![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
Abstract
There are some fascinating historical parallels between Mexico’s giant teacher union, the Mexican National Education Union, and the South African Democratic Teachers Union. Although both teacher unions played an important role in challenging political oligarchies at certain points in their history, they became increasingly protectionist. Through their close affiliation to ruling parties, they were able to wield substantial political influence. In both of these cases, the unions played a controversial role in preventing central government surveillance and intervention in schools. Arguably, this often allowed not only for corruption in appointments and promotions, but also the protection of negligent teachers. There is some evidence to suggest that in protecting their sectional interests, both unions have frequently alienated parents and students at the community level. This paper addresses broader debates about the impact of powerful teacher unions on the quality of public schooling.
Notes
1 Center for Development and Enterprise (CDE), Teacher Evaluation, 3; CDE, Value in the Classroom, 8–11, 22, 27.
2 See, for example, Chisholm and Valley, The Culture of teaching and learning in Gauteng Schools; Jansen and Sayed, Implementing Education Policies; Bloch, The Toxic Mix.
3 A list of acronyms is provided at the end of the paper.
4 Kasten and Fossedal, Teacher Union Concentration.
5 Lieberman, The Teacher Union.
6 Ibid., 217–38. For similar views, see Stern, “How Teachers’ Unions Handcuff Schools,” and Kirkpatrick, “Teacher Unions and Collective Bargaining – In Retrospect.”
7 Swartz, “The South African Democratic Teachers Union,” 31. See Steelman, Powell, and Carini, “Do Teacher Unions Hinder Educational Performance?,” 437–66. They find that the evidence is inconclusive either way.
8 Swartz, “The South African Democratic Teachers Union”, 26–35; Lieberman himself discusses these factors in a fairly even-handed discussion in The Teacher Unions, 231–3.
9 For an overview of these debates in the 1990s and early 2000s see Swartz, “The South African Democratic Teachers Union,” 26–35, and Masenya, “School-Based Unionism in a Gauteng District”, 32–9.
10 See Murillo, Labor Unions, which looks more broadly at the relationship between public sector unions and the state in an age of neoliberal reform in Latin America in 1990s.
11 Compton and Weiner, The Global Assault. See in particular Robertson, “Remaking the World”, 11–29.
12 See Wall Street Journal, December 9, 2013.
13 See Foweraker, Popular Mobilization, 1–31; Murillo, “Recovering Political Dynamics”, 40; Rincones, “The Context”, 217.
14 See in particular Cortina, “Gender and Power”, 241–62 on gender issues in union.
15 Foweraker, Popular Mobilization, 22–9.
16 Ibid., 22–31.
17 Ibid., 29.
18 Murillo, “Recovering Political Dynamics,” 41.
19 Aside from Foweraker, Popular Mobilization, see Cortina, “Gender and Power”; for more on the teachers’ movement see: Santibaňez and Rabling, “Muscle”, Smith, “Teachers”; Cook, Organizing Dissent.
20 See Orlenas, “The Politics of the Education Decentralization in Mexico,” 426–42; Gershberg, “Education Decentralization”, 63–80; Santibaňez and Rabling, “Muscle,” 3–5.
21 See Orlenas, “The Politics of the Education Decentralization in Mexico,” 428–9.
22 Ibid., 431–2.
23 Gershberg, “Education ‘Decentralization’,” 71.
24 Orlenas, “The Politics of the Education Decentralization in Mexico,” 434–40; Murillo, “Recovering Political Dynamics,” 43–4.
25 Orlenas, “The Politics of the Education Decentralization in Mexico,” 439; Gershberg, “Education ‘Decentralization’,” 72.
26 Rincones, “The Context,” 219.
27 Smith, “Teachers,” para. 7; see also Wall Street Journal, December 9, 2013.
28 Smith, “Teachers,” para. 8–10; Wall Street Journal, December 9, 2013 supports this view. Moreover, Smith points out that real teacher salaries recovered well during the 1990s and 2000s; in other words, the material distance between themselves and working-class grew.
29 Cortina, “Gender and Power,” 242.
30 Santibaňez and Rabling, “Muscle,” 3.
31 Garcia, “Peña Nieto and the Unions,” para. 4.
32 Rincones, “The Context,” 218.
33 See The Economist, July 7, 2011; and Huffington Post, February 27, 2013.
34 de la Luz Arriaga Lemus, “In Mexico,” in 224.
35 The Guardian, 27 February 2013; Santibaňez and Rabling, “Muscle,” 4–5.
36 Smith, “Teachers,” para. 12.
37 Wikipedia entry on SNTE (accessed January 6, 2014).
38 Garcia, “Peña Nieto,” para 4. Wall Street Journal, October 13, 2013. This was also the case throughout the 1990s. See Gershberg, “Education ‘Decentralization’,” 70.
39 Garcia, “Peña Nieto,” para. 6; S. Aguilar, “La Maestra is Gone so let’s Focus on the Education Reform,” blog entry, Huffington Post (posted 15 March 2013).
40 Smith, “Teachers,” para. 3.
41 Wall Street Journal, December 9, 2013; Smith, “Teachers,” para. 4.
42 Huffington Post, February 27, 2013.
43 Wall Street Journal, December 9, 2013.
44 Smith, “Teachers,” para. 12.
45 Ibid., para. 13–7.
46 For more detail on earlier African teacher associations see: Hyslop, “Social Conflicts”, 350–89; Lekgoathi, “Teacher Militancy”, 226–52.
47 See Glaser, “Soweto’s Islands of Learning”, 159–71.
48 Bloch, The Toxic Mix, 47. For general statistics on school expansion in this era see Hyslop, The Classroom Struggle, 169–70.
49 Lekgoathi, “Teacher Militancy,” 234.
50 Chisholm, “Democratization of Schools”, 111–26, 115.
51 Lekgoathi, “Teacher Militancy,” 231–3. For more detail on the mass resignations see Glaser, “Learning amidst the Turmoil”.
52 For more detail on the history of COSAS see Gerhart and Glaser, From Protest to Challenge, 47–61.
53 Garson, “Labor Relations in Education,” 207. This chapter provides a rare overview of the early history of SADTU. I rely heavily on it for basic narrative detail until 2000. For several years, Philippa Garson ran The Teacher supplement in the Mail & Guardian newspaper. See also a useful booklet produced for SADTU: Kumalo and Skosana, SADTU.
54 Jansen, “Autonomy and accountability”, 51–66, 54.
55 See Kumalo and Skosana, SADTU, 41–61.
56 Chisholm, “The Democratization of Schools,” 114; Lekgoathi, “Teacher Militancy,” 234.
57 For an overview of the NECC intervention see Gerhart and Glaser, From Protest To Challenge, 99–102.
58 Garson, “Labor Relations in Education,” 207–8; Kumalo and Skosana, SADTU, 46–52.
59 Garson, “Labor Relations in Education,” 207–8.
60 Ibid., 209.
61 Ibid., 208. For more detail on the SADTU-NAPTOSA split see Govender, “Teacher Unions”, 267–91. Govender argues that the professional–union dichotomy actually narrowed in the 1990s as NAPTOSA became more of a trade union and SADTU recognized that it could not neglect professional issues. See in particular, 269, 278–81. See also Amoako, “Cogs in a Wheel”.
62 Chisholm, “The Democratization of Schools,” 116.
63 Amoako, “Teacher Unions in Political Transitions”, 148–63.
64 See Amoako,” Teacher Unions in Political Transitions,” for more detail on the recognition battle.
65 Chisholm, “The Democratization of Schools,” 115.
66 Swartz, “The South African Democratic Teachers Union,” 79; Garson, “Labor Relations,” 210.
67 Chisholm, “The Democratization of Schools,” 115.
68 Bloch, The Toxic Mix, 100. Both Bloch and Chisholm are educationists who were outspoken critics of Bantu Education during the 1980s. They became influential consultants to the early post-apartheid education department before returning to independent scholarship.
69 Mokgolane interviewed by Garson in 1997: Garson “Labor Relations,” 210.
70 Amoako, “Teacher Unions in Political Transitions,” 156–62; Garson, “Labor Relations,” 209.
71 Garson, “Labor Relations,” 210.
72 Ibid., 211.
73 See, for example, the uneven responses in Masenya’s contemporary case study in Gauteng. Masenya, “School-based Unionism,” 89–117.
74 On gender issues in SADTU see Govender, “Teacher Unions,” 276–7.
75 Garson, “Labor Relations,” 214–5. On flat salary scales before 2008, see CDE, Teacher Pay for Performance, 10.
76 Ibid., 216–7.
77 Ibid., 216.
78 Govender, “Teacher Unions,” 283–4.
79 Fleisch, “The politics of the governed”, 117–31, 118.
80 Jansen, “Autonomy and Accountability,” 54.
81 Amoako, “Cogs in the Wheel,” 91–2.
82 Jansen, “Autonomy and Accountability,” 55.
83 Ibid., 51. See also CDE, Teacher Evaluation, 5–7, for a discussion about the failure of the Integrated Quality Management System, which replaced the inspectorate. Jonathan Jansen is an outspoken education critic and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State.
84 Bloch, The Toxic Mix, 100; see also 102–3.
85 Jansen, “Autonomy and Accountability,” 56.
86 Ibid., 57.
87 Ibid., 62–3.
88 Ibid., 64.
89 Bloch, The Toxic Mix, 105.
90 Amoako, “Cogs in the Wheel,” 94–6.
91 von Holdt, “Institutionaliation”, 137–9.
92 CDE, Teacher Pay for Performance, 11.
93 Bloch, The Toxic Mix, p.105.
94 See Seekings, “Trade Unions, Social Policy”, 302–4.
95 Masenya, “School-based Unionism,” 39.
96 See Fleisch, “The Politics of the Governed.”
97 See City Press, April 27, May 2 and May 4; Citizen, May 14, 2014; Masenya, “School-Based Unionism,” 35–6.
98 See Mail & Guardian, October 28, 2013, May 19, 2014; Times Live, May 27, 2014.
99 See especially Mail & Guardian, April 24, 2014. Under Zuma, the DET was split into the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and a separate ministry for tertiary education.
100 Mail & Guardian, March 8, 2014.
101 CDE, Teacher Evaluation, 8.
102 For an overview of the dispute see Mail & Guardian, September 2, 2015.
103 Mail & Guardian, February 20, 2014.
104 CDE Hidden Assets.
105 See Bloch, The Toxic Mix, 105–9.
106 See Murillo, Labor Unions, for a discussion about the complexities of alliances between public sector unions and political parties in Latin America.
107 Murillo, “Recovering Political Dynamics,” 35.
108 Thulas Nxesi interview with Compton in Compton, The Global Assault, 211–2.
109 Lekgoathi, “Teacher Militancy,” 29.
110 This is an argument developed in some detail in Seekings, “Trade Unions, Social Policy.”
111 Although see CDE, Hidden Assets, which argues convincingly that low-fee private schools, partially subsidized by the state, can become attractive alternatives for parents faced with dysfunctional local public schools.