Globalization, Sweatshops and the Clothes We Wear

Description

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

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General Assessment

Themes Addressed

Relevant Curriculum Units