Para Power
How Paraprofessional Labor Changed Education
Book •
Nicholas Juravich's Para Power examines the rise of paraprofessional educators during the social upheavals of the late 1960s and traces their impact on public education, labor, and community life.
Drawing especially on New York City, Juravich situates these workers within Black and Latino struggles for economic opportunity and social justice and shows how paras strengthened school-community ties and opened pathways to teaching.
The book explores their organizing efforts, contractual gains, and role in diversifying public-sector unions while also documenting setbacks during fiscal and political backlash in the 1970s.
Juravich emphasizes the concept of a 'crisis of care' in schools and how paraprofessionals addressed needs that licensed teachers and bureaucracies often could not.
Para Power combines archival research and oral histories to recover an overlooked workforce and evaluate its lasting influence on educational policy and unionism.
Drawing especially on New York City, Juravich situates these workers within Black and Latino struggles for economic opportunity and social justice and shows how paras strengthened school-community ties and opened pathways to teaching.
The book explores their organizing efforts, contractual gains, and role in diversifying public-sector unions while also documenting setbacks during fiscal and political backlash in the 1970s.
Juravich emphasizes the concept of a 'crisis of care' in schools and how paraprofessionals addressed needs that licensed teachers and bureaucracies often could not.
Para Power combines archival research and oral histories to recover an overlooked workforce and evaluate its lasting influence on educational policy and unionism.
Mentioned by
Mentioned in 0 episodes
Mentioned by ![undefined]()
Tom DeSena
Nick Juravich, "Para Power: How Paraprofessional Labor Changed Education" (U Illinois Press, 2024)
