Good Teaching Under Fire: Democratic Practices, Classroom Observations, and Teacher Protests, 1927–1953

• In Event: 35.061 - Platforms of Resistance in the Lives of Teachers Past and Present

Abstract

Purposes
The purposes of this paper are to describe a historical episode that resulted in intense political pressure for public school teachers and the loss of their public school employment, and to consider the significance of their resistance to that pressure. In the early 1950s, shifts in world politics resulted in widespread ideological pressures and increased scrutiny for many public servants. Teachers, with their unique access to impressionable youth, warranted particularly close scrutiny. Between 1950 and 1954, over 200 public school teachers in the New York City system were accused of subversive activities and dismissed. During the same period, many others who were accused were permitted to resign from subversive organizations and keep teaching (Taylor, 2011). The strategies of those who chose to fight the charges are potentially instructive to today’s teachers, many of whom find themselves morally called to resist accountability policies that seem to erode the ethical standards of the teaching profession.

Framework and methods
To make sense of this historical moment and the documents it produced, I use a conceptual framework developed by Gardner, Csikszentmihalyi and Damon (2001), which seeks to understand the ethical dilemmas faced by professional workers in changing times. As these changes shape the demands placed on their work, practitioners consult the social mission of their profession and make decisions that take into consideration their professional expertise and ethics. This research utilizes qualitative content analysis of three types of primary source documents: protest letters written by the teachers when they were fired, classroom observation reports describing daily teaching events, and statements by parents and students.

Results
With support from their union (Johnson, 2002, 2007), the accused teachers mounted a coordinated response in what may have seemed like a losing battle, given that the political forces they chose to resist were larger and more powerful than they. Importantly, the resistance mounted by the teachers was most urgently expressed as an articulation of their core professional beliefs, as they attempted to re-align the teaching profession on its mission through resistance. In the historical moment described in this paper, the teachers who were accused of subversive activity responded by articulating key tenets of progressive teaching practice, including democratic classroom practices, critical literacy, and current events as teaching opportunities. As the teachers resisted being called subversive and un-American by the Superintendent, they successfully repositioned themselves as principled and experienced progressive educators, whose work with students was not subversive, but reflected their commitment to critical citizenship through education. Because public opinion and subsequent history found in favor of these teachers, and many were eventually reinstated, their strategic resistance may serve as a possible model for today’s teachers as they face continued threats to their professional integrity and ethics. Organized, conscientious resistance to policies that threatened teachers’ ability to do good work was an effective means of realigning the teaching profession on its social mission in the past, and organized resistance can be effective now, as today’s teachers face similar challenges.

Author

• Lizabeth Cain, Binghamton University - SUNY