The Incorporation of Public School Teachers into the Industrial Order: British Columbia in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

Public school teachers are centrally implicated in current demands for educational reform. Claims that they must be held accountable for their contribution to declining educational standards and the lack of relevance in schools, however, are not new. Nor do teachers lack the means to respond. Over the past several decades, teachers and their organizations have become sophisticated in their engagement in the complex dynamics of collective bargaining, political lobbying, and the delivery of professional services. Yet, despite teachers' central roles in the crucial state endeavor of public education, relatively little sustained attention has been given to the analysis of teaching and teachers' work.