The Depiction of Workplace Reality: Principles of Democratic Learning and New Brunswick’s Youth Apprenticeship Program

Résumé

The sharp decline in voter participation among Canadian youth requires an examination of how our students are being prepared for democratic citizenship. Public schools, including programs falling under the purview of career education, provide the means to prepare learners for vocational, community, and political participation. In Canada, career preparation occurs under a variety of names – Career Planning in British Columbia, Career Preparation in Alberta, Guidance and Career Education in Ontario – to mention a few. In this article, we offer a policy analysis of New Brunswick’s Youth Apprenticeship Program (NBYAP) to determine its respect for the principles of democratic learning (Hyslop-Margison & Graham, 2003). These principles are designed to provide students with a sense of community responsibility, political empowerment and social understanding. Our analysis reveals that NBYAP violates fundamental democratic values that foster student understanding of Searle’s (1995) distinction between brute facts and social facts. Students must appreciate this distinction to recognize how their own agency and democratic decision-making effects change in the formation of social, political, and economic reality.