Teacher Unions as Learning Organizations: The Case of the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation's Facilitator Community

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 63
  In Roundtable Session: Teachers and Unions Leading the Way! Teacher-Led Change, Decision Making, and Professional Learning

Abstract

Detailing an innovative learning network housed within a teacher federation, this paper challenges and disrupts portrayals of teacher federations as self-serving road-blocks to educational change by demonstrating that teacher federations are capable of moved beyond their traditional roots of bargaining, adopting new identities as learning organizations. Moreover, the case of the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) Facilitator Community highlight a unique example of teachers leading teachers that acknowledges the importance of professional learning for teachers, by teachers, demonstrating the positive impacts involvement in this network has had on its members in terms of the development of their professional capital (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012).

Author

• Pamela Janie Osmond-Johnson, University of Regina