Education International Research
In this study are multiple examples of unions developing a wide range of alliances with other unions (especially public service unions), civil society organisations, community groups (including migrant groups), frequently with parents, and sometimes with students (as in Chile and the US). It is also worth mentioning the Australian Education Union’s campaign around ‘Gonski funding’ which has used creative and imaginative organising approaches to engage both members and the wider community15. However, this is often difficult work, requiring skilful leadership and effective organising (Stevenson, 2016). ‘Crisis moments’ can spark a campaign in an instant and provide organising opportunities – but real alliances develop from the slower and deeper relationships between teachers and others that have been established over time. Where these relationships already exist, social capital and trust are already established and alliance building is more straightforward. Where such relationships are absent, alliances are more likely to be fragile and short-lived. Like much of the engagement described in this report, this type of alliance building can ebb and flow as particular issues emerge and then subside. The challenge is to build on campaigns when opportunities present themselves and develop a long-term upward trajectory. This often requires a long-term investment in social capital building.
Seven challenges for teacher union renewal: making the connections These seven challenges for teacher union renewal have been deliberately set out as a set of conundrums, because this approach highlights tensions and difficulties. Within any single issue, the question is seldom ‘either/or?’ but rather, how are sometimes competing issues reconciled? What is the balance? What are the priorities? The hope is that, by presenting these challenges in this way, those involved in teacher unions will be facilitated to discuss and debate the issues openly and productively. In so doing, this report seeks to highlight the interdependence of the issues raised. Each can be looked at as a discrete issue, but none of them sit in isolation from each other. For example, this report highlights the importance of collective bargaining as a vehicle for representing teachers’ collective interests. However, this study also provides examples of how unions have used collective bargaining procedures to not only connect with their own members, but with the wider community. In so doing, it becomes possible to conceive of broader coalitions and movements capable of asserting real influence on the discourse relating to public education and the importance of education as a public good. This offers the real possibility of ‘changing the conversation’ about public education. In this sense, readers are urged to view the challenges both individually and as a set of interdependent strategic choices which, when taken together, align in ways that make each individual element reinforcing of all the others. Securing this alignment opens up the possibility of mobilising the real collective power of educators. 15 See - http://www.igiveagonski.com.au/
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