The strategies and impact of teacher organizing

• In Event: Teachers’ Unions, Educator Organizing, and Global Struggles for Educational Justice

Proposal

This paper examines teacher organizing strategies and their impact across multiple national contexts, drawing on case studies from Canada, Morocco, Poland, South Africa, Spain, and the United States. The findings provide a comparative analysis of how teacher unions and non-union organizations have adapted to changing socio-political landscapes, focusing on the challenges and successes in advancing educators' demands for labor rights and broader social justice issues.
The strategies and impact of teacher organizing vary significantly across national contexts, yet common themes emerge. Teacher unions remain essential, but internal challenges—such as disconnection from members and crises of legitimacy—have led educators in Canada, Poland, and elsewhere to explore alternative forms of organizing. In countries like South Africa and Morocco, non-union teacher organizations have risen to prominence, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, advocating for educational justice outside established union frameworks. In South Africa, for instance, teacher unions are part of the tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the African National Congress (ANC), and the Communist Party. This close connection has limited the unions' capacity to adopt oppositional stances, leading to the emergence of non-union organizations that took the lead in advocating for educational justice, particularly in response to the global pandemic. Similarly, in Morocco, a separate organization of contract teachers, founded in 2016, emerged to address broader political and socio-economic demands, reflecting how, in some contexts, non-union forms of organizing may be more effective in addressing social justice issues.
Teacher organizing has also evolved into strategies and tactics tailored to specific national contexts. The Balearic Islands Teachers' Assembly successfully combined traditional collective actions, such as strikes, with more innovative and disruptive tactics in Spain. Their indefinite strike was a decisive move that expanded the scope of the protest and helped sustain it over time. In Oakland, California, teacher activists worked to redefine the discourse around school privatization by framing it within the larger struggle for racial justice. This reframing allowed them to challenge neoliberal narratives that had co-opted racial equity rhetoric in support of school privatization.
Alliance building is another crucial strategy for successful teacher organizing. In the Balearic Islands and Oakland, forming alliances between teachers, students, parents, and broader community groups was vital for maintaining momentum and achieving significant political goals. These alliances helped sustain the indefinite strike in the Balearic Islands, reducing participant costs and building broader support. In Oakland, collaboration between teacher activists and community groups led to public education campaigns that deepened the public's understanding of the connections between race and privatization, contributing to the election of anti-privatization candidates to the school board in 2020.
Teacher organizing can impact educational policy and broader political outcomes. In Spain, the teacher movement played a pivotal role in the 2015 electoral defeat of a conservative government. Similarly, in Oakland, teacher organizing efforts contributed to the election of school board members who opposed school privatization, demonstrating that educators can influence political decision-making when their efforts are connected to broader social justice movements.

Author

• Javier Campos Martínez, Universidad Austral de Chile