Who Profits From Public Education? The Role of Teachers' Unions in Resisting Privatization

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium session grapples with the layered and multifaceted processes of education privatization in the Americas. Contributing papers from Canadian teachers’ unions and an Americas research network show how processes of privatization produce barriers to cultivating equitable public education systems, and how unions resist and respond to privatization efforts. The presentations include results from collaborative teacher-researcher think tank to understand and resist privatization using activist research methodologies; an analysis of Canadian case studies where hired education consultants act as “influencers,” steering privatization and education reform; teachers’ union resistances to privatization through ed tech, and its encroachment in public education; and how union researchers can use data to conceptualize trends in education privatization to support large-scale advocacy against privatization.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Teachers Work/Teacher Unions

Chair

• Anne Catherine Hales, British Columbia Teachers' Federation

Papers

• Beyond Resistance to Privatization: Rebuilding and Reclaiming Public Education - Andree Elizabeth Gacoin, British Columbia Teachers' Federation

• Influencers and Protectors: Education Privatization, Consultants, and the Public Good - Pamela Rogers, Canadian Teachers' Federation; Nicole Grant, University of Ottawa

• Innovating Just to Keep Up: Education Unions, Repertoires of Contention, and Technology-Based Privatization - Chris Samuel, Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation

• Privatizing Trends in Education in the Americas and Resistance From Teachers' Unions - Edgar Isch, Initiative for Democratic Education in the Americas (IDEA Network); Miguel Angel Duhalde, Confederation of Education Workers of the Argentine Republic - CTERA; Maria de la Luz Arriaga, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México