On the Role of Teacher Unions in Social Justice: An Essay Review of Michael Charney, Jesse Hagopian, and Bob Peterson (Eds.) Teacher Unions and Social Justice: Organizing for the Schools and Communities Our Students Deserve. Milwaukee: Rethinking Schools, 2021.446 pp. ISBN: 978-0-942961-09-6

In an earlier essay in the Reviewing Policy section of this journal, I examined many of the major arguments for social justice teacher unionism. This combines both more traditional union concerns over wages, working conditions, professional autonomy, and respect with a much more concerted focus by unions on social justice issues in schools, communities, and the larger society. The importance of such a commitment and what it actually looks like is evident in the book under discussion here. Teacher Unions and Social Justice is one of a deservedly well-respected and growing series of volumes published by Rethinking Schools. The entire series constitutes substantive contributions to some of the most significant and contentious issues facing deeply committed educators. Through books such as Teacher Unions and Social Justice and other important publications, Rethinking Schools provides us with ways of combining the professional, political, and personal aspects of our lives and of coming together to build thicker forms of critically democratic education to defend a more robust vision of the common good.

Learning from Lacunae in Research: Making Sense of Teachers’ Labor Activism

How does educational research inform understanding of the current labor activism among U.S. teachers and illuminate teachers’ capacity when they are organized as workers to challenge neoliberal educational policies? To address these questions we examine critical research on teachers’ work and teachers unions from 2000-2019, scrutinizing knowledge production about teachers’ work and the role of teachers unions in contesting and conceding to reform, and analyzing how ideological assumptions about capitalism, labor, race, class, and gender configure the amount and nature of scholarship on teachers unions. We explain why scholarship on school reform should include attention to teacher unionism, re-conceptualizing tensions between what are understood as “social justice” struggles and defense of teachers’ professional interests, livelihoods, and working conditions.

The New South Wales Teachers Federation, the Conciliation Committee of 1927-1929, and the Formation of the Educational Workers League

Purpose Originally written in the 1990s but unpublished, the paper is now revised; the purpose of this paper is to examine the context of the formation of the Educational Workers League of NSW in 1931 with particular emphasis on the NSW Crown Employees (Teachers) Conciliation Committee and the enactment of its agreement in the worsening economic conditions of the Depression. The aims, reception and possible influence of the League on Federation policy and practice are addressed. Design/methodology/approach Primary source material consulted includes the minutes of the Conciliation Committee’s sittings from September 1927 to July 1929; papers relating to the Educational Workers League held in the Teachers Federation Library; and the Teachers Federation journal, Education. Findings The Conciliation Committee’s proceedings and outcomes had far reaching implications. The resultant salary agreement received a hostile reception from assistant teachers and fuelled distrust between assistants and headmasters. As economic depression deepened, dissatisfaction with the conservative leadership and tactics of the Federation increased. One outcome was the formation of the radical, leftist Educational Workers League by teachers, including Sam Lewis, who would later play key roles within the Federation itself. Originality/value While acknowledging the extensive earlier work of Bruce Mitchell, the paper contributes to a deeper understanding of teacher unionism and teacher activism in the 1920s and 1930s. Apart from brief attention by Federation historians in the 1960s and 1970s, there has been no history of the formation, reception and significance of the Educational Workers League.

La huelga de profesores en las escuelas normales: los directores, entre la adhesión y la denuncia (Santa Fe, Argentina, 1921)

RESUMENLa huelga ocurrida en la provincia de Santa Fe, en 1921, fue la experiencia más intensa de acción directa del sector docente durante la primera mitad del siglo XX, en la Argentina. La posición de los profesores y directores de las seis Escuelas Normales provinciales fue heterogénea, con particularidades propias de cada institución y ciudad. En este artículo se reconstruye esa diversidad, en base a fuentes oficiales reservadas. Se explican los motivos institucionales y sociales que incidieron en las conductas y acciones de los profesores. El trabajo busca hacer un aporte al estudio de las identidades y prácticas de los directores escolares, así como a su relación con las asociaciones gremiales.Palabras clave: escuela normal - huelga de profesores – sindicalismo docenteA greve dos professores nas escolas normais: os diretores, entre adesão e denúncia (Santa Fé, Argentina, 1921)RESUMOA greve ocorrida na província de Santa Fé, em 1921, foi a mais intensa experiência de ação direta do setor docente durante a primeira metade do século XX, na Argentina. A posição dos professores e diretores das seis Escolas Normais provinciais foi heterogênea, com características específicas em cada instituição e cidade. Neste artigo, essa diversidade é reconstruída, tendo como base fontes oficiais reservadas. Os motivos institucionais e sociais que influenciaram os comportamentos e ações dos professores são explicados. O trabalho busca contribuir para o estudo das identidades e práticas dos diretores das escolas, bem como sua relação com as associações sindicais.Palavras-chave: escola normal - greve de professores - sindicalismo de professoresThe strike of teachers in normal schools: the directors, between adhesion and complaint (Santa Fe, Argentina, 1921) ABSTRACTThe strike occurred in the province of Santa Fe, in 1921, was the most intense experience of direct action of the teaching sector during the first half of the twentieth century, in Argentina. The position of the professors and directors of the six provincial Normal Schools was heterogeneous, with specific Characteristics of each institution and city. In this article, this diversity is reconstructed, based on reserved official sources. The institutional and social reasons that influenced the behaviors and actions of the teachers are explained. The work seeks to make a contribution to the study of the identities and practices of school directors, as well as their relationship with trade union associations.Keywords: normal school - teachers strike - teacher unionism

Teacher Unionism in the 20th-Century United States

Since the turn of the 20th century, teachers have tried to find a balance between bettering their own career prospects as workers and educating their students as public servants. To reach a workable combination, teachers have utilized methods drawn from union movements, the militant and labor-conscious approach favored by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), as well as to professional organizations, the tradition from which the National Education Association (NEA) arose. Because teachers lacked the federally guaranteed labor rights that private-sector workers enjoyed after Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act in 1935, teachers’ fortunes—in terms of collective bargaining rights, control over classroom conditions, pay, and benefits—often remained tied to the broader public-sector labor movement and to state rather than federal law. Opponents of teacher unionization consistently charged that as public servants paid by tax revenues, teachers and other public employees should not be allowed to form unions. Further, because women constituted the vast majority of teachers and union organizing often represented a “manly” domain, the opposition’s approach worked quite well, successfully preventing teachers from gaining widespread union recognition. But by the late 1960s and early 1970s, thanks to an improved economic climate and invigoration from the women’s movement, civil rights struggles, and the New Left, both AFT and NEA teacher unionism surged forward, infused with a powerful militancy devoted to strikes and other political action, and appeared poised to capture federal collective bargaining rights. Their newfound assertiveness proved ill-timed, however. After the economic problems of the mid-1970s, opponents of teacher unions once again seized the opportunity to portray teacher unions and other public-sector unions as greedy and privileged interest groups functioning at the public’s expense. President Ronald Reagan accentuated this point when he fired all of the more than 10,000 striking air traffic controllers during the 1981 Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) strike. Facing such opposition, teacher unions—and public-sector unions in general—shifted their efforts away from strikes and toward endorsing political candidates and lobbying governments to pass favorable legislation. Given these constraints, public-sector unions enjoyed a large degree of success in the 1990s through the early 2000s, even as private-sector union membership plunged to less than 10 percent of the workforce. After the Great Recession of 2008, however, austerity politics targeted teachers and other public-sector workers and renewed political confrontations surrounding the legitimacy of teacher unions.