Globalization, Sweatshops and the Clothes We Wear

Massive, complete, well-researched senior high school unit which portrays the link between student-as-consumer clothing purchases and oppressive labour conditions in sweat-shops in developing countries, primarily Guatemala and Mexico.

Designed primarily for urban Ontario multicultural classrooms with strong international links with Latin America, but usable elsewhere.

Students will:

learn about human rights issues around clothing produced in low-wage countries
read pie charts and percentages to understand that wages are a very small part of the price of clothing
understand the human price of clothing produced in harsh working conditions
do basic map-reading for Latin and South America
learn about the case studies of Guatemalan garment workers and their struggles to have basic human rights and labour laws enforced by their own government against multinational corporations
learn media literacy via web explorations of corporate social responsibility policies and programmes by various brands and corporations

learn via website exploration about codes of conduct and compliance mechanisms in attempts to create ethical consumer clothing
learn how to write a formal letter to a corporation about ethical sourcing of school clothes or uniforms
learn how to make a flyer on ethical sourcing for student or school board lobbying
create a fashion show to highlight not just the clothes, but the labour conditions that the clothes were produced in

Question	Response
How to develop attitudes?	How not to accept the status quo as inevitable.
What skills does this resource explicitly teach?	Analysing where products come from. Detecting bias in human rights related materials. Letter writing to school boards or corporations.
What important, related ideas/issues are not addressed in this resource?	Fair Trade enterprises and other corporations based on maximizing benefits for workers.
What important ideas are implied by the resource, but not taught explicitly?	Teaching socially relevant lessons on social justice requires meticulous justification in curriculum. While not visible to students, there is a strong undercurrent of fear of addressing social justice issues present in the teacher materials---the exhaustive justifications with curriculum etc, that may reflect social tensions present in Ontario during the time the resource was written.
To enhance this resource the following changes are strongly recommended:	There are some unfortunate typographical errors such as: A typo p.TR23 "counterinsurgents" sic "insurgents". Missing period on p. TR 7. The typo on p.AR-11, where the highest level of grade in assessment rubric has lowest level marking attributes attached to it in error; this could be highly embarrassing, as the rubrics are designed for distribution to students as well as for use by the instructor. There are some problems in attempting to deliver this lesson plan on-line. PDF files require students to scroll up and down twice to read each column-layout page, something which many will not think to do. PDF image quality for some of the imported texts is barely legible, ie: AM (activity master) p.19 PDF is unreadable for those with corrective eye wear on typically dusty school computer lab screens. Students will attempt to click on web-links if this is taught as a PDF file; web links are not clickable within a PDF file which will lead to frustration by less-capable learners; an HTML version with live web links is needed. Needs an edit to reduce reading levels for less-literate students.
To enhance this resource the following changes would be beneficial:	Teaching this unit in communities that may not have appreciable links to the garment trades or to Latin American immigrant communities may need more emphasis on the importance of cultural diversity, and empathy, such as through celebration of some of the food, music or other cultural celebrations of the indigenous people involved.

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Principle	Rating	Explanation
Bias Minimization	Good
Multiple Dimensions of Problems & Solutions	Good
Respects Complexity	Good
Action Experience	Very Good
Action Skills	Good	Step by step 'how to' write a letter to a corporation or a school board.
Empathy & Respect for Humans	Good	There is a useful overview of the civil conflict in Guatemala that prefaces the labour conditions for aboriginal people in Guatemala today.
Personal Affinity with Earth	Poor/Not considered
Locally-Focused	Good
Past, Present & Future	Good	The excerpts of US State Department cables, declassified, to show the level of US support for what was seen as a 'communist insurgency' in Guatemala, is particularly well-drawn.

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Principle	Rating	Explanation
Open-Ended Instruction	Good	Students can visit the web-links to corporations and decide for themselves where they stand.
Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Learning	Mediocre
Discovery Learning	Good
Values Clarification	Good
Differentiated Instruction	Good	Exercises are inter-active for oral and non-literary learners.
Experiential Learning	Good
Cooperative Learning	Good
Assessment & Evaluation	Good	There are assessment tools provided.
Peer Teaching	Good
Case Studies	Very Good	Excellent case studies with supporting materials.
Locus of Control	Good	Lessons are proscriptive and instructor-led. Experienced instructors may shift the locus of control to students, but this is not promoted in the resource.

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Globalization, Sweatshops and the Clothes We Wear

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Description

General Assessment

Sustainability Education Principles

Pedagogical Approaches

Relevant Curriculum Units

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Globalization, Sweatshops and the Clothes We Wear

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Description

General Assessment

Sustainability Education Principles

Pedagogical Approaches

Relevant Curriculum Units

Brought to you by