How Local 192 Fought for Academic Freedom and Civil Rights in Philadelphia, 1934-1941

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 941-960 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Toloudis
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
State Government ◽  
Classroom Teachers ◽  
Teachers Union ◽  
American Federation ◽  
American Federation Of Teachers ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Scholarly Attention

While historians have often discussed the American Federation of Teachers’ (AFT) expulsion of three of its locals in 1941 due to their Communist affiliations, only the two New York unions have been the subjects of sustained scholarly attention. This article examines AFT Local 192, the Philadelphia Teachers Union, during its heyday between 1934 and 1941. Using archival documents and newspaper accounts, it argues for the significance of Local 192 as an example of social justice unionism, combining commitments to robust advocacy of classroom teachers in city and state government, fighting for racial equality, and fostering deep social networks with the families whose children appeared in union teachers’ classrooms.

Far from the Ivory Tower

Bad Faith ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 129-146
Author(s):  
Andrew Feffer
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Popular Front ◽  
Ivory Tower ◽  
College Teachers ◽  
National Union ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Teachers Union ◽  
American Federation ◽  
American Federation Of Teachers

This chapter recounts the increasingly bitter contest between communists and liberals in the American Federation of Teachers, as the Popular Front dissolved in the wake of the Hitler-Stalin Pact in August 1939. As Local 5’s offshoot, the College Teachers Union, under communist and radical socialist leadership, successfully established tenure rights for New York’s municipal colleges in 1938. The New York locals were challenged in the AFT by social democrats like George Counts, whose anti-communist campaign won the presidency of the national union, setting the stage for the Rapp-Coudert probe the following year.

Teacher Power, Black Power, and the fracturing of Labor Liberalism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Shelton
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Black Power ◽  
Community Control ◽  
Teacher Strikes ◽  
American Federation ◽  
Community Institutions ◽  
American Federation Of Teachers ◽  
Black Populations

This chapter chronicles the growing conflict between the Black Power movement—an extension of the civil rights movement seeking the formation of black political and community institutions—and unionized public employees in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Beginning with the United Federation of Teachers strike in 1968 over community control in Ocean Hill-Brownsville (New York City), the chapter also shows how two teacher strikes in Newark (1970, 1971) drove apart the Black community and a majority white teacher union. A close examination of letters to the imprisoned President of the American Federation of Teachers shows that critics of both urban black populations and unionized teachers had begun to link the two groups together as “unproductive” threats to law and order and economic prosperity.

Civil Rights, Labor Conflict, and Integration: New Orleans Educators’ Struggle for Collective Bargaining 1965-1974

2020 ◽  
pp. 0160449X2096318
Author(s):  
Jesse Chanin
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
New Orleans ◽  
National Education Association ◽  
The South ◽  
New Members ◽  
National Education ◽  
American Federation ◽  
American Federation Of Teachers ◽  
Education Association

When American Federation of Teachers-Local 527 launched their collective bargaining campaign in 1965, they were one of five mostly segregated teachers’ locals in New Orleans and represented a minority of the system’s educators. Spurred on by the National, who saw them as the lynchpin to organizing the South, they held a three-day job action, the first teachers’ strike in the South, in 1966 and then a longer nine-day strike in 1969. Through these mobilizations, they connected their demand for collective bargaining to racial and economic equity in the schools, aligning themselves with Black students, parents, and lower paid support workers. In the early 1970s, New Orleans underwent an ambitious faculty desegregation program that transformed the schools and led to the merger between Local 527 and the majority-white National Education Association (NEA) local to form the United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO). Although faculty desegregation was a top-down reform, the union capitalized on teacher integration to form intentional alliances across race and mobilize new members. Following the merger, UTNO renewed their call for collective bargaining, eventually pressuring the board to approve an election in 1974. I argue that by positioning racial justice as central to their union organizing, prioritizing participatory democracy among membership, and engaging in civil rights unionism, UTNO succeeded in achieving collective bargaining when so many other Southern cities failed.

Students Questioning Students (SQS): a Technique to Invite Students' Involvement

1988 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 179-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith S. Engel
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Teaching Strategy ◽  
New York State ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
National Council ◽  
American Federation ◽  
American Federation Of Teachers ◽  
Specific Feedback ◽  
Education Association ◽  
High Level

A most successful teaching strategy has been developed in my gifted/talented classes. Students question their peers about classwork, homework problems or aspects of the lesson, instead of doing the explaining themselves. Using the Students Questioning Students method (SOS), students stimulate their class-mates to think. Since students are involved in questioning, they become more attentive listeners to other students and to me during the lesson. Often the more capable students ask questions which reflect a high level of thinking skills. The students are taught strategies for asking questions and strategies for providing positive and specific feedback to their peers. With SQS, students have a piece of the action in learning. Their personalities emerge and the process is great fun! The students report that they wished SQS were used in all their classes at The Bronx High School of Science. SQS was a segment of the American Federation of Teachers program, “Teaching Children to Think,” in the series, “Inside Your Schools,” hosted by Steve Alien and shown on national TV in February, 1986. The entire series of programs for 1985–1986 was shown in the New York City area on educational TV in May, 1986. The presentation, which would be suitable for teachers of grades 7 through 12, has been given to the following professional organizations: Alliance for Invitational Education Association of Mathematics Teachers of New York State National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Summer Mathematics and Science Institute, Lehman College Sixth World Conference on Gifted and Talented Children The Ontario Association for Mathematics Education.

Job Stress and Health of Elementary and Secondary School Educators in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 192-203
Author(s):  
Paul A. Landsbergis ◽  
Elina Shtridler ◽  
Amy Bahruth ◽  
Darryl Alexander
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
The United States ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Labor Management ◽  
Work Stressors ◽  
Social Trends ◽  
American Federation ◽  
American Federation Of Teachers

Elementary and secondary school educators face many work stressors, which appear to be increasing due to economic, political, and social trends. Therefore, we analyzed data from a 2017 national American Federation of Teachers survey of U.S. education staff, including data from two New York School districts that have adopted collaborative labor-management practices. The national American Federation of Teachers sample of educators reported significantly higher prevalences of several work stressors and poorer physical and mental health compared to the U.S. workers overall, adjusted for age, gender, and race/ethnicity. Compared with educators nationally, educators in districts with collaborative labor-management practices did not have a consistently higher or lower prevalence of work stressors or poorer health. Findings suggest the importance of reducing work stressors among U.S. educators. Results should be interpreted with caution due to the low educator survey response rate.

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