Wyoming Education Association

Winter 2014

Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/437000

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 5 of 31

WINTER 2014 | WEAnews 6 Your WEA At Work Power In Organizing Greg Herold WEA Membership Organizing Specialist gherold@wyoea.org I had the privilege this summer of presenting a session on power at the 2014 Western Region Organizing Institute along with a dynamic NEA staff member, Cecil Cahoon, out of Las Vegas. Participants were surprised to learn there are several forms of power found in our society that are largely overlooked. In the discussion that followed, the idea that student engagement and learning revolve around power, but not the form we all too often see in our society, was discussed at length. Our educational world is controlled by power over. This concept is the idea that someone has the ability to coerce or enforce control over another. In itself this is not a negative concept in that it includes the rules and laws that govern our society and keep it, usually, running in an orderly fashion. Unfortunately, though, this common approach can easily lead to abuse, either of the system or an individual, by those who have the power over. Discovery of the power within is believing in one's own ability and self-worth. Combine this concept with the idea of power to—the abilities, skills and talents—and you have an avenue for education. Teachers and educational professionals well understand this concept. All of us in the classroom remember those moments when a student becomes empowered with the knowledge and skills needed to complete, if not master, a task. These moments are the true rewards for educators and the ones that create lasting impressions in our professional lives. But it is the fourth dimension of power that allows us to join together and multiply our collective voice; this is the power of with. In "right to work" states such as Wyoming, educators have less legislative power and less statutory power than in some other situations. In this setting, educators can be left with less of a voice than they should have, given their professionalism and experience. This then is the focus of organizing efforts in WEA. Organizing in the WEA is seeking those ideas and concerns of professional educators in Wyoming and working with them to develop the approaches necessary to address these concerns. The WEA knows that the ways we have done things in the past no longer meet the needs of our members. As we move forward in providing the services demanded by our members, the WEA will continue to engage our members and potential members in order to discover their expectations—in other words, organize. As we move forward in providing the services demanded by our members, the WEA will continue to engage our members and potential members in order to discover their expectations.

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Wyoming Education Association - Winter 2014