Dundee dispute: this is more than just “faculties” this is a fight about school empowerment.

As we report on p6 of this SEJ, Secondary teachers in Dundee are set to take strike action over the council’s plans to introduce faculties and remove subject principal teachers. Here, Dundee Local Association Secretary David Baxter explains the background to this important dispute.

Colleagues, have you ever felt that you haven’t been listened to? Have you ever felt that the consultation that you have been asked to take part in was a sham? That the listening exercise was really just ticking a box? This has been our experience in Dundee over the last three years after the council took the decision to remove principal teachers and replace them with faculty heads.

In the last three years Dundee City Council hasn’t listened to teachers or teacher voice, nor have they negotiated with the EIS over the devolved matters that need to be established before a middle management restructure could be put in place. Job descriptions, recruitment, even the transfer of main grade teachers have not made it near the negotiating table.

The dispute in Dundee isn’t as much over “faculties” but over school empowerment and in this case the lack of. The empowerment agenda is a flagship Scottish government education policy and one that we are signed up to. I have written previously in the SEJ that school empowerment is something to be embraced by teachers and a key driver for reducing workload but there is a big difference between the sentiments of empowerment and what the councils that employ us are putting into practice.

Collegiality lies at the heart of Scottish education and the SNCT, the logical next step for a collegiate system is the empowered school, where more decisions on learning and teaching can be taken by the practitioners who deliver on a daily basis.

At the End of April, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, Shirley-Anne Somerville tweeted out, “Pleased to get the chance to confirm once again @scotgov commitment to teacher empowerment today. Our school leaders and teachers know their children and young people best.”

The dispute in Dundee is a good example of what school empowerment isn’t. An empowered system isn’t top down but should be bottom up, with the classroom practitioner’s voice at the forefront of decision making. It cannot be local authority, headteacher, SMT, ELT etc led. Rather it is about true consultation, listening to teacher voice and responding accordingly. We as a workforce don’t want to just be listened to, we want our ideas and creativity actioned. Far too often consultation exercises amount to nothing more than listening exercises where the result is the teacher’s voice being ignored.

This is exactly why we are in dispute in Dundee. In February 2020 the council was forced by the EIS to go back and consult with teachers about the middle management structure. We were not opposed to faculties per se, if that’s what the teachers really wanted to bring in but for the empowerment agenda to be fully recognised, it had to be clear that this was a change that teachers fully endorsed. It probably comes as no surprise that Dundee teachers didn’t, and prefer the existing principal teacher structure but once again teacher voice was ignored. At the same time the council have failed to bring any of the paperwork that they require to push the restructure through to the LNCT. This is not school empowerment, and it needs to be challenged. We are doing it at a local level.

In January 2022 we asked secondary members if they supported the introduction of faculties? A 72% turn out of members said No (96% to 4%). Dundee City Council chose to ignore these results. In March 2020 we asked members if they were prepared to take industrial action to prevent the introduction of faculties. A 73% turn out said that they were (88% to 12%). Again, Dundee City Council chose to ignore these results.

So now we have been running a statutory ballot on industrial action (see news item on p6 for more information). While this isn’t about pay, it’s about our working conditions. You cannot have an empowered system if you routinely ignore the teacher voice. That’s why it has been important for us to make a stand on this issue because if it wasn’t faculties, it would be something else – like shared headships. It’s time that Dundee City Council and other employers stop paying lip service to school empowerment and actually put it into practice. It’s a shame that it will probably take industrial action for them to sit up and take notice, but this is the untapped power that we hold. We know from the pandemic experience the vital role that schools and teachers play in keeping society going. We know that we delivered under difficult circumstances during the pandemic. Now we need to believe in ourselves and be empowered to make the difference that we want to see in our schools. And hopefully after the Dundee experience, councils will see the power of the teacher’s voice.