How social dialogue impacted cross-national policy responses to teacher challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic

• In Event: Teacher as a profession: Measures to attract and retain more teachers

Proposal

Teacher's voices are key to bring about change, including fairness in their employment and more equitable outcomes. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a crisis in education in nearly every corner of the world as schools closed impacting more than 90 per cent of the global school age population (UNESCO, 2020) including 63 million primary and secondary teachers (Teacher Task Force, 2020). In an unprecedented way, teachers faced significant challenges in their work, including remote teaching with various technologies which they often had little or no experience using. This was further compounded during school reopening with a second set of complex and changing expectations to support hybrid learning, implement health and safety protocols, provide psychosocial support, engage in continuing professional development, while also managing their own personal situations and family lives.

Enhancing the ability of teachers and their representative organizations, including trade unions and associations, to participate in social dialogue and engage in collective bargaining with national governments and private education providers is important for developing a shared vision of teachers’ role and collective needs to provide quality education (Visser, J., 2019). This paper focuses on a research study conducted in 2021 on the role of social dialogue, as defined by the International Labour Organization, in the development of responses to teacher challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. It unpacks both successful and unsuccessful teacher responses in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, acknowledging the growing role of civil society, business and other partners in the education sector across several countries, this study also examines their role to support social dialogue and to influence a number of teacher responses, improve working conditions and ensure the continuation of teaching and learning during the pandemic related school closures and reopening.

The study used a mixed-methods approach, combining document review with survey data from about 2,000 primary and secondary teachers across six countries, in varied levels of economic development, including Afghanistan, Algeria, Brazil, France, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Three countries were selected due to their previous experience with epidemic-related school closures: Zika in Brazil and Ebola in Guinea and in Sierra Leone to assess prior learning in the current COVID-19 context. The study employs a triangulation model comparing further data from interviews with teachers, union representatives, teacher associations, state and national education officials, NGOs and civil society organizations, businesses, foundations, parent associations and religious organizations to determine how social and other forms of dialogue were useful for developing responses to teachers.

The study found unions across all countries were mostly not consulted nor supported about decisions when schools closed and learning moved online, nor did they receive clear guidelines or digital tools for both remote and hybrid teaching. Few teachers took actions such as talking with union representatives, participating in union meetings, and expressing concerns to the community in other ways. The biggest challenge to effective teacher social dialogue was a lack of political will; even in countries where union rights are highly institutionalized, a lack of consultation by governments and at times by unions, as well as their politicization remained a problem. Within the specific context of the COVID-19 pandemic, several teachers and unions noted that quarantine and the prohibition of protests related to sanitary protocols made it difficult to mobilize, and yet while social media provided new opportunities and partnership, internet access was a barrier in under-resourced countries. Finally, rivalries between unions, also serve as barriers to effective social dialogue. Instead, teachers and unions typically learned of new protocols and school reopening through media. Teachers also relied on one another to adapt and find solutions.

An emergent disconnect between teachers’ perceptions of the impacts of social dialogue on their working conditions and those of the union can partly be attributed to the lack of political will by governments to engage in broader social dialogue and support teachers needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is exacerbated by teachers’ lack of trust in unions in other contexts resulting in the establishment of new social movements and platforms for teachers to voice their concerns.

The paper provides a number of conclusions leading to recommendations to strengthen social and other forms of dialogue to ensure teachers’ voices are better reflected in teacher responses, which are needed for ensuring quality education. Data suggest for instance that strong, democratic institutions with multiple levels of governance (e.g. central, regional, district) promote synergies across unions helping to create an environment for teachers and unions to be better heard by policy-makers. Other partnership, such as NGOs, CSOs, parents’ associations, religious organizations, foundations, and businesses, can further support social dialogue leading to teacher responses when domestic challenges undermine union cohesion. Creating and joining wider social movements with strengthened capacities can also help teachers achieve results, while ensuring greater female representation in unions and in positions of leadership help ensure all teachers and women’s concerns are heard.

Author

• Peter Wallet, UNESCO