The BMORE and CEDE caucuses are aligned with several frameworks surrounding organizing and social-justice teaching such as social justice unionism and participatory democracy. 

First, social justice unionism or social movement unionism is a new model of unionism that takes the foundations of traditional unionism and is directed by the interests of the members of the union and social issues. Social justice unionism takes the core principles of collective action and solidarity from traditional unionism. However, social justice unions derive their power from their members, through encouraging a bottom – up power structure. According to “Social Movement Unionism: Teachers can Lead the Way,(2012)” a social justice union “derives strength from its ability to mobilize members to struggle on their own behalf. (Wiener, 2012, p. 39)” This structure requires a reliance on the mobilization of rank and file educators, both in and out of the classroom and the allocation of proper resources to support these educators. Social justice unions tackle broader issues that are in the interest of its members while informing those issues by social needs. In this way, while members of the union are fighting for themselves, they are also fighting for the needs of their students, school communities, and broader communities. This necessitates a complete restructuring of the curriculum, where teachers are to change not only what they teach, but how they teach in order to combat social injustices and promote equity and critical reflection of society. Furthermore, social justice unions cultivate and maintain their strength through forging alliances with community members, all faculty and staff within schools, and other groups/organizations with whom they share common goals and interests in regards to public schools (Social Justice Unionism 2020).  In essence, social justice unionism requires members of the union to fight for the restructuring of and reform of the American education system in a way that rejects the privatization and commercialization of it as well as properly and effectively serve its most vulnerable students. 

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Participatory democracy is an organizing tradition of Ella Baker which combines conceptions of traditional democracy with larger and broader participation. Participatory democracy, as done by Ella Baker, was rooted in three themes: “grassroots involvement by people in the decisions that affect their lives; the minimization of hierarchy and professionalization in organizations working for social change; and direct action of the sources of injustice. (Mueller, 2004, p. 82)” The first theme of “grassroots involvement by the people” shows itself in Baker’s practice of group-centered leadership. This leadership concept eliminates a sense of hierarchy within the organizations through situating the “leader” as more of a facilitator, with the intention of bringing out the best in other members (Mueller, 2004, p. 85). Through this, members not only feel empowered by their positionality in the organization, but further connected to the struggle and motivated to persist against it. The second theme of the “minimization of hierarchy and professionalization in organizations working for social change” is directly connected to the first theme. However, this theme promotes the building of alliances and relationships with other community organizations to lead to more effective and powerful actions in response to injustice. These direct actions represent the third theme of Baker’s tradition, where they are demonstrations of not only the power of the people, but also to function to “exercise influence on behalf of collective goals. (Mueller, 2004, p. 87)” At the root of participatory democracy, as done by Ella Baker, it is to use collective and direct action, directed by the whole of the organization as opposed to one specific leader, to fight against injustice.