Fate of the Teacher’s Union

in Education by Candice Shakur — June 2, 2011 at 9:00 am | 5 comments

Are Online Schools Killing the Teacher’s Union?

Terry Moe thinks so.

Terry Moe, political science professor at Stanford University, has a new book out called Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America’s Public Schools. From what I’ve heard, Moe uses the book to present a fairly detailed account of the history of America’s unions of teachers and their role in shaping education reform. With all the talk nowadays about unions, the book might be worth a read just to hear Moe’s thoughts on this topic. (If you’re not familiar with Moe, you should check out some of his other publications. Or just take my word for it that he’s an important player in the education policy field and is said to have really influenced the path America’s education reform movement has taken over the past several years.)

The book sounds even more interesting, though, once you hear Moe’s argument: the true nemesis of the teacher’s union is virtual education.

Can virtual relationships be strong?

Connections Academy is one of the country’s largest online education programs. Students take classes from home and interact with a teacher by web cam and email. With over 40,000 students enrolled, more and more parents and students are ditching chalkboards for computer screens. Even in the regular public school setting, districts are finding creative ways to use online learning to bring learning home, even when the weather outside is frightful.

Moe argues that teacher’s unions can’t thrive in the world of increasingly popular virtual classrooms. And what he says makes sense. I mean, some unions are already struggling with low membership numbers. And those unions are based in one community with their members bonded through shared experiences and a common location. Imagine if they lived in different cities or even different states. It’d be an even greater challenge for people to really fight to be united if they weren’t physically connected.

See, there’s this theory that physical connections are strong, while virtual connections are weak . Which means that even when you think you know people online – and have maybe even gone so far as to create a virtual community – your connection to each other is still pretty fragile. Someone can disable their account, be deleted from the network, and be forgotten the next day. In contrast, your connections with the people you see at work or at church every weekend have the ability to be really strong. Of course, they might not actually be strong, but the potential is there because you see each other.

The death of teacher’s unions?

If the theory is right, then Moe’s book is right on target. We just might see the death of the teacher’s union happen any day now because the more teachers connect with each other virtually, the less able they will be to form strong connections. And what’s a union if not a network of strong connections?

Whether the death of the teacher’s unions is a good or bad thing is a conversation for another day, but I’m sure Moe has plenty to say about it.

In the meantime, what do you think? Does virtual education mark the downfall of the teacher’s unions?

Tags: relationships teachers union terry moe