Reproduction and Resistance in the Hamilton Worker Education Centre

Abstract

This study examines the contradictions of the reproduction of, and resistance to, relations of inequality in the Hamilton Worker Education Centre. Data were collected through participant observation at an instructors' training session, through in-depth interviews with instructors, staff members and sponsors of the programme and through a content analysis of the curriculum. The focus of my research was two-fold. One was the way in which the practices in the programme contributed to the re-creation of gender, race and class relations. The other focus was the way in which resistance to these relations occurred and was facilitated through a form of popular education. It is through this study that the inherent contradictions in this workplace literacy/English language programme become clear.