Changing Unions in Challenging Times: Advocacy, Democracy, and Union Renewal

• In Event: International Scholarship and Perspectives on/for Educational Advocacy

Abstract

Purpose: Key studies highlight the importance of teacher agency and teacher self-efficacy in relation to developing notions of teacher professionalism (Bascia and Rottmann, 2011; Bangs and Frost, 2012; Priestley et al., 2015) and democratic education. However, often that agency is diminished and threatened. At the same time, teachers’ collective organizations, intended to protect teachers’ professional interests (Bangs and MacBeath, 2012), find themselves under attack (Weiner, 2012). This paper reports findings from an international study exploring how teachers’ unions are changing as they adapt to changed circumstances and how they are finding new ways to protect teacher professionalism in difficult times. The study addresses the following over-arching research question: How have teacher unions changed in ways that enhance teacher agency with regard to shaping the conditions of teachers’ work, policy setting and professional learning? Sub-questions focus on the specific nature of national discourses and the ways these have framed the policy contexts within which teachers’ unions function.

Theoretical Perspectives: The study adopts two conceptual frameworks in relation to first, changes in teachers’ work, and second, union strategies adopted in response to these changes. In identifying changes in teachers’ work and the scope to assert agency in relation to key elements of that work, then this study focuses on the three domains of professional agency presented by Stevenson & Gilliland (2015), namely, shaping learning and working conditions, developing and enacting policy and developing professional knowledge and professional learning. The study explores how teacher unions develop teachers’ individual and collective agency in differing contexts through the active engagement and participation of members in processes of union renewal. In drawing on union renewal literature, both teacher union (Carter, Stevenson and Passy, 2010) and general union (Fairbrother, 2010), the study seeks to further develop this important concept.

Methods & Data Sources: Data presented is drawn from a funded project investigating teacher unionism is six different national contexts. Contexts were selected to reflect a range of challenges including, for example, large-scale privatization, repressive state behavior, and a heavily decentralized bargaining environment. Interviews with senior union officials and grassroots union activists were conducted in each national context and major themes identified through inductive analysis. A range of documentary sources were also collected and analyzed including union policy documents, publications, social media, caucus literature and other online material.

Findings: The paper will present findings from Scotland and New Zealand. These countries represent two contrasting cases in which unions have developed innovative responses in relation to advocating for professional learning opportunities (Scotland) and bargaining in a highly devolved system (NZ).

Significance: The drive to marginalize the voice of organized teachers is commonplace around the world. This study presents examples of how teacher unions have responded to changed circumstances in order maintain their advocacy role in relation to teachers’ work. It also presents a more nuanced conceptualization of union renewal as applied to the context of teacher unions and their traditional mission to advocate for both the professional and industrial interests of teachers.

Authors

• Howard Stevenson, The University of Nottingham

• Nina Bascia, University of Toronto - OISE