Dale M. McCartney grew up working class on Vancouver Island, and initially studied labour history. He used what he learned to work as a labour educator and consultant on public labour history projects, but his life was changed by working at a pathway college for international students. There he learned about the scale of international education in Canada, and the vulnerability of international students to exploitation and mistreatment. Since then his research has focused on the history of international student policy in Canada, in an effort to make education more just, more democratic, and more accessible.
