Teachers as Policy Advocates: Strategies for Collaboration and Change

by May Hara, Annalee G. Good

Overview

This book argues that teachers’ active participation in policy advocacy is crucial to creating a K–12 educational system that honors the needs of students, families, and communities. The authors examine obstacles to teacher involvement in policy, analyze preservice and practicing teachers’ experiences, and present a model for collaborative professional development for teacher policy advocacy. Case studies are used to explore four contemporary policy areas—school safety, student assessment, public health, and digital learning—to identify what teachers know about policy, how they view their relationships to advocacy, and the impact of collaborative professional development on their beliefs and practices. This text offers pragmatic strategies for increasing teacher policy capacity and advocacy agency while simultaneously calling for systemic change at school, district, state, and national levels of policymaking. Teachers, teacher educators, researchers, and administrators can use this resource for reflection, discussion, and action with the goal of creating more effective and responsive educational policy.

Book Features:

• Offers recommendations for how to engage and empower teachers based on original research conducted with student teachers and practicing teachers in two states.
• Explores how policy affects teachers and students in areas such as school safety, standardized assessments, the COVID crisis, and using digital tools in schools.
• Helps school administrators identify supports and challenges for incoming teachers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807781524
Publisher:	Teachers College Press
Publication date:	04/28/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

May Hara is an associate professor at Framingham State University and has taught middle school English and English as a second language in the New York City public school system. Annalee G. Good is an evaluator and researcher at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at University of Wisconsin–Madison and has taught middle school social studies.

Table of Contents

Contents

Acknowledgments  xi

Introduction: Teachers as Policy Advocates  1
Objectives  3
Conceptual Background  6
National and State Policy Contexts  9
Methods  13
How to Use This Book  15

1.  School Safety and Discipline Policies  19
Teachers Frame the Policy Contexts  21
Teacher Sensemaking Around Safety and Discipline Policies  27
Barriers to Advocacy: The Preservice Teacher Perspective  34
High-Leverage Strategy: EdCamps as Teacher-Led Professional Development  36
Conclusion  38
Discussion Questions  39

2.  Assessment Policy  41
Standardized Assessments and Education Policy  43
Teachers and Assessment Policy Before COVID-19  44
Teachers and Assessment Policy During COVID-19  52
High-Leverage Strategy: Collaborative Mentorship  58
Conclusion  62
Discussion Questions  63

3.  Public Health and COVID-19 Policy  65
Impact of Policies on Teachers  67
Student Well-Being  72
COVID-19 as Catalyst  74
Advocacy Beyond the School Building  77
High-Leverage Strategy: Coalition Building  79
Conclusion  85
Discussion Questions  87

4.  Digital Learning Policy  89
Teachers and Digital Learning Policy Before COVID-19  91
Digital Learning Policy During COVID-19  93
High-Leverage Strategy: Mapping Concepts and Power Networks  102
Conclusion  107
Discussion Questions  108

5.  A Collaborative Model for Teacher Policy Advocacy  111
A Note on Systemic and Individual Action for Change  113
A Proposed Model for Collaborative Professional Learning and Advocacy  114
Loci of Influence and Strategies for Action  115
Collective Action for Change  125

References  127

Index  135

About the Authors  141

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Teachers are often viewed as passive recipients of education policies, simply transmitting orders handed down from the district or the state. Teachers as Policy Advocates helps us understand that this view is wrong. Through concrete examples and effective practices, authors Hara and Good illustrate how teachers are powerful in enacting policies at the school and classroom levels. Perhaps more importantly, Teachers as Policy Advocates reminds us that teachers can shape educational policies in schools, districts, and states through labor actions and collective organizing.”
—Wayne Au, professor, University of Washington Bothell, and editor, Rethinking Schools

“As a teacher educator and education justice advocate, engaging preservice and inservice teachers as policy advocates has been a priority in my coursework and professional development. Teachers as Policy Advocates: Strategies for Collaboration and Change provides a valuable source of case studies to highlight the process of how teachers make sense of and respond to policy. May Hara and Annalee Good offer teacher educators a unique opportunity to center educational policy advocacy as a focus in preservice teacher education.”
—Denisha Jones, executive director, Defending the Early Years and guest faculty, Sarah Lawrence College

“Every teacher and teacher educator frustrated with educational policies needs to read this book. Drawing on work with over 100 teachers, Hara and Good highlight stories of teachers engaged in policy inquiry and advocacy and offer four strategies for deepening teachers' engagement in policy design and evaluation. Their proposed model for collaborative professional learning and advocacy is an important tool for shaping preservice teacher education and inservice teacher professional development that centers teacher autonomy, agency, and action. In the face of many obstacles to policy advocacy for teachers, Hara and Good offer hope and actionable steps for realizing more equitable and joyful learning environments for teachers and students.”
—Nadia Behizadeh, associate professor, Georgia State University

“For far too long, teachers have been blamed for the ills associated with schools, charged with the responsibility for solving policy problems in their classrooms, or ignored completely in policy debate. Teachers as Policy Advocates provides a much-needed alternative view of teachers and policy. Clear-eyed about the need for structural and institutional change, and for teachers’ knowledge and voice within that, Hara and Good emphasize the power of collaborative teacher policy advocacy for more equitable schools. The authors provide a critical policy analysis framing, illuminate how teachers view an array of timely policy issues, and offer research and practice based strategies for how teachers can engage collectively in policy advocacy and build the capacity to do so. The challenges may be substantial, but with practical strategies, a focus on equity, and a relentless belief in teachers’ collective advocacy, this book provides a refreshing new perspective on teachers and policy, one that is necessary for achieving more equitable and democratic schools.”
—Erica O. Turner, associate professor, University of Wisconsin–Madison