Promises and Tensions in Teacher and Community Organizing Against Privatization and School Closures in Oakland

• In Event: Teachers' Experiences in Highly Marketized Educational Contexts

Abstract

This paper examines the politics and potential of teacher and community collaboration in organizing against privatization through a qualitative case study of the 2019 Oakland teacher strike. It explores the framing of union leaders alongside the organizing of community leaders in the years before the strike, during the strike, and in the wake of the strike. This study found several points of convergence that facilitated collaboration and solidarity between the teacher leaders and community organizers, and also several areas which present challenges for ongoing collaboration. It illuminates how the narratives and frames that organizers deploy can facilitate more robust collaboration when they capture the real experiences, concerns, and desires of the communities who are most harmed by the neoliberal policies.

Author

• Frances Free Ramos, University of California - Berkeley