The CSEW approach to research practice is to involve community and labour partners as full participants. It provides the University of Toronto with a special educational presence in the wider North American network of university-based research on work and society, and labour studies. CSEW provides growing opportunities for students interested in this field to engage in integrated programs of study, seminars, thesis workshops and research projects. Some of the CSEW research project are:

• Anti-Poverty Community Organizing and Learning (APCOL). 2008, a SSHRC CURA grant.
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• The The Changing Nature of Work and Lifelong Learning in the New Economy, WALL network, funded by the SSHRC Collaborative Research Initiative on the New Economy (INE) for the 2003-2007 period. D.W. Livingstone was principal investigator for both the NALL and WALL networks. Several CSEW Steering Committee members took leadership roles in both networks (www.wallnetwork.ca).

• The New Approaches to Lifelong Learning, NALL network, CSEW funded research by the SSHRC Strategic Education and Training Networks Program for the 1997-2002 period (www.nall.ca).

• The project led by Jack Quarter under the SSHRC INE Research Alliance category, entitled Transformative Education for Pension Investment in the New Economy: A Union-Academic Partnership, received funding for 2003-2006.

• Education-Job Requirement Matching in the New Economy, SSHRC INE general research grant, 2002-2007. D.W. Livingstone.  

• Skilled in Vulnerability: Work-related Learning amongst Contingent Workers, SSHRC INE general research grant, Kiran Mirchandani.

• The Learning and Work Database: Resource Materials for Teaching, WALLRB. CRC-CFI grant, 2004-2008. D. W. Livingstone.

• Understanding Educational Capacity for Urban Community Unionism. SSHRC standard grant. 2006-2009. Peter Sawchuk.

In the 2003-07 period, WALL employed over 50 graduate students in its 13 subprojects, over half of them from OISE and U of T. For example, through the twelve case studies within the WALL project, students were put in touch with current thinking around learning and work among community, union and corporate partners.

Mirchandani’s project on women precarious workers’ learning in the new economy was conducted by a team which included the PI (Kiran Mirchandani), a co-investigator (Roxana Ng), a community researcher (Karen Hadley) and six student members.

Graduate students have been fully involved in related projects by many members of the CSEW Steering Committee, under contracts with organizations like the Applied Research Branch of HRSDC, the Canadian Policy Research Network, the Ontario Ministry of Education and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation. This work was base for numerous publications by Sawchuk and colleagues.