feb-march_advisor

RISING

8 CEA ADVISOR FEBRUARY–MARCH 2019

AT EARLY LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE, TEACHERS HONE LEADERSHIP, PROFESSIONAL SKILLS Cultural competency, organizing, role of teacher and union explored

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRI AN EFFECTIVE UNION? When teacher fellows brains characteristics of effectiv some of the descriptors the

More than 40 early-career educators from Bridgeport, Manchester, Stamford, and Waterbury gathered for a kickoff meeting of the Early Leadership Institute (ELI), a program of the National Education Association, CEA, and the Center for Great Public Schools. Teacher fellows were joined by CEA staff, including UniServ Representatives, as well as local association presidents—all there to work on developing stronger public schools and greater teacher leadership capacity within those schools. The kickoff meeting, which took place in Norwalk over two days in January, included an overview of ELI as well as workshops to unpack different models of unionism, cultural competencies necessary for effective teaching and leading, what types of union activities each local association are already engaged in, and where there may be gaps or areas for improvement. The point of the institute, says CEA UniServ Rep Martin Deren, is to help early-career teachers become effective advocates for their colleagues: to open up conversations with other early-career teachers about their challenges and needs, to present those concerns to their local association leaders, and to work with leadership to effect meaningful change. Teachers as leaders Deren, who helped facilitate the workshops, says, “Many of the activities over the ELI kickoff weekend were designed to help new teachers—mostly those with under six years’ experience— become more knowledgeable, confident, and empowered as teacher advocates.” “Our mission as an organization is to advocate for education professionals and unite our members in fulfilling the promise of public education. That promise includes preparing every student to succeed in a diverse, interdependent world,” said CEA President Jeff Leake, who described for fellows his own leadership journey within the teaching profession. “I first got involved as a way of changing the economics of teaching, because at one time, teachers’ salaries qualified them for food stamps. I became interested in economic justice for teachers and others, as well as the economics of public education and the communities we serve. As our local prepared to strike, I made my first foray into organizing.” The first teacher in his local association to attend an NEA Representative Assembly, Leake went on to assume leadership roles at the statewide level, including CEA treasurer and vice president, before being elected president in 2018. “As president, I want to develop the next generation of leaders.” “Every teacher leader started out as an early-career educator and took those first few steps,” says NEA Senior Policy Analyst Barbara Hicks, who, together with fellow NEA

• Advocate • Accessible • Educates • Has teachers’ best interests in mind • Helpful • Inclusive • Initiative • Integrity • Leadership • Listens •Many voices, one voice

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Bridgeport elementary school teacher Daniel Lauture reviews the steps between emerging and developing teacher leaders.

WHAT WOULD YOU ADD TO

Three frames of unionism One of the first lessons ELI participants learned was the three models of unionism: • Industrial unionism , which concerns itself with the bread- and-butter issues of wages, hours, benefits, discrimination, and contractual rights that are negotiated for teachers • Professional unionism , which seeks appropriate professional development so that teachers can be highly effective educators, advocates for their students, and leaders at their schools • Social justice unionism , where members work to eliminate inequities that poverty brings to the classroom, with the understanding that education is a human right for every student Working with members from their own local association, including coaches Michael Brosnan (Bridgeport), Catherine Mazzotta (Manchester), Ali Kirchberger (Waterbury), and Sandra Peterkin (Stamford), teacher fellows received a set of color-coded cards with actions representing each of the three models of unionism. Their task was to sort them according to whether or not their union participates in those activities and to give a better picture of the balance of industrial, professional, and social justice unionism within their own association. Early-career educators took a first

Representatives, coaches, and local presidents weighed in and cleared up any misconceptions. CEA UniServ Rep Eric Marshall, who facilitated the

activity for Bridgeport teachers, said his group had a thorough understanding of

ELI provides a way for first-year teachers like Amina Toor and 26-year veteran Cathy Mazzotta to learn from each other.

their local association’s activities and the balance among the three frames of unionism. “They are very active in their union, and they get it,” Marshall said. “All of the educators in this institute are highly engaged. They’re here because they believe in the strength of their union, and they want to continue building on it. This particular activity validated the perceptions that new and emerging leaders have of the Bridgeport Education Association.” How will you lead? Fourth-year Manchester High School math teacher Shawn McClory says he hopes to be the kind of teacher leader who represents everyone’s thoughts and concerns and who opens up paths of communication between early-career educators, veteran

Policy Analyst Richelle Patterson, led the ELI kickoff. “We are holding Early Leadership Institutes in other states and finding that teachers are already taking what they’ve learned back home and starting to put it into practice.” CEA Director of Policy, Research, and Government Relations Ray Rossomando told fellows, “Everyone in this room shares a passion and a story about why you became a teacher. You wanted to make a difference, and you are doing classrooms for hours on end, grading papers at night, and preparing lesson plans in between. How do you build leadership skills to do things such as make your school trauma-informed, create a more positive culture, ensure that your faculty includes more teachers of color, or move from standardized testing to more meaningful assessments of children’s critical thinking? “Being a leader doesn’t mean being an administrator; teacher leadership means building your capacity to lead and collaborate with your peers to tackle bigger issues than you can tackle on your own in your classroom. The work you will begin this weekend can help you to start down such a path, and we are here to help. Your professional association is a family of support that includes your local union, CEA, and NEA. We’re in this together.” just that. Yet, it’s challenging. Teachers remain isolated in

teachers, and central office administrators.

stab at sorting the cards themselves, using group discussion to guide

their choices; later, UniServ

Stamford teacher Bonita Maddox and her Bridgeport colleague Suchith Shantharaj talk about their cultural bags.