Curriculum Materials - seeds for on Emergent Curriculum

The examples of materials provided in Section 2 consist of two units: Fight for the Living and The Water Watch Campaign. Each unit was inspired by authentic print material from the labour movement. The first was based on the Day of Mourning flyer published by the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and the second was based on a binder distributed by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

When looking at these examples, it is important to keep in mind that curriculum material for worker-centred union literacy is to be understood as a seed. It can come to fullness only when it is planted in rich soil - the complex and particular lived experience of a group of workers in a specific time and place. Only then can it develop further and eventually bear fruit, a fruit that comes from the workers themselves and their active engagement. Such development is organic rather than mechanical- it cannot be precisely controlled or predicted but only supported and nurtured.

The Fight for the Living example includes both a description of the "seed" itself a swell as a description of how the material was actually used by a particular group of participants and the activities and learning that emerged from that open-ended process. At the time of writing, the Water Watch Campaign material had yet to be used in a program and so it remains a seed still waiting to be planted.