The
The final decades of the 20th century saw an
upsurge in democracy—from the fall of communism in the former Soviet bloc to the end
of apartheid in South Africa to authoritarian governments ousted by elections in nations
as diverse as Chile, Spain, and Taiwan. As we begin the 21st century, democracy is
threatened in new ways. Terrorism and extremism have gained a foothold around the globe.
Societies are fracturing along the lines of ethnicity, race, and religion. Civic
participation is in decline. And, while market economies were booming, the
"globalization gap" was widening, creating growing tensions between rich and
poor and feeding frustration, anger, crime, and corruption. The Albert Shanker Institute
promotes discussions and sponsors research on the new challenges facing the world’s
democracies, with an emphasis on the role of freedom of association, unions and other
civic institutions, and universal education in a democratic society. The following are
among these efforts:
Institute
Conversation Takes on Civic Education
A remarkable group of researchers,
policymakers, journalists and other leaders gathered in Washington,
D.C., on May 3 for a thoughtful, in-depth discussion of civic education
in the United States sponsored by the Albert Shanker Institute.
The conversation, led by AFT and Shanker Institute president Randi
Weingarten, touched on a wide range of issues pertaining to civic
education, including what it means for democracy and political
participation, how to expand coverage of the topic in U.S. schools'
curricula, and the arguments for doing so.
&See a description of
the event
&Read the full list of participants
Democracy Web:
Comparative Studies in Freedom
The
Albert Shanker Institute and Freedom House teamed up to create Democracy
Web, an online resource for teachers of government, civics, history,
geography, and social studies. The site consists of an interactive map
of the world and a study guide, offering an overview of the basic
architecture of democracy, historical background information, and a
framework for comparing the state of political rights and civil
liberties in different countries around the world.
Middle
East Leadership Study Trip
The Albert Shanker
Institute, in partnership with the AFT International Affairs Department,
organized an eight-person union leadership study trip to the Middle East
in May 2007. The trip included an intensive schedule of meetings with
teachers and other unionists from Israel, the Palestinian Authority,
Jordan, Iraq, and Yemen, as well as with country and regional
representatives of the AFL-CIO’s
Solidarity Center, the Democratic Party’s National Democratic Institute,
and U.S. Embassies. The group investigated the current situation in the
region and the role of education unions and unions generally in
promoting democracy and peace. The study group had a particular interest
in the volatile situation in Israel and the West Bank, meeting with the
Israel Teachers Union and teachers unions in the West Bank (representing
both Muslim and Christian teachers). The group returned from the region
in agreement about the vital importance of the AFT’s international work,
especially in the Middle East, and, among other things, recommending
that the AFT amplify its role in facilitating communication among
conflicting parties. The group is also recommending continued support
for the international affairs work of the union and a greater
concentration on international issues in leadership meetings of the AFT.
In addition to AFT Vice President and Shanker Institute Board Member Ted
Kirsch, who led the study group, participants included Paul Babich
(United Teachers of Wichita), Ken Brynien (York State Public Employees
Federation), Louis Malfaro (Education Austin), Cathleen McCann (AFT
Great Lakes Region), and Mary Cathryn Ricker (St. Paul Federation of
Teachers).
The Challenge for Democracy in the
Middle East:
The Art of the Possible
was the focus of a forum on Feb. 6 & 7 which stressed support for
democracy and independent, democratic trade unions and challenged
participants to help conceive innovative, practical program approaches
for the Middle East region. (Full Agenda, List of Participants.)
Democracy & Worker Rights: Labor’s
Approach to China
On April 6-7, 2006, the
Albert Shanker Institute sponsored a lively discussion among
representatives from nine AFL-CIO and Change to Win unions on the
U.S. labor movement’s differing approaches to the increasing
economic dominance of and ongoing worker rights repression in
mainland China. After opening remarks by AFT and Shanker Institute
President Ed McElroy, participants heard from two prominent China
experts, Andrew Nathan (Columbia University) and James Mann (School
for Advanced International Studies). The day-long meeting also
included presentations by Han Dongfang, a Chinese labor and
democracy activist arrested during the Tiananmen Square protests and
founder of the
China
Labour Bulletin, and Lee Cheuk Yan, General Secretary of the
Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU). Shanker
Institute Board member Herb Magidson also led a discussion about the
nature of U.S. labor’s response to ongoing abuse of worker rights in
China.
Unionism and Democracy: the Experience, the
Legacy, the Future
The AFT must continue to fulfill its
historic role in supporting union democracy throughout the world and
work to ensure that we all fully appreciate the depth of the union's
commitment in this area, AFT president Edward J. McElroy told AFT
leaders at an April 2005 seminar, "Unionism and Democracy: the Experience,
the Legacy, the Future." The program outlined how a commitment to
democratic values has shaped the American labor movement, and how
that legacy must shape our response to globalization and a significantly
undemocratic world, a declining understanding of the role of unions in
building democracy, and the inadequacy of civic and history education in
the United States. The three-day event, sponsored by the Albert
Shanker Institute in cooperation with the AFT international affairs
department, included AFT national officers, members of the AFT democracy
committee, veteran and newly elected AFT vice presidents and other
divisional leaders. Among the presenters was Thomas R. Donahue, a member
of the Albert Shanker Institute board of directors and former
secretary-treasurer and president of the AFL-CIO, who noted that
independent unions could not exist without democracy and that democracy
itself is strengthened by the civic involvement of trade unions. Other
presenters included Diane Ravitch, another ASI board member and research
professor of education at New York University; exiled Chinese trade
union activist Han Dongfang; Walid Hamdan of the International Labor
Organization in Beirut; Fred Van Leeuwen, general secretary of Education
International (EI); and Thulas Nxesi, EI president and general secretary
of the South African Democratic Teachers' Union.
Seminar on
Education To Build Democracy
On May 6, 2003, the institute hosted a forum on international civic education. An
invited group of academics, program developers, and leaders from the AFT, the U.S. State
Dept., USAID, the National Democratic Institute, the National Endowment for Democracy, the
AFL-CIO, and private industry attended the Washington, DC, meeting, to discuss effective
program design, content, and strategy for civic education and democracy promotion abroad.
The meeting provided those who are involved – funders, researchers, and practitioners
– with a chance to share their knowledge and experience. According to participants,
the seminar was unprecedented in its promotion of open interaction among the many diverse
elements of the civic education community.
Bayard
Rustin Film Premiere
On January 8, 2003, the Institute jointly hosted the Washington premiere of "Brother
Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin" at the National Press Club, with the AFL-CIO,
the A. Philip Randolph Institute, Freedom House, the Rustin Fund, the International Rescue
Committee, Social Democrats, U.S.A., the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, AFT
President Sandra Feldman, and U.S. Representatives John Lewis and Eleanor Holmes
Norton. A longtime friend and ally of Al Shanker's, Rustin, a gay socialist,
pacifist, civil rights leader, international democracy activist, and master
strategist--best remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington--is the
subject of this new documentary film, which was aired nationwide by PBS on January 20,
Martin Luther King Day, and will be featured in the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.
To read more Rustin and this film, go to http://www.rustin.org.
Read a Wall Street Journal editorial on the
film.
Read a film review from
Africana.com.
Chinese Dissidents Urge Focus on Rights
Two leading Chinese dissidents urged President George Bush and President Jiang
Zemin to make human and worker rights the centerpiece of their October summit and called
for the release of political prisoners and freedom for Chinese workers to form free and
independent trade unions. Han Dongfang, a labor leader who was jailed for his
participation in the Tiananmen Square demonstrations and now continues his dissident
activities from Hong Kong, and Harry Wu, a dissident who spent 19 years in Chinese prisons
and is now a U.S. citizen, called on Bush and Jiang to address these issues.
Read full text of press release.
Hong Kong Democracy Leader Gives First Shanker
Lecture
Szeto Wah, founder of Hong Kong's teachers' union, was the featured speaker at the
institute's inaugural Albert Shanker Lecture on May 15. Szeto, labeled "democracy's
foot soldier" by Time magazine, told the Washington, D.C., crowd that Shanker
was a mentor from whom he learned how to combine professionalism and labor rights to build
a union and how to employ trade unionism to build democracy. In addition to building Hong
Kong's largest democratic union, Szeto helped to found Hong Kong's democratic party, leads
the alliance that supports and commemorates China’s Tiananmen Square democracy
movement, and is a popularly elected member of the Hong Kong legislature.
Read press release on this event.
Read Time magazine's 1997 profile
of Szeto Wah.
Download a copy of the full lecture
by Szeto Wah.
Pilot Project on Civic Education, Crime, and
Corruption
The most successful means of enforcing the rule of law is through the consent of the
governed. Average citizens must come to have faith in the justice of the legal system and
the fair enforcement of the law. Where such shared expectations, values, and consequent
daily behaviors do not exist, democratic government can't function effectively and a
culture of crime and corruption can easily take hold. It was in response to just this
situation that educators in Palermo, Sicily, Hong Kong, Botswana, and on the US-Mexican
border developed school-based programs to teach children a "culture of
lawfulness." One of the key ingredients in the success of these programs was a
curriculum designed to promote the civic and legal education of young people. Through a
grant to the National Strategy Information Center, the institute has supported the
adaptation of these curricula for pilot implementations in several U.S. secondary schools.
Read an article on educating against
the Mafia in Palermo, Sicily.
Read an article on educating for morality in Hong Kong.
Download sample lesson plans from the U.S.
project.
Get more information.
The Concord Review: Giving Young Scholars a Forum
Thomas Jefferson argued that all citizens need a general education, not just for the few
but for all citizens, so that each of us could make our own decisions about what will
"secure or endanger [our] freedom." To be meaningful, this type of education for
democracy must go deeper than dry documents, helping student to understand how and when
the democratic idea developed, in whose minds, impelled and impeded by what circumstances.
To help determine where we, as a country, are going, students should be given a knowledge
of history that is broad and deep enough to understand where we came from and why. As a
means of fostering this kind of historical learning, the institute has helped to support
the work of The Concord Review, a journal that recognizes and publishes exemplary
history essays by high school students.
Review
sample essays from The Concord Review.
Get more information on the journal.
Get subscription
information.
