Education, Labor, and the Future of Democracy
Thursday, September 3, 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm
2026 APSA Annual Meeting & Exhibition — Boston, MA | Register here
In-Person | Full Paper Panel
Participants:
- (Chair) Katie Rader, SUNY, University at Albany
- (Discussant) Lesley Lavery, Macalester College
- (Discussant) Michael T. Hartney, Hoover Fellow, Stanford University
Session Description:
Public education and collective action have long been considered foundational pillars for fostering a stable and engaged democratic citizenry. However, as the 2026 APSA theme suggests, the institutions that sustain democracy are currently “under threat” through the muzzling of movement organizers and the dismantling of institutions that hold political leaders accountable. In theory, educated citizens and labor unions may act as a bottom-up defense against such erosion, but they now face an even more hostile legal and political climate, raising questions about how organizations at the intersection of these two pillars are uniquely positioned to protect and reimagine democracy. Each of the papers in this panel addresses the intersection between education, labor, and democracy in distinct ways. From U.S. bureaucratic capacity to teacher organizing in the U.S. and Mexico, the papers in this panel use experimental, quasi-experimental, and qualitative evidence to highlight how public education workers and their organizations address the roots of disorder and division.
Kaler, Arnzen, Stull, and Moffitt open the panel by analyzing the immediate aftermath of the executive order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, tracing how the displacement of specialized workers reconfigures labor flows and weakens state capacity. The second paper, by Lyon, Shepardson, Finger, Bleiberg, and Noh, complements this by demonstrating that teacher strikes—often seen as a primary tool for labor influence—can paradoxically lead to decreased voter engagement in relevant local elections. Shifting the focus to strategies for resilience, Chambers-Ju and Trasberg use vignette experiments to identify the frames that help labor organizations build cross-class solidarity and avoid public backlash during disruptive protests. Finally, Hertel-Fernandez investigates how teachers’ unions can build (or rebuild) a communal social identity through year-round organizing programs designed to overcome partisan polarization and member apathy.
By integrating perspectives on education governance, bureaucratic erosion, collective action, and political behavior, this panel underscores the critical role that education and labor play in the fabric of democracy. The panel incorporates settings at different levels of American federalism—from local school districts to the federal Department of Education—and draws connections that reach into Latin America. Together, the papers in this panel offer a globally relevant analysis of how workers and their organizations might (re)build and sustain our educational institutions and democracy.