Teachers' strikes in brazil (2003-2022): a basis for a theoretical-methodological discussion

Abstract

Brazilian public school’ teachers employed by state and municipal governments carried out over 2,500 strikes between 2003 and 2022. The number of teacher strikes grew dramatically after 2011, primarily due to increased action by these workers in smaller and medium-sized cities, especially in the Northeast region. There are significant differences among states both in the number of strikes and in the number of strike days. The data on teacher strikes in Brazil, along with academic studies and complementary information on teacher unionism in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States, allows us to make some considerations regarding how to explain strike movements. These movements cannot be fully explained by a general model based on the economic context and political exchange theory, as some researches have suggested. A satisfactory study of strikes requires employing more explanatory elements, making the relationships between these elements and the strikes themselves more complex, and, fundamentally, considering that the particular historical process determines how different political-economic contexts and broader social processes combine in particular ways to determine the occurrence (and non-occurrence) of strikes.