Teacher Unions, (Neo)Liberalism and the State: The Perth County Conspiracy of 1885

Abstract

In 1885, following a period of severe economic depression and social unrest in colonial Canada, state teachers in rural Perth County, Ontario met and formed the nucleus of what could clearly be described as a teachers' union. The idea spread quickly, and within six months the founding convention of a province‐wide union was held in Toronto. Understandably, state officials were not pleased, and worked assiduously over the ensuing months to counter this movement. Building on the already‐pervasive official discourse of individualized “professional responsibility”, these officials began hinting about the possibility of teachers being “blessed” with a state‐sanctioned “College of Preceptors” – a strategy that had previously been employed in England for a similar purpose. This article attempts to describe these events (and their sad outcomes), within the context of a review of the origins of state schooling systems, recent theory related to governmentality and individual (self‐)regulation, and recent schooling “reforms” being undertaken concomitant with the (continuing) globalization of neo‐liberal regimes of governance.

Notes

This influx included not only immigrants from Europe, but also two significant groups from the United States – so‐called United Empire Loyalists (UELs) who chose to “follow the king” (for whatever reasons) after the US became a republic, and Black immigrants who came, some as slaves/servants of these UELs and many others independently in order to escape US (as compared with Canadian) forms of slavery.

The reference in the title of this article to the “Perth County Conspiracy” is a play on the name of a music/theatre group which was centred in Perth County, Ontario in the 1970s and 1980s, which became known nationally for its success in using music and drama to provide highly pointed critiques of culture, politics and history in Canada.

See, for example, R.D. Gidney, “Elementary Education in Upper Canada: A Reassessment”, in Michael B. Katz & Paul H. Mattingly (Eds), Education and Social Change, Themes from Ontario's Past (New York, 1974), pp. 3–27; Susan Houston & Alison Prentice, Schooling and Scholars in Nineteenth Century Ontario (Toronto, 1988).

As late as 1880, for example, over 80% of all public elementary school teachers in Ontario taught in one‐room schools in the rural areas of the province.

See for example, Bruce Curtis, Building the Educational State: Canada West, 1836–1871 (Toronto, 1988), and Houston & Prentice, Schooling and Scholars. To be sure, this is a “teachers' version” of conditions and events, and would presumably differ from the perceptions/beliefs of local parents and school trustees.

This was certainly the case for many of the meetings of teachers during this unionization campaign.

Stratford Beacon Herald (20 November 1885); ibid. (27 November 1885).

Educational Weekly, III (11 December 1885), p. 738.

Ibid. (7 January 1886), p. 14.

Ibid.

Canada School Journal, XI (15 May 1886), p. 119.

Canadian Statesman (Bowmanville) (28 May 1886).

Canada School Journal, XI (1 July 1886), p. 155.

Ibid., XI (15 May 1886), p. 102.

Ibid., XI (1 June 1886), p. 121.

Ibid., XII (15 June 1886), p.143.

Toronto Mail (29 July 1886).

Educational Weekly, IV (12 August 1886), p. 476.

Toronto Mail (10 August 1886).

Ibid.

Ibid.

Toronto Globe (10 August 1886).

J.M. Paton, The Role of Teachers' Organizations in Canadian Education (Toronto, 1962), p. 23.

See for example, Harry Smaller, Teachers' Protective Associations, Professionalism and the “State” in Nineteenth Century Ontario (Doctoral Dissertation, Toronto, 1988); Harry Smaller, “Gender and Status: The First Meeting of the Teachers' Association of Canada West, January 25, 1861”, Historical Studies in Education/Revue d'histoire de l'éducation, VI (1994), pp. 201–218.

Toronto Mail (10 August 1886).

Toronto Globe (10 August 1886).

Ibid.

Noel & José Parry provide a detailed overview of this organization. Noel Parry and José Parry, “The Teachers and Professionalism: The Failure of an Occupational Strategy”, in Michael Flude & John Ahier (Eds), Educability, Schools and Ideology (New York, 1974), pp. 160–185.

Understandably, given the attention paid by the local and educational media, Dickson's speech was quoted, and reprinted in a number of journals and newspapers. Above quotes taken from Canada School Journal, XI (1 September 1886), pp. 194–198; ibid. (1 October 1886), pp. 212–220; Educational Weekly, IV (19 August 1866), pp. 492–493; Toronto Globe (12 August 1886); Toronto Mail (12 August 1886). See also Provincial Archives of Ontario, Minutes of the Twenty‐Sixth Annual Meeting of the Ontario Teachers' Association (hereafter OTA Minutes) 1886, pp. 65–73.

Toronto Globe (12 July 1886); Canada School Journal, XI (15 August 1886), p. 184.

Canada School Journal, XI (15 September 1886), p. 207; OTA Minutes 1886, p. 33.

A paradoxical mix of attacks on the “tyranny” of school trustees and the “poisonous atmosphere” of his former schoolhouse, blended with a traditional call for professionalism, and the hope that each teacher would “philosophically accommodate himself to his environment and look upon the successful importation of knowledge and moral principles as a reward, immaterial though it be”. Toronto Mail (11 August 1886).

Ibid.

Canada School Journal, XI (15 August 1886), p. 184.

Toronto Globe (12 August 1886).

Toronto Mail (16 August 1886).

These educational journals, while exuding the appearance of being “independent” teacher‐oriented publications, were in fact founded and edited by influential schooling officials, virtually all employed by the state.

Educational Weekly, III (28 January 1886), pp. 56–57.

Ibid. (12 August 1886), p. 488.

See, for example, ibid. (19 August 1886), p. 505.

Canada School Journal, XI (15 August 1886), pp. 183–184; ibid. (1 September 1886), p. 195.

Ibid., p. 198.

Ibid. (15 August 1886), p. 147.

Ibid. (15 June 1886), p. 135.

Ibid. (1 July 1886), p. 147.

Ibid. (15 June 1886), p. 135.

Ibid. (1 September 1886), p. 194.

Toronto Mail (2 August 1886).

One could safely assume that the author was Dr L.E. Embree, principal of Whitby Collegiate, active contributor to the Canada School Journal, and later himself to become president of the Ontario Teachers' Association.

Toronto Mail (13 August 1886).

Canada School Journal, XI (15 November 1886), p. 264.

See, for example, Toronto Mail (10 August 1886). One assumes that they were there for honourable reasons. To be sure, inspectors often felt the brunt of teachers' complaints over mistreatment at the hands of local trustees. Also, they were directly affected when schools in their area were left vacant over disagreements concerning salary and contract problems. In searching for any kind of effective solution to these long‐term problems, it is reasonable to assume that some, at least, would have supported such a union movement by teachers, if only as a lesser of evils.

Canada School Journal, XII (16 March 1887), p. 72.

Educational Journal, I (15 July 1887), p. 94.

Canada School Journal, XII (1 March 1887), p. 54.

Toronto Globe (13 August 1887).

See, for example, Canada School Journal, XI (15 November 1886), p. 264; ibid., XII (15 March 1887), pp. 72, 84.

Educational Weekly, III (12 August 1886), p. 504.

Canada School Journal, XII (15 January 1887), p. 17.

Educational Journal, I (15 July 1887), p. 93.

Educational Journal, I (1 June 1887), p. 45; ibid. (15 June 1887), p. 63; ibid. (15 July 1887), p. 94.

Edwin C. Guillet, In the Cause of Education: Centennial History of the Ontario Educational Association, 1861–1960 (Toronto, 1960), p. 316.

Clearly a reference to the Catholic Church, which had been engaged in continual struggle with the provincial government throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries over the rights to operate their own, publicly funded, schools.

OTA Minutes 1887, p. 43; Toronto Globe (10 August 1887), p. 8; Guillet, Cause of Education, p. 124.

Parry & Parry, “The Teachers and Professionalism”, p. 169.

Ibid., pp. 178–179.

Ibid.

Canada School Journal, XII (1 March 1887), p. 54.

Guillet, Cause of Education, pp. 89–90, 96; Educational Journal, I (15 April 1887), pp. 17, 27; ibid. (1 May 1887), pp. 17–18, 27; Canadian Educational Monthly, I (February 1879), p. 83.

Ontario Department of Education, Annual Report of the Chief Superintendent of Education (hereafter Annual Report), 1886, p. 216.

Annual Report, 1889, pp. vii–viii; ibid.1990.

To be sure, this initial legislation was very weak indeed, and itself subject to disagreement among the working class.