Upcoming Events
Sunday | SunJune Jun14
Upcoming Event
AFT/SML/ASI Book Club Conversation with Sharon McMahon
Sunday | June 14, 2026
6:00 PM

Tuesday | TueJune Jun16
Upcoming Event
Defending Democracy: South Africa: The Legacy of Youth Activism in the Fight for Global Democracy
Tuesday | June 16, 2026
12:00 PM
In this the fourth in the series of the AFT/ASI Defending Democracy webinar series we will hear from South Africa and U.S. youth who are mobilizing youth movements today while recalling the legacy of those who led 50 years ago. AFT and ASI President Randi Weingarten and Dr. Mugwena Maluleke, General Secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers Union lead off the discussion with their reflections on the historic anti-apartheid movement and what it teachers today in our FIGHT FOR A BETTER LIFE FOR ALL.
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Featured Past Event
Defending Democracy: The Hungarian Elections and the Future of Hungarian Democracy
From educators and students to journalists and civil society leaders, activists in Hungary have found the courage to stand up to autocracy and sustain a reform movement. Where democracy is under pressure, the fight to defend it requires understanding how movements are built, how they endure, and what lessons can carry across borders. Watch this post-electoral analysis with three highly regarded political analysts who were on the ground during the election cycle, as part of the third in a series of webinars on Defending Democrats.
Featured Past Event
Defending Democracy: The Role of South Korean Labor Unions
This webinar, part of the Albert Shanker Institute’s Defending Democracy series, and in partnership with APALA and AFT’s AAPI Task Force, focused on the role of labor unions in mobilizing protests in response to the South Korean president's martial law declaration; the call for the resignation of the president and the move to elect a new government.
Featured Past Event
Defending Democracy: Latin American Resistance to Authoritarianism
This is the third in a series of ASI’s virtual dialogue sessions on Defending Democracy. In this session, Latin American Resistance to Authoritarianism, leaders experienced with hands-on organizing and mobilizing from education unions in Chile, Argentina, Colombia, and Honduras, were questioned by AFT leaders on the tactics and political muscle that sustain the scale of the democracy movement throughout the continent.
Featured Past Event
Democracy is under siege at home and abroad. In this webinar, AFT and ASI President Randi Weingarten moderated a discussion with experts and strategists of resistance and people-powered movements, exploring how we turn the tide through education, organized labor, and strategic coalition-building.
Featured Past Event
Antisemitism, Democracy, and the Assault on Knowledge & Education
AFT and Albert Shanker Institute President Randi Weingarten and Jewish Council for Public Affairs CEO Amy Spitalnick discussed how to confront antisemitism and broader hate, protect our democracy, and fight back against this assault on knowledge and education. This conversation was moderated by Dan Montgomery, president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers and a Shanker Institute board member.
Past Events
Section title
Mar62018
Past Event
Israel-US Conversation You Haven't Heard Before
Israeli social justice activist and trade unionist Rami Hod discussed how the citizens of the United States and Israel can work together to help build a broad movement for progressive change.
Mar12018
Past Event
Puerto Rico: The Road to Recovery and Reconstruction
With the future of Puerto Rico hanging in the balance, this national conference focused on what needs to be done to rebuild the Puerto Rican economy and its educational system in the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria.
Feb142018
Past Event
Is the Promise of ESSA Being Actualized?
Now that the states have completed and submitted their first ESSA plans, it is an appropriate time to ask if the promise of ESSA is being realized.
Jan102018
Past Event
Teaching Democratic Citizenship When Democracy is at Risk
Today, the U.S. finds itself in a crisis of democracy, in which the future of our liberties and our republican form of government hang in the balance.
Nov82017
Past Event
Austerity Politics and American Education
A decade after the start of the Great Recession and eight years into the U.S. economic recovery, almost half of the states have failed to restore K-12 education spending to pre-recession levels; almost all states have yet to restore higher education spending to pre-recession levels.
Oct252017
Past Event
Deborah Meier Book Event and Reception
These Schools Belong to You and Me - Why We Can't Afford to Abandon Our Public Schools
Oct162017
Past Event
American education today has one goal. And it’s not teaching students. It’s raising test scores. High-stakes testing, launched as a way to evaluate Teaching and determine whether students were learning, has become an end in itself. And it’s ruining education.
Oct52017
Past Event
The Crisis of Democracy Conference
We are experiencing an organic crisis of democracy, international in scope. This conference will draw together intellectuals and activists from across the globe to examine and explore different dimensions of that crisis.
Sep132017
Past Event
Vouchers and Education: What Do History and the Research Tell Us?
As Congress considers the Trump-DeVos proposals for a national voucher program, what can we learn from the history of vouchers and from the research on the performance of voucher systems?
Jun302017
Past Event
Co-sponsored by the Shanker Institute and the American Federation of Teachers.
Jun272017
Past Event
"TEACHER STRIKE!" Book Discussion & Reception
A wave of teacher strikes in the 1960s and 1970s roiled urban communities. Jon Shelton illuminates how this tumultuous era helped shatter the liberal-labor coalition and opened the door to the neoliberal challenge at the heart of urban education today.
Jun82017
Past Event
Lunch Discussion with Paweł Zyzak
Former Shanker Institute Fellow and author of the new book, "Domino Effect: Did the USA Overthrow Communism in Poland?"
Jun72017
Past Event
School Integration By Race & Class: A Movement Reborn?
From a variety of perspectives, our panelists examined the state of segregation by race and class in America’s schools, and the promising initiatives and practices that are emerging in the renewed movement to integrate America’s schools.
May102017
Past Event
In An Age of Scapegoating, Making School A Safe & Nurturing Place for Youth
From a variety of different perspectives and work with different populations of vulnerable students, our panel examined the challenges facing American educators and the best practices educators have developed to address them.
Apr122017
Past Event
School Turnarounds: What has Worked and What Has Failed
Our panel of researchers and practitioners addressed this question by examining both the current state of research and on-the-ground efforts at school improvement that have worked.
Apr62017
Past Event
Current education policies haven’t sufficiently leveraged the organizational and interpersonal aspects of schools which can benefit educators and students collectively.
Mar82017
Past Event
Promoting Children's Well-Being
Promoting Children's Well Being. This panel examined 21st century approaches to a culture of health in and with schools.
Jan112017
Past Event
AFT: One Hundred Years of Social Justice Teacher Unionism
Our panelists will examine a number of different figures and moments in the history of the AFT from a variety of different perspectives.
Dec52016
Past Event
The Challenge of Precarious Labor
To address this challenge, this conference will bring together an international body of thinkers, analysts and activists.
Nov162016
Past Event
The 2016 Elections: What Do They Mean for American Education?
Following the November 8th elections, our panel discussed their impact on American education, from a number of different points on the political spectrum and a variety of policy perspectives on American education.
Jun82016
Past Event
Reclaiming the Promise of Public Education Conversation Series 2015-2016
Sponsored by the Albert Shanker Institute and the American Federation of Teachers, this conversation series held the second Wednesay of the month during the school year, is designed to engender lively and informative discussions on important educational issues.
Jun82016
Past Event
Educating English Language Learners in an Age of Anti-Immigrant Scapegoating
What is the appropriate response of American educators to this critical situation? What must be done to provide English language learners with the quality education that addresses their specific needs?
May182016
Past Event
The distinguished speakers discuss the current international refugee crisis and draw historical parallels with the anti-refugee sentiments in the World War II era.
May112016
Past Event
New Visions of Collective Bargaining in American Education
Our panel will investigate some of the most promising efforts on that front around the country, as teacher unions find new ways to negotiate contracts for educational innovation and improvement and build new partnerships with community around that work.
Featured Past Event
Defending Democracy: Latin American Resistance to Authoritarianism
This is the third in a series of ASI’s virtual dialogue sessions on Defending Democracy. In this session, Latin American Resistance to Authoritarianism, leaders experienced with hands-on organizing and mobilizing from education unions in Chile, Argentina, Colombia, and Honduras, were questioned by AFT leaders on the tactics and political muscle that sustain the scale of the democracy movement throughout the continent.