Teacher Unions, (Neo)Liberalism and the State: The Perth County Conspiracy of 1885

Abstract

In 1885, following a period of severe economic depression and social unrest in colonial Canada, state teachers in rural Perth County, Ontario met and formed the nucleus of what could clearly be described as a teachers' union. The idea spread quickly, and within six months the founding convention of a province‐wide union was held in Toronto. Understandably, state officials were not pleased, and worked assiduously over the ensuing months to counter this movement. Building on the already‐pervasive official discourse of individualized “professional responsibility”, these officials began hinting about the possibility of teachers being “blessed” with a state‐sanctioned “College of Preceptors” – a strategy that had previously been employed in England for a similar purpose. This article attempts to describe these events (and their sad outcomes), within the context of a review of the origins of state schooling systems, recent theory related to governmentality and individual (self‐)regulation, and recent schooling “reforms” being undertaken concomitant with the (continuing) globalization of neo‐liberal regimes of governance.