Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Teacher Unions in Public Education pp 83–99Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Model Citizen or Bad Influence? The Contested Nature of Teachers’ Public Activism

  • Chapter

Abstract

On February 11, 2011, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker unveiled his controversial Budget Repair Bill, which proposed legislation calling for budget cuts despite evidence that public sector unions were not to blame for state deficits (see Allegretto, Jacobs, and Lucia 2011; Delisle 2010). In a state with a long history of organized labor and moderate politics, many Wisconsinites were shocked to discover a provision within the bill that would severely restrict collective bargaining rights for public sector unions above and beyond demands for immediate concessions in benefits and pay. In response, hundreds of concerned citizens began sleeping in the rotunda as they waited to testify against the legislation, with thousands more participating in weekend rallies that garnered international attention; news reports estimated that such crowds had not been seen since protests against the Vietnam War (Simmons 2011).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Albesetti, James. 1993.“The feminization of teaching in the nineteenth century: A comparative perspective.” History of Education 22 (3): 253—63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allegretto, Sylvia, Ken Jacobs, and Laurel Lucia. 2011. The wrong target: Public sector unions and state budget deficit. Berkeley, CA: Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.

    Google Scholar 

  • Apple, Michael. 2011.“Democratic education in neoliberal and neoconservative times.” International Studies in Sociology of Education 21 (1): 21—31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buras, Kristen. 2010. Pedagogy, politics, and the privatized city: Stories of dispossession and defiance from New Orleans. New York: Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bushaw, William, and Shane Lopez. 2011.“Betting on teachers: The 43rd annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll of the public’s attitudes toward the public schools.” Kappan 93 (1): 253–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper, Michael, and Katharine Sleeye. 2011.“Wisconsin leads way as workers fight state cuts.” New York Times, February 19. Accessed July 1, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/us/politics/19states.html.

    Google Scholar 

  • Croco, Margaret Smith, Petra Munro, and Kathleen Weiler. 1999. Pedagogies of resistance: Women educator activists, 1880—1960. New York: Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeFour, Matthew. 2011a.“Madison schools closed Wednesday due to district-wide teacher sickout.” Wisconsin State Journal, February 16. Accessed July 1, 2011. http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/education/local_schools/article_e3cfe584-3953-11e0-9284-001cc4c03286.html.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeFour, Matthew. 2011b.“Two-thirds ofMadison teachers joined protests, district says.” Wisconsin State Journal, April 29. Accessed July 1, 2011. http://host.madison.com/ wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_86781fb4-7288-11e0-92c8-001cc4c 03286.html.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delisle, Elizabeth Cove. 2010. Economic and budget issue brief: Fiscal stress faced by local governments. Washington, DC: Congressional Budget Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Enoch, Jessica. 2008.“A woman’s place is in the school: Rhetorics of gendered space in nineteenth-century America.” College English 70 (3): 275–95.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fairclough, Norman. 1992a. Discourse and social change. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fairclough, Norman. 1992b.“Discourse and text: Linguistic and intertextual analysis within discourse analysis.” Discourse and Society 3 (2): 193–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fairclough, Norman. 1995. Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. London: Longman Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, Nancy. 1990.“Rethinking the public sphere: A contribution to the critique of actually existing democracy.” Social Text 25 (26): 56—80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giroux, Henry. 1985.“Teachers as transformative intellectuals.” Social Education 49 (5): 376–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, Gary, and Victor Benassi. 1994.“The relation between teacher self-disclosure and student classroom participation.” Teaching of Psychology 21 (4): 212—17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenhouse, Steven. 2014.“Wisconsin’s legacy for unions.” New York Times, February 22. Accessed March 22, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/business/ wisconsins-legacy-for-unions.html?_r=0.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, Jurgen. 1962. The structural transformation of the public sphere. Boston: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hauser, Gerard. 1999. Vernacular voices: The rhetoric of publics and public spheres. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hess, Diana. 2009. Controversy in the classroom: The democratic power of discussion. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hess, Diana, and Paula McAvoy. 2009.“To disclose or not to disclose? A controversial choice for teachers.” In Controversy in the classroom: The democratic power of discussion, 97—110. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hetzner, Amy. 2011. Protesting teachers force some schools to cancel class. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February 18. Accessed July 1, 2011. http://www.jsonline.com/ news/education/116452478.html.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, Lauri. 2002.“Making democracy real: Teacher union and community activism to promote diversity in the New York City public schools, 1935–1950.” Urban Education 37 (5): 566–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, Lauri. 2004.“A generation of women activists: African American female educators in Harlem, 1930–1950.” Journal of African American History 89 (3): 223–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Judge, Harry. 1995.“The images of teachers.” Oxford Review of Education 21 (3): 253–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, Kerry. 2011.“Teachers as active citizens—Can teacher education prepare them?” Teacher Education and Practice 24 (3): 348–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCluskey, Michael, and Jay Hmielowski. 2011.“Opinion expression during social conflict: Comparing online reader comments and letters to the editor.” Journalism 13 (3): 303–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McDevitt, Michael, Spiro Kiousis, and Karin Wahl-Jorgensen. 2003.“Spiral of moderation: Opinion expression in computer-mediated discussion.” International Journal of Public Opinion Research 15 (4): 454–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perez-Pena, Richard. 2010.“News sites rethink anonymous online comments.” New York Times, April 11. Accessed March 1, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/ 04/12/technology/12comments.html.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perillo, Jonna. 2012. Uncivil rights: Teachers, unions, and race in the battle for school equity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pritchard, David, and Dan Berkowitz. 1991.“How readers’ letters may influence editors and news emphasis: A content analysis of 10 newspapers, 1948–1978.” Journalism Quarterly 68 (3): 388–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reader, Bill. 2005.“An ethical ‘blind spot’: Problems of anonymous letters to the editor.” Journal of Mass Media Ethics 20 (1): 62–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reader, Bill, Guido Stempel III, and Douglass Daniel. 2004.“Age, wealth and education predict letters to the editor.” Newspaper Research Journal 25 (4): 55–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sachs, Judyth. 2000.“The activist professional.” Journal of Educational Change 1 (1): 77–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sachs, Judyth. 2003. The activist teaching profession. Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sen, Amartya. 2009. The idea of justice. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shah, Dhavan, Nojin Kwak, and Lance Holbert. 2001.“’Connecting’ and ‘disconnecting’ with civic life: Patterns of Internet use and the production of social capital.” Political Communication 18 (2): 141–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Siddle Walker, Vanessa. 2005.“Organized resistance and black educators’ quest for school equality, 1878–1938.” Teachers College Record 107 (3): 355–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sigelman, Lee, and Barbara Walkosz. 1992.“Letters to the editor as a public opinion thermometer: The Martin Luther King holiday vote in Arizona.” Social Science Quarterly 73 (4): 938–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simmons, Daniel. 2011. Anatomy of a protest: From a simple march to a national fight. Wisconsin State Journal special report, February 27. Accessed July 1, 2011. http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_3c7f9cd2-4274-11e0-8f25-001cc4c002e0.html.

    Google Scholar 

  • Street, Susan. 1996.“Democratization ‘from below’ and popular culture: Teachers from Chiapas, Mexico.” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 15: 261—78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Teo, Peter. 2000.“Racism in the news: A critical discourse analysis of news reporting in two Australian newspapers.” Discourse and Society 11 (1): 7—49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wahl-Jorgensen, Karin. 2001.“Letters to the editor as a forum for public deliberation: Modes of publicity and democratic debate.” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 18 (3): 303—20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wahl-Jorgensen, Karin. 2007. Journalists and the public: Newsroom culture, letters to the editor, and democracy. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • York, Bryon. 2011.“WI school district: ‘Sick’ teachers docked pay, other discipline.” Washington Examiner, February 18. Accessed July 1, 2011. http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/02/wi-school-district-sick-teachers-face-docked-pay-other-discipline.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, Shaoan, Qingmin Shi, Stephen Tonelson, and Jack Robinson. 2009.“Preservice and inservice teachers’ perceptions of appropriateness of teacher self-disclosure.” Teaching and Teacher Education 25 (8): 1117—24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Katy Swalwell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Nina Bascia

Copyright information

© 2015 Nina Bascia

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Swalwell, K. (2015). Model Citizen or Bad Influence? The Contested Nature of Teachers’ Public Activism. In: Bascia, N. (eds) Teacher Unions in Public Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137426567_6

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation