With winds of change blowing in the trade union world, a new handbook on union strategies and renewal can help education unions strengthen their positions in times of major political challenges in Latin America.
Howard Stevenson and Nina Bascia’s latest publication with Education International (EI) “Organising teaching: Developing the power of the profession” is now available in Spanish. The study looks into the challenges faced by teachers and their organisations in today’s world through seven case studies from seven different countries around the globe.
It analyses issues like the pressure to drive test scores up, the forces of global economic competition leading a race to the bottom on teachers’ working conditions, teachers experiencing ever rising workloads, and the constant undermining of teachers’ professional judgement. Stevenson and Bascia come to the conclusion that it is increasingly politicians who want to tell teachers what to teach, how to teach it and how to measure what is taught.
In the face of these circumstances, teacher unions around the world are defining new strategies that will empower their members and make the voice of the teaching profession heard in the quest for quality education for all.
The case of Argentina
The trade union for higher education CONADU, member of EI in Argentina, will incorporate and disseminate the study in a series of trainings for its members. The first of them is taking place on August 23 at the University of La Rioja, an important landmark of trade union renewal in the country because of SIDIUNLAR, member of CONADU, who took up the challenge of strengthening and developing its structure after a crisis that led, a few years ago, to the complete renewal of the leadership in both the university and the union..
Carlos De Feo (General Secretary of CONADU) will discuss the main findings of the report alongside Yamile Socolovski (International Secretary of CONADU and director of the union’s research institute), in a round table with the title “Challenges faced by trade unions in higher education”. They will point out the importance of research that connects the different levels within the union, from the base to leadership, and of unions nationally and internationally, in their strategic and organising efforts.
“We believe that for our members it is important to realise that there is a common practice that includes challenges in diverse, complex and changing contexts, all over the world. This international perspective will strengthen our own identity and strategies,”, Socolovsky commented on the publication of the Spanish version of the study.
The training programme will also be taken to other provinces in the country, such as San Juan, San Luis, Florencio Varela, Avellaneda and Quilmes.
You can download the Spanish version of “Organising teaching: Developing the power of the profession” by clicking here.
On September 14 there will be an online seminar on the subject of education union renewal with Dr. Howard Stevenson. You can join the webinar here.