I'm working on a post analyzing and critiquing professional divisions/hierarchies in educational workplaces. This is an invitation to collaborate!
From my perspective, I see no reason why there should be so many divisions between job categories in schools, libraries, museums, and so on. For example, assistant teachers really shouldn't be making any less than lead teachers. Same thing for dedicated aides, cafeteria staff, and everyone else who works with us. We're all essential for educating future generations and the general public, whatever our specific job roles might be.
Teacher's unions frequently reinforce these same divisions, which just empowers management. Rank-and-file teachers are changing this rapidly, but the problem remains. These are two questions I am posing:
How can we work collectively to increase equity and inclusion between all of our coworkers? What role can our unions play?
Are there any justifications for differences in pay or access to benefits between education workers? What are they?
If you work in education, please reply to this thread with your thoughts!
I work with immigrant students, many of whom arrived in the US during high school and are still learning English. I have found that because of the adjustment to a new culture/language/education system, a lot of my students take much longer to complete (or even start) college than their US-born peers. A sort of progression into education work actually works well for a lot of them so they can study while working in the field they're interested in. I think more industries should have hierarchies in that sense, somewhat like an apprenticeship that allows more opportunity for early career people to get in, even if they don't have a degree. However, I know that in both teaching and medicine many employers have been treating the shortage of workers by just reducing the qualifications needed and the pay and then realizing they can overwork doctors/teachers while hiring a lot of new people at lower wages. This is not the direction it should go.
I believe what I described would be great for many US-born people as well, who struggle to get into a field or get their first job opportunity. Broadly, I agree with your sentiment. I am very anti-hierarchy and I think that school administration should not be a place for people with MBAs who have never worked in education and skip to the top of the hierarchy because they were able to pay for a masters degree. And honestly even people with masters of education should still have to teach for several years before becoming administrators. I also think you could flatten the hierarchy in general between admin and teachers since I feel that hierarchy often leads to whatever the law is where you get promoted for doing a good job until you finally stop in a position you're bad at. Good teachers should not see their goal as moving up and out of teaching because that's the career path. They should do it if they are interested and believe they could make a positive change.
Final note: of course we should avoid entrenching educators or anyone simply because they have a longer career. There should be some measure of ability, not just of duration of work.
I work with immigrant students, many of whom arrived in the US during high school and are still learning English. I have found that because of the adjustment to a new culture/language/education system, a lot of my students take much longer to complete (or even start) college than their US-born peers. A sort of progression into education work actually works well for a lot of them so they can study while working in the field they're interested in. I think more industries should have hierarchies in that sense, somewhat like an apprenticeship that allows more opportunity for early career people to get in, even if they don't have a degree. However, I know that in both teaching and medicine many employers have been treating the shortage of workers by just reducing the qualifications needed and the pay and then realizing they can overwork doctors/teachers while hiring a lot of new people at lower wages. This is not the direction it should go.
I believe what I described would be great for many US-born people as well, who struggle to get into a field or get their first job opportunity. Broadly, I agree with your sentiment. I am very anti-hierarchy and I think that school administration should not be a place for people with MBAs who have never worked in education and skip to the top of the hierarchy because they were able to pay for a masters degree. And honestly even people with masters of education should still have to teach for several years before becoming administrators. I also think you could flatten the hierarchy in general between admin and teachers since I feel that hierarchy often leads to whatever the law is where you get promoted for doing a good job until you finally stop in a position you're bad at. Good teachers should not see their goal as moving up and out of teaching because that's the career path. They should do it if they are interested and believe they could make a positive change.
Final note: of course we should avoid entrenching educators or anyone simply because they have a longer career. There should be some measure of ability, not just of duration of work.
Your thoughts are insightful as always! Thank you so much for taking the time to share with me.