How My Teacher Union Fought for Housing Justice
A teacher union member stories the Boston Teachers Union fight for housing justice.
Labor
The Resurgence of Teacher Unions
Inouye and Potter share organizing strategies from the 2019 United Teachers Los Angeles and Chicago Teachers Union strikes, which centered common good demands.
To Find What Works in the Virtual Classroom, Many Teachers Are Adapting Old Strategies
Matt Reed, a teacher at Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon, was worried about one of his 9th-grade students. Portland Public Schools, he explained, had been all-remote since March 13, […]
Karen Lewis Struck a Blow for Justice
When Karen Lewis, the past president of the Chicago Teachers Union, succumbed to a long battle with brain cancer on Feb. 8, 2021, we lost one of the greatest freedom […]
Teacher Unions and Social Justice Study Groups
Teacher Unions and Social Justice is an anthology of more than 60 articles documenting the history and the how-tos of social justice unionism. Together, these contributions describe the growing movement to […]
Education and Social Justice: A Global View
Rethinking Schools editor Bob Peterson interviews Angelo Gavrielatos, president of Australia’s New South Wales Teachers Union.
“It’s Not Magic. It’s Organizing!”
The inspiring story of how the social justice caucus of North Carolina’s teacher union grew to power.
Moving Past the Trump Presidency — The Promise of Social Justice Teacher Unions
The editors of the new book Teacher Unions and Social Justice: Organizing for the Schools and Communities Our Students Deserve argue that teacher unions must move beyond strategies of the past to put social justice and anti-racism at the center of their work.
Coronavirus, Sick-Outs, and the Fight to Close New York City Schools
New York City has become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, and its public schools, which serve 1.1 million students and employ nearly 135,000 people, officially closed on March 17. […]
Action News – Wisconsin Uprising
Wisconsin Uprising — Justice Is in the Air
¡Sí, se puede!
From Chicago to Dallas, from Atlanta to Nebraska, from Maine to Los Angeles, and in small towns throughout the land, an outpouring of millions of Latinos and human rights supporters […]
Review: Our Dignity Can Defeat Anyone
By Julie Treick O’Neill A review of the film Maquilapolis [City of Factories]
Fault Lines in Merit Pay
Far from addressing the systemic
Living Algebra, Living Wage
Eighth graders finally get what they ask for: an algebra lesson for the real world.”
We’re Not Blind. Just Follow the Dollar Sign
Chicago’s renaissance” could mean dark age for city’s public schools.”
Film: Inspiration From Mexico’s Rank and File
Film: Granito de Arena (Grain of Sand) by director: Jill Friedberg, Corrugated Films, 2005, DVD. 60 min.
My Small School Journey
An Oakland teacher experiences the negative effects of small school reform in the midst of a budget crisis.
An Open Letter to Bill and Melinda Gates
Thanks for helping start Success Tech Academy in Cleveland, Charney says, but tell state leaders they’re going to have to fund these ideas too or your money won’t be well-spent.
Teacher Unions Take on the Climate Crisis
As young people across the country join the global movement to mobilize school strikes to demand climate action, one group is starting to think more seriously about how to best support those efforts: their teachers.
Red for Ed: The Movement Strengthens and Continues
In 2018, numerous commentators portrayed the West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, and Kentucky school walkouts as a purely “red state” phenomenon. But events this year have made clear that the strike […]
The 2020 Presidential Election: Educators Speak Out
We asked a group of radical educators to weigh in on what they hoped would be part of any 2020 presidential candidate’s education platform.
“Who Made History? We Made History!”
Fred Glass reviews Eric Blanc’s Red State Revolt: The Teachers’ Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics
You Need Rank and File to Win: How Arizona Teachers Built a Movement
An elementary teacher who helped organize Arizona educators to strike explains how their movement formed and operated, and how it can inspire other teachers’ movements.
Transforming Teacher Unions in a Post-Janus World
Bob Peterson analyzes the Janus decision’s impact on teacher unions, talks with union leaders from across the country about how they are responding to it, and argues that the damage of the decision can be countered through the upsurge of progressive activism engendered by the victory of Donald Trump.
Elementary Student T-Shirt Workers Go on Strike
An elementary school teacher uses his students’ T-shirts to launch a lesson about child labor, basic economics, factories, unions, and strikes. “When I was a child, I remember ‘playing pretend’ with my cousins. We could be anyone we imagined, and in that moment, we were those people. Why not use that energy and imagination as a resource? When we use our imagination to walk in another’s shoes, that’s where real learning begins.”