As it grew safer for schools to reopen fully in spring 2021, "FORUM" convened a roundtable discussion to hear more about the experience of teaching and learning through the pandemic, and how that experience might help us rethink the education system. Melissa Benn chaired this wide-ranging and insightful conversation between Eliane…

This article is a summary discussion of the main issues faced by faculty at private, often church-sponsored, universities who sought to be represented by a union in collective bargaining with their employers. The discussion begins by tracing the origins of the rule that faculty at private universities are managers and not employees under the aegis…

Background/Context: Recent movements to "opt out" of state assessments have brought together a broad and diverse group of activists. While many activists foreground concerns of equity and justice, opting out has been concentrated in affluent suburban communities (Pizmony-Levy & Green Saraisky, 2016). These differences highlight…

This paper presents an update of a 2010-literature review on class size research completed as background in preparation of an affidavit on class size provided by the lead author in the case of "British Columbia Teachers' Federation v. British Columbia," argued before the Supreme Court of British Columbia in 2010, appealed ultimately to…

This paper examines the determinants of job-related training and workplace voice. Using data from a unique 2016 cross-national survey of Australian, British, Canadian and American employees, the paper contrasts two classic formulations in the literature; (1) the neoclassical/human capital approach which predicts that individual characteristics…

There is a certain degree of technological determinism in the discourse on information and communication technology (ICT) in education. Technological determinism is the relationship between the technical and the social, in this case, technological development taking place outside the socio-economic realities of societies. Hence, the discourse on…

Teachers' work in Iran has undergone two determining changes since 1979: The Islamicisation of the education system and, consequently, Islamic teacher education, with neoliberal policies, has accelerated in recent years. The authors believe Islamicisation has been integrated into neoliberal policies and together these have shaped teachers'…

This article examines how teachers unions affect teachers' well-being under various legal institutions. Using a district-teacher matched data set, this study identifies the union effects by three approaches. First, I contrast teacher outcomes across different state laws toward unions. Second, I compare the union-nonunion differentials within the…

Purpose: This paper aims to explore a single-institution case study of partnership working between students, the University and Students' Union, through four student-led sustainability projects. The paper analyses the role and value of these partnerships and provides advice for other institutions on effective partnership working between these…

Teacher strikes and walkouts in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, and elsewhere grabbed public attention last spring, but these wildfires of statewide activism are unlikely to spread far. In most states, teachers have unique and powerful advantages in local politics--advantages they are unlikely to give up anytime soon--and they are already active…

The United States has, for the last generation, been going through a significant and highly contested period of change in its schools. A bipartisan consensus around a reform agenda of accountability and choice was rolled out nationwide, with promises of closing achievement gaps and raising standards, all without the infusion of new resources. This…

It's no secret that organized labor and public education face a time of great uncertainty. Our country's current president and secretary of education, according to this author, have made clear their intent to support corporate greed at the expense of working people and their unions and to champion privatization schemes that undermine public…

This collection explores a variety of perspectives on the student voice in UK higher education. Featuring reflections from a vice-chancellor, student representatives and interviews with the Office for Students' Student Panel, as well as sections considering disabled students, international students and mature students, the thirteen essays each…

In the last four years, teacher-activists in the United States have engaged in an unprecedented wave of protests and strikes. The developing body of literature seeking to understand this flurry of activity has taken various analytical approaches; for example, distilling movements into their key tactics in the hopes of lending important tools to…

The COVID-19 global pandemic had far-ranging consequences for California State University higher education union staff members' mental health and well-being. Research had not yet examined the impact of the pandemic on the California State University system's union front line higher education staff members. The aim of this study was to identify the…