Teaching Family? Care/Work Policy in Selected Family Courses in Canada's Research-Intensive Universities

Area of Science:

• Sociology
• Education
• Public Policy

Background:

• Reconciling caregiving responsibilities with employment is a growing societal concern.
• Existing research often focuses on single institutions or programs, limiting national scope.
• Understanding how family policy is addressed in higher education is crucial for addressing the care crisis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the extent to which explicit care/work family policy is taught in family courses.
• To analyze family courses across sociology, political studies, and women's/gender studies programs.
• To contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning through a national curriculum review.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a national scan of family courses at Canada's 15 R1 universities.
• Identified 74 family courses and analyzed 15 for explicit mention of care/work family policy.
• Examined formal course calendar descriptions for policy-related content.

Main Results:

• Only 15 out of 74 family courses explicitly addressed care/work family policy.
• Sociology departments predominated in teaching family policy.
• Care/work policy content was found to be uncommon across the analyzed courses.

Conclusions:

• The low profile of care/work family policy in Canadian university family courses is significant given current societal challenges.
• National postsecondary education curricular reviews are valuable for identifying educational gaps.
• There is a need for curriculum renewal in family studies to better incorporate care/work policy.