Steve Owens, one of my colleagues from the
Teacher Leaders Network, recently posted some interesting questions on his
ED.gov blog:
- What constructive role do you see for unions in education reform?
- What suggestions do you have for how the Department can build the capacity of stakeholders to participate meaningfully in the great policy debates of our time?
Steve is a music teacher, president of his NEA local, and a classroom-based
Teaching Ambassador Fellow with the US Department of Education. Steve helped me understand about the three branches of a new unionism that, if integrated, could help enrich public education. For Steve, and many of his colleagues within the
Teachers Union Reform Network, new unionism includes the integration of industrial, professional and social justice models. I'll write more about new unionism later, but I wanted to address Steve's questions.
I think unions can have a much stronger role in advocating for teacher leadership. For example, I’d like to see more unions working with districts to create regional (if not school-based) “fellowships” in which teachers have 1/2 classroom responsibilities and 1/2 policy/research responsibilities. What a terrific way to cultivate teacher leadership and give teachers the time and resources to refine their understandings of policy and research.
The Department can get more stakeholders involved by focusing on state-level school board associations, parent groups, administrators and student unions. I’ve attended school board meetings and have been concerned about the adversarial comments flying back and forth between these stakeholders.
The Department is in a position to leverage relationships so that more people are talking about more of the same things. For example, how can the stakeholders work together to protect teacher (and principal!) pensions? If we want the best teachers (and principals) for our students, then we can surely collaborate to create the best working conditions that attract and retain highly qualified, creative and synergized educators.
Even if we don’t all always agree on specific solutions, the shared understandings will help us keep the conversation focused.
So, back to Steve's questions:
- What constructive role do you see for unions in education reform?
- What suggestions do you have for how the Department can build the capacity of stakeholders to participate meaningfully in the great policy debates of our time?
What do you think?
- What constructive role do you see for unions in education reform?
- What suggestions do you have for how the Department can build the capacity of stakeholders to participate meaningfully in the great policy debates of our time?
Steve is a music teacher, president of his NEA local, and a classroom-based Teaching Ambassador Fellow with the US Department of Education. Steve helped me understand about the three branches of a new unionism that, if integrated, could help enrich public education. For Steve, and many of his colleagues within the Teachers Union Reform Network, new unionism includes the integration of industrial, professional and social justice models. I'll write more about new unionism later, but I wanted to address Steve's questions.I think unions can have a much stronger role in advocating for teacher leadership. For example, I’d like to see more unions working with districts to create regional (if not school-based) “fellowships” in which teachers have 1/2 classroom responsibilities and 1/2 policy/research responsibilities. What a terrific way to cultivate teacher leadership and give teachers the time and resources to refine their understandings of policy and research.
The Department can get more stakeholders involved by focusing on state-level school board associations, parent groups, administrators and student unions. I’ve attended school board meetings and have been concerned about the adversarial comments flying back and forth between these stakeholders.
The Department is in a position to leverage relationships so that more people are talking about more of the same things. For example, how can the stakeholders work together to protect teacher (and principal!) pensions? If we want the best teachers (and principals) for our students, then we can surely collaborate to create the best working conditions that attract and retain highly qualified, creative and synergized educators.
Even if we don’t all always agree on specific solutions, the shared understandings will help us keep the conversation focused.
So, back to Steve's questions:
- What constructive role do you see for unions in education reform?
- What suggestions do you have for how the Department can build the capacity of stakeholders to participate meaningfully in the great policy debates of our time?
What do you think?