The recent wave of teacher activism and strikes across the United States is unprecedented. While it has been commented upon and understood in various ways, this essay departs from actor-centric modes of analysis that have been taken up. Instead, I read recent teacher activism efforts through a Foucauldian analytics of protest which examines the rationalities used to justify political action in order to understand how, in some ways, teachers paradoxically reified the logics of education reform efforts which they sought to oppose. Following this I offer several examples of protest which exist in much different forms which unveil political possibilities beyond the logics of reform. Through doing so, I invite not only an understanding of past actions but also a future engagement with transformative modes of teacher activism which have become only more necessary since the 2018 strike wave.

In response to a need for increased engagement given the #RedForEd movement, this article draws upon my experience as an organizer and participant in the recent wave of teacher activism to provide implications for theories of teacher agency and political transformation. First, I conceptualize the Arizona #RedForEd movement’s unique position beyond the state’s logics of political power, considering the possibilities that such a position created for teacher-activists in Arizona. I then confront the decreasing power of the movement in order to demonstrate the need for increased theorizations of the reflexive capacities of institutionalized power structures to sustain oppositional education social movements. I consider the recent history of the RedForEd movement with the hope of forwarding renewed considerations of political transformation, power, and teacher agency, which can inform movements that challenge the hegemonic limits placed upon social-justice-oriented movement work.