Rethinking reform: The role of teachers unions in education advocacy

• In Event: Activism in education: teacher advocacy and social movements

Proposal

Despite the fundamental role of teachers in implementing educational reforms, teachers' unions are often kept out of policy discussions by both policymakers and international aid donors, or characterized as obstacles to change. This is the case in many developing countries, where reform and investment for quality public education are sorely needed. However, we simply do not know much about how teachers’ unions and other non-donor-funded civil society organizations (CSOs) work in Africa. With this in mind, what is the role of teachers’ unions in education advocacy in increasingly restricted civic spaces in the developing world?
This paper discusses how broad-based membership organizations – specifically, teachers’ unions– navigate restricted civic spaces and build accountability by holding national government stakeholders to account for implementing promised education reforms. The purpose of the paper is to better understand how teachers’ unions survive and whether they coordinate with donor-funded CSOs. It also unpacks certain assumptions held by some policymakers and international aid donors about their potential as allies in advocacy and policy reform.
There are few actors more important than the teacher in the implementation of education policy and reform. The teacher is the first and often only person that students and parents alike engage with at the school level. However, teachers’ unions are often not present when national ministries of education, civil society organizations, national education coalitions, and international aid donors come together to discuss reform of education policy. This is despite teachers' unions often being the “most powerful, well-organized, and representative civil society actor” present in the wider education ecosystem of a country (Mundy 2010).
The existing literature has found limited evidence on how some increasingly important civil society actors—such as teachers’ unions—shape national education policy in restricted civic spaces (Author, 2023; Moe and Wiborg 2016; Grindle 2004). In addition, there have been attempts, including from international aid actors, to build ‘pro-reform alliances’ against teachers’ unions, as they are often seen as an obstacle to reform (Bruns and Luque 2015). There is an assumption in much of the comparative education policy and scholarly literature that teachers’ unions are ‘political machines’ (Schneider 2022) or obstacles to education reform (Bruns and Luque 2015). However, there is a diversity of types of unions that, while sharing a willingness to work with others for education investment, differ in the tactics they use to try and influence government policy.
In addition, teachers’ unions may be one of the few actors that—despite repression, and without international aid funding--are able to hold governments accountable for their policy commitments for improved access to quality, public education. Our emerging findings show that different types of teachers' unions have varying advocacy tactics, relationships with the government, and responses from other actors. For instance, broad-based membership organizations such as teachers’ unions, as a complementary partner working on the outside, act as a legitimization to capital-city-based national education coalitions who are liaising on the inside with government ministries. These two types of CSOs therefore work in tandem through a complementary insider-outsider approach that, according to Fox (2016) can spur a “dynamic process of change in which outsider pressure strengthens insiders, while insider willingness and capacity delivers tangible reform progress, [driving] a ‘virtuous circle’ of mutual empowerment.”
We analyze how teachers’ unions in restricted civic spaces interact with each other, other CSOs, and the government. Our reflections – drawn from both practitioner and scholar perspectives – are situated in broader discussions in the transparency, participation, and accountability field about the work of public servant labor unions and other broad-based membership organizations in building accountability. Specifically, we consider how trade unions coordinate with donor-funded CSOs. While teachers’ unions differ greatly and engage in varying tactics, we found a broader strategy shared among many of an insider-outsider approach to advocating for greater investment in quality, public education. Their overall purpose is to hold government ministries and policies accountable in increasingly restricted civic spaces.
Unions of public service workers – education, health services, etc. – are often seen or dismissed, particularly by international aid donors, as resistant to policy reform. Often, teachers’ unions are already engaged in influencing government policy and well-practiced in holding government to account to either put greater investment into services or follow through with promised or agreed-upon investments. This is a desired outcome of many international donors and civil society organizations. Therefore, ignoring –intentionally or not –the ‘most powerful, well-organized, and representative civil society actor’ in the national education policy sector may be unwittingly hindering intended advocacy outcomes.

Author

• Abrehet Gebremedhin, Accountability Research Center, American University