The Pedagogy of Teacher Strikes: Toward a Political-Aesthetic Framework

• In Event: Ways of Knowing, Ways of Being

Abstract

This paper puts forward a unique conceptual framework rooted in political, gender, and aesthetic theory to analyze the lasting pedagogical impact of teacher strikes, regardless of the strikes’ tangible success. I argue that beyond their more obvious epistemic lessons, teacher strikes serve to educate the values, identities, and ways of being of teacher strikers and those witnessing such movements. Namely, teacher strikes are pedagogical in the sense that they impact how teachers conceive of themselves as teachers and as citizens of a collective society, and they educate society to appreciate that teachers deserve our respect, have an inalienable dignity, and are capable of exercising power—capabilities often undermined in the feminized profession of teaching.

Author

• Sara Hardman, Teachers College, Columbia University