This paper revisits the educational reform movement of the 1960s, focusing on the role of teacher unionism and its impact on the politics of education during that decade. Historians of education have failed to combine information about the social composition and political culture of the teaching force, as well as the political culture of the labor movement in which teacher unions developed. This document suggests some ways in which teachers and their organizations can be included in the historiography of educational reform in the 1960's. Events in New York City from 1960 to 1968 are used to argue the point, beginning with the 1960 and 1962 strikes of New York City teachers for collective bargaining and culminating in 1968 shortly before the newly created bargaining agent, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), conducted a series of strikes. Focusing on the UFT's formation and development illuminates how the civil rights movement, the Vietnam war, the political culture of New York City's labor movement, the consciousness of female elementary school teachers, and the school decentralization issue all contributed to the series of strikes. The place of teachers and their organizations in education and educational reform are critically important topics of investigation, both for concerns about contemporary educational reform and for a thorough understanding of the history of education. (LL)