The role of teacher unions in education with specific reference to South Africa

Abstract

The role of teacher unions in education is of utmost significance. The state alone cannot achieve everything in the field of education in a country. The support of interested stakeholders in education, such as teachers is therefore desirable.

Teacher unions as organised labour or pressure groups in education are legally constituted to play meaningful roles in education, especially with regard to bargaining for teachers and ensuring quality of education by means of engaging teachers in improving teaching approaches and maintaining a high standard.

This paper is therefore focused on the extent to which teacher unions improve the quality of education or not. This paper makes use of mixed research method. Structured questionnaires and focused interviews will be employed in the investigation of this topic. Conclusions include inter alia, that teacher unions and the Department of Basic Education must strive to have a working relationship at all times in terms of curricula teacher development and policy matters in South Africa.

Keywords: teacher unions, teaching and learning, collaboration and anti-corruption