Renewing Teacher Power: Organizing for Labor Rights and Social Justice in Education (Table 1)

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 4

Session Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

In this roundtable session, scholars from Australia, Canada, and the United States explore key issues in contemporary teacher organizing and activism. Through a series of papers on struggles related to teacher shortages, gender, professionalism, and the Covid-19 pandemic, these scholars suggest the vital importance of new forms of teacher organizing, including social justice and solidarity unionism. By bringing these papers in dialogue with each other, this roundtable offers the opportunity for presenters and attendees to discuss key policy issues affecting teachers and their unions, as well as the potential for new organizing models and strategies to renew and build teacher power.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Teachers Work/Teacher Unions

Chair

• Trudy Lynn Keil, University of Regina

Papers

• Reimagining Teacher Activism Through Post-Structuralism: Teacher Union and Grassroots Responses to COVID-19 School Reopening Plans - Trudy Lynn Keil, University of Regina; Pamela J. Osmond-Johnson, Memorial University of Newfoundland

• Teacher Solidarity Unionism: Rank and File Organizing during the COVID-19 Pandemic - Alisun Thompson, University of Puget Sound; Riley Collins, University of California - Santa Cruz; Lora Bartlett, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Women in Labor: Teaching, Mothering, and Intention Among Women Organizers - Crystal Howell, Randolph College