Teacher activist organizations and the development of professional agency

Abstract

Teacher professional agency refers to the ability of teachers to control their work within structural constraints. In this paper, we show how teacher activist organizations can assist in the development of professional agency. We focus on a teacher activist organization in a large urban district in the United States and identify three organizational processes. We find that teacher activist organizations can facilitate efforts to alter classroom instruction, create opportunities for teachers to challenge educational structures, and foster a shared belief in the collective power of teachers. However, teacher activist organizations may be limited in scope and impact, tempering these potential benefits.

Keywords:

• agency
• professionalism
• collective action
• professional development
• urban education

Acknowledgement

The authors thank Frances Starn and Hanyen Andrew Lee for research assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In addition, a member of our research team was a participant observer of one of TAG’s major annual events, the Inquiry to Action Group Kick-off.

2. Rose continues: ‘I want to teach them about Columbus Day in the politically-correct way [but] rather than just that, I want to engage them more in understanding that Columbus arriving in the New World actually affected their ancestors. I want to tie in their Puerto Rican culture to the lesson and make it more relevant and meaningful in that way, and also [I want them to] take more action.’

3. The Philadelphia ItAG program was adopted three years ago from another teacher activist organization. TAG is affiliated with the Network of Teacher Activist Groups, a national network of teacher organizers and activists that has been beneficial to its organizational development. ‘It’s been great, because you don’t have to reinvent wheels,’ states Elaine. ‘A lot of the strategies around [our programs and projects], those are national things that we just kind of borrow from each other, and the structures already exist and they work.’

4. The Faces of the Layoffs website is: http://facesofthelayoffs.org/. It ‘brought a lot of humanity to the layoffs,’ says Olivia, a veteran high school counselor. But at the same time, as Paula describes, it was ‘the most depressing thing we ever did, because we just got hundreds and hundreds of emails with photos and testimonials.’

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Pennsylvania Office of the Vice Provost for Research through a University Research Foundation award.