Joining Forces: The Potential of Union-Community Organization Collaborations

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

Teacher unions have long been targets of the right and of advocates of market-based education reforms. In current education debates, however, teacher unions are being cast as impediments to reform and as privileging adult concerns over the needs of students. The pressures on teacher unions have led to a new openness on their part to collaborate with parent and community groups as they redefine their own roles in school reform. This session will explore emerging collaborations between teacher unions and organized parent/community groups - whose work draws heavily on labor organizing principles - through the perspectives of a school reform intermediary and organizing support center, a national teacher union official, and a local case study of a new collaborative effort.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Grassroots Community and Youth Organizing for Educational Reform

Chair

• Sara McAlister, Annenberg Institute for School Reform

Papers

• Building a Framework for Partnerships Between Unions and Organized Parents and Communities - Eric Zachary, Annenberg Institute for School Reform; Sara McAlister, Annenberg Institute for School Reform

• A National Teacher Union’s View of Community Engagement and Collaboration - Michael Mulgrew, United Federation of Teachers - AFT

• Shared Goals, Shared Work: A Local Case Study of Collaboration - Steven Fletcher, Minnesota Neighborhoods Organizing for Change; Mary Cathryn Ricker, St. Paul Federation of Teachers/AFT; Michelle Renee, Brown University

Discussant

• Richard Gray, Annenberg Institute for School Reform