Education unionists have the chance to acquire direct and useful information, exchange experiences, ideas, and best practises, and promote unity among the organisations through the John Thompson Fellowship (JTF) Program. After evaluating the program's success in North Asia, Education International, DC partners, and education unions launched it in East Africa.
A Leading Initiative For Union Revitalization
Beverley Park, Director of the International and Social Justice Programme at the Canadian Teachers' Federation (CTF), a DC partner, spoke at the Development Cooperation (DC) Café focusing on this programme on January 12. She recalled that John Thompson served as Secretary-General of the World Confederation of Organizations of the Teaching Profession from 1970 to 1981.
She emphasised that "he worked relentlessly for human understanding on a global scale and was a passionate supporter of the teaching profession."
In terms of union rejuvenation, she continued, the JTF is a "flagship initiative," aiming to "strengthen teacher organisations through increasing the abilities and dedication of teacher leaders. Partners join in to provide support, and unions are chosen based on their indicated interest to Education International's regional and corporate offices.
Park also mentioned how the programme has changed over time. She collaborates, facilitates, and promotes unions in their respective nations, regions, and subregions as a resource person.
Participants in the programme have the chance to:
Consider the components of a successful union.
Think about the organisations' missions.
To renew their dedication to that objective, look at their "reason for being."
Examine their capacity and current level of efficacy.
aid in the development of practical managerial and leadership abilities that will increase Fellows' effectiveness as teachers' union leaders.
Assist Fellows in acquiring the understanding, information, and advocacy abilities needed to stand up for their rights and other social and educational causes.
Encourage representation and equity within unions.
Its anticipated outcomes are:
After the training programme, unionists will have a greater awareness of the function of unions and their place within the organisation.
Positive effects on the general administration, governance, finances, service delivery, external relations, sustainability, and gender equity in participating organisations.
women and other underrepresented groups actively participating in their organisation.
Research Project Titled "Union Renewal In The Education Sector: Prospects For The Asia-Pacific"
The report "Union Renewal in the Education Sector: Prospects for the Asia-Pacific" serves as the program's beginning point, according to Eva Elmstedt Frisk from Sveriges Lärare/Sweden, who is also a resource person for the JTF Program. This report's main goal is to create a preliminary model of "union rejuvenation" or "union transformation" that will be taken into consideration for further development by a few chosen Education International affiliates working with the Asia-Pacific Office.
The Australian Education Union's (AEU) Nicole Calnan stated that resource workers were in charge of a variety of modules, including: history, mission, and vision; union revitalization; organising and mobilising; sustainable financing; gender equality; or campaigning and persuasive messaging.
In 1998, the EIAP office picked a group of unions in Nepal, India, Indonesia, Fiji, West Samoa, Vanuatu, etc., and invited three senior leaders from each union to attend the training, exchange ideas, and share experiences, according to Education International's consultant Sagar Nath.
The agenda changed from being fundamentally about fostering international cooperation to fostering trade unionism across the board, he claimed.
Furthermore, he stressed that "the EIAP office focused emphasis on determining what the demand of the participating organisation is, and we developed around the programme that goes to train leaders in creating unions with a feasible strategy."
In response to concerns about the program's efficacy and the use of funds raised for the programme, he said, "We started to assess progress made by unions and participants following the programme using questionnaires issued every six months for 10 years. We kept making changes to the programme based on the demands voiced by the unions and participants as well as how, in our opinion as resource people, the programme could be most successful.
Nath emphasised that the JTF Programme was more rigorous on union leaders' knowledge and skills when it first began. Then it changed to: Let's give union leaders a chance to reflect on their own organisations before carefully planning how to make their unions stronger. Every year, JTF changes to best fulfil the demands of the participants, and as a result, is highly diverse.
East Africa's JTF Program Being Advanced.
Dennis Sinyolo, the director of Education International's Region Africa (EIRAF) office, also discussed the JTF Programme in East Africa's upcoming debut in Nairobi, Kenya, from November 21–27, 2022.
"We conducted a needs assessment last year, which is the major reason we travelled to East Africa. We wanted to learn more about the needs for development of the member organisations. We also completed some brief online training. We conducted a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) throughout the session. According to the assessment's findings, member organisations needed assistance in improving their capacities, particularly in the areas of leadership, resource deficiency, gender equality, youth participation, etc.
He also highlighted that there are a lot of difficulties in Africa, including difficulties that unions face internally: "This training will assist the unions think on their difficulties and identify answers in furthering the union goal."
According to Sinyolo, the EIRAF headquarters asked unions to choose three representatives (five for local unions), and at least one of these representatives had to have decision-making authority since "otherwise the possibilities to have pledges and things done later would be very limited." We also urged that there should be a woman on the committee.
Regarding resources, the regional office added new themes after conducting an earlier review, such as young members, Sustainable Development Goal 4, and the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA).
According to Sinyolo, the nine participating African member organisations agreed to:
1.Put together a strategy plan.
2.Young people should be included in union institutions.
3.Relaunch and expand the school representatives' training.
4.Create a membership database online.
5.Plan national leaders' capacity-building initiatives.
6.Make a gender analysis.
7.Review the vision and mission statements of the union.
8.Encourage the South Sudanese National Teachers Union to open a union office.
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