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"Whither Brexit: The View from British and Irish Teacher Unions

The extraordinary political divisions revealed by the June 2016 referendum that narrowly approved Brexit –short for British exit from the European Community – have only deepened in the three years since it was held. The devastation that a unilateral ‘hard Brexit’ would wreak on the British and Irish economies, and the potential damage it could do to the peace process in Northern Ireland, has led to repeated attempts by the Conservative government to negotiate ‘softer’ versions. But a ‘soft Brexit’ that would include agreements to remain in the single European market, to allow for free movement of people across British-European Community borders or to maintain the status quo along the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland have proved unpalatable to the hardline supporters of Brexit, who argue that it is no Brexit at all, and Parliament has been unable to muster a majority in support of any proposal, even with extended deadlines. The result has been a British political system in dysfunctional gridlock and chaos, leading to the resignation of Prime Minister Theresa May. The ground for a ‘soft Brexit’ appears increasingly tenuous: on the one hand, the leading candidate to succeed May, Trump favorite Boris Johnson, has been making plans for a no deal ‘hard Brexit’ without parliamentary approval; on the other hand, the Labour Party has recently shifted its position to call for a new referendum.>/p>

Brexit poses a particular set of challenges for British and Irish higher education, as British membership in the European Community has facilitated cross-border faculty employment and student registration. The impact of Brexit on colleges and universities in the United Kingdom and Ireland are thus a particular concern for British and Irish teacher unions.

Our panel will discuss the political forces behind Brexit, the current state of play in efforts to resolve the crisis around it, and its potential effects on education, along with the approaches their respective unions have taken to the issue.

Panelists
Mary Bousted, General Secretary, National Education Union (NEU), UK
John MacGabhann, General Secretary, Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI), UK
Patrick Roach, Deputy General Secretary, National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NAWUWT), UK
Moderator: Leo Casey, Executive Director, Albert Shanker Institute, USA

"Barriers to Trade Union Rights and Democratic Activism: Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand"

From Solidarność in Poland and COSATU in South Africa to CUT in Chile and UGTT in Tunisa, trade unions have been in the forefront of struggles for democracy for the last half century. Teacher unions in particular have a played leading role in these struggles, as we stand at the nexus of the labor movement, education and civil society. And given this frontline position, teacher unions are often among the first targets of authoritarian rulers and states.

In East and Southeast Asia today, progress toward more open and democratic forms of governance, with critical battles over respect for labor rights, the rule of law and universal suffrage in free elections being waged as we meet. In recent days, massive demonstrations have filled the streets of Hong Kong in protest against measures that would undermine the autonomy of the city and extend authoritarian rule from the mainland; in Korea, the Korean Teachers Union is fighting to regain its legal status, after being outlawed by a right wing government in 2013 which engaged in mass firings. In Thailand, freedom of association for most working people, including teachers, is denied. In each of those countries, teachers and teacher unions have strong, organic ties to democracy movements.

We will hear from three figures in the middle of these battles.

Panelists
Tin Fong Chak, Vice President, Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union
Hyunsu Hwang, Vice President, Korean Teachers and Education Worker's Union
Piya Kritayakirana, Program Manager, Solidarity Center Thailand
Moderator: Leo Casey, Executive Director, Albert Shanker Institute, USA

This short presentation explains some shortcomings of mainstream education reform and offers an alternative framework to advance educational progress. The social side perspective maintains that educational improvement is as much about the capacities of individuals as it is about their relationships and other features of their social context. To read more about this initiative click here.

 

Co Sponsored by the Albert Shanker Institute, the Sidney Hillman Foundation and the American Prospect

The American labor movement is at a critical juncture. After three decades of declining union density in the private sector and years of all-out political assaults on public sector unions, America’s unions now face what can only be described as existential threats. Strategies and tactics that may have worked in a different era are no onger adequate to today’s challenges. The need for different approaches to the fundamentals of union work in areas such as organizing, collective bargaining and political action is clear. The purpose of this conference is to examine new thinking and new initiatives, viewing them critically in the light of ongoing union imperatives of cultivating member activism and involvement, fostering democratic self-governance and building the collective power of working people.

Welcome:: Leo Casey, executive director, Albert Shanker Institute
Alexandra Lescaze, executive director, Sidney Hillman Foundation The Honorable Thomas Perez, U.S. Secretary of LaborKeynote: AMERICAN LABOR MOVEMENT AT A CROSSROADS
Randi Weingarten, president, American Federation of Teachers & Albert Shanker Institute

NEW FORMS OF LABOR ORGANIZING/ORGANIZATION I

Tefere Gebre, Executive Vice President, AFL-CIO;

Harold Meyerson, Editor-at-Large, American Prospect; columnist, The Washington Post; board member, The Albert Shanker Institute;
Karen Nussbaum, Executive Director, Working America;
David Rolf, President, Workers Lab, Service Employees International Union (SEUI) 775;
Moderator: Alexandra Lescaze, executive director, Sidney Hillman Foundation

NEW FORMS OF LABOR ORGANIZING/ORGANIZATION II

Paul Booth, Assistant to the President, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME);
Sara Horowitz, Founder and Executive Director, Freelancers Union;

Jessica Smith, Chief of Staff, American Federation of Teachers (AFT); .
Cristina Tzintzun, Executive Director, Texas Workers Defense Project;
Moderator: Phil Kugler, special assistant to the president for organization and field services, American Federation of Teachers

BUILDING COMMUNITY-LABOR ALLIANCES

Conversation with:
Sarita Gupta, Executive Director, Jobs With Justice;
Gerry Hudson, Executive Vice President, Service Employess International Union (SEIU);
Joseph McCartin, Director, Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor, Georgetown University;
Sejal Parikh, Fast Food Workers Campaign Director, Working Washington;
Leo Casey, executive director, Albert Shanker Institute

RETHINKING COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AND UNION REPRESENTATION

Catherine Fisk, Chancellor’s Professor of Law; Co-Director, Center in Law, Society and Culture, University of California at Irvine Law School;
Mary Cathryn Ricker, Executive Vice President, American Federation of Teachers; board member, Albert Shanker Institute;
Dan Schlademan, Director, Our Walmart, UFCW;
Saket Soni, Executive Director, National Guestworker Alliance;
Moderator: Cheryl Teare, director; Union Leadership Institute, American Federation of Teachers

WORKERS RIGHTS AND COLLECTIVE POWER

Mark Brenner, Director, Labor Notes;
Richard Kahlenberg, Senior Fellow, The Century Foundation; board member, Albert Shanker Institute; Rich Yeselson, labor strategist;
Moderator: Rachel Cohen, The American Prospect

NEXT STEPS

 

 

The emergence of the global knowledge economy has revolutionized the nature of work in America – for the worse. Unionized, well-paying private sector jobs that were once a ladder to the middle class have been decimated. Poorly compensated, insecure and precarious employment has grown dramatically. As a consequence, economic inequality has mushroomed. Perhaps nothing captures this transformation better than academia, where tenure-track positions have declined as the numbers of poorly paid, insecure adjuncts have swelled. What is the reality of life in the ‘precariat?’ What has the growth of the ‘precariat’ meant for the American economy? For the quality of American higher education? What are the prospects for union organizing among the ‘precariat?’

Panelists

Barbara Ehrenreich, co-editor, Economic Hardship Reporting Project

Rosemary Feal, executive director, Modern Language Association

Andrew Ross, professor, Social and Cultural Analysis; Director, American Studies (interim), New York University

Jennie Shanker, adjunct professor, Temple University; member, Temple adjunct organizing committee

Sponsored by the Albert Shanker Institute and the American Federation of Teachers, this conversation series is designed to engender lively and informative discussions on important educational issues. We deliberately invite speakers with diverse perspectives, including views other than those of the AFT and the Albert Shanker Institute. What is important is that these participants are committed to genuine engagement with each other.

The vocabulary gap between rich and poor children develops very early and it is about more than just words. In fact, words are the tip of the iceberg. So what lies underneath? Find out by watching this three-minute video.

For many years, discussions of teacher compensation have been dominated by two positions. On the one hand, school districts and unions have generally supported a single schedule in which teacher salaries were determined solely by length of service and level of completed education. Such a system has the virtues of simplicity and ease of implementation for administrators, and the virtues of predictability and even-handedness for teachers. On the other hand, education reformers have revived an old idea, merit pay, which is based on an economic theory that conceives of teachers as market women and men who rationally calculate how they can maximize their income. Get the financial incentives right, this thinking goes, and teachers will improve their performance. In recent years, however, new thinking on teacher compensation has emerged, with a focus on the differentiation of compensation on the basis of differentiated roles in schools and classrooms. In this thinking, teachers could be paid more for assuming positions such as master teacher, which demand special knowledge and skills and involve additional responsibilities. This panel will examine the terrain of teacher compensation from a number of different perspectives, offering their recommendations on what a good compensation policy would entail.

Panelists:

Moderator: Clifford Janey, Senior Research Scholar, Boston University, School of Education; member, Albert Shanker Institute Board of Directors

Rob Weil, Director of Field Programs, Educational Issues, American Federation of Teachers

Shimon Waronker, Head Master, The New American Academy

Richard Murnane, Juliana W. and William Foss Thompson Research Professor of Education and Society

Matthew Springer, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Education; Director, NCPI, Department of Leadership, Policy & Organizations, Vanderbit, Peabody College

 

  For the dates and topics of the 2014-2015 Conversation Series, go HERE. Sponsored by the Albert Shanker Institute and the American Federation of Teachers, this conversation series is designed to engender lively and informative discussions on important educational issues. We deliberately invite speakers with diverse perspectives, including views other than those of the AFT and the Albert Shanker Institute. What is important is that these participants are committed to genuine engagement with each other.

If a master designer had created American education as we know it, he would have to be a Robin Hood in reverse, taking from the poor and giving to the rich. American students with all of the advantages of wealth are disproportionately taught by the best prepared, most experienced and most accomplished teachers, while students living in poverty with the greatest educational needs are disproportionately taught by novice teachers who were poorly prepared and who receive inadequate support. As a consequence, the teachers in high poverty schools turn over at a high rate, making it difficult for these schools to improve. From a variety of different perspectives, our panel will address two vital questions: What are the systemic causes of this mismatch of educational resources and educational need? What policies could be adopted to remedy this mismatch, and attract experienced, accomplished teachers into schools with high educational need?

Panelists:

Richard Ingersoll, Professor of Education and Sociology; Board of Overseers Chair of Education, Education Policy Division, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania
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Helen Ladd, Susan B. King Professor of Public Policy; professor of economics, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
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Peter McWalters, former Rhode Island Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education; former Superintendernt of Schools, City School District of Rochester, NY; former Interim Strategic Initiative Director, Education Workforce

Mary Cathryn Ricker, Executive Vice President, American Federation of Teachers; Board Member, Albert Shanker Institute

Moderator: Marla Ucelli-Kashyap, Assistant to the President for Educational Issues, American Federation of Teachers

Sponsored by the Albert Shanker Institute and the American Federation of Teachers, this conversation series is designed to engender lively and informative discussions on important educational issues. We deliberately invite speakers with diverse perspectives, including views other than those of the AFT and the Albert Shanker Institute. What is important is that these participants are committed to genuine engagement with each other.

Twelve years after the passage of No Child Left Behind and five years into Race to the Top, America finds itself in a ‘test and punish’ system of school accountability that poorly serves the nation and its students. Educational outcomes have not meaningfully improved, and progress towards educational equity has stalled. The burden of these failures falls most heavily on those students with the greatest needs, especially students living in poverty, students with special needs and English Language Learners. From different vantage points in the world of American education, this panel will offer its  perspective on how to develop an accountability system that is focused on supporting and improving schools, and
holds all of the stakeholders in American education – from the educator and the school to the district and the state and federal governments – responsible for the success of America’s students.
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<strong>PANELISTS:</strong><p>

<strong><a href="http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty_bios/view/Pedro_Noguera">Pedro A. Noguera</a></strong>,  Professor of Education Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Development; Executive Director, Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools, New York University
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<strong><a href="http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/superintendent/about/">Joshua Starr</a></strong>, Superintendent, Montgomery County Public Schools
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<strong><a href="http://www.aft.org/about/leadership/president.cfm">Randi Weingarten</a></strong>, President, American Federation of Teachers, Albert Shanker Institute
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Moderator: <strong><a href="https://www.shankerinstitute.org/about/staff/">Leo Casey</a></strong>, Executive Director, Albert Shanker Institute

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<em>Sponsored by the Albert Shanker Institute and the American Federation of Teachers, this conversation series is designed to engender lively and informative discussions on important educational issues. We deliberately invite speakers with diverse perspectives, including views other than those of the AFT and the Albert Shanker Institute. What is important is that these participants are committed to genuine engagement with each other.</em>

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