The fraught issue of teacher representation

Teachers of all countries unite! by Jelmer Evers

Anyone who reads on Twitter and reads newspapers and has something to do with education cannot have failed to notice that something is going on in education. There is much discussion about the representativeness of teacher organisations. The Education Cooperative has the motto "From, For and By Teachers", but that has not always been the case in recent times.

We need what Dennis Shirley calls "the promise of the present moment" A manifesto in six points:

More democracy

More organizing and networking

More active teachers on boards

Increased us of new technologies

A merger of all trade unions.

Membership to ‘Education International’

Trade unions fight inequality and promote democracy

I think it is good to first determine something: trade unions are a democratic necessity. I have often heard such a disdain towards trade unions. Unions, who needs' em? Right? Wrong. We cannot do without trade unions. Falling trade union membership is putting the foundations of our democracy under pressure. So, if someone calls out that trade unions are old-fashioned, they show a lack of historical awareness.

During the Industrial Revolution, workers organized in trade unions to protect themselves from exploitation and to jointly bring about political, economic and social changes. That had major political repercussions: democracy and economic equality. The great social-democratic political parties of the twentieth century have their origin in the labor movement. Trade unions are not only good for their members, but also serve as catalysts for broader socio-economic reforms. Without trade unions there would be no: dismissal law, social safety net, 8-hour working week, progressive tax system, free weekends, holidays. To name just a few important social democratic achievements.

We seem to have forgotten that. In these times that inequality is increasing rapidly, trade unions play a crucial role. Trade unions offer a counterweight to the 1% and large multinationals. The declining influence of unions has probably contributed to the fact that the CEO's salary has increased disproportionately compared to employees in the United States. (Western & Rosenfeld 2011) "We find that declining unions and the fall in the minimum wage explain about half of rising inequality, while computerization explains about one-quarter. This suggests that much of rising inequality in the USA is driven by worker disempowerment rather than by market forces "In an analysis of increasing inequality and participation in trade unions, an analysis of the Economic Policy Institute showed that these are largely mirrored. (Gordon n.d.) With decreasing trade union membership, the inequality increases proportionally.

                                                                                                    

                                                                                          Unions
It is also plausible that there is a great connection between the fall of the trade unions and the renewed emergence of inequality and the consequent rise of right-wing populism. Neil Gross summed it up just before the elections in a long-read in the New York Times as follows: "If infused with a democratic spirit - organised in a non-autocratic fashion with an eye to the greater good - a labor union might inculcate civic virtues in its members, pushing them into a more enlightened way "(Gross 2016) If unfused with a democratic spirit, remember this sentence, it is crucial. Gross mentions in his article sociologist Walter Lipset, who already stated in 1956 in "Democracy and Working Class Authoritarianism" that there was a connection between democratically organized unions susceptibility to right-wing populism (Lipset 1959). In a recent study, "Union members at the polls in various trade union landscapes", Christoph Arnd and Linne Renwadt show that members of a trade union still vote for social-democratic parties and less often for right-wing populists than non-members. (Arndt & Rennwald 2016) And this is in a much longer tradition, the International Labor Organization was founded, among other things, by the great pressure of international trade federations in 1919 because it was recognized that the rights of employees are crucial for the preservation of peace. With the rise of totalitarian regimes in the 1930s, it was the trade unions that were first abolished and trade union leaders imprisoned or murdered. That is still true.

The new regents

The struggle is necessary. Organised labour, workers and professionals are desperately needed to counter the growing inequality in our society and the preservation of our democratic institutions. Unionism may seem to be becoming less effective and there are a few reasons for this, besides the general tendency for traditional institutions to lose influence.

Firstly, trade unions protect first and foremost the rights of former employees and the established order. Secondly, they too often have a hierarchical culture that allows little innovation and initiative from the bottom up. Thirdly, there is a byzantine participation and organizational structure. On paper there is democracy, but in practice there is very little of it, yet the appearance is held up. Fourth, there is no bond any more with the work floor, ‘the chalk face’. Trade unions are no longer network organizations that are in the capillaries of education at schools. For example, in education we have been sentenced to a percentage of more or less while the needs are ever increasing. That this did not happen, or that means that the association lost its bond with the members. And that trade union leaders - rightly or wrongly - are seen as new regents.

Trade unions should be democratic associations, with strong and close ties with their members. But I have honestly never seen a trade union representative in the schools where I have worked. I do not know from my current school whether we have either. I had absolutely no bond with a trade union when I started teaching. For many teachers union membership has become a different form of insurance.

There is also a danger in clicktivism. (Morozov 2012) A petition and project here, and a facebook group there, but not building sustainable underlying structures. An important lesson from the Occupy movement, and also the Arab Spring, was precisely that: without a strong organization and clear political goals, mass movements could fall apart very quickly. Well organised trade unions therefore still have a great added value.

 Organizing

I have now been able to experience that organised strength is needed. I have been working with and at Education International (EI) for the past few years. A federation of about 400 trade unions and professional associations of teachers and support staff, including the Australian Education Union. EI has many international campaigns to promote and defend the interests of teachers. One of the major points of contention worldwide in education is the privatization of schools and educational systems (and educational technology). One example is the Global Response against Commercialization and Privatization of Education, a huge campaign that stretches from Uruguay to Liberia and from the United States to the Philippines. This is crucial for teachers and good public education, not only in Africa, Asia and South America, but everywhere. The amount of venture capital that is looking for the Uber of education is enormous. Without EI, these companies and investors would have free rein in countries such as Liberia, Kenya and Uganda. Research, national campaigns, alliances with NGOs reinforce each other internationally. This means that EI, together with its member organizations, build networks, do capacity building, lobby. Crucial representation at UNESCO and the OECD to mention just a few examples.

The international side is just one example. Trade unions must modernize. Firstly, organizing must become the core of the trade union. We have to get rid of the Byzantine organization and participation structures in meeting rooms. Staggered representation through regions and sector meetings where nobody will show up - and if someone comes often than the same people - is no longer a democracy. The General Meetings of the unions need to be organized differently, for example, why the meeting does not live stream and direct remote voting? With new technologies much more direct participation can be achieved in the representative meetings. They can also play a crucial role in organising.

There is also much to learn from abroad in this area. As is also apparent from a study by Howard Stevenson of union renewal, the unions in the capillaries of the school are in many other countries. (Bascia & Stevenson 2017) Trade unions claim to stand up par excellence for the professional autonomy of teachers. Why not build in-depth networks of members as well as complex meeting structures and levels of engagement with the union? Locally organized in municipalities and networked via an online platform. These networks ensure capacity building and promotes that participation councils also develop more democratically and promote professional autonomy in schools. It is precisely these kinds of activities that have proved successful or experimented abroad, for example in New Zealand and California. The Hope Street Group Model provides a system of teacher fellowships to give highly engaged teachers a network of like-minded individuals and develop them professionally into realms often overlooked by the teaching profession (https://hopestreetgroup.org).

The Tower of Babel

The divide between unions roles in regard to industrial issues and professional issues is one that Stevenson and colleague feels cannot truly be separated and should not be (Stevenson & Gilliland, 2015 & Stevenson, 2018). This can be proven through case studies, but only where union membership is at the highest possible level. For example, in Scotland it works because the Education Institute of Scotland (EIS) represents over 85% of all teachers. Similarly, in Finland they do not see the need for a separate professional association, because 95% of the teachers are members of the OAJ. Which is both professional association and trade union.

The most important thing is that all teacher organizations need to become more of, for and by teachers and that we have to organize ourselves differently. I therefore propose the following action items:

More democracy in all teacher organizations and all individual smaller trade and professional associations. Get rid of the byzantine meeting culture.

More organizing and networking in the capillaries of the schools instead of too much emphasis on advocacy in ‘The Capital’. Members, and the shop floor, always connected and communicating.

A majority of active teachers in the daily and in the main administration (the latter is usually the case) and all chairmen are active teachers. Or they go on temporary leave of four years.

Use new technologies to facilitate more participation and capacity development.

A merger of all trade unions. We strive for a merger of trade unions, where teachers can organize themselves around programs: work pressure, class size, no-register, which curriculum renewal, which networks are we going to build, etc. This new association looks after both the conditions of employment and the professional content.

All teacher organizations join Education International (which is already possible). Education policy has become global and we can only enter into and win that battle together.

But this can only happen if we ourselves support that change. We are members of associations and associations have a say. The meetings are not that full. If you organize yourself a bit, you have the majority. Sign up as a member of the board, but also state the condition that things must be filled in differently. In addition, this is a call to the management of trade union organizations not to wait until the meetings are full to demand that change, but to actively implement these changes.

References

Arndt, C., & Rennwald, L. (2016). Union members at the polls in diverse trade union landscapes. European Journal of Political Research, 55(4), 702-722.

Bascia, N., & Stevenson, H. (2017). Organizing teaching: developing the power of the profession.

Gross, N. (2016). The Decline of Unions and the Rise of Trump. New York Times, 482-501.

Lipset, S. M. (1959). Some social requisites of democracy: Economic development and political legitimacy. American political science review, 53(1), 69-105.

Morozov, E. (2012). The net delusion: The dark side of Internet freedom. PublicAffairs.

Patty, A (2019) The 'Uberfication' of education: warning about commercial operators. The Sydney Morning Hearld.

Stevenson & Gilliland (2015) Teacher Unions at the Heart of a New Democratic Professionalism. In Evers, J., & Kneyber, R. (Eds.). (2015). Flip the system: Changing education from the ground up. Routledge.

Stevenson, H (2018) Flip the system? Get. organised! in Rycroft-Smith, L., & Dutaut, J. L. (2018). Flip the System UK: A teachers’ manifesto. Abingdon: Routledge.

Western, B., & Rosenfeld, J. (2011). Unions, norms, and the rise in US wage inequality. American Sociological Review, 76(4), 513-537.