Michael Mindzak, Assistant Professor in Brock’s Faculty of Education, wrote a piece recently published in The Conversation about the large labour force of educators and education workers faced with precarious employment.

Mindzak writes:

Recent announcements in Ontario about public education have been controversial, with changes including larger classroom sizes, mandatory online courses and curriculum revisions. However, perhaps most significantly, the imposed changes will lead to the loss of teaching positions across the province.

With government priorities focused on educational austerity, schools will have to do more with less.

Often, within such discussions are highly politicized debates emerging over issues such as teacher compensation and working conditions. Some believe teachers to be an extremely privileged group in Ontario, afforded positions which include strong salaries, benefits, pensions and vacation time. Others counter that teachers work in a profession with long hours, extensive overtime and challenging classroom conditions.

Nevertheless, such arguments continue to miss the mark as they do not fully highlight the range of workers involved in education. What remains obscured is the significant impact such changes will hold for education workers across the province.

My own research into the issue of teacher unemployment and underemployment in Ontario over the past decade revealed a concerning reality for many teachers. In fact, beneath the typical full-time, permanent model of the classroom teacher lies an enormous labour force of educators and education workers who largely function on the margins as precarious workers.

Continue reading the full article here.