The Teacher Uprising, 2010–2021

When Chicago teachers went on strike in 2012, they highlighted an emergent militance among teachers in the United States. Led by the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE), the Chicago Teacher Union (CTU) in the 2010s sought to use the collective bargaining process not only to fight for better salaries and working conditions, but also to dramatically improve the lives of their students through racial justice initiatives and more services such as school nurses and social workers. Other big city unions, some in dialogue with the CTU through the United Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (UCORE), embarked on similar campaigns. Elsewhere, teachers staged state-wide walkouts. In February 2018, teachers in all of West Virginia’s fifty-five counties went on strike to protest stagnant pay and escalating healthcare costs. Their efforts, which forced a Republican legislature to substantially increase education spending, inspired similar red-state walkouts in the months that followed. Strikes in Oklahoma and Arizona also won major funding hikes, for example. Then, in early 2019, militant teachers walked out in Los Angeles, Oakland, and Denver, and in the fall, the CTU was on strike again, this time with even broader demands than in 2012. Another year of militance might have occurred in 2020, but the global COVID-19 pandemic forced school districts and unions to focus on the immediate public health crisis. Unions pivoted to demanding that districts maintain protocols to ensure teachers, students, and their families were kept safe from the virus.

Teachers’ Organizations and Educational Reform: Resistance and Beyond

This paper presents case studies of teacher union-government relationships in three Canadian provinces – British Columbia, Ontario, and Alberta – where teacher organizations have undertaken divergent strategic positions relative to educational reform. It identifies critical factors that may lead teacher unions to challenge government reforms, how and when a teacher organization might instead accommodate governmental reform, and under what circumstances union renewal drives an organization to establish reform strategies of its own. The paper demonstrates the results of these varied strategies and suggests that teacher unions’ stances, including when they are resistant, are rational and, arguably, necessary.

Trabajo artístico detrás de los símbolos de la protesta docente

A partir del concepto de artista-docente hemos focalizado sobre las formas que asume la participación, de estos/as trabajadores/as, en las marchas y manifestaciones de reclamos salariales, convocadas por la Asociación de Trabajadores de la Educación de Neuquén (Argentina). Nos proponemos aquí realizar una etnografía de la protesta docente, prestando especial atención a los símbolos y sus representaciones plásticas y musicales. Consideraremos a estas como el resultado del trabajo artístico de un sector de la docencia militante. Nos interesará mostrar de qué manera pesa sobre estas tareas una cultura del trabajo artístico docente, atravesada por las representaciones de la Modernidad, en torno del arte y la docencia. Munidos de las herramientas provistas por la Antropología, hemos analizado la relación establecida entre el mundo simbólico y el mundo material-laboral del/la artista docente. De esa manera, a partir de un marco referencial provisto por la Historia Cultural del Arte, hemos detectado cómo “vocación” y “donación de sí”, dos categorías presentes en la concepción del artista, desde los albores de la Modernidad, se solapan con las mismas exigencias, en la construcción social de la docencia. Desde un abordaje etnográfico de la protesta gremial docente, nos interesa subrayar la dialéctica familiaridad –extrañamiento y la necesidad de considerar a las emociones como parte del estudio antropológico en terrenos como el abordado.Palabras clave: Artista-Docente. Trabajo. Protesta Gremial. Etnografía. The work behind the symbols of protest. An ethnography of the teacher marches (Neuquén 2017-2019)Abstract: Based on the concept of artist-teacher we have focused on the forms assumed by the participation from these workers in public protests and wage claims called by the Association of Education Workers of Neuquén (Argentina). We propose here to carry out an ethnography of the teacher protest, paying special attention to the symbols and their plastic and musical representations. We will consider these as the result of the artistic work of a militant teaching sector. We will be interested in showing how a culture of teaching artistic work weighs on these tasks, crossed by representations of Modernity around art and teaching. In addition to the tools provided by anthropology, we have analyzed the relationship established between the symbolic or ideetic world and the material-work world of the/the teaching artist. In this way, from a reference framework provided by the Cultural History of Art, we have detected how "vocation" and "donation of self", two categories present in the conception of the artist from the dawn of Modernity, overlap with the same requirements in the social construction of teaching. From an ethnographic approach to teacher union protest, we are interested in highlighting the dialectic familiarity -strangement and the need to consider emotions as part of anthropological study in areas such as we addressed. Keywords: Artist-Teacher. Work. Union protest. Ethnography. O trabalho por trás dos símbolos do protesto. Uma etnografia das marchas docentes. (Neuquén, 2017-2019)Resumo: A partir do conceito de artista-professor, focalizamos as formas assumidas pela participação dos professores-artistas nas marchas e manifestações de reivindicações salariais convocadas pela Associação de Trabalhadores da Educação de Neuquén (Argentina). Propomos aqui fazer uma etnografia do protesto docente, dando especial atenção aos símbolos e às suas representações plásticas e musicais. Vamos considerá-los como fruto do trabalho artístico de um setor pedagógico militante. Teremos interesse em mostrar como uma cultura do ensino do trabalho artístico pesa sobre essas tarefas, atravessada pelas representações da Modernidade em torno da arte e do ensino. Além das ferramentas fornecidas pela antropologia, analisamos a relação estabelecida entre o mundo simbólico ou ideético e o mundo material-trabalho do / do artista docente. Desse modo, a partir de um referencial proporcionado pela História Cultural da Arte, detectamos como "vocação" e "doação de si", duas categorias presentes na concepção do artista desde os primórdios da Modernidade, se sobrepõem com as mesmas exigências. na construção social do ensino. A partir de uma abordagem etnográfica ao protesto sindical docente, interessa-nos destacar a dialética familiaridade-estranhamento e a necessidade de considerar as emoções como parte do estudo antropológico em áreas como as abordadas.Palavras-chave: Professor-artista. Trabalho. Protesto de Guilda. Etnografia.

Changes in the identity of the teaching profession: A study of a teacher union in Sweden from 1990 to 2017

We analyse changes in the collective identity that Sweden’s largest labour union for teachers had during the period 1990–2017. The study is based on theory about how collective identity is constructed in adaptation and resistance to external categorical dimensions and internal group identification. We identify shifts in relation to how the union employ different aspects on teachers' recognition, emotional engagement, and evaluation. Two clear cut-off points can be identified. The first point, which is clearly related to the impact of political reforms, took place in 2000 and is about increased demands with respect to transparency, legality, equality, efficiency, and attainment results. The second point took place in 2015, a year when Sweden confronted a new set of social challenges. The teaching profession was re-launched as a moral agent and in need of a trust-based steering approach.

De ethiek van het onderwijzersberoep rond 1900

The ethics of the teaching profession around 1900 Around 1900, lively discussions arose on the teaching profession and its ethics, in remarkable simularity to actual discussions on this subject. Was the best education to be seen as moral education, whether and how in combination with the cognitive basics; and on the outcome of that, what kind of teacher qualities were to be required, and how to be developed? Disputes hereon were mixed with the pressing question: must pedagogical quality be defined and prescribed by scientific reasoning, or by teachers themselves on their own terms and insights? This article compares three positions in these discussions, traced in then influential pedagogical journals: Herbart-followers, as defenders of science based teacher quality; their fierce adversaries in the upcoming teacher union, led by Theo Thijssen; and educational reformers striving for nuanced or deliberatly doubting viewpoints on all this. This third position was favoured by Jan Ligthart and other authors in the journal he drifted. Interestingly, all parties declared the teachers personality of the uppermost importance for educational quality. In Thijssens circle however, this personality was depicted as a real male, autonomously leading his classroom without ethical fuss. While around Ligthart, good teachership sprang from the capacity to empathize with pupils – including their unwillingness to be educated – but enriched by self-insight in ones own personal development, with the inevitable conflicts and doubts thereabouts. This perspective, gradually growing in Ligtharts writings, was otherwise mostly expressed by female authors. The article leads to persistently awkward discussion points, including gender questions, regarding the teaching profession.

A Narrative Study of Factors Influencing Students’ Academic Achievement: Views of Parents, Teachers and Union Leaders

This paper reports on private school teachers, parents, and teacher union leaders’ experiences with middle and high schools in a small city in northeastern Turkey to identify the problems in education and study them to develop some solutions for them. This narrative study was carried out in the Spring semester of 2012 by conducting face-to-face individual in-depth interviews with 47 participants. Personal narratives were analyzed by developing themes. Findings reveal that the success and lack of it in education arises from the upper level management style, from uninterested parents, and the geographical conditions and location of the city create big problems. Also, parents’ cultural background is more significant than their economic background.

Primary School Teacher Union Participation in Greece

As social organizations, labor unions place special emphasis on the active participation of their members. In this way, labor union leaders expect not only to safeguard their union’s smooth operation but also to increase their negotiating powers, and defend vigorously working employees’ rights as well as put forward demands for new ones. In recent decades, securing rights to permanent employment as well as many other achievements of the union movement have been increasingly challenged. In addition, modern societies like Greece seem apprehensive as regards demands put forward by labor unions. The appeal of economic liberalization and globalization policies could provide an initial explanation for this phenomenon. However, it is not just the global economic situation and policies that have challenged the dynamics of the union movement nowadays. Attention has to be shifted to the internal environment of the labor unions such as Teachers’ Federation of Greece. This might better explain the limited participation of employees like Greek teachers in their union’s actions and proceedings, such as strikes, stoppages, and public demonstrations.