No, while our mission and values often align with those of teacher unions, TEAL is not a union.

While unions primarily focus on collective bargaining (wages, benefits, working conditions), TEAL focuses on professional empowerment—shaping policy, curriculum, and research itself. We are advocating for teacher expertise in the development of the systems and tools you use every day.

TEAL focuses on educators ability to actualize solutions they’ve formulated out of their own experiences which relate to the teaching profession – such as new policies or curricular pieces.

No, TEAL is not a lobbyist. Our aim is not to promote specific policies to policymakers.

Rather, our goal is to encourage policymakers to hear and incorporate the voices of teachers when they deliberate on issues related to education.

We are not telling teachers which policies to support. Instead, we are listening to what teachers already support, and amplifying their voices in decision-making spaces.

Yes, membership is completely free forever for all classroom educators, paraprofessionals, counselors, and support staff. No catch.

We believe finances should never be a barrier in democratic participation. In giving teachers a voice, we’re giving ALL teachers a voice.

Our funding comes from memberships for other stakeholder groups (administrators, community members, NGOs, etc.) and grants – not from teachers.

As a free member, you get access to:

• Co-created teaching resources and tools.

• The ability to request or join local Town Halls and Co-Creation Labs.

• Opportunities to be selected for expert panels on policy and curriculum.

• A platform to advocate for issues that matter to you as an educator.

• The camaraderie of our community of educator advocates.

It means we operate on the principle that teachers should be the primary architects of education policy, curriculum, and research. Instead of these things being done to or for teachers, we create structured ways for them to be done with and by teachers.

By striving for these opportunities to be as accessible as possible, we are building a democratic method for educators to engage with the teaching field.

Right now, the best way to help is to spread the word about TEAL.

By sharing our survey (found on the “Your Voice” page) with your teacher friends, we can paint an accurate picture of what teaching is like right now – including what’s not working.

If you’re an educator, paraprofessional, or school support staff, you can join as a free member!

Our “squiggle”, reminiscent of a doodle on a whiteboard, represents three people locking arms to amplify their voices together.

The use of different teal’s correlates with our commitment to represent the voice of ALL teachers.