ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the political interaction between teachers and the political authorities on a wide range of distributive issues. It focuses on the specific forms which this interaction has taken, notably the means by which teachers have mobilized political resources to protect or extend their interests in a changing political environment. The mid-1950s provides the clearest picture of socialist modernizing attitudes toward teachers' participation in the political process. During this period both the general and the educational media carried numerous letters from teachers about the unresponsiveness of local governments or unit cadres, complaints which reflected the tensions engendered by the first revolution. Teachers' interests also found some limited form of representation in the All-China Union of Educational Workers, established in 1950. Teachers were also on the political defensive during later periods of radical policy predominance, when they were subjected to political pressure as a suspect occupational group.
