Education International North America and the Caribbean

Education Voices | The solidarity that supports school communities in the aftermath of extreme climate events

Interview with Susan Rattray-Hammond, PhD., Principal of Petersfield Primary & Infant School, Jamaica

Susan Rattray-Hammond

Worlds of Education: Susan, thank you for accepting our invitation for an interview. Can you please introduce yourself to our readers?

Devices down, eyes up, hands-on: 10 points to boost teaching and learning in the AI era

Excerpt from speech delivered at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C., May 27, 2026

Randi Weingarten

We are in an era of massive disruption. Artificial intelligence is triggering seismic shifts in virtually every aspect of society.

Education support personnel in public education in Mexico

Francisco González Mena

Mexico is one of the twenty-seven countries that form part of Education International in North America and the Caribbean. Mexico’s national union of education workers, the SNTE, is one of the world’s largest, with a total membership of 1.6 million active workers and 1 million retired workers. Of the former,...

The future belongs to solidarity, not fear

Mugwena Maluleke

We are living through a geopolitical crisis and through a political crisis in which war, disinformation, and authoritarianism feed one another.

Teaching about the fight for democracy in Ukraine

Randi Weingarten

Ukraine is the front line in the fight for democracy, freedom and self-determination, and the outcome of their fight against Russia’s invasion has long-term ramifications for the world and for all freedom and democracy-loving people. As a union with a long history of fighting to preserve and expand democracy across...

Keeping humanity at the center: Accessibility and artificial intelligence in education

Daaiyah Bilal-Threats Brittany J. Patrick, Ph.D.

In a classroom in upstate New York, a special education teacher pulls up a set of Tobii eye-tracking devices, each calibrated to a student’s unique gaze patterns. Around the room, quiet concentration fills the air as students with cerebral palsy and autism prepare to begin their writing activity. Instead of...

Education Voices | Using collective bargaining to regulate the use of technology and artificial intelligence in higher education

Interview with Eric Rader, Co-chair of the Higher Education Program and Policy Council of the American Federation of Teachers

Eric Rader

This testimony was collected as part of the research project entitled “In the eye of the storm: Higher education in an age of crises” conducted by Howard Stevenson, Maria Antonietta Vega Castillo, Melanie Bhend, and Vasiliki-Eleni Selechopoulou for Education International. The research report and executive summary are available here .

Decolonizing education: Restoring and expanding Hawaiian language and cultural education

Osa Tui, Jr.

In Hawaiʻi public schools, teaching using the Hawaiian language was made illegal in 1896 and did not resume until the 1980s, when ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language) revitalization efforts led to the creation of Hawaiian-medium preschools in 1984, which were then piloted in two elementary schools in 1987.

Education voices | Campaigning for higher education research

Interview with David Robinson, Executive Director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers

David Robinson

This testimony was collected as part of the research project entitled “In the eye of the storm: Higher education in an age of crises” conducted by Howard Stevenson, Maria Antonietta Vega Castillo, Melanie Bhend, and Vasiliki-Eleni Selechopoulou for Education International. The research report and executive summary are available here .

Education Voices | The trade union fight for Indigenous rights in Quebec

Isabelle Tremblay Chevalier

The education trade union movement supports Indigenous Peoples and works to promote their rights in education all around the world. To mark the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, celebrated every year on 9 August (the date of the first meeting of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous...

From private failures to public futures: Why FFD4 must Go Public

The Financing for Development Conference the world cannot afford to waste

David Edwards

For over a decade, Education International has warned that the World Bank's “Billions to Trillions ” agenda—a strategy to leverage small amounts of public money to attract private investment for development— would prioritize private profit over public need. We were dismissed as ideological, anti-market, unrealistic. Then came the evidence.

Higher education under attack

Randi Weingarten

President Donald Trump has declared war on America’s colleges and universities, demanding they bow to his demands on what they can teach and whom they can admit or hire. Trump’s illegal and autocratic actions are tantamount to a war on knowledge intended to force schools to bend the knee to...

A vision for greener schools: How unions are leading the charge for climate justice in the United States

Adrienne Coles

Climate change is a pressing global issue, yet achieving international consensus on enforceable action remains a significant challenge. In the United States, climate policy is often dictated by the political party in power at the federal level, leading to inconsistent progress. Given the current political landscape, substantial federal action on...

A treaty to protect teaching

Miriam Socolovsky

For many years Education International has been following the discussions being held within the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights of the World Intellectual Property Organization (SCCR/WIPO) regarding limitations and exceptions to copyright for libraries, archives and educational institutions. There are times when it seems progress is being made,...

Tackling the teacher shortage crisis in the Commonwealth

Oliver Mawhinney

44 million teachers are need globally by 2030 – a shortage that affects developing and developed countries alike, as demonstrated across the Commonwealth.

Education Voices | Haldis Holst on patient and persistent activism for women’s rights

Haldis Holst

Haldis Holst is Education International’s Deputy General Secretary and leads EI’s equity work. As a teacher, a union leader, and a feminist, Haldis has championed women’s rights in and through education and education unions, working at all levels, from small communities in her native Norway all the way to the...

Academic freedom at risk: the view from North America

David Robinson

To fulfil their mission of preserving, sharing, and advancing knowledge, higher education institutions must ensure that academic staff enjoy academic freedom. Academic freedom isn’t a special perk or privilege. Rather, it’s a necessary condition for the job. It is a professional and contractual right ensuring that in their teaching, research,...

The best way to celebrate education? Mobilize to defend it, to strengthen, and to fund it

David Edwards

Education is a human right, a public good, and a public responsibility. It relies on the millions of dedicated teachers and support personnel who make it happen in a place called school across the world every day. When this committed education workforce is undermined, the right to education is at...