“How can we get out of a polarized logic where we see unions as obstacles or as heroes in the defense of public education? José Weinstein and Werner Zettelmeier try to escape this curse in a new issue of the International Review of Education of Sèvres (n°91). If they do not quite succeed, they offer us a very interesting overview of teacher unionism in a world where attempts to liberalize education are at work.
Corporatists versus nice reformers?
The number works on 4 axes. First on the role of trade unions. For the authors there would be two major types of unions. Traditional organizations that defend the interests of teachers from a corporatist perspective. They are obstacles to reform. And on the other, professional associations that are much more receptive to the needs of society and to reforms. It is through this prism that the other axes are read. The position of trade unions in the face of educational reforms is studied in the 9 countries selected: Austria, Sweden, France, Peru, Mexico, United States, Senegal, Ontario, India. Another axis is the participation of trade unions in the management of the education system. The foil is not forgotten in the articles. It is Mexican trade unionism, accused, rightly, of having “colonized” the State to the point of managing teachers’ careers alone, with all the blunders one can imagine. Finally, the review studies the participation of teacher trade unionism in national political life.
The countries selected offer a very broad view of trade unions. We see how their fragmentation in Senegal leads to their impotence. We also see how covid is used, in Ontario for example, to curb unions. The review shows how, in the United States, grassroots movements seize trade union organizations that are not very responsive or create new ones. Same situation in Peru where unions collaborating with the power are overtaken by new organizations. In Austria trade unionism seems marked by political opposition between Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. In Sweden, trade unionism failed to prevent extreme liberalization of the education system. He is now trying to rebuild himself.
Unions in the face of the liberal wave
It is from this crumbling that it is necessary to build explanatory keys for the French reader. The opposition between the good unions accepting the reforms and the evil corporatists is a very overhanging point of view. It is obviously those of the administrators who congratulate themselves on the eradication of obstacles or denounce the incomprehension of the anti-reforms.
In all the developed countries, teacher trade unionism has to face a liberal wave which would have deserved an article in the issue on its own. Disguising “evidence” as scientific data and using it politically as tools of student and societal interest, governments have imposed reforms. This wave of new public management aims to lower public spending and for this degrade the working conditions and remuneration of teachers and the quality of public education. The wave arrived late in France. Over the past ten years, it has succeeded in causing education expenditure to lose one point of GDP, which is not nothing (twenty billion). To do this, it reduced the number of teachers and above all managed the students to generate savings. This is the direction of the reforms of recent years. The very day this issue of the Revue de Sèvres appeared, a new report from the Court of Auditors French illustrates this movement. The high school reform is also a good example with the splitting of the class into specialties. It is thus certain to “rationalize” the management of the pupils in such a way that they are always very numerous. The next step is emerging with the annualisation of working time, which is the major challenge of the “new pact”. In this sense, systematically fighting against reforms simply amounts to defending the general interest. There is no opposition between the interests of teachers and those of the majority of the population (on the other hand this goes against the interests of large taxpayers). Trade unions can, on the other hand, have different strategies of opposition to reforms involving different terms of negotiation and particularistic strategies.
The covid pandemic may have helped this movement. The Review shows this very well in Ontario. In other countries, covid has been able to fuel opposition trade unionism, as we have seen in the United States. In France, the covid, in its first weeks, showed teachers above all that they were able to make the education system work alone when the many captains had abandoned ship.
The teaching power
As a result, another reading of professional associations is emerging. We are not referring here to the associations of teachers in France, which take part in the same movement as the trade unions in France. In recent years, a movement has been developing which aims to replace the unions with professional orders, such as the order of doctors or nurses. That is to say structures directing training and careers, with disciplinary power. This movement affected Canada where, depending on the province, it succeeded or failed (as in Quebec). It arrives in Europe with attempts in the Baltic countries. It has been totally successful in Asian countries where we are witnessing a regularization of teachers.
This leads to another reflection which will perhaps be at the heart of a future issue of the Revue de Sèvres: that relating to the profession. A peculiarity of the teaching profession is that its definition escapes it. It is the political power, the specialists outside the profession who define training and practices. Admittedly, the modeling of the teacher largely results from exchanges between training and the field, and the latter seems to prevail. But we have the example of a particularly important and powerful profession which has not taken the reins.
It is perhaps the last dimension that is implicitly protected by this issue of the Review. In all countries, there are many teachers. Their decisions, their ideas have a major impact on the daily life of the population. They have an enormous capacity to influence their fellow citizens. And yet, everywhere, they do not benefit from it. This is a building site for teacher unions around the world.
Francois Jarraud
Teachers’ unions in the 21st century, Revue internationale d’éducation de Sèvres, n°91.