Teachers’ Organizations Responses to COVID-19 in Canada: Balancing Resistance, Rapprochement, and Renewal

Teacher federations are often criticized as “roadblocks” to educational change. It is arguable, however, that their advocacy work has been paramount in securing safer return to school conditions across Canadian Educational jurisdictions. Utilizing Carter et al. (2010) framework of union responses to changing policy environments, this paper draws on publicly available documents and social media posts from March through to October of 2020 to examine the ways in which teacher unions in various Canadian contexts have responded to the issue of school reopening plans amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the paper analyzes the extent to which Canadian teacher unions have been able to move into the realm of union renewal as a means of building internal capacity and developing external networks to strengthen their public advocacy work.

Teachers Unions’ Leadership and Their Impact on Educational Reforms in Israel

This article examines the politics of the teacher unions in the education reforms in Israel. In particular, the impact of the Histadrut Hamorim (HH) and the Irgun Hamorim (IH) teacher unions in the three educational reforms that took place in the country, in the years 1968, 2008 and 2011 respectively, was analyzed. For this purpose, a systematic literature review on the topic was carried out. Firstly, the discourse about the teacher unions potential influence upon the education reform decision policies was studied. Secondly, the role of the teacher unions in the education policy reforms in Israel was examined from a historical perspective, with special reference to the two unions under consideration. In conclusion, our study revealed that the impact of the teacher unions upon the education policy formation relating to the reforms as suggested in this piece of work seemed to be concerned with the unions’ political and ideological attachment to the political party in power.

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.

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.

The Examination of Job Satisfaction of Teachers in terms of Commuting Time, Motivation and some Demographic Characteristic

Teachers’ appointments & relocations may create problems for both teachers & educational administers in centralized & developing countries. Policymakers should not only consider school needs but also give attention to teachers’ needs while appointing teachers to schools in a nationwide system. Current regulations in Turkey give priority to vacancies in schools. However, this priority causes partners to live apart from each other or let one of them work in schools located, generally, in rural districts or villages away from the other partner or family member in need of special care of a relative. Teachers who work under this circumstances complain about online forms, and teacher unions ask governmental agencies to reconsider their priorities. Both teacher unions and teachers argue that this system of reappointment causes them to be exhausted and feel unhappy. This study, it is aimed to understand if commuting time is related to teachers’ job satisfaction together with their motivation, gender, seniority, compulsory duty, and marital status. Results indicated that extrinsic motivation, commuting time & gender are significant predictors of job satisfaction. The findings of the study were discussed & possible suggestions are given according to the results.

Revisiting Robert Axelrod: Cooperation, School Management and Teacher Unions

The militancy of teacher unions is frequently associated with the disruption in schools where unions are antagonistic to management. The objective of this qualitative study was to examine the impact of cooperation between teacher unions and school management. Using Axelrod’s theory of the Evolution of Cooperation, the instrument explored whether school principals can forge successful cooperation between school managers and union site committees. Several studies are showing that cooperation among staff is critical for learner achievement and collegiality. Furthermore, cooperation enables the school’s role-players to work towards a shared vision. The conclusions point out that school managers should consciously engender cooperation to run successful schools where teachers would not betray one another. A methodical cooperation plan could be the missing tool required to turn unsuccessful schools around to become successful.

Reframing the narrative: Renewing power resources and capabilities in union campaigns for public education

Neoliberal logics have put teacher unions on the defensive, requiring evaluation of the resources and capabilities necessary to improve teachers’ industrial and professional conditions and broader public education issues. This article examines the case of a teachers' union in Australia – the NSW Teachers’ Federation – and their renewal of resources and capabilities in recent public education campaigns. In applying a power resources and capabilities framework to the analysis of two prominent campaigns, this article develops the argument for renewal of power resources and capabilities through mobilising and transforming narrative resources and reframing public education issues in order to challenge ideological narratives around public education, build discursive power and sustain influence within a neoliberal environment.

Teacher Unions, Political Machines, and the Thorny Politics of Education Reform in Latin America

Existing research on developing countries emphasizes the decisive power of teacher unions in education politics. Yet that power varies, and a full understanding of the roots of union power and the sources of cross-national variation requires deeper analysis of organizational dynamics within unions. This analysis supports four arguments. First, teachers have a range of advantages in overcoming obstacles to collective action. Second, unions are not all alike; they vary widely, from interest groups (in Chile, Brazil, and Peru) to powerful political machines (in Mexico and Ecuador). Third, the source of this variation lies in factors (e.g., influence over teacher hiring) that shift power within unions from members to leaders in political-machine unions. Fourth, analyzing the dimensions of variation helps explain the different outcomes of recent reforms to teacher careers in Latin America, especially in highlighting the staunch opposition from political-machine unions.

The critical evaluation of educators' struggles in the context of Covid-19: Some theological analysis

Most countries have realized that education is one of the important keys to transforming their countries, and this responsibility rests hugely on the shoulders of teachers. It is concerning that the plight of teachers who are carriers of both our children’s future and the future of this country seems not to be receiving the attention it deserves. Although teacher unions are many, it is questionable whether the teaching profession is receiving the protection and the encouragement it deserves in this country. The teaching profession faced many challenges in recent years. Just as we thought that the massive resignation trend that started in 2014 was coming to an end and that a period of stability was dawning, Covid-19 and the hard lockdown of 2020 happened and many of the teaching profession’s serious concerns were once again thrust into the limelight. This article is concerned with the struggles of teachers during the corona period; the researcher looked at, for example, the paradox of the reopening of schools while the pandemic was raging towards its peak and how it affected teachers. Teachers were promised that they could work from home till retirement if they had comorbidities and are sixty and above of age, but they were recalled to work.

Perpetuating Social Injustice Through Neglecting the Voices of the Non-Unionized Teachers

The democratic dispensation elevated teacher trade unionism to unparalleled and unprecedented levels in the South African education system. The education laws of South Africa recognize teacher unions which meet the South African labor-related requirements. The three powerful teacher unions that recognize and represent thousands of teachers are the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU), the National Professional Teachers' Organisation of South Africa (NAPTOSA), and the Suid Afrikaanse Onderwysersunie (SAOU). These recognized teacher unions represent their members in decision making processes and not teachers who are non-union members. This chapter is based on an in-depth evaluation of extant literature, and further, it is interpretive in approach and employs social justice as the theoretical and conceptual framework.