After the Vote: Unionization's Impact on Chicago's Charter Schools

• In Event: Walkout! Teacher Militancy, Activism, and School Reform: Bridging the Research-Practice Divide

Abstract

To analyze the 2012 strike’s impact, these authors took a broad view of who was involved in it. While the roster of policy actors includes individuals one might expect to be at the forefront of a teachers’ strike—district leaders, teacher union leaders and of course teachers—it also includes additional actors who have not traditionally been so central to teacher strikes. Chicago’s mayor, for example, emerged as a focal strike actor, even though city leaders do not typically take center stage in strike negotiations. Other prominent actors included parents, youth activists, national union leaders, advocacy groups and presidential candidates. Our emphasis on a diverse array of policy actors dovetails with attention to the diversification of actors who engage in policy processes. Recent research in this area considers the networks of wealthy elites, philanthropic foundations, and intermediary organizations trying to reshape the education policy landscape. However, less attention has been given to how these new actors intersect with traditional actors like teacher unions, nor how these interfaces ultimately shape policy processes and policies themselves. This chapter responds to the need to revisit the strike’s enduring impact, and to understand the roles of “new” and conventional policy actors in it.

Authors

• David S Woo, University of Utah
  Presenting Author

• Bradley Marianno, University of Nevada - Las Vegas
  Non-Presenting Author