Citizenship development through vocational training: British Columbia Rural Youth Training School, 1947–1959

Abstract

This article inspires critical and creative thinking about the promotion of citizenship development through programmes of study designed primarily to enhance adults' vocational skills. It does so through presenting an empirical case study of an important adult education programme delivered by the Department of University Extension at the University of British Columbia in the 1940s and 1950s. The ‘Youth Training School’ was funded by the governments of Canada and British Columbia to provide vocational training to young men and women from rural areas. While the curriculum of the school was focused on agriculture and home economics, its residential character and the structure of its extracurricular activities led to significant opportunities for citizenship development among its participants. This article contributes both to the history of adult education, and to the understanding of contemporary possibilities for citizenship education in contexts where official attention and resources are focused on vocational goals. It argues that vocational training and citizenship development are not mutually exclusive, that citizenship education is not necessarily progressive, and that the structure of educational experience is as important as the substantive content of lessons in the promotion of citizenship.