The "Protestor's Dilemma" refers to the paradox faced by protestors where their disruptive actions, while necessary to gain public attention and support, could potentially provoke backlash and weaken the very support they seek to gain. How can protestors overcome this dilemma? Teacher strikes point toward a potential path forward. To…

The U.S. has witnessed a resurgence of labor activism, with teachers at the forefront. We examine how teacher strikes affect compensation, working conditions, and productivity with an original dataset of 772 teacher strikes generating 48 million student days idle between 2007 and 2023. Using an event study framework, we find that, on average,…

In 2019, Poland experienced a massive teachers' strike that lasted three weeks. Although the strike had a great impact on many teachers, in the end, this three-week action failed to obtain any of its demands. Using the concepts of workers' associational power and union legitimacy, I argue that one of the reasons for the loss was a crisis of…

Between 2011 and 2015, at the dawn of the global financial crisis, Spain went through severe austerity measures that led to social unrest and to the emergence of new expressions of collective action. In the educational field, teachers' unions and grassroots movements organised against the neoliberal and neoconservative policies promoted by the…

Teacher unions are working in challenging times. Building power is important for teacher unions to resist neoliberal reforms that have aimed to restructure school education and weaken collective organisation. Yet we have few understandings of the democratisation project that teacher unions have engaged in to build and renew internal power in this…

Exploring the interplay between teacher solidarity and fragmentation in Arizona, this paper uses a critical bifocality lens to examine the experiences of six teacher organisers during the pandemic. This qualitative research centres teacher organisers' experience in an iterative analysis of policy and pandemic context, labour action, and teachers'…

This article examines the division within Chile's main teacher organisation caused by a dissident movement during the development of the new National Teaching Policy (PND), which occurred between the years 2014 and 2016. It focuses on the teachers' collective awakening and the internal logic of neoliberal teacher policies. Through interviews and…

This article will explain how a series of educator strikes in 2022 in Ghana led to increased awareness of and calls for tax justice and debt relief from a growing movement of public sector workers and civil society organisations. We chart how the issues and demands of teacher organisations and other public sector workers shifted and increased over…

This study examined industrial strikes in higher education: Ascertaining causes and the levels of effect from a developing economy perspective. The study adopted the positivist philosophical position and a quantitative approach to collect data from 523 staff members of 30 Colleges of Education in a developing economy situated in Africa. Data…

In the United States, teachers have been both respected and villainized in popular culture and politics. These varying and conflicting cultural ideas and representations of teachers impact policy design, shaping the distribution of benefits and burdens imposed on teachers. The media play an important role in both crafting and reinforcing cultural…

As a research team, we collected 40 oral history interviews with teachers and support professionals across the state who meaningfully participated in the 2018 Oklahoma education walkouts. The teachers and staff we interviewed are voices not previously cited in local or national news or would be identified readily as prominent or powerful leaders…

Teacher unrest is an important research object in the literature on teacher unionism in Latin America. This article makes a novel contribution to this traditional topic, presenting statistical data on primary and secondary teacher strikes in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico from 2012 to 2022. This approach highlights important differences in strike…

Teacher organizing in the twenty-first century presents new and understudied challenges and opportunities for union leaders and members. In this article, we explore the structure and function of the secret Facebook group created and used by teachers in West Virginia (USA) prior to, during, and since their historic statewide strike in February…

The 'demand for justice' is a long-standing principle of Oaxaca's Sección 22 union chapter, which has led a teachers' movement since the 1970s that has evolved to meet changing social, political, and economic circumstances. Various researchers around the globe have increasingly linked notions of justice with education, exploring terms like social…

Labour strife in the education sector in Ontario has repeatedly highlighted the precariousness of certain types of teaching and learning that are delivered under the catch-all designation extracurricular. This paper reviews education legislation in Ontario over the past 40 years that has impacted teachers' right to strike; examines how teacher…