Q.
Why join ATL? The main associations are all the same, aren't they?
A.
In
a sense, yes. All the main teaching unions offer very similar professional
support and protection for a similar annual subscription. we are
particularly proud of our range of publications to support students,
teachers and lecturers, covering Managing Classroom Behaviour, Effective
Meetings, Role of Learning Assistants, Threshold, Taking Trips,
Special Needs, Applying for jobs and Student Placements. Our most
popular training course is on Managing Challenging Behaviour from
a wide range of professional development courses for members.
Q.
But on your own admission, the other unions offer similar benefits.
So what's really distinctive about ATL? Why choose you rather than
one one of the others?
A.
Difficult to put it briefly. Try this. When you look around your
staffroom you'll see a mixture of personalities and of teaching
styles. The individualist, the team player, the authoritarian, the
liberal, etc.. To some extent, the main unions reflect these differences.
ATL empowers individual members to decide for themselves, as befits
highly trained and dedicated professionals. Our National Executive
does not decide for the members: the members instruct the
Executive. So, if members in a school vote for some form of action,
Executive will advise and support them. But, even when action is
thus supported by the National Executive, individual members are
protected by a 'conscience clause' if they do not agree with the
action.
Q.
Surely that means that ATL is weak and ineffectual?
A.
Only if you think in authoritarian terms of central control of the
membership. We believe that you cannot claim to respect the professional
status of members and seek to compel them or to claim to
know better than them. Thats the trade-off. And if that suits you
style and personality, ATL could be the one for you. The links below
show how we strive to fulfil these aims in more detail.