The growing use of contingent faculty, the increasing privatization of colleges, and the skyrocketing costs of higher education are not just state and national concerns: They are global as well.
Key issues
"These are the key ongoing issues everywhere," said VirginiaAnn Shadwick, a National Education Association board member who was one of seven higher education faculty from California to attend the Education International (EI) World Congress in Berlin in July. Education International is the international affiliate of the National Education Association, and represents 30 million teachers and education workers worldwide, including three million in higher education.
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California higher education participants in the Education
International Congress in Berlin this summer included (from left), VirginaAnn Shadwick, Leo Kirchoff, Theresa Montaño, Gayle Tucker, Gilda Bloom and Mary Ann Pacheco. |
The California delegation included CCA member Mary Ann Pacheco, an instructor at Rio Hondo College; Gilda Bloom, Leo Kirchhoff and NEA Board Member at-large Theresa Montano, representing the California Faculty Association (CFA); and Gayle and Ruth Tucker, representing the Independent California Colleges and University Faculty Association (ICCUFA). The Congress takes place every three years and is open to any NEA member, providing they are willing to pay their own way.
Though there was a general agreement on problem areas, there were also some "translation" issues. For example, NEA delegates to the conference had to make sure that in duscussing privatization, it was clear that there is a distinction in the United States btween "for profit" enterprises and our traditional "not for profit" private colleges, Shadwick noted.
In all, however, there was much to agree on. There's somthing good about recognizing faculty. Attacks on academic freedom, attacks on unions are being fought on a global level," said Mary Ann Pacheco.
For example, she noted that one of the winners of the Mary Hatwood Futrell Human and Trade Union Rights Award, Columbian teacher Samuel Morales, was denied permission by the government to leave the country. He and co-winner Raquel Castro were imprisoned in August 2004 after a military operation in which they witnessed the assassination of three trade union colleagues. Morales was released from prison in the spring while Castro remained incarcerated in the political prisoners’ wing of Bogotá Women’s Prison until August.
E.I. gaining influence
Education International has gained influence over the years in other nations, particularly in developing countries where it is working to build and support unions. In several cases, EI has been successful in saving the lives of faculty who had been targeted by the government.
EI is making progress in other ways, as well. One project that may soon bear fruit is an articulation model called the Bologna Process, which is attempting to establish common standards, degrees and credits in higher education for 47 European countries. If successful, the model could be applied to other regions such as Latin America – and perhaps the United States.
“This was fascinating for an American from California where we struggle for good articulation agreements between our three systems of public colleges and universities,” Shadwick said. “But the reality is that it is a model that could be applied here someday.”
