In May 2020, as the United States was reckoning with the COVID-19 pandemic, George Floyd was murdered by police. That summer, a majority of American adults acknowledged racism as a problem. Between six and 10 percent reported participating in protests against racialized police violence, which made Black Lives Matter (BLM) the largest social movement in U.S. history. Teachers — alongside their unions — confronted urgent calls to address racism and discrimination in communities, schools, and classrooms, just as they were concluding a chaotic, exhausting school year. While studies have examined teachers unions’ impact on achievement gaps and learning modality amidst COVID-19, little research has examined how they grappled with what was often described as the “other” pandemic: racism.
In a recent study, “Reckoning With the ‘Other’ Pandemic: How Teachers’ Unions Responded to Calls for Racial Justice Amidst COVID-19,” Emma Curchin, Sara Dahill-Brown and I investigate how and why teachers’ unions, as influential organizations responsible for bringing teachers’ collective voice into school decision-making, responded to calls for racial justice throughout 2020 and 2021. Between May 2020 and June 2021, we conducted four rounds of interviews with teachers' union leaders representing 45 school districts across 13 states. Through these interviews, we found that unions responded differently depending on their local politics, whether they were in cities, small towns or rural areas, and the policy environment within which those unions operate.
Three Ways Unions Advanced Racial Justice
In the year after George Floyd’s murder, most teachers’ union leaders in our sample engaged in purposeful racial justice work. Based on conversations with union leaders and literature on policy tools and types, we identified common actions and grouped them categorically by intent and effort: symbolic, capacity-building; and systemic change.
Among the state and local union leaders who described acting to advance racial justice, the most common strategies focused on enhancing teachers’ capacity to recognize and address racism in classroom settings. Nearly as frequent were symbolic expressions of support for the Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) community. Commonly, but less often, respondents described taking aim at systemic inequities within or beyond school systems.
Symbolic Action
Symbolic gestures express values, including solidarity, and urge people or other institutions to take action. They can be a low-commitment form of response, a way to answer calls for change without drawing on limited resources or necessitating action from members. However, symbolic expressions can be risky in politically divided communities, potentially exposing unions to public criticism and backlash.
During summer 2020, all seven state and 25 of 45 local (56%) union leaders responded to calls for racial justice with statements and/or posts on social media. They acknowledged racism in society and schools; expressed sorrow, outrage, and solidarity with protesters; urged members to march; and promised to do better. Nine local leaders (20%) also participated in protests, and five (11%) reported other symbolic expressions of solidarity. Of the 27 who took symbolic action, all but two went further; the majority invested additional time, effort, and resources trying to back up their statements
Capacity-Building for Racial Justice
Capacity building focuses on helping educators and community members develop the skills and knowledge needed to recognize and address racism in schools. While these efforts often require more time and resources than symbolic actions, they can create lasting change by empowering teachers and improving students' school experiences. For example, unions might offer workshops on implicit bias or partner with local organizations engaged in anti-racism work to learn from them. When oriented towards external connections with other community groups, this work can bolster future efforts.
All seven state and 28 of 45 local (62%) union leaders described a diverse set of activities with this aim. Union leaders often tried to help members respond to racial bias through education; 24 local unions (53%) implemented professional development or reading groups, though union members were not always required to participate.
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Some local and state union leaders saw professional development as a precursor to advocating for systemic changes. Eleven local leaders (24%) formed or activated social justice committees, and 12 (27%) described working to connect and learn with community partners through listening sessions, meetings, and volunteer service.
Work toward Systemic Change
Systemic work is explicitly designed to alter rules, incentives, opportunities, or structures of authority that create and sustain racialized, unequal outcomes. For union leaders in states with collective bargaining rights, this might mean setting equity-related bargaining priorities that translate into new practices and material commitments for the teacher’s union and their school district partners. For example, unions might bargain to remove contract provisions that inhibit entry into the profession for younger and more diverse teachers. For those who lack formal bargaining power, systemic work may mean partnering with district or state officials and communities to address resource inequalities and barriers to access, or lobbying for formal policy change at the statehouse. Policy priorities might include the elimination of school resource officers (SROs), changing tenure guidelines, or directing resources toward diversifying the teacher workforce. Unions must leverage existing capacity in service of systemic work, and, while such campaigns will include symbolic statements as part of specific efforts to reform institutions or policy, or as legal language within policy documents, they carry additional weight beyond the symbolic expressions described above.
Five of seven state and 23 of 45 local (51%) union leaders described taking actions to challenge or reform institutions and processes they viewed as maintaining racial inequity. The two state leaders who did not report taking systemic action were in states where multiple indicators suggest that the policy environment is most hostile towards collective bargaining. Twelve local leaders were working to revise curriculum and pedagogy; 10 were reviewing stances on school discipline and SROs; 10 were striving to recruit and support diverse educators; five were studying union leadership structures; three advocated to expand internet access; and three described direct spending to advance racial justice. Twelve were using negotiations or less formal conferencing to convince district partners to make these changes. Among local leaders, this array of systemic actions was described exclusively in urban and suburban districts, and 21 of the 23 leaders were embedded in Democratic communities.
Choosing Not to Act
Fifteen local union leaders, one third of our sample, told us they took no action to respond to a nationwide reckoning with racism following George Floyd’s murder offering various rationales for their passivity. Local leaders who chose not to act viewed responding to these calls as outside the scope of their work as union leaders; did not feel racial justice, particularly anti-Black racism, to be a major concern for their community; did not want to risk confronting divisions among members; felt they did not have adequate time or resources to take on such work during the pandemic; and believed politicized actions might trigger a loss of external legitimacy with community and other local leaders.
Local unions that did not respond tended to be in school districts serving a larger proportion of white students and a smaller proportion of Black students. Of 13 local unions in counties where partisan politics were narrowly divided or dominated by Republicans, and where unions might therefore be internally divided or concerned about external legitimacy, just four took steps to reckon with racial justice, compared to 27 of 33 in Democratic counties. Similarly, just two of ten unions in towns and rural areas, where communities tend to be less racially diverse, more politically conservative, and unions smaller and less resourced, reported any action, compared to 29 of 35 in cities and suburbs. Just five of 11 local unions in states where policy prohibits public-sector collective-bargaining took action, versus 26 of 34 in states where at least some bargaining is allowed.
Summary and Next Steps
Most teachers’ union leaders interviewed in the year after George Floyd’s murder viewed racial justice work as necessary and acted accordingly. Our analysis found two strong patterns in which unions responded to racial justice issues. First, unions in cities and suburbs were more likely to take action than those in rural areas and small towns. Notably, unions in urban areas also tend to have more available resources. Second, unions in Republican communities were far less likely to act compared to those in Democratic communities. These patterns suggest that teachers’ unions are impacted by larger societal divisions on whether and how to address racism. Notably, those unions who did act often cited similar limitations and challenges as the leaders who did not, but when faced with competing pressures and located in different communities, they were better positioned to overcome them.
When taking action, most commonly, teachers’ union leaders offered symbolic gestures of support and sought to develop internal and external capacities to recognize, understand, and respond to bias. Less frequent, although a majority of our respondents pursued such strategies, were efforts to tackle systemic injustices.
Researchers should continue to study how teachers’ union efforts to address racial injustice will evolve, and especially whether the initiatives launched after 2020 can be sustained and result in real change. This work is especially important now, as schools face intense – and often hyperpolitical – backlash over teaching about race. Future research should examine how teachers’ unions navigate these political and fiscal challenges, develop strategies to respond, and maintain their influence in educational and community politics. It’s crucial for the labor movement to understand how unions can build, maintain and exercise worker power in politically charged environments.
