Unionization, public school reform, and teacher professionalism
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Unionization, public school reform, and teacher professionalism Albert Cheng1 · Robert Maranto1 · M. Danish Shakeel2
© Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Effective schooling requires teachers to have professional discretion; yet in the twentieth century, bureaucratization enhanced administrative control of teaching. Teacher unionization offered one response to bureaucratization, intended in part to protect teacher professional discretion. More recently, the charter school movement offered a second means to protect teacher professionalism, though some scholars argue that charters fail to empower teachers since few charter teachers have union representation. We describe the conceptual links between unionization, charter schooling, and teacher professionalism. We then use the nationally-representative 2011–2012 School and Staffing Survey data to empirically examine the extent to which unionization and charter schooling influences teacher professionalism, measured as teachers’ perceptions of control over school policies and aspects of teaching and learning. OLS regressions indicate that unionized teachers report lower levels of control, while charter teachers report somewhat greater levels of control over school policies and curricula than other public school teachers. Keywords Unionization · Teacher professionalism · Charter schools
* Albert Cheng [email protected] Robert Maranto [email protected] M. Danish Shakeel [email protected] 1
Department of Education Reform, College of Education and Health Professions, University of Arkansas, 201 Graduate Education Building, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA
2
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Taubman 361, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
Journal of Educational Change
Introduction Since the early twentieth century, educators have organized unions. In addition to representing the material interests of teachers, teachers unions promote three facets of teacher professionalism: a body of knowledge to inform practice, a responsibility among practitioners to uphold standards of practice, and a prime directive to serve students (Darling-Hammond 1990). Through these unions, educators seek to control the standards and quality of the teaching workforce and to maintain occupational professionalism in educational practice (Bascia 1997; Tyack 1974; Urban 1982). Teachers unions, for example, have long implemented strategies for professional development to equip teachers with the skills demanded by modern pedagogy, often by experimenting with pilot projects (Bascia 1997). Such professional development opportunities are intended to enable teachers to become systematic thinkers and selfreflective practitioners (Kerchner and Koppich 1993; Schön 2017). Union leaders also facilitate certification, and generally encourage professional learning to uphold standards of teaching practice. For instance, they support National Board for Professional Teaching Standards to assist teachers in process of certification and learnin
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