Competing in a new global economy is a top national priority. Citing declining student performance in core subjects, policymakers are calling for solutions that give students an edge. The Association of American Educators (AAE) knows that a growing network of professional educators will be instrumental in building the bridge between sweeping…

Almost daily, media headlines draw attention to students struggling academically and emotionally from interrupted learning, high student absenteeism, declining enrollment, teacher and leader burnout, staffing shortages, polarized communities, and school boards at the center of broader political debates. How did we arrive at this current state of…

The author wishes to divide this essay into two sections, one indicating things he might have added to a few earlier works, and a second indicating a project or two that he did not complete but would like to have done. First he discusses the incomplete projects. He begins by saying that he has done a lot of work on teacher organizations and has…

The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) represents over 65,000 university and college teachers, academic librarians, researchers and professional and general staff at more than 120 universities and colleges from every province. The association's members both create and use copyright material; they require copyright law that protects…

This article reports on the rise of nonunion advocacy groups for teachers which has enabled them to cut their teeth on policy issues that affect the profession. The teachers' unions remain the most visible, powerful, and probably the most important advocates for teachers. But over the past few years, a number of new efforts have sprung up…

In this article the authors collected numerous forms of data to better understand the perceptions of a joint conference from the various stakeholders. From the detailed survey and interview responses, the researchers found that administrators/supervisors had fewer reservations in regards to holding a joint conference. One reason for this may due…

This article provides a case study of union change in an environment in which radical school restructuring is taking place, and active strategies to weaken and marginalize organized teachers are being pursued by the state. The case study union is the National Union of Teachers in England. The article explores a number of different strategies open…

Education "reforms"' have been accelerated in the last decade in Turkey. Teachers, as the main actors of the education system, have developed a variety of responses to the reforms implemented in the field of education, both individually and collectively. They give directions to the change process in education by means of their trade…

It was a great honor and privilege for the author to have served as President of the California Council on Teacher Education (CCTE) between 2010 and 2012, as part of a six-year term of office. As an active member of CCTE for more than a decade before, during her early years as a tenure-line faculty member at Loyola Marymount University, she always…

Albert Shanker (1928-1997) is known mainly for his successful struggle to obtain collective bargaining for teachers, his leadership of teacher unions, and his championship of education reform. Shanker built large and powerful city, state, and national unions of teachers and other public employees that still stand as models both for union democracy…

At last! A practical, readable guide for teachers, school leaders, and parent/teacher associations that shows how to plan fun, hands-on science nights! Get easy-to-implement, content-rich tips and ideas that will cultivate positive attitudes toward science! Learn how to involve and actively engage families in their children's science education.…

Teacher unions are hard to miss in the news lately. Newspapers, blogs, social media posts, magazine articles, and political speeches abound with talk of them. Teacher unions are a hot topic and one that probably was not covered in college classes. The noisy back-and-forth among partisans can be both mind-numbing and confusing, often creating a…

This article describes how one local teachers' union branch has developed an active and imaginative campaign as it has challenged both national education policy and also the very specific attacks on schools in the community. By connecting local and national issues, and by linking struggles on pay and pensions to wider questions of policy, the…

"Advocates of bureaucratic and professional teacher accountability have been battling each other for decades in a war that has barely been acknowledged," write Arthur E. Wise and Michael D. Usdan. Teachers' organizations and others who favor advancing the teaching profession have promoted professional accountability mechanisms, such…

The rigidity of teachers unions has been given as a primary reason for their lack of representation among America's rapidly growing, although still relatively small, charter school sector. In the case of post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, the city rapidly converted from a union-backed teacher workforce to a largely nonunionized charter school…