Education Reform

AFT: Human Rights and Community Relations Records

dgolodner — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:04:52 -0400

The Human Rights and Community Relations Department of the American Federation of
Teachers was created by Vice President Richard Parrish October 2, 1966. Before the
official department was created it was a standing committee and then a permanent
committee with in the executive council. The department was created as an office in the
AFT that would be responsible for collecting and distributing information about the
government, education and community policies and programs dealing with civil and
human rights. The most important duty of the department is to guide the AFT in any
“involvement with or commitment to labor and other organizations concerned with civil
and human rights.”

Part One of the collection deals with the Racism in Education conference that the AFT sponsored throughout the late 1960s to the early 1970s. Other materials are general subject files and correspondence to and from the Civil Rights Department. Part Two of the collection pertains to black history, race relations and women’s rights on both national and local levels. The collection consists of AFT files as well as meeting and conference information. The department maintained a large section of subject files relating to civil and human rights in education.

Michigan Federation of Teachers Records

dgolodner — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 14:23:35 -0400

Parts 1 and 2 consist of correspondence, minutes, and reports. Subjects include Administrative Board meetings; American Federation of Teachers; conventions; Detroit Federation of Teachers; Executive Council meetings; Haven Hill conferences; legislative lobbying activities; membership campaigns; metropolitan teachers' institutes; Michigan AFL-CIO Council; Michigan Constitutional Convention (1961); teachers' salary and fringe benefits surveys; treasurer reports; White House Conference on Children and Youth (1960). Correspondents include Detroit city officials, Michigan congressmen and state officials, and national congressmen and officials including John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. Most of the letters are answers to invitations for speaking engagements.
Part III deals mostly with the efforts to organize teachers during the 1960s and 1970s and dealing with the strikes that accompany labor disputes which is represented in the series Locals. There is ample amount of information about the American Federation of Teachers growth and inner workings during the 1960s and 1970s in the convention files; within these files there are not only basic convention materials but also notes from committee work and flyers from various factions within the AFT. MFT was a part of policy in education finances, assessments of teachers and teacher centers and is reflected in files dealing with the department of education and the like. Part III covers a broad range of topics with specific details on education reform in the 1970s, collective bargaining issues for teachers, political structures in Michigan and various issues on civil rights in Michigan, particularly the bussing of students. Series five contains photographs and audio recordings.

American Federation of Teachers Publications

dgolodner — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 10:23:31 -0500

The American Federation of Teachers was founded in 1916 and immediately made the American Teacher, published by the New York City Teachers Union, as its official organ. Since then the AFT has published numerous publications that range from organizing tools to professional development materials for its members. It has also published materials dealing with the labor movement, tenure, civil and human rights as well as teaching tools. Official publications of the AFT also spoke directly to the AFT’s diverse membership, which includes higher education higher education faculty and staff, paraprofessionals, public employees and health care workers.

This is an artificial collection made up of these publications from AFT headquarters, AFT affiliates and individuals associated with the AFT drawn from the preexisting library collection and from various other shipments.

Charles Cheng Papers

dgolodner — Wed, 20 Dec 2017 11:36:18 -0500

Charles Cheng was an activist for education and the civil rights movement whose life was cut short when he died on May 25, 1979 when American Airlines flight 191 crashed after takeoff from O’Hare Airport. He was 42 years old.

He was born on February 23, 1937 raised on the east side of Detroit. After graduating from Eastern Michigan University, Cheng became a teacher in Pontiac, Michigan. He left teaching to become an organizer for the Michigan Federation of Teachers and soon became the assistant to the president of the Washington Teachers Union Local 6 in Washington DC.

Charles attended Antioch Graduate School of Education earning his masters degree in Education, then he attended Harvard Graduate School for Education to receive his Ed.D in 1975. While in Boston, Mr. Cheng was a research associate at the Center for Urban Studies at Harvard as well as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University Joint Center for Urban Studies. Mr. Cheng ended up at the University of California, Los Angeles as an assistant professor in the Department of Education where he became a leading authority on community participation in collective bargaining in public education.

Cheng wrote and spoke constantly about the idea that the community should be involved with the collective bargaining in public education. Cheng was very active as well with desegregation, starting in the 1960s when he attempted to desegregate the Pontiac, MI public schools, he was on a task force in Boston, consulted in Pasadena and was a citizen member for the Los Angeles Unified School District Desegregation Plan. Cheng’s interests also included racial justice, the teaching of the history of Asian-American and Native-Americans.

(31356) John Dewey and the Teachers Union Auxiliary

jhelpap — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 17:32:18 -0500

Speakers Table, Dinner meeting of the Teachers Union Auxiliary, the subject of the meeting was state and the schools. John Dewey is sitting one right of center.

[Podcast] Blaming Teachers: How America Simultaneously Professionalized and Patronized Education

teller — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 12:03:22 -0400

Dr. Diana D'Amico Pawlewicz explains how the push to professionalize and standardize educators beginning in the mid-1800s, without granting them decision-making power, has made them the public face of foundering school policies developed and implemented by local school administrators and state and national policymakers. read more »

AFT Convention 1994: State of the Union Speech

jruss — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:55:31 -0400