Exploring the interplay between teacher solidarity and fragmentation in Arizona, this paper uses a critical bifocality lens to examine the experiences of six teacher organisers during the pandemic. This qualitative research centres teacher organisers' experience in an iterative analysis of policy and pandemic context, labour action, and teachers'…

The three articles that comprise this dissertation examine different ways that current teachers can express leadership outside of their classrooms, through labor activity and within-school instructional leadership. I use descriptive and quasi-experimental quantitative analysis to examine which teachers take on these roles, their effectiveness, the…

Purpose: In recent years, a new wave of teacher-led political action has erupted resulting in work stoppages in several states across the United States. This study examines how superintendents navigated this Red for Ed movement in two representative states. Methods: Framed as a multisite, embedded case study, we drew from public documents and…

In 2018, a wave of educator strikes called Red for Ed swept through several states. Educators in Arizona won additional funding from the state legislature, supposedly for teacher salaries, which school boards could spend as they chose. This article quantitatively examines the participation and results of the 2018 Arizona educator strike, using…

In 2018, thousands of teachers in West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Arizona walked off the job to protest low salaries and increase school funding. These strikes were significant because they were statewide and took place in "right to work" states. We analyze news media articles published in these states about the teachers' strikes for…

In response to a need for increased engagement given the #RedForEd movement, this article draws upon my experience as an organizer and participant in the recent wave of teacher activism to provide implications for theories of teacher agency and political transformation. First, I conceptualize the Arizona #RedForEd movement's unique position beyond…

In the last four years, teacher-activists in the United States have engaged in an unprecedented wave of protests and strikes. The developing body of literature seeking to understand this flurry of activity has taken various analytical approaches; for example, distilling movements into their key tactics in the hopes of lending important tools to…

The last few decades have seen increasing attacks on educators' right to participate in formal unions. Given the all-time low of formal union power in the United States and the success of anti-union efforts (Shelton, 2017), how and why have the educator uprisings manifested so intensely in the last few years? This article draws, in part, on a…

A recent survey of 41 different state boards of education revealed that officials from 28 states indicate that they are experiencing teacher shortages. The shortages in some states are significant. While the teacher shortage in many states is tied to different factors, one frequently cited reason for leaving the teaching profession is low pay.…