Margaret Haley: Progressive Education and the Teacher

Abstract

This chapter is a study of the way in which Margaret Haley, the early-twentieth-century teacher union leader, saw herself as a progressive educator. My task is complicated by the fact that Haley never described herself as a “progressive educator” and that she often worked against what some historians have identified as progressive educational practices. Nor did she work in or with the wide community of educators who are commonly referred to as progressives. Indeed, as a teacher union leader concerned primarily with administrative change and teachers’ working conditions, Haley was not always in a position to promote child-centered classroom practices, alternative classroom structures, or other curricular innovations. In her 30-year career with the Chicago Teachers’ Federation, Haley was more apt to describe herself as a political activist than as a progressive educator. Yet, in fact, she saw herself as both. We too, can see her as both, but only if we understand the complexities of her role as a teacher union leader and her own identity as an Irish Catholic woman in early-twentieth century Chicago.KeywordsAcademic FreedomProgressive EducationChicago SchoolSchool OrganizationPublic School TeacherThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.