State and market in the corporatist rhetorics of a profession

Mariano Fernández-EnguitaUniversidad Complutense de Madrid

www.enguita.info

Global Shifts: Implications for Business, Government and LabourMassachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

SASE's 24th annual meeting June 28-30, 2012

THE EVOLUTION OF TEACHERS PROFESSIONAL CULTURE

• Interviews and focused groups• Documents from unions and associations• General press 1976-2010• Professional press• A new lieterary genre• SNS news• Teachers Barometer (survey)

SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND TEACHERS WORK

TWEETS: PUBLIC!

Most repeated (retweeted) of 1563 tweets10-13/1/2012Selected accounts

• Crisis pública, beneficio privado• Degradan lo publico y subvencionan lo privado• Retirada deducciones fiscales por escuela privada• La patronal pide más financiación• Elinar desgravaciones a quien opte por privada• Mi salud no está en venta

TWEETS: PUBLIC!

Most repeated (retweeted) of 1563 tweets10-13/1/2012Selection of accounts

• Public crisis, private benefit• They break down public and fund private• Withdraw tax cuts for private school!• Charter schools ask for more funding• Eliminate tax cuts for those who choose private!• My health is not for sale

But, when it comes to buy…

Health supply choice, by public school teachers:

• 88% of primary teachers choose entidades colaboradoras (partner entities), i.e. Private partnerships with corporations or medical associations which supply private health with public funds

(the healthcare equivalent to charters)

• 76% of secundary teachers do as well

i.e., they sell public and buy private, like to produce in the state but to consume in the market

CONTROL AND EXCHANGE STRATEGIES

Teachers as workers, schools as firmsMain conflicts in past ten years

• Anticipated retirement: 5 years earlier, full salary (plus bonus), conditio sine qua non for a social covenant on education

• Condensed school day: 5 hours in primary education, 6.30-7 hours in secondary ed.

• Cuts in school calendar, from 210 to 176 school days in 30 years

• More resources always needed

Teachers as professionals, schools as institutions

• Teachers assessment, direct or indirect, by results or by processes, rejected

• Dignification as an euphemism for higher salaries, shorter hours, etc.

• School accountability rejected• Management distrusted and severely curtailed• Incongruence of status (If I am so smart, why

am I not rich?)

THE ONLY 2 JOINT UNION MANIFESTOS

• A manifesto for teachers authority, oct/2009– http://www.levantatuvoz.es/ – ANPE, CC OO, CSI-CSIF, UGT, STEs y USO– Profession/al/s: 7– Work/er/s: 0

• A manifesto against budgets cuts, jun/2010– http://bit.ly/LSbd11– ANPE, CC OO, CSI-CSIF, UGT, STEs – Profession/al/s: 1– Work/er/s: 2

A question of identities• Historical union denominations

– Workers Committees in Teaching (CCOO)– Spanish Federation of Teaching Workers (FETE-UGT)– Teaching Workers Union (STE)– National Association of State Teachers (ANPE), now …Teaching

Professionals– Independent Confederal Union of Public Officials (CSIF)– Joint Workers Union (USO)

• Journal titles, historical:– Teaching Workers (CCOO)– Teaching Workers (UGT)– Others, newer: Chalk, ANPE, Professional debate…

Self-defined identityBarómetro del profesorado 2010

http://casus.usal.es/baroprof

LIBERAL OR BUREAUCRATIC?

• A. Abbott distinguished between liberal (market) and bureacratic (organization, state) professions

• Teachers take as a model or an envied contrast the medical profession on relation to the public, day schedules, diagnostic acceptance, collective status…

• So, the teaching profession is born is born bureacrtic but dreams being as liberal

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PROFESSION

USURPATION: solidarity, mobilization

EXCLUSION:differentiation, legalism

EMPLOYER, SOCIETY

PUBLIC, CLIENT

DOUBLE CLOSURE

• Usurpation closure (upwards conflict)– Mobilization tactics– Parents and pupils support– Similarity emphasized: workers

• Exclusion closure (downwards conflict)– Legalistic tactics– State and bureaucracy support– Difference emphasized: professionals

State and market in the corporatist rhetorics of a profession

Mariano Fernández-EnguitaUniversidad Complutense de Madrid

www.enguita.info

Global Shifts: Implications for Business, Government and LabourMassachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

SASE's 24th annual meeting June 28-30, 2012