University professors typically take advantage of the quieter summer months to catch up on the research and writing that they neglect over the fall and winter.  As I make my way through a very long to-do list, I’m finally finding time to post my reflection on the winter term.

This winter I taught Urban Poverty and Policy as I do every year. It is a second-year undergraduate course that I created several years ago.  I combine an overview of different theories about poverty guiding public policy along with some practical exposure to the processes that move policy and program development forward.  The central purpose of the course is to provide students with an understanding that public policy is not value free and that different choices could be made to reduce poverty and its effects through comprehensive approaches and political will.

I encourage students to think honestly and critically about how they define poverty and its causes.  I encourage them to think about how their views of poverty determine how they believe it will best be solved. Do they see it as an individual problem? A structural problem? Some combination of the two? Our classroom discussions are rich, energetic and sometimes challenging.

We then look at government responses to poverty and the values and beliefs behind past and current public policies.  After looking at the history of public policies related to poverty, students typically come to their own conclusions that while there are some slight differences and improvements when more progressive political parties are in power,  people living in poverty are not a priority.

I’ve been doing research related to public policy and poverty far too long to be overly optimistic that this will change. There has not been a government during my lifetime willing to implement the policies and programs needed to meaningfully reduce poverty.

But I’m not without hope.  My hope comes from our students. Students who study in the department of Urban and Inner-City Studies at Merchants Corner come from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. Some are Indigenous, some are newcomers, some have personal experiences with poverty and others come from middle class families. They openly share their personal experiences with poverty. Or lack thereof.  They learn, sometimes from their peers, about the impacts of poverty and the challenges to escape poverty, especially for those whose families have experienced poverty for generations.  

They are developing strong critical thinking skills in their university courses, but over the years I’ve come to understand that students need more than the ability to think critically.  They need also learn that they have agency to affect change.

Time and time again students tell me how much they value learning about the processes that lead to public policy decisions. They want to know how they can put what they learn into practice. So, I teach them how to understand government budgets and how they can participate in the democratic process beyond voting at election time.  They learn about the activist groups that challenges governments to do better and how they can get involved.  They are encouraged to seek information from serious news sources and they learn how to write and submit opinion pieces and letters to participate in the discourse. They learn that they can actively contribute to shaping the societal changes they seek.

In an age where people have access to all sorts of news sources, local news outlets struggle to attracted young readers. This year I pitched the idea to the editor of the Winnipeg Free Press opinion page that one way to encourage younger people to look to the daily newspaper for their news is to include their voices on the opinion page.  In 2019 I worked with a past Winnipeg Free Press editor who published a budget analysis I wrote with my class. They were quite excited about that and the editor agreed to consider a student analysis in future years.  But the Covid pandemic disrupted that plan.

This year the editor was intrigued by the new idea of publishing student opinion pieces and suggested I submit the top three for consideration. I worked with three students to refine their assignments, and we submitted them. Unfortunately, the federal election was called and the project fell by the wayside. We were all disappointed about that, but it was another learning moment. Not every opinion piece is published and challenging governments to do better requires persistence and commitment.

I’ve always believed strongly in the importance of university as a place for students to learn how to think critically and know that they can go out into the world to make it a better place. Engaging in public discourse in a thoughtful and meaningful way through the media is one way to participate. Students enjoyed learning the practical skill of putting what they learn into opinion piece, even if they are not published.

Students want to be heard. They are finding ways to engage through a multitude of platforms, but rarely do we see their perspectives in the mainstream media. I think we need to change that.

I’ll plan to revisit this idea with the Winnipeg Free Press again next year.