .79 SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING PROJECTS 133 3.80 112 4.00 55 3.67 96 3.84 396 3.83 OTHER INFORMATION SEEKING ACTIVITIES. 103 2.94 77 2.75 53 3.53 112 4.48 345 3.35 w TOTAL ^ EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES 264 7.54 217 7.75 125 8.25 . 236 9.44 842 8.17 38 took a t o t a l of 19 courses. Each union education course was scheduled as a day-long seminar, with seven course hours per course. Table 3 shows that only members of Group IV did not pa r t i c i p a t e in union education. Courses p a r t i c i p a t e d in were: Bargaining Procedures; Union Economics; Shop Stewart Training; A r b i t r a t i o n Procedures; Job Evaluation; Labour-Management Re-l a t i o n s ; Parliamentary Procedures and P o l i t i c a l Economics. Labour Education. None of the respondents had par-t i c i p a t e d in labour education during the period from March 1971 to March 19 72. Adult Education (Exclusive of Union and Labour Edu- cation) . Thirty-seven respondents (35.92%) p a r t i c i p a t e d i n a t o t a l of 82 courses. Mean number of hours p a r t i c i p a t e d i n by the 103 respondents was 74.97. Table 5 shows that there is a considerable difference in the mean number of course hours for the four occupational groups: Group I and Group IV are r e l a -t i v e l y s i m i l a r , with means -of 70.51 and 68.04 respectively, while Group III has a mean of 122.47, p r a c t i c a l l y twice as large as the mean of 61.29 for Group I I I . Courses p a r t i c i p t e d in were i n the following areas: Plant and animal sciences (botany, agriculture, horticulture, zoology); Scientific subjects (chemistry, physics, mathematics, biology); Psychology; human relations; social skills; Vocational-technical courses; professional competence; Education; child care; TABLE 5 MEAN NUMBER OF HOURS OF PARTICIPATION BY FOUR OCCUPATIONAL i (BLISHEN INDEX) I EDUCATIONAL CATEGORIES ACTIVITIES EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY Group I (20 - 29) N = 35 Group II (30 - 39)-N = 28 Group III (40 - 49) N = 15 Group IV (50 and Over) N = 25 TOTAL N = 103 UNION EDUCATION 1.6 2 1.4 0 1.26 LABOUR EDUCATION 0 0 0 0 0 ADULT EDUCATION 70.51 61.29 122.47 68.04 74.97 SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING PROJECTS 655.17 625.64 612.00 638.52 636.82 OTHER INFORMATION SEEKING ACTIVITIES 78.37 110.82 245.93 229.68 148.32 TOTAL EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES 802.69 791.61 978.40 936.64 857.78 40 Sports and games; outdoor a c t i v i t i e s ; Needlework, sewing; arts and c r a f t s ; photography; Physical health and f i t n e s s subjects; safety and rescue; f i r s t aid; Religious studies; philosophy; ethics; Social studies; history and geography; mythology; Music; dancing; singing; Cooking; catering; homemaking; Counselling, guidance; mental health; Current events; p o l i t i c s ; Language and l i t e r a t u r e ; Foreign languages; Business management; law; economics. S e l f - d i r e c t e d Learning Projects. One hundred and two respondents (99.03%) took part in-, a t o t a l of 396 s e l f - d i r e c t e d learning projects during the period covered by the survey. Mean number of hours spent at these projects was 638.81. Looking at the means for the d i f f e r e n t occupational groups (Table 5) i t w i l l be seen that the t o t a l mean i s very close to the i n d i v i d u a l means for each group: 655.1/ for Group I; 625.64 for Group II; 612.0 for Group III, and 638.52 for Group IV, i n d i c a t i n g that 41 l e v e l of occupation exerts l i t t l e or no difference on p a r t i c i -pation in s e l f - d i r e c t e d projects. Areas of in t e r e s t for self-directed projects were: Sports and games; Current events; public a f f a i r s ; politics;_ Small engine repair and maintenance (car, boat, motor c y c l e ) ; Home repairs; woodworking; carpentry; home improvement projects; decorating; f u r n i t u r e ; Needle work, sewing; arts and c r a f t s ; photography; Child r a i s i n g ; education; Plant and animal sciences; nature subjects; pet keeping and breeding; Language and l i t e r a t u r e ; public speaking; vocab-ulary building; S c i e n t i f i c subjects; Health and physical f i t n e s s ; safety; f i r s t aid; History; geography; t r a v e l ; Psychology; human r e l a t i o n s ; social s k i l l s ; Technical and engineering subjects; Mental and- emotional health; personal problems; Gardening; landscaping; Building; construction; property development; Music; singing; dancing; Religious studies; ethics; philosophy; Painting; art; architecture; Criminal code; court procedures; 42 Lodge ceremonies; conduction of meetings; Bookkeeping; accounting; business management. Other Information Seeking A c t i v i t i e s . Ninety-nine respondents (96.12%) engaged i n a t o t a l of 345 information seeking a c t i v i t i e s with a mean number of hours spent of 148.32. Means for the four groups respectively are 78.37, 110.82, 245.93 and 229.68 hours. Sources u t i l i z e d in information seek-ing a c t i v i t i e s were: Public meetings; Special meetings (job r e l a t e d ) ; Municipal and d i s t r i c t council meetings; PTA and home-school meetings; Public l i b r a r y ; School l i b r a r y ; UBC l i b r a r y ; Respondents' own l i b r a r y ; Musea; art g a l l e r i e s ; Resource persons; D i s t r i c t of North Vancouver Research Centre; Travel information brochures; Specialized books and journals; News media (newspaper, radio, t e l e v i s i o n ) . 43 In summary, members of Local 389 of CUPE interviewed p a r t i c i p a t e d in the various educational a c t i v i t i e s during the period of March 1971 to March 1972 as follows: Union education: 8.74 per cent, with a mean number of hours of 1.26. Labour education: none of the respondents pa r t i c i p a t e d in labour education during the per-iod under study. Adult education (exclusive of union edu-cation): 35.92 per cent with a mean number of hours of 74.97. Sel f - d i r e c t e d learning projects: 99.03 per cent with a mean number of hours of 636.81. Other information seeking a c t i v i t i e s : 96.12 per cent with a mean number of hours of 148.32. Total p a r t i c i p a t i o n : 100 per cent, with a mean number of hours of 857.79. To return to Joseph Mire (1960) once again, his statement that: \". . . i t has now become axiomatic that the best way to reach workers i s through th e i r union, since i t provides a natural, con-venient and p r a c t i c a l channel for educational group contacts,\" may have to be re-evaluated i n the l i g h t of the findings of this study. Even i f one r e s t r i c t s 'education' to formal p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n groups, the fact remains that at least the members of Local 389 of CUPE do not see their union as the \"natural, convenient and p r a c t i c a l channel\" for the i r educational group a c t i v i t i e s . 44 Given that only 8 . 74 per cent of the members interviewed par-t i c i p a t e d i n union education, against 3 5 . 9 2 per cent who par-t i c i p a t e d i n other adult education courses, coupled with the fact that these members denied that the union has a responsi-b i l i t y for t h e i r educational needs apart from union-related knowledge and s k i l l s u n i o n s might do well to reassess where they can best employ t h e i r educational resources, to avoid dis-appointment and waste of educational men, money and materials in the future. Ch a r a c t e r i s t i c s Related to P a r t i c i p a t i o n . As was seen in the previous section, the mean number of t o t a l educa-t i o n a l a c t i v i t i e s engaged i n increases with a r i s e i n occupa-t i o n a l l e v e l (see Table 3 ) : Group I -- 7.54 s Group II -- 7.75 Group III -- 8.25 Group IV -- 9.44 The figures are less clear when we look at the means for each in d i v i d u a l educational a c t i v i t y , except i n the case of other adult education, where the means are as follows: Group I -- .57 Group II -- .71 Group III -- .93 Group IV -- 1.12 showing too an increase i n mean number of adult education cour-ses engaged i n with a r i s e in occupational l e v e l . This i n d i -cates that occupation does exert some influence on p a r t i c i p a t i o n in adult education courses and on the t o t a l spectrum of edu-cational a c t i v i t i e s . 45 When we look at the nature of the educational a c t i v i -t i e s the four occupational groups p a r t i c i p a t e d i n , the s i t u a t i o n is not c l e a r . Table 6 shows a breakdown of the union education courses engaged in by the four occupational groups. Group IV, the highest on the Blishen Index, did not p a r t i c i p a t e at a l l . Of the three groups who did, a l l p a r t i c i p a t e d i n a course on Union Economics. Groups I and II took part in Shop Stewart Training t and Groups I and III took part in Bargaining Proced-ures. Only Group III p a r t i c i p a t e d i n Parliamentary Procedures and P o l i t i c a l Economy. Since only nine respondents out of 103 parti c i p a t e d in union education, nothing d e f i n i t i v e can be said about a possible connection between occupational l e v e l and p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n union education. There were simply not enough participants to make any meaningful inferences. Table 7 shows a breakdown of adult education subjects other than union education by occupational l e v e l . ' A l l four groups pa r t i c i p a t e d i n adult education, and, as can be seen from the table, no s t a r t l i n g differences are revealed in the types of subjects the respondents in the d i f f e r e n t occupational groups engaged i n . A l l groups p a r t i c i p a t e d i n courses i n scien-t i f i c subjects, in vocational-technical subjects, in sports and games, and a l l but Group I in arts and c r a f t s . Again, there is not enough evidence to make s p e c i f i c inferences, but i t seems that occupational l e v e l exerts l i t t l e or no influence on what subject an in d i v i d u a l may be interested i n . TABLE 6 DISTRIBUTION OF UNION EDUCATION COURSES BY FOUR OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORIES (BLISHEN INDEX) BLISHEN INDEX UNION EDUCATION COURSES Group I 2 0 - 2 9 N = 35 Bargaining Procedures Union Economics Shop Stewart Training A r b i t r a t i o n Procedures Group II 30 - 39 N = 28 Union Economics Shop Stewart Training Job Evaluation Labour Management Relations Group III 40 - 49 N = 15 Union Economics Bargaining Procedures Job Evaluation Parliamentary Procedures P o l i t i c a l Economics Group IV 50 and over N = 25 No P a r t i c i p a t i o n 4 7 TABLE 7 DISTRIBUTION OF ADULT EDUCATION COURSES 1 BY OTHER THAN UNION EDUCATION FOUR OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORIES (BLISHEN INDEX) BLISHEN INDEX GENERAL ADULT EDUCATION COURSES Group I 20 - 29 N = 35 Plant and Animal Sciences S c i e n t i f i c Subjects Vocational-technical Subj eats Education and Child Cave Subjects Sports and Games Current E v e n t s / P o l i t i c s Group II 30 - 39 N = 28 S c i e n t i f i c Subjects Vocational-technical Subjects Sports and Games Physical Health and Safety Subjects Arts and Crafts Music Language and L i t e r a t u r e Group III 40 - 49 N = 15 S c i e n t i f i c Subjects Vocational-technical Subjects Sports and Games Cooking Business Management Arts and Crafts Group IV 50 and over N = 25 S c i e n t i f i c subjects Vocational-technical subjects Sports and Games Arts and Crafts Physical Health and Safety Current E v e n t s / P o l i t i c s Religious Studies 48 The same phenomenon holds when one looks at Table 8 , showing a breakdown of s e l f - d i r e c t e d learning projects by-occupational l e v e l . There i s a core of subject areas i n which a l l groups pursue learning independently, consisting of: sports and games, arts and c r a f t s , small engine maintenance, home re-pair and maintenance, gardening and landscaping, and musical subjects. Groups I, II and IV studied various aspects of Cook-ing (which includes beer and wine making), Technical and Engi-neering Subjects, and Painting and Architecture. Apart from the common core, the types of s e l f - d i r e c t e d learning projects respond-ents p a r t i c i p a t e d in seem largely a matter of personal idiosyn-crasy and circumstances: possessing a home and having a family demand that one learns how to cope i n these areas. It does not seem that occupational l e v e l exerts any influence whatsoever on the type of learning project an i n d i v i -dual is l i k e l y to pursue on his own, but nothing d e f i n i t e can be sa i d from the data available other than that the study sup-ports the findings of A l l e n Tough. Table 9 shows a breakdown of the types of information-a l resources respondents u t i l i z e d i n t h e i r other information seeking a c t i v i t i e s . A l l occupational levels u t i l i z e much the same sources i n t h e i r quests for information. It sec ns safe to say, that for members of Local 389 at least, occupational l e v e l exerts no influence on the type of information seeking engaged i n or informational resources u t i l i z e d . TABLE 8 DISTRIBUTION OF SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING PROJECTS BY FOUR OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORIES BLISHEN INDEX SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING PROJECTS Group I S c i e n t i f i c Subjects 20 - 29 Sports and Games N = 35 Technical and Engineering Subjects Education and Child Care Plant and Animal Subjects Arts and Crafts Cooking Physical Health and Safety Mental Health Small Engine Maintenance Home Repair/Maintenance Social Studies Human Relations Gardening and Landscaping Construction and Building Music Painting and Architecture Criminal Code/Court Procedures Group II S c i e n t i f i c Subjects 30 - 39 Sports and Games N = 28 Technical and Engineering Subjects Plant and Animal Subjects Arts and Crafts Cooking Small Engine Maintenance Home Repair/Maintenance Gardening and Landscaping Construction and Building Music Painting and Architecture TABLE 8 (Continued) BLISHEN INDEX SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING PROJECTS Group III Sports and Games 40 - 49 Plant and Animal Subj eats N = 15 Arts and Crafts Physical Health and Safety Small Engine Maintenance Home Repair and Maintenance Social Studies Gardening and Landscaping Construction and Building Music Current E v e n t s / P o l i t i c s Bookkeeping and Accounting Group IV Sports and Games 50 and over Technical and Engineering Subjeats N = 25 Education and Child Care Plant and Animal Subjects Arts and Crafts Cooking Physical Health and Safety Small Engine Maintenance Home Repair and Maintenance Gardening and Landscaping Music Painting and Architecture Criminal Code/Court Procedures Language and L i t e r a t u r e Lodge Rituals/Parliamentary Pro-cedures for Meetings 51 TABLE 9 DISTRIBUTION OF OTHER SOURCES FOR OTHER INFORMATION SEEKING ACTIVITIES BY FOUR OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORIES (BLISHEN INDEX) BLISHEN INDEX S O U R C E S Group I 20 - 29 N = 35 Resource Persons Musea/Art G a l l e r i e s PTA/Rome School Meetings Municipal and D i s t r i c t Council Meetings Hews Media Public Library Respondent 's Own Library School Library Specialized Books/Journals Travel Information Brochures Group II 30 - 39 N = 28 Resource Persons Musea/Art G a l l e r i e s PTA/Rome School Meetings Public Meetings Municipal and D i s t r i c t Council Meetings Special Meetings (Job-related) Public Library Respondent 's Own Library UBC Library School Library News Media Specialized Books/Journals Group III 40 - 49 N = 15 Resource Persons Musea/Art G a l l e r i e s PTA/Rome School Meetings Public Meetings Municipal and D i s t r i c t Council Meetings Public Library School Library Respondent 's Own Library D i s t r i c t of North Vancouver Research Centre News Media Specialized Books/Journals 52 TABLE 9 (Continued) BLISHEN INDEX S O U R C E S Group IV 50 and over N = 25 Resource Persons Muse a/Art G a l l e r i e s PTA/Rome School Meetings Public Meetings Municipal and D i s t r i c t Council Meetings Special Meetings (Job-related) Public Library School Library Respondent 's Own Library Court House Library News Media Specialized Books/Journals 53 In summary, there seems to be some i n d i c a t i o n that occupational l e v e l does make a difference to the number of adult education courses (exclusive of union education) p a r t i c i -pated i n by the respondents, and that the mean t o t a l number of courses and educational a c t i v i t i e s engaged in increases as .the occupational level r i s e s . There is no evidence, however, that occupational l e v e l is a factor in type of union education courses, other adult education courses and s e l f - d i r e c t e d learn-ing projects engaged i n or type of other information sources u t i l i z e d . Bivariate tables were calculated and chi-squares computed for the following variables by participants and non-participants i n adult education including union education: union p a r t i c i p a t i o n (frequency of attendance at meetings); s o c i a l p a r t i c i p a t i o n (Chapin Scale); occupation; age; marital status; formal l e v e l of education; number of children at home and sex. The only tables which yielded a s i g n i f i c a n t chi-square value at the .05 l e v e l were participants and non-participants by union p a r t i c i p a t i o n , by age and by sex, in d i c a t i n g that only union p a r t i c i p a t i o n , age and sex were distinguishing character-i s t i c s among partic i p a n t s and non-participants i n a l l adult edu-cation courses among our respondents. Table 10 shows the percentage d i s t r i b u t i o n by par t i c i p a n t s and non-participants in a l l adult education courses by four union p a r t i c i p a t i o n categories. 54 TABLE 10 PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION OF PARTICIPANTS AND NON-PARTICIPANTS IN ADULT EDUCATION (INCLUDING UNION EDUCATION) COURSES BY FOUR UNION PARTICIPATION CATEGORIES UNION PARTICIPATION CATEGORIES PARTICIPANTS NON-PARTICIPANTS TOTAL 1. Up to 15 ' No. 9 8.74 No. 15 14. 56 No. 24 % 23.30 2. 16 - 25 16 15. 53 29 28.16 45 43.69 3. 26 - 35 8 7.77 10 9.71 18 17.48 4. 36 and over 13 12.62 3 2.91 15 15.53 TOTAL 46 44.66 57 55. 34 103 100 Chi-square value 10.675, d.f. 3, p < .02 Chi-square value was 10.675, s i g n i f i c a n t at the .02 l e v e l , i n d i c a t i n g that those union members with a high score on the union p a r t i c i p a t i o n scale are. more likely to be participants in adult education courses than those with a low score on the scale. In other words, union members who tend to be active i n union a f f a i r s also tend to be active i n adult education as f a r as members of Local 389 of CUPE are concerned. Table 11 shows the age d i s t r i b u t i o n of participants and non-participants i n a l l adult education courses. 55 TABLE 11 PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION OF PARTICIPANTS AND NON-PARTICIPANTS IN ADULT EDUCATION (INCLUDION UNION EDUCATION) COURSES BY FOUR AGE CATEGORIES AGE CATEGORIES PARTICIPANTS NON-PARTICIPANTS TOTAL No. % No. % No. 1. 15 - 34 16 34.78 11 19.30 27 26.21 2. 35 - 44 12 26.09 11 19.30 23 22.33 3. 45 - 54 15 32.61 16 28.07 31 30.09 4. 55 and over 3 6.52 19 33.33 . 22 21.37 TOTAL 46 100 57 100 103 100 Chi square value 11.596, d.f. 3, p < .01 Chi square value was 11.596, d.f. 3, s i g n i f i c a n t at the .01 l e v e l , i n d i c a t i n g that among our respondents older union members tend to be less active i n adult education than younger ones. As Table 11 shows, 60.87 per cent (categories l and 2) of those 44 years of age and younger were partic i p a n t s against 38.60 per cent who were non-participants. In the 45 years and older categories 39.13 per cent p a r t i c i p a t e d against 61.40 per cent who did not. Table 12 shows the percentage d i s t r i b u t i o n of p a r t i c i -pants and non-participants by sex of the respondents. 56 TABLE 12 PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION OF PARTICIPANTS AND NON-PARTICIPANTS IN ADULT EDUCATION (INCLUDING UNION EDUCATION) COURSES BY SEX OF THE RESPONDENTS SEX CATEGORIES PARTICIPANTS NON-PARTICIPANTS TOTAL No. I No.. % No. % FEMALE 16 66.67 8 33.33 24 100 M A L E 30 38.00 49 62.00 79 100 Chi square value 5.02, d.f. 1, p < .05 Of the 24 female respondents, 16 or 66.67 per cent pa r t i c i p a t e d against eight or 33.33 per cent who did not. Of the 79 male respondents, 30 or 38.00 per cent p a r t i c i p a t e d against 49 or 62 per cent who did not. Chi square computed was 5.02, s i g n i f i c a n t at the .05 l e v e l , with one degree of freedom, for a c r i t i c a l value of 3.84. For the respondents interviewed at l e a s t , sex is a s i g n i f i c a n t factor i n determin-ing whether or not an i n d i v i d u a l is l i k e l y to p a r t i c i p a t e i n adult education -- more women than men, r e l a t i v e l y speaking, were p a r t i c i p a n t s . The d i s t r i b u t i o n of partic i p a n t s and non-participants by occupation, s o c i a l p a r t i c i p a t i o n , marital status,^number of children at home and l e v e l of formal education did not y i e l d 57 s i g n i f i c a n t chi squares values at the .05 l e v e l . The l a t t e r item sounds contrary to expectations according to the l i t e r -ature, but i t must be,borne in mind that on the whole the respondents were f a i r l y well educated, with a mean number of years of schooling completed of over 11 years (Table 13). Clearly, the bulk of the respondents interviewed had a for-mal education of between 9 and 16 years. For this group of respondents there i s not enough spread betv/een the poorly and the highly educated to allow formal education to be a deciding factor i n p a r t i c i p a t i o n or non-participation. A t - t e s t was performed to learn i f the mean- score in s e l f - d i r e c t e d learning projects for part i c i p a n t s i n for-mal adult education (union and otheradult education) courses at 584.61 d i f f e r e d s i g n i f i c a n t l y from that for non-participants at 678.95. The t-score was 1.103, d.f. 101, which was not s i g n i f i c a n t at the .05 l e v e l . In summary, the question of whether or not there i s a difference in c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of union members who do and union members who do not p a r t i c i p a t e i n adult education cour-ses can be answered as follows: as far as members of Local 389 of CUPE are concerned, members who p a r t i c i p a t e are l i k e l y to be men or women, with a higher r e l a t i v e percentage of women, who are under 45 years of age and who are active participants in the l i f e of the i r Union Local. TABLE 13 PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION OF RESPONDENTS IN FOUR OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORIES BY LEVEL OF EDUCATION OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORIES BLISHEN INDEX LEVEL OF EDUCATION Up to 8 9 - 1 1 12 13 - 16 17 and up Total I. 20 - 29 No. % No. % No. % 9 8.74 13 12.62 8 7.77 No. % No. % No. 4 3.88 1 0.97 35 33.98 II. 30 - 39 III. 40 - 49 9 8.74 9 8.74 5 4.85 5 4,85 0 0.00 28 27.18 .97 5 4.85 4 3.88 5 4.85 0 0.00 15 14.57 IV. 50 and Over .97 2 1.94 6 5.82 15 14.57 1 0.97 25 24.27 TOTAL 20 19.42 29 28.15 23 22.32 29 28.15 2 1.94 103 100.00 oo 59 We w i l l next consider the correlations between a l l dependent and independent variables, and i s o l a t e those which are s i g n i f i c a n t for 103 observations at the .5 and .01 levels of s i g n i f i c a n c e . The dependent variables are: p a r t i c i p a t i o n in union education, in other adult education, i n s e l f - d i r e c t e d learning projects, in other information seeking a c t i v i t i e s , and t o t a l p a r t i c i p a t i o n in a l l categories. The independent variables are a l l the socio-economic and psycho-social charac-t e r i s t i c s of the respondents: years membership i n the union, union p a r t i c i p a t i o n scores, s o c i a l p a r t i c i p a t i o n scores, the four ' b e l i e f variables, scores on the attitude to union edu-cation scale, occupation, age, marital status, l e v e l of edu-cation, number of children at home and sex. Table 14 shows the c o r r e l a t i o n matrix. C r i t i c a l values are .19 and .26 respectively. Underlined values are s i g n i f i c a n t at the .05 or .01 l e v e l . There is a s i g n i f i c a n t c o r r e l a t i o n between s o c i a l p a r t i c i p a t i o n and years of member-ship in the union, but l i t t l e importance can be attached to that. The next s i g n i f i c a n t c o r r e l a t i o n , at the .01 l e v e l , is between age and years membership i n the union with an r. of .47. That make?sense, since scores on both variables i n -crease simultaneously. The negative c o r r e l a t i o n between martial status and years membership i n the union, s i g n i f i -cant at the .05 l e v e l , simply t e l l s us that there are more married union members among our respondents than single ones. TABLE 14 CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS OF ALL VARIABLES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 1. 1.00 List of Variables 2. 0.14 1.00 3. 0.23 0.06 1.00 1. Years Membership in Union. 2. Union Participation. 4. 0.06 0.25 -0.03 1.00 3. Social Participation. 4. Belief in Union Resp. (Voc. ed.) 5. 0.19 0.31 0.14 0,27 1.00 5. Belief in Union Resp. (Union ed.) 6. Belief in Union Resp. (Labour ed.) 6. 0.17 0.27 0.18 *0.18 0.33 1.00 7. Belief in Union Resp. (Leisure ed.) • — — 8. Attitude to Union Education. 7. 0.13 0.46 -0.03 0.16 0.29 0.59 1.00 9. Participation in Union Education. — = 10. Participation -in Adult Education. 8. 0.14 0.21 0.17 0.25 0.49 0.42 0.34 1.00 11. Part, in Self-Direc. Learn. Proj. 12. Part, in Infor. Seek. Activities 9. 0.07 0.80 0.06 0.23 0.26 0.28 0.45 0.18 1.00 13. Total. Participation. 14. Occupation. 10. -0.10 0.19 0.09 -0.08 0.06 0.05 -0.02 0.00 0.12 1.00 15. Age. 16. Marital Status. 11. 0.09 -0.12 0.05 -0.14 0.05 0.02 -0.09 -0.30 -0.05 -0.20 1.00 17. Level of Formal Education. 18. Number of Children at Home. \\ 12. 0.14 -0.01 0.13 0.01 0.25 0.11 0.11 0.11 -0.03 -0.15 0.21 1.00 19. Sex. 13. 0.08 -0.03 0.12 -0.16 0.15 0.07 -0.04 0.01 -0.01 0.13 0.89 0.48 1.00 14. -0.05 0.10 0.28 -0.09 0.17 0.05 -0.02 0.16 -0.08 0.00 0.05 0.41 0.19 1.00 15. 0.47 0.08 0.08 0.04 -0.08 0.07 0.15 -0.05 0.05 -0.31 -0.01 0.12 -0.08 -0.04 1.00 16. -0.22 0.01 -0.18 -0.10 0.00 -0.03 -0.09 -0.06\" -0.09 0.30 0.02 --0.14 0.08 -0.13 -IL12 1.00 17. -0.31 -0.15 0.27 -0.31 -0.10 0.02 -0.11 -0.03 -0.16 0.37 0.00 0.13 0.18 0.41 -0.38 0,22 1.00 18. 0.02 -0.05 0.04 0.11 0.02 0.18 0.06 0.11 0.06 -0.26 0.01 --0.01 -0.09 0.08 -0.02 -0.47 -0. 15 i.oo 19. 0.20 -0.07 -0.02 0.04 -0.06 0.05 0.15 -0.04 0.05 -0.09 0.11 0.08 0.09 -0.47 0.06 -0.15 -o, 20 0.00 1.00 Single underlined values are significant at the .05 level. Double underlined values are significant at the .01 level. 61 There are s i g n i f i c a n t correlations between the four ' b e l i e f variables, respectively i n d i c a t i n g b e l i e f i n union responsibil-i t y for vocational, union, labour and l e i s u r e time education, and union p a r t i c i p a t i o n , which can be explained by the fact that only for the 'active minority 1 union p a r t i c i p a t i o n is high and of those with a high union p a r t i c i p a t i o n score a s i g n i f i c a n t proportion admitted to union r e s p o n s i b i l i t y i n a l l four areas of educational endeavour. There i s no s i g n i f i c a n t c o r r e l a t i o n between scores on the attitude to union education scale and union p a r t i c i p a -t i o n , or between attitude to union education scores and actual p a r t i c i p a t i o n scores i n union education. Maybe the lack of c o r r e l a t i o n here simply r e f l e c t s the gap between attitude in theory and p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n practice -- nobody l i k e s to admit to a negative a t t i t u d e . There i s , however, a very high corre-l a t i o n , s i g n i f i c a n t at the .01 l e v e l , between p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n union education and union p a r t i c i p a t i o n , which again highlights the fact that union education is geared to the l o c a l leader-ship, the 'active minority' again, the only section of the respondents which consistently had a high union p a r t i c i p a t i o n score. There are s i g n i f i c a n t correlations between attitude to union education and the four b e l i e f v a r i a b l e s , with the c o r r e l a t i o n for b e l i e f i n union r e s p o n s i b i l i t y for vocational education s i g n i f i c a n t at the .05 l e v e l , and that for the other 62 three s i g n i f i c a n t at the .01 l e v e l , and the highest c o r r e l a t i o n occuring between.attitude to union education and b e l i e f i n union r e s p o n s i b i l i t y for union education, with an r of .50. No s i g n i f i c a n t correlations exist between p a r t i c i -pation in adult education scores or t o t a l p a r t i c i p a t i o n scores in a l l four types of educational a c t i v i t i e s , and any of the independent va r i a b l e s . Occupation only correlates s i g n i f i c a n t -l y , at the .01 l e v e l , with s o c i a l p a r t i c i p a t i o n . M a r i t a l status correlates s i g n i f i c a n t l y , at the .01 l e v e l , with p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education, with an r. of .30, i n d i c a t i n g that among our respondents more married than single union members were pa r t i c i p a n t s . Formal l e v e l of education showed s i g n i f i c a n t correlations with years membership i n the union, s o c i a l par-t i c i p a t i o n in adult, education, occupation, age and marital status. Taking these one by one, formal l e v e l of education correlates negatively, s i g n i f i c a n t at the .01 l e v e l , with years membership i n the union, i n d i c a t i n g that there are r e l a -t i v e l y fewer highly educated than poorly educated members among our respondents with long membership standing. Formal l e v e l of education correlates p o s i t i v e l y with s o c i a l p a r t i c i p a t i o n , but negatively with b e l i e f in union r e s p o n s i b i l i t y for vocational t r a i n i n g , which is not surp r i s i n g : the better one is educated the more one is able and w i l l i n g to assume and accept responsi-b i l i t y for one's own vocational t r a i n i n g . Correlation between formal l e v e l of education and p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education 63 is s i g n i f i c a n t at the .01 l e v e l , with an r. of .37, which i s supported by the l i t e r a t u r e ad i n f i n i t e m . C orrelation be-tween formal l e v e l of education and occupation is also posi-t i v e and s i g n i f i c a n t at the .01 l e v e l with an r. of .41, which is what one would expect. F i n a l l y , there i s a s i g n i f i c a n t negative c o r r e l a t i o n between formal l e v e l of education and age, i n d i c a t i n g that the highest proportion of poorly educated respondents resides among the older ones. Number of children l i v i n g at home correlates s i g n i f i -cantly but negatively at the .01 l e v e l of s i g n i f i c a n c e , with an r. of -.47, with marital status, which is to be expected in our society. Sex correlates s i g n i f i c a n t l y but negatively with occupation, i n d i c a t i n g that among the respondents more men than women occupy high positions. Other Factors Related to Participation:Factors In-h i b i t i n g Formal P a r t i c i p a t i o n i n Adult Education (Excluding of union education). One of the single most often c i t e d fac-tor i n h i b i t i n g formal p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education r e f l e c -ted the pragmatic nature of the subjects respondents were i n -terested i n , the fact that most of t h e i r projects are better suited to a do-it-yourself approach than to the p r e v a i l i n g structured classroom approach. As many as 25 respondents claimed that i t would be a r t i f i c i a l to take courses in subjects which could be learned more na t u r a l l y by doing than by learn-64 ing theory. They perceived taking courses as i n i m i c a l to achieving the results they wanted, or i r r e l e v a n t , or a waste of time. Their experience with classroom teaching no doubt influenced them to a large extent, and a l l t h e i r answers boiled down to the conviction that practice is better than theory any time. Indeed they hold this truth to be s e l f -evident! Another 25 respondents claimed time as an i n h i b i t -ing factor: they were too busy -- with their f a m i l i e s , t h e i r homes, the i r union. Ten respondents were prevented from par-t i c i p a t i n g because they worked night s h i f t s ; several of these indicated they would take courses i f they could so at times convenient to them --on week-day mornings, or even on week-ends. Nine respondents thought they were too old, although age did not prevent them from learning on t h e i r own. This may indicate that the age b a r r i e r i s more of a s o c i a l i n h i b i t i o n than a re a l conviction that advancing age has anything to do with t h e i r learning powers: 'School' i s associated with young people. This association may also account for the two respondents who claimed i t never occurred to them to take courses.. Eight respondents claimed f i n a n c i a l reasons for t h e i r lack of p a r t i c i p a t i o n , and two admitted they were too lazy. One respondent cited lack of fluency in the English-language as an i n h i b i t i n g factor, and another one claimed he did not need courses, 'God told him what to do.' Whatever 65 one may think of this l a s t reason, he c e r t a i n l y made a good job of i t : this respondent had a retarded c h i l d , and he and his wife taught her to s p e l l , and to read and write simple words and sentences, by means of playing Sovabble, an extreme-ly creative approach to a d i f f i c u l t problem. Two respondents re s i s t e d taking courses because of the connotation of having to 'better' themselves, which they resented, an attitude which concurs with the findings of Watson, et a l . (1963) and Carlson (1971), c i t e d i n Chapter I. Two others did not take courses i n th e i r areas of i n t e r -est because to do so would not have any promotional value i n t h e i r jobs; again, a highly pragmatic, approach to p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education. Two claimed they were too t i r e d a f t e r a .day's work to go to school. Six said the courses available to them i n th e i r areas of inte r e s t were too elementary: two of these had actually taught courses i n t h e i r subjects at night school. Three respondents could not take the courses they wanted because of lack of the necessary prer e q u i s i t e s . But 20 respondents did not p a r t i c i p a t e in formal courses be-cause of the r i g i d scheduling and formal classroom atmosphere. As one young man, a 21-year-old labourer with a high school education, related: \"Everything is so regulated. We eat, sleep and work by the clock. I want to do some things i r r e g u l a r l y , or not a l l , or just for a while. We have so l i t t l e i n i t i a t i v e l e f t to us in today's society.\" 66 Many respondents of course c i t e d more than one rea-son for not p a r t i c i p a t i n g , but whatever these reasons, one fact emerges c l e a r l y and i r r e f u t a b l y : i f adult education p r a c t i t i o n e r s want to attrac t more p a r t i c i p a n t s , a l o t more f l e x i b i l i t y and imagination are needed, both i n the schedul-ing of time and i n the structuring of courses. The young man's lament cited above may well have greater relevance for persons from the lower socio-economic s t r a t a of society than for those from the higher ones, since the nature of th e i r jobs w i l l leave them l i t t l e or no room for f l e x i b i l i t y or for per-sonal i n i t i a t i v e . Their l i v e s are so regimented already, that they w i l l r e s i s t any additional regimentation, even such a supposedly b e n e f i c i a l one as p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education courses. Factors I n h i b i t i n g P a r t i c i p a t i o n i n Union Education. Although no questions were included i n the interview schedule about reasons for not p a r t i c i p a t i n g in union education, respond-ents were quick to volunteer t h i s information. Of the non-participants in union education, the majority claimed they were not aware of the fact that t h e i r Local offered any such courses. These non-participants were a l l rank and f i l e mem-bers, while of the nine p a r t i c i p a n t s , seven either belonged to the Local executive now, or had done so in the past, or served on one or more special committees. Some non-partici-pants claimed they would be w i l l i n g to take union education 67 courses i f they were but t o l d about them. In U n i v e r s i t i e s and Unions in Workers' Education, Jack Barbash (1955) asked, . . . i t might also be worth-while considering ways of reaching rank and f i l e union members d i r e c t l y . With a few ex-ceptions, the current Inter-University Labor Committee programs have been directed almost exclusively at union middle leadership on the assumption that a process of percolation w i l l • operate. Is such an assumption j u s t i -fied? According to the u n s o l i c i t e d information given the present writer by members of Local 389 of CUPE, such an assumption is far from j u s t i f i e d . One respondent, who admitted knowing about CUPE's p a r t i c i p a t i o n in the programs offered by the Western Regional Education Department of CUPE, stated that most courses and seminars offered are simply not geared to the rank and f i l e members, but are d e f i n i t e l y aimed at Local leadership. If the Department were w i l l i n g to o f f e r courses, say, i n the history of the union movement, and the importance of the role played by unions in the past, coupled with courses on how the union could adapt to the rapid changes in society, this respondent would be very interested. But, he continued, this is where present union education f a l l s down; i t is s t i l l t i e d to an obsolete boss-worker syndrome, which seems to be perpetuated more by the union leadership than believed i n by the union members. Whether this a l l e g a t i o n is based on truth or not would have to be established by future research. In the meantime i t is obvious that non-participation in union 68 education i n Local 389 is at least p a r t l y due to a lack of communication between the leadership and the rank and f i l e members. Another reason is simply a matter of h o s t i l i t y . Quite a few members indicated that they do not f e e l the union Local adequately represents t h e i r i n t e r e s t s , and they claimed they would not attend a weekend seminar i f the Local paid them for i t . Since Local 389 represents f i v e d i f f e r -ent groups of employees, i t i s perhaps i n e v i t a b l e that some members think t h e i r group is under-represented, or t h e i r i n -terests s a c r i f i c e d tc those of the other groups. Reasons for Formal P a r t i c i p a t i o n i n Adult Education Courses (Including Union Education). Question 25 of the i n t e r -view schedule dealt with the reasons for p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n union and other adult education courses, as compared to factors i n -h i b i t i n g formal p a r t i c i p a t i o n . T h i r t y courses were taken for vocational reasons, either to enable the respondent to become more p r o f i c i e n t on the job, or in the hope t h e i r e f f o r t s would lead to promotion, or both. A l l the union courses were taken for reasons d i r e c t l y related to the members' enthusiasm for partaking i n the l i f e of the union. These (nine) p a r t i c i -pants represented the 'active minority' in union a f f a i r s . Only seven course^ were taken for s o c i a l reasons, because the par-t i c i p a n t s l i k e d to learn with like-minded people. Eight adult 69 education courses were taken for f i n a n c i a l reasons; the s k i l l s learned in these courses enabled the participants to save money i n the future. But 39 adult education courses were taken s o l e l y for reasons of private i n t e r e s t , having no prag-matic value whatsoever, simply adding to the participant's enjoyment of l i f e , or s a t i s f y i n g some innate c u r i o s i t y . In summary, 57 reasons given were of a pragmatic nature (including the union reasons,) , while 44 were of a s o c i a l or personal nature. This confirms A l l e n Tough's finding that the single most common and important reason why adults learn is the desire to use or apply the knowledge or s k i l l re-quired. \"Commitment to an action goal comes f i r s t -- then the decision to learn as a step forward to achieving the goal more e f f e c t i v e l y or su c c e s s f u l l y . \" (Tough, 1971). Multivariate Analysis Multiple Regression Analysis. For each of the f i v e independent variables ( p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n union education, a l l adult education, s e l f - d i r e c t e d learning projects, other i n f o r -mation seeking a c t i v i t i e s and t o t a l p a r t i c i p a t i o n ) a multiple regression analysis was undertaken to ascertain what percent-age of the variance in p a r t i c i p a t i o n scores was accounted for by the six socio-economic c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s occupation, age, marital status, formal l e v e l of education, number of children at home and sex. It was found that, as a set, these s i x charac-t e r i s t i c s accounted for only 2.98 per cent of the variance i n 70 union education scores, for 23.49 per cent of the variance in a l l adult education scores, for only 3.05 per cent of the var-iance in self-directed learning projects, for 27.86 per cent of the variance in information seeking scores, and for 10.58 per cent of the variance in total participation scores (see Table 15) a l l at the .05 level of significance. TABLE 15 MULTIPLE CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS BETWEEN SIX SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS AND TYPES OF PARTICIPATION % OF VARIANCE TYPE OF PARTICIPATION R ACCOUNTED FOR Union Education . 173 2.98 A l l Adult Education .485 23.49 Self-Directed Learning Projects .175 3.05 Information Seeking Activities . 528 27.86 Total Participation .325 10.58 In subsequent multiple regression analyses with each of the independent variables, selected characteristics which contributed significantly at the .05 level (see Table 16) to the variance in participation scores were: 1. For union education: union parti-cipation, accounting for 63.21 per cent of the variance. I 71 2. For a l l adult education: education, which accounted for 13.58 per cent of the vari-ance, while education, union participation and marital status combined accounted for 24.13 per cent of the variance. 3. For self-directed learning pro-jects: none of the remaining variables contri-buted significantly to the variance in pa r t i c i -pation scores. 4. Other information seeking ac t i v i -ties: none of the remaining variables contributed significantly to the variance. 5. For total participation: occupation by i t s e l f accounted for 3.58 per cent of the var-iance in participation scores, while none of the remaining variables contributed significantly. TABLE 16 PERCENTAGE OF VARIANCE IN TYPES OF PARTICIPATION ACCOUNTED FOR BY SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS OF RESPONDENTS , n 1 1 • 1 f i 1 1 , 1 I1 i i '• —•———••———————• if - i •' • ' 1 ——mr % OF VARIANCE TYPE OF PARTICIPATION CHARACTERISTICS ACCOUNTED FOR Union Education Adult Education Self-directed Learning Proj ects Other Information Seeking Activities Union Participation Occupation Education Marital Status Union Participation None 63. 21 2.58 65. 79 13.58 4.86 5.69 24.13 None Total Participation Occupation 3.58 72 In summary, i t appears that the best single predic-tor of whether or not a member of Local 389 of CUPE is l i k e -ly to pa r t i c i p a t e in union education i s his union p a r t i c i p a -t i o n score, or the extent to which he par t i c i p a t e s in the l i f e of his Local, accounting for 63.21 per cent of the var-iance in p a r t i c i p a t i o n alone. The scores on the four 'be-l i e f scales do not add s i g n i f i c a n t l y , at the .05 l e v e l , to what the six socio-economic variables and union p a r t i c i p a t i o n contribute to the variance in union education p a r t i c i p a t i o n scores. For p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n adult education in general, for-mal l e v e l of education is the best single predictor, account-ing for 13.58 per cent of the variance i n p a r t i c i p a t i o n scores. For s e l f - d i r e c t e d learning projects and other i n f o r -mation seeking a c t i v i t i e s no s p e c i f i c c h a r a c t e r i s t i c can be singled out for pred i c t i v e purposes. The t - t e s t , performed to see whether the mean score i n s e l f - d i r e c t e d learning pro-jects for participants in union and other adult education courses d i f f e r e d s i g n i f i c a n t l y from that of non-participants in these formal courses, showed that there is no s i g n i f i c a n t difference i n these means, with a t of 1.103, d.f. 101, at the .10 and .05 le v e l for c r i t i c a l values of 1.290 and 1.660 respectively. This confirms the author's suspicion that for-mal p a r t i c i p a t i o n i s not an unbiased indicator of whether or not an i n d i v i d u a l is interested in continuing learning. i CHAPTER V SUMMARY, IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION Introduction The Canadian Labour Congress is currently sponsoring a survey designed to discover the extent of the educational ser-vices provided for union members by p r o v i n c i a l federations, labour councils, national and inte r n a t i o n a l unions, and union l o c a l s across Canada. The present study was undertaken to deter-mine how union members of Local 389 of CUPE react to and p a r t i c i -pate in these union-directed - a c t i v i t i e s , i n other adult education a c t i v i t i e s , i n s e l f - d i r e c t e d learning projects and i n other i n -formation seeking a c t i v i t i e s . Five s p e c i f i c questions were pro-posed to learn the extent of these members' reaction to and p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n a l l of these educational a c t i v i t i e s . These fi v e questions are used to summarize the findings reported i n Chapter IV. From these findings, implications for union education and for adult education i n general are developed, and a conclusion reached. Summary of Findings 1. Do union members believe that labour unions have a r e s p o n s i b i l i t y to meet t h e i r education-al needs apart from union-related knowledge and s k i l l s ? A b i v a r i a t e table was constructed and chi-square value calcu-73 74 lated to measure the extent of union members' b e l i e f i n the importance of the union's role i n providing four types of education, union education, vocational education, labour edu-cation and leisure time education. It- was found that the mem-bers interviewed conceded the importance of the union's role In providing union education, denied the importance of the union's role i n providing labour and l e i s u r e time education, and were divided i n t h e i r b e l i e f in the importance of the union's role in providing vocational education, depending on t h e i r formal l e v e l of education. The chi-square calculated (Table 3) showed that the response rate was s i g n i f i c a n t at 178,60. d.f. 15, at the .001 l e v e l . Formal l e v e l of education correlated s i g n i f i c a n t l y with t h e i r b e l i e f i n the importance of the union's role i n providing vocational education at the .01 l e v e l . 2. To what extent do union members p a r t i c i p a t e in f i v e types of educational a c t i v i t i e s including (a) union education (b) labour education (c) other adult education (d) s e l f - d i r e c t e d learning projects (e) other information seeking a c t i v i t i e s ? Bivariate tables were constructed to measure the respondent's p a r t i c i p a t i o n in each of these educational a c t i v i t i e s . No chi squares were calculated since these educational a c t i v i t i e s are not mutually exclusive. It was found that members of Local 389 of CUPE interviewed p a r t i c i p a t e d in these a c t i v i t i e s to the following extent: 75 Union education: 8.74 per cent of the respondents p a r t i c i p a t e d with a mean number of hours of 1.29. These par-t i c i p a n t s consisted of the younger (45 years and under), more active union members with a high degree of enthusiasm for par-taking in union a f f a i r s . Labour education: No p a r t i c i p a t i o n was reported by any of the respondents studied during the period covered by this survey. Other adult education: 37.86 per cent of the respond-ents p a r t i c i p a t e d with a mean number of hours of 74.97. These partic i p a n t s were found mostly i n the 45 years of age and young-er group, with a higher r e l a t i v e percentage of women than men. Se l f - d i r e c t e d learning projects: 99.03 per cent of the respondents p a r t i c i p a t e d , with a mean number of hours of 636.81. Other information seeking a c t i v i t i e s : 96.12 per cent of the respondents p a r t i c i p a t e d with a mean number of hours of 148.32. In toto, the respondents p a r t i c i p a t e d 100 per cent, with a mean number of hours of 857.79 i n various combinations of educational a c t i v i t i e s . 3. Is there a difference in the nature and number of the f i v e types of educational a c t i -v i t i e s engaged in by union members in d i f f e r e n t occupational categories? Table 4, giving the d i s t r i b u t i o n of number and mean number of educational a c t i v i t i e s by four occupational categories, showed 76 that the mean number of adult education courses (exclusive of union education) and of t o t a l educational a c t i v i t i e s en-gaged i n increases as the occupational l e v e l of the p a r t i c i -pant r i s e s . There i s , then, a difference in number of edu-cational a c t i v i t i e s engaged in by union members i n d i f f e r e n t occupational categories. Union members of Local 389 of CUPE in higher occupational categories engage i n more educational a c t i v i t i e s and take more adult education courses than do mem-bers i n lower occupational categories. According to the mul-t i p l e regression analysis, however, occupation accounts for only 3.58 per cent of the variance i n t o t a l p a r t i c i p a t i o n scores. No s i g n i f i c a n t difference was found i n the nature of educational a c t i v i t i e s engaged i n by respondents i n d i f f e r e n t occupational categories. The type of subject a respondent i s l i k e l y to be interested i n appears l a r g e l y a matter of personal preference and circumstances. 4. Is there a difference in charac-t e r i s t i c s of members who do and members who do not p a r t i c i p a t e in adult education ( i n -cluding union education)? Bivariate tables were constructed and chi squares calculated showing percentage d i s t r i b u t i o n s of parti c i p a n t s and non-partici-pants by union p a r t i c i p a t i o n , s o c i a l p a r t i c i p a t i o n , occupation, age, marital status, formal l e v e l of education, number of c h i l d -ren at home and sex. The only tables which yielded s i g n i f i c a n t 77 chi square values were participants and non-participants by union participation, by age, and by sex. For our respondents, then, according to the bivariate analysis,•the only s i g n i f i -cant differences in characteristics between participants and non-participants in adult education were in the realms of union participation, age and sex. For predictive purposes, how-ever, according to the multiple regression analysis, formal level of education is the most significant characteristic, accounting for 13.58 per cent of the variance in adult educa-tion participation scores. 5. If one includes a l l educational a c t i v i t i e s an adult engages in under adult learningy what personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c w i l l be the best s i n g l e predictor of whether or not an i n d i v i d u a l union member i s l i k e l y to p a r t i c i p a t e in adult learning? According to the multiple regression analysis, formal level of education was hot a significant variable for predictive purposes in total educational participation scores; neither were any of the other independent variables. Occupation alone accounted for 3.58 per cent of the variance in total participation scores, while the six socio-economic characteristics together accounted for 10.58 per cent of the variance. There is then no personal characteristic which can be said to be the best single predic-tor of whether or not a member of Local 389 of CUPE is li k e l y to participate in adult learning, i f under adult learning we sub-sume a l l educational and information seeking activities an in-dividual union member engages in. 78 Implications for Union Education Complaints by union educators that rank and f i l e mem-bers are not interested and do not p a r t i c i p a t e in union educa-tion to any great extent w i l l continue until the unions f i n d a way to reach the membership through more dire c t channels. A process of downward percolation through the Local's leadership does not seem to take p l a c e ; i f the unions are serious about the i r assumption of r e s p o n s i b i l i t y for a l l the educational needs of rank and f i l e union members they somehow ought to resolve the e x i s t i n g dichotomy between the members' acceptance of the union's economic function and t h e i r denial of the union's s o c i a l function. As long as this dichotomy p e r s i s t s union e f f o r t s to provide labour and le i s u r e time education w i l l continue to meet with scant success. Union educators might be better advised to continue the t r a d i t i o n a l approach, r e s t r i c t i n g content of pro-grams to those subjects which are of d i r e c t p r a c t i c a l importance to the maintenance of the i n s t i t u t i o n they serve. In summary, union educators ought to reassess, with the help of rank and f i l e opinion surveys, where and how union resources for educa-t i o n a l purposes can best be employed. Implications for Adult Education If adult educators are serious about t h e i r wishing to at t r a c t more u n s k i l l e d and semi-skilled labourers into the ranks of p a r t i c i p a n t s , ways ought to be found to design educational 79 opportunities which appeal to such labourers. This study found that the most persistant factor i n h i b i t i n g formal p a r t i c i p a t i o n was the r i g i d scheduling and formal classroom atmosphere p r e v a i l i n g in adult education i n s t i t u t i o n s , coupled with the fact that the subjects which interested the respondents most were of a highly p r a c t i c a l nature more conducive to the workshop than to the classroom. If a householder could drop in at a \"Householders' F i x i t Centre,\" where for a simple fee payable at the door he could get such immediate, one-shot prac-t i c a l i n s t r u c t i o n in how to deal with any of the many repair and maintenance chores which in e v i t a b l y crop up i n any house-hold, many more people might p a r t i c i p a t e in such educational or i n s t r u c t i o n a l ventures. Such p a r t i c i p a t i o n would not neces-s i t a t e them to reg i s t e r for a fixed number of weeks at s p e c i f i c times. As far as the respondents of t h i s study are concerned, fewer lectures and more workshops are needed i n many subject areas. Why does not some enterprising school board buy an old decrepit house and use that as a workshop for p r a c t i c a l i n s t r u c -t i o n in how to \" f i x i t ? \" The fact that so many of the resource people respondents turned to for advice and information were service s t a t i o n attendants, hardware merchants and l o c a l b u i l d -ing supply stores' personnel shows that there are resources l i t t l e explored and u t i l i z e d for educational purposes. 80 Conclusion The tendency to divide labour union members into b l u e - c o l l a r and white-collar workers for purposes of assess-ing t h e i r p o t e n t i a l p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n educational a c t i v i t i e s seems on r e f l e c t i o n wholly a r b i t r a r y and a r t i f i c i a l . Formal p a r t i c i p a t i o n i s not the b e - a l l and end-all of education, and a great deal of educational a c t i v i t y takes place outside of formal programs i n i n s t i t u t i o n a l s e ttings. Nor i s past edu-cational performance a trustworthy indicator of future achieve-ment. Even those respondents with a low l e v e l of formal school-ing who had never taken an adult education course were active-ly pursuing learning on their own i n order to be able to cope with the demands that everyday l i f e imposed upon them. Home owners e s p e c i a l l y p a r t i c i p a t e d in learning a c t i v i t i e s cease-l e s s l y , p a r t l y from pragmatic considerations, p a r t l y because of the pride they f e l t in getting a complete piece of work well done. Most of t h e i r s e l f - d i r e c t e d projects were concerned with making things as well as with repairing them, s a t i s f y i n g some creative urge which i s not otherwise s a t i s f i e d i n our society. The d a i l y job i s mostly of a fragmented nature, a seemingly i n -significant part of a whole a worker can no longer perceive. Ur-ban workers e s p e c i a l l y have l o s t touch with primary production; they are part of a routine assembly l i n e process which makes the i r d a i l y work seem unrelated and i r r e l e v a n t to any u n i f i e d organic system. This contributes to t h e i r lack of enthusiasm 81 for any scheduled courses, which again rob them of i n i t i a t i v e and a sense of s e l f - s u f f i c i e n c y . The respondents studied did • not want to be organized for learning, whether by the union or by educational i n s t i t u t i o n s . They wanted to organize t h e i r learning themselves, in t h e i r own way and in t h e i r own time. Having seen some of the products of t h e i r a b i l i t i e s , one can only agree with Jack London that s i n g l i n g out those s o c i o l o g i -cal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s which determine p a r t i c i p a t i o n or non-p a r t i c i p a t i o n in formal i n s t i t u t i o n a l settings \". . .ignores the e s s e n t i a l q u a l i t y of the human being as a highly dynamic, self-generating organism who i s l i m i t e d more by his own oppor-t u n i t i e s and d e f i n i t i o n of the s i t u a t i o n than by any inherent b i o l o g i c a l c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . \" (London, 1965). R E F E R E N C E S Adolph, T. and R. F. Whaley. \"Attitudes Toward Adult Educa-t i o n , \" Adult Education, 17: 152-156 (Spring, 196 7). Barbash, Jack. Universities and Unions in Workers' Education. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1955. Blishen, B. R. \"A Socio-Economic Index for Occupations i n Canada,\" The Canadian Review of Anthropology, 4: 41-53 (February, 1967). Bonjean, C , R. J. H i l l and S. D. McLemore. Sociological Measurement, San Francisco: Chandler Publishing Co., 1967. Booth, Alan. \"A Demographic Consideration of Non-Participation,\" Adult Education, 11: 223-229 (Summer, 1961). Brunner, E. deS.D. S. Wilder, C. Kirchner, and J. S. Newberry, J r . An Overview of Adult Education Research. Chicago: Adult Education Association, 1959. Carlson, Robert A. The State of the A.rt of Adult Education. The University of Saskatoon, Saskatoon, 1970. Coombs, R. H. and Vernon Davies. \"Social Class, Scholastic As-p i r a t i o n and Academic Achievement,\" Pacific Sociological Review, 8: 96-100 ( F a l l , 1965). Cram, Lee L. The Co-operative Extension Service and the Lower Socio-economic Citizenry. The University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1965. D e l l e f i e l d , Calvin J . Aspirations of Low Socio-economic Status Adults and Implications for Adult Education. University of C a l i f o r n i a , Los Angeles, 1965. Dickinson, Gary. Education Variables and Participation in Adult Education. Adult Education Research Centre, University of B r i t i s h Columbia, 1971. _^ . Patterns of Participation in a Public Adult ' Night School Program. Adult Education Research Centre, University of B r i t i s h Columbia, 1966. 82 83 Edwards, A. L. S t a t i s t i c a l Methods for the Behavioral Sciences. New York: Holt, Rinehart $ Winston, 1964. Goode, W. J. and Paul K. Hatt. Methods i n S o c i a l Research. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1952. Houle, C y r i l . The I n q u i r i n g Mind. Madison, W i s e : University of Wisconsin Press, 1961. Johnstone, John W. C. and Ramon J. Rivera. V o l u n t e e r s f o r Learning. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co., 1965. Kehoe, Mary (Ed.). Labour Unions: An Introductory Course. St. Patrick's College, Extension Department, Ottawa, 1962. \"Labour Program at Niagara College,\" Canadian Labour, 16: 11-12, 24 (December, 1971). Laskin, R. (Ed.). Social Problems: A Canadian P r o f i l e . New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1964. London, Jack. \"Adult Education and Workers' Education i n the United States,\" Workers Education, papers presented at a Conference held i n Rewley House, Oxford, 1965. ' , R. Wenkert and W. 0. Hagstrom. Adult Education and-Social C l a s s . Survey Research Center, University of C a l i f o r n i a , Berkeley, 1963. Mire, Joseph.. Labour Education. Inter-University Labor Educa-tion Committee, New York: Straus P r i n t i n g Co., 1956. Oppenheim, A. N. Questionnaire Design and Attitude Measure-ment. New York: Basic Books Inc., 1968. Robinson, J . W. \"Effects of the Social and Economic Environ-ments on Workers' Education: United States and B r i t i s h Examples,\" Adult Education Journal, 19,3: 172-185, 1969. Rusnell, A. D. Occupation and Adult Education of Non-Farm Residents in Rural B r i t i s h Columbia. M.A. Thesis, Univer-s i t y of B r i t i s h Columbia, 1970. Sayles, Leonard R. and George Strauss. The Local Union. New York: Harcourt, Brace 5 World, Inc., 1967. Smith, H. P. Labour and Learning. Oxford: Alden Press, 1956. Tough, A l l e n . The A d u l t ' s L e a r n i n g P r o j e c t s . Toronto, Ont.: Ontario Institute for Studies i n Education, 1971. ! 84 Tough,Allen. Interview Schedule for a Study of Seme Basic C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of Learning Projects in Several Populations. Toronto, Ont.: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 1970 . . Why Adults Learn. Toronto, Ont.: Ontario Insti-tute for Studies in Education, 1968. Verner, Coolie. A Conceptual Scheme f o r the I d e n t i f i c a t i o n of Processes for Adult Education. Chicago: Adult Education Association, 1962. and John S. Newberry, Jr. \"The Nature of Adult Participation,\" Adult Education, 8: 208-222, 1958. Watson, Gordon (Ed.). No Room At The Bottom. Washington, D.C: National Education Association of the United States, 1963. Wertheirner, Barbara M. Exploring the Arts: A Handbook for Trade Union Program Planners. New York: New York School of Individual and Labor Relations, Cornell University, Divi-sion of Extension and Public Service, 1968. Whitehouse, John R. W. College-Centred Labour Education: A Trade Union Approach. Toronto, Ont.: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 1968. . The Implications of College-Centred Labour Education. Toronto, Ont.: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 1969. A P P E N D I X 86 INTERVIEW SCHEDULE LABOUR UNION EDUCATION SURVEY Respondent's Number 1,3. Card Number One 4. 1 1. How many years have you been a member of your union? 5, 6. 2. On how many committees, if any, have you served during the past 12 months, that is, since March, 1971? 7. 3. How many offices, if any, have you held during that time? 8. 4. How many times during the past 12 months did you attend union meetings? 9,10. Union participation scale (add col. 7 - 10) 11, 12. 5. Chapin Scale; Of what other organizations, beside your union, have you been a member for the past 12 months? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Name of Org. Attendance Financial Committee Offices held Contrib. Member xl x2 x3 x4 x5 0 1 6 11 16 5 10 15 20 1 2 3 4 5 Total score 13, 14. 87 6. Do you read the materials, pamphlets, news sheets, etc. provided by the union? 16. 7. How much time per week would you say you spend reading these materials? 0 - hours per year 0 1-25 hours per year 1 26- 50 hours per year 2 17. actual hrs/yr. 18, 19. 8. Do you pass on what you read in these union publications to other union members? yes - 1 no - 0 20. reading index (add cols. 16, 17, 20 21. 9. How important do you believe is the responsibility of the union to see that you get the education you need a. to help you get better job qualifications? 22. b. to help you become a better union member? 23. c. to help you become a better citizen?. 24. d. to help you enjoy your leisure time better? 25. very important 6 quite important 5 somewhat important 4 not important 3 undecided 2 definitely not the union's responsibility 1 10. Adolph and Whaley Scale; Instructions: Please read the statements -presented in this form. \\Jhen you have completed reading each statement, put an 'X' to the right of the statement if you agree with it. Leave the space blank i f you co net agree with it. 1. Union education requires too much time and effort. (2.1) 2. The need for union education must exist since there are people who have benefitted by it. (7.2) 3. Union education broadens the mind. (7.8) 4. Union education fulfills personality needs. (7.0) 88 5. Union education is unnecessary, since we can get all the information we need from books or through day-by-day experience. (2.6) 6. I think the controversy about the need for union education is a little exaggerated. (3.8) 7. Union education is fine if you have the time. (5.2) 8. Union education courses lack content and waste time on non-essentials. (3.1) total score 26, 27. Statement 1 28. Statement 2 29. Statement 3 30. Statement 4 31. Statement 5 32. Statement 6 33. Statement 7 34. Statement 8 35. 11. How many courses or workshops in union education, that is, education that fosters the growth of the union movement by providing members with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for effective participation in union activities, have you taken during the past 12 months, since March, 1971? 36. 12. How many courses or workshops in labour education, that is, education concerned with the labour union member's capabili-ties to function within society, have you taken since March, 1971? 37. 13. How many adult classes in a public or private school, e.g., night school, have you taken since March, 1971? 38. 14. How many courses in a college or university have you taken since March 1971? 39. 15. How many job training classes have you taken since March, 1971? 40. 16. How many correspondence courses have you taken since March, 1971? 41. 17. How many classes in a community centre, church, or YMCA have you taken since March, 1971? 42. 18. How many private lessons, such as music lessons, golf lessons or language lessons have you taken since March, 1971? 43. 19. How many other kind of courses that you can think of have you taken since March, 1971? 44. Total number of courses 45. 20. What was the name of the course or activity you took? Non-participation 0 Union education 1 Labour education 2 Plant and animal sciences 3 Sciences 4 Psychology, human relations, social skills 5 Vocationalrtechnical courses, professional competence 6 Education, child care 7 Sports and games, outdoor activities 8 Needlework, sewing; arts and crafts;photography 9 Physical health and fitness subjects; safety and rescue,- first aid A Religious studies, philosophy, ethics B Social studies, history, geography,mythology C Music, dancing, singing D Cooking, catering, home making E Counselling, guidance, mental health F Current events., politics G Language and literature H Foreign languages I Business management, law, economics J first course 46. second course 47. third course 48. fourth course 49. fifth course 50. 21. Who gave this course or sponsored this activity? Non-participation 0 College/University 1 Private School 3 Business/Industry 4 Church/Synagogue 5 first course 51. YMCA/Community Centre 6 second course 52. Your union local 7 third course 53. A union affiliated organization 8 fourth course 54. Library/museum 9 fifth course 55. Government (Fed., Prov., Municipal) A Other B Don't know C 22. For how many hours was the course scheduled? 56, 57. Non-participation 0 Up to 7 hours 1 first course 58. 8 -16 hours 2 second course 59. 17 - 36 hours 3 third course 60. 37 - 72 hours 4 fourth course 61. 73 and over 5 fifth course 62. How many hours did you attend? 63, 64. Non-participation 0 Up to 7 hours 1 first course 65. 8 -16 hours 2 second course 66. 17 - 36 hours 3 third course 67. 37 - 72 hours 4 fourth course 68. 73 and over 5 fifth course 69. How many additional hours did you study or read at home for this course? 70, 72. Non-participation 0 Up to 7 hours 1 first course 73. 8 -16 hours 2 second course 74. 17 - 36 hours 3 third course 75. 37 - 72 hours 4 fourth course 76. 73 and over 5 fifth course 77. Total number of hrs . (add cols. 70-72, 56-57). 78, 80. RESPONDENT'S NUMBER 1, 3. CARD NUMBER 2 4. 25. Why did you take the course? Non-participation 0 For vocational reasons 1 first course 5. For union reasons 2 second course 6. For social reasons 3 third course 7. For economic reasons 4 fourth course 8. For private interest reasons5 fifth course 9. 26. Did the course satisfy your reasons for taking it? yes - 2 first course 10. no - 1 second course 11. non-participation 0 third course 12. fourth course 13. fifth course 14. 27. Have you in the past 12 months, that is, since March, 1971, tried to learn anything on your own, connected with a sport or hobby maybe, where at least 50% of your motivation to do so was a desire to learn something, and at which you spent at least seven hoursor more? yes - 2 no - 1 15. 28. What, if anything? Non-participation 0 Sports and games 1 Current events, public affairs, politics 2 Cooking, catering, beer and wine making 3 Car, motor cycle and boat engine repair/maintenance . 4 Home repairs, woodworking, carpentry, home improve-ment projects, decorating, furniture 5 Needlework, sewing, arts and crafts, photography 6 Child raising, education 7 Plant and animal sciences, nature subjects, pet keeping and breeding 8 Language and literature, public speaking, vocabulary 9 Scientific subjects A Health and physical fitness, safety, first aid B History, geography, travel C Psychology, human relations, social skills D 92 Technical and engineering subjects E Mental and emotional health, personal problems F Gardening, landscaping G Building, construction, property development H Music, singing, dancing I Religious studies, ethics, philosophy J Painting, art, architecture K Criminal code, court procedures L Lodge ceremonies, conduction of meetings M Bookkeeping/accounting, business management N topic number 1 16. topic number 2 17. topic number 3 18. topic number A - 19. topic number 5 20. topic number 6 21. topic number 7 22. topic number 8 23. topic number 9 24. topic number lo 25. .total number topics 26, 27. 29. How many hours did you spend since March, 1971, on the topics you were trying to learn about? topic number 1 28, 30. topic number 2 31, 33. topic number 3 34, 36. topic number 4 37, 39. topic number 5 40, 42. topic number 6 43, 45. topic number 7 46, 48. topic number 8 49, 51. topic number 9 52, 54. topic number 10 55, 57. topic number 11 58, 60. Total number hrs. in self-directed projects 61, 64. Open question; Why do you prefer to learn about these subjects on your own time rather than take courses on the subject? 30. How many books have you bought in the past 12 months in connection with these topics? 65, 66. 31. How many books have you borrowed in the past 12 months in connection with these topics? 67, 68. 32. How many books have you read altogether in the past 12 months? 69, 70.' 33. Have you bought or borrowed any other learning materials, such as linguaphone records, dictionaries, audio-visual materials or tapes? yes - 2 no - 1 71. What, if any? (post code) 72. 34. How many magazines, if any, do you subscribe to? 73. 35. How many public meetings on contemporary issues, like the Third Crossing or the school referendum, have you gone to since March, 1971? 74. No. of hours spent 75, 76. 36. How many municipal council meetings have you attended since March, 1971? 77. No. of hours spent 78, 79. RESPONDENT'S NUMBER 1, 3. CARD NUMBER 3 4. 37. How many PTA meetings have you attended since March, 1971? 5. No. of hours spent 6, 7. 38. How many times have you visited the Public Library to look up something you wanted to know since March, 1971? 8. No. of hours spent 9, 10. 39. How many times since March, 1971, have you visited a museum or art gallery? 11. No. of hours spent 12, 13. 40. How many other sources of information have you used that I have not asked about? 14. No. of hours spent 15, 17. Total number of hours information seeking act 18, 20. Total number of hours spent on courses, self-directed projects and other information seeking activities 21, 24. Add cols, card 1, 78-80, card 2, 61-64, and card 3, 16-17 41. What is your job or occupation? (Blishen) 25, 26. 42. How old are you? 27, 28. 15 - 24 1 25 - 34 2 35 - 44 3 45 - 54 4 55 - 64 5 65 and over 6 29. 43. Are you married (1), divorced, separated, widowed (2) or single (3)? 30. 44. How many years of schooling did you complete? 31, 33. Up to 8 1 9 - 11 2 12 3 13 - 16 4 33. 45. How many of your children, if any, are still living in the home with you? 34. 46. Sex of respondent Male Female 1 2 35. "@en ; edm:hasType "Thesis/Dissertation"@en ; edm:isShownAt "10.14288/1.0064611"@en ; dcterms:language "eng"@en ; ns0:degreeDiscipline "Administrative, Adult and Higher Education"@en ; edm:provider "Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library"@en ; dcterms:publisher "University of British Columbia"@en ; dcterms:rights "For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use."@en ; ns0:scholarLevel "Graduate"@en ; dcterms:title "Adult education among members of a North Vancouver labour union"@en ; dcterms:type "Text"@en ; ns0:identifierURI "http://hdl.handle.net/2429/33488"@en .