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Free keywords:
Teachers; protest; Arabuprisings; Tunisia; syndicates
Abstract:
Unions have played a decisive role in promoting democracy and socialjustice in Tunisia. In 2023, two teacher unions led a yearlong‘silentstrike’of withholding student marks from administration. Based oninterviews with 60 teachers, this article analyses teacher views on theunions and on ongoing protests. While unions are still considered themain defenders of public education and grievances about salaries wereshared among teachers, their views on strike participation divergedbased on perceived political opportunity and differences in moral andpolitical preferences, amidst a local political andfinancial crisis andglobal pressures towards austerity and privatisation.