'Yes, and … ': Continuing the Scholarly Conversation about Teacher Labor in PK-12 Education. Wicked Problems Forum: Teacher Labor in PK-12 Education

Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals

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Elementary Secondary Education; Preschool Education; Teaching (Occupation); Advocacy; Labor Demands; Public Education; Communication Research; Activism

10.1080/03634523.2020.1684690

0363-4523

After nearly 40 years of policy changes since "A Nation at Risk," often without or over the voices of teachers, it seemed that society was on the way to embracing the idea that teachers were interchangeable, over compensated, and largely unnecessary to the process of education. Supreme Court decisions, such as Janus vs. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), have dealt a terrible blow to teacher unions ability to advocate effectively for their students, communities, and profession. However, teachers have started to push back, and have enjoyed success through recent labor movement activism (e.g., Red for Ed) in states such as Illinois, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Colorado. Although teacher advocacy has not been successful everywhere from a policy standpoint, it has started to create a conversation about teacher labor different from the emphasis on skills, accountability, and testing that has been so harmful to teachers and students. For example, many teacher unions across the U.S. have begun subscribing to the tenets of "Bargaining for the Common Good," encouraging teachers to demand contractual language that addresses topics beyond wages and benefits, such as hiring full-time librarians, nurses, and mental health counselors; securing affordable housing for teachers; guaranteeing manageable class sizes, and addressing racism, classism, and ableism as community issues (rather than classroom problems) (see Bargaining for the Common Good, n.d.). Overall, teachers are on the forefront of labor politics in the U.S., reinvigorating conversations about the dignity of labor and its centrality in movements for justice. The essays in the forum identify ways communication and instruction scholars can expand their advocacy with PK-12 teachers. As noted in the forums, there remains a dearth of communication and instruction scholarship that addresses PK-12 teacher concerns or theorizes the specificity of communication pedagogy in PK-12 public education. Authors Kyle Rudick, and Deanna Dannels, wish to encourage scholars in their field to begin programs of research to address PK-12 public education. They draw upon Craig's (1999) seven traditions of the communication discipline to generate research questions that future scholars and teachers might pursue.

ERIC

2019

EJ1237277