High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is an American labor union that primarily represents teachers. AFT was originally called, American Federation of Teachers and Students which was founded in 1900. AFT periodically developed additional sub-groups for paraprofessionals and school-related personnel; local, state and federal employees; higher education faculty and staff, and nurses and other healthcare professionals within the organization. The AFT`s affiliations include; the trade union federation since its founding, (the old American Federation of Labor until 1955, and the AFL-CIO.