THE IMPACT OF TEACHER TRADE UNIONISM ON QUALITY PUBLIC EDUCATION: A QUALITATIVE PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

One of the main challenges in education today in South Africa is the provision of quality public education. In the debates about quality education, teachers are singled out as an important element to provide such education. This raises problems. On the one hand, teachers have become highly unionized workers and their activism exerts a significant influence and pressure on the quality of education delivered in schools. On the other hand, parents expect teachers to show commitment, willingness, preparedness and determination to perform their duties but not for teachers to sacrifice learners’ quality education through union activities. This article presents the qualitative phase of the Sequential Explanatory Design strategy that was conducted in studying the impact of teacher trade unionism on the provision of quality public education, across three districts of education in the North West Province, Mpumalanga Province and Gauteng province respectively. The findings reveal that the demand for quality public education has put more pressure on teachers, who are expected to be committed to teaching despite the poor working conditions prevailing in schools. We concluded that teacher trade unionism will rise and that quality education will remain a pipe dream unless the working conditions are improved.