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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Educational Leadership, 2004. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 166-174).

This investigation was designed to discover the reported patterns of perceptions and behaviors of building principals involved in the 1978 Tucson Unified School District teacher strike. The theoretical framework developed for this study was based on perceptual psychology and included the following areas: (1) perception; (2) empathy; (3) adequacy/self-concept; (4) relationships; (5) stress; and (6) perceptual framework. An interview schedule was developed, based on the theoretical framework, employing a Likert-type attitudinal scale together with an open-ended comment format. Quantitative data were collected based on the principals' responses to the scale items and qualitative data were collected based on the principals' comments on the scale items. Forty principals who were principals during the strike were interviewed in-depth regarding their perceptions and behaviors on the following aspects of the strike: (1) issues and causes; (2) influences; (3) stress; (4) relationships; (5) post-strike views; and (6) attitudes. All the data were collected during the field interviews. The principal sample was a volunteer sample selected from the total population based on their willingness to participate. Among the findings, the following appeared to be the most significant: (1) salary was perceived as the major strike issue and the way the School Board and District Office handled the issues as the primary cause of the strike; (2) the principals perceived themselves and the Tucson Education Association as having the most influence on the teachers' decisions to strike and the teachers' strike behaviors; (3) the principals reported experiencing the most stress during the strike and the least stress before the strike. As a group, the high school principals experienced the most amount of stress and elementary principals experienced the least amount of stress; (4) a break in relationships with significant others, especially teachers, was a major strike concern of the principals; (5) most of the principals perceived the strike as successful in terms of the teachers achieving their goals but costly in terms of relationships; and (6) the majority of the principals were opposed to the act of striking.

This investigation was designed to study the patterns of perceptions of the central office administrators involved in the 1978 Tucson Unified School District teacher strike. The theoretical framework developed for this study, which was based on perceptual psychology, included the following areas: (1) perception; (2) empathy; (3) adequacy/self-concept; (4) relationships; (5) stress; and (6) perceptual framework. An interview schedule was developed based on the theoretical framework. The schedule utilized a Likert-type attitudinal scale as well as an open-ended comment format. Quantitative data were collected based on the principals' responses to the scale items. Qualitative data were based on comments on each of the scale items. Twenty-one central office administrators who were in those positions at the time of the strike were interviewed in-depth regarding their perceptions on the following aspects of the strike: (1) issues and causes; (2) relationships; (3) stress; (4) post-strike views. All of the data were collected during the field interviews. The central office administrator sample was a volunteer sample selected from the total population based on their willingness to participate. Among the findings, the following appeared to be the most significant: (1) the superintendents and school board were cited most frequently as the major cause of the strike; (2) relationships with any of the significant others were not significantly impacted by the strike; (3) the participants were most stressed during the strike. They indicated the least stress was experienced in the pre-strike period; (4) a break in relationships with significant others, especially teachers, was a major strike concern of the central office administrators; (5) Tucson Education Association was perceived by the majority of the participants to have acted in a responsible manner before and during the strike; (6) the consensus agreement was considered by the majority of the participants to be a fair and equitable resolution to the problem; (7) central office administrators, for the most part, did not perceive the strike as having a negative impact on their effectiveness as central office administrators; and (8) the efforts of the district to effectively meet district educational goals was not negatively impacted by the strike circumstances, according to slightly less than a majority of the participants.

In this study, the investigator sought to ascertain what personal relationships existed within the organizational structure of the Tucson (Arizona) Education Association (TEA), and between these TEA members and the Tucson Unified School District officials before, during, and after the teacher strike of 1978. The investigator reviewed literature in the areas of: (1) labor relations, (2) teacher strike activity, (3) perceptual psychology, (4) relational theory, and (5) organizational theory. On this basis, an interview schedule was constructed to ascertain certain of the personal relationships of selected Tucson Education Association members. Forty members of the Tucson Education Association, selected on the basis of nomination by strike-related TEA leaders, were interviewed utilizing the interview schedule. The data thus collected was collated, analyzed, and presented in the form of: (1) case studies and (2) descriptions of responses grouped by subquestions derived from the statement of the problem. Additional data permitting the construction of a chronology of strike-associated events prior to, during, and after the strike were gathered from local news sources, Tucson Education Association literature, and TEA respondents. The study highlighted the apparent lack of supportive and productive relationships existing between Tucson Education Association respondents and Tucson Unified School District officials before, during, and after the strike. Such human relationships appear, according to this study, to be central to the productivity of a school district's professional staff. From this perception, the investigator suggested that school district management personnel, while concerning themselves with the technical aspects of their organizations, should display an equal concern for the quality of the human relationships within their organizations.

Forced truancy is a risk factor that influences juvenile behavior, requiring the joint efforts of school authorities, parents, and courts to address. It is a phenomenon where students desire attending school, but for reasons beyond their control, they are prohibited from attending classes. Some of these reasons are teachers' strike action, students' poverty, lack of educational infrastructures, and unsafe educational environment. Teachers' strike is a frequent occurrence in southeastern Nigeria caused by irregular payment of teachers' wages, benefits, and other remunerations. This case study of 3 secondary schools in southeastern Nigeria sought to understand the impact of forced truancy by examining the relationship between forced truancy and youth delinquency. Although previous studies have explored the causes of truancy, few studies have addressed the effect of forced truancy created by incessant teachers' strike. The theoretical framework that guided this study included Hirschi's social bond theory and Merton's social structure. Case studies were developed using data from the participants and review of documents. A maximum variation method was used for data collection through semi-structured that resulted in a review of archival records and open-ended interviews with students (S = 9), teachers (T = 8), and principals (SP = 4). Descriptive case analysis were used to identify common themes and patterns using constant comparative techniques. Implications for positive social change include identifying areas that need improvement and recommending to legislators and education policy makers for the best approach to addressing the problem, where it has the potential to eliminate teachers' strike, reduce youth truancy, and improve student's academic performance.

This study examined the perceptions of teachers on the picket line and in the classroom during the 1978 Tucson Unified School District teacher strike and the perceptions and relationships they experienced. Literature from sociology, psychology and education was reviewed to develop the theoretical framework. It is recognized in the literature that theory has utility in designing, shaping and organizing research, giving meaning to data and summarizing and interpreting the findings. The theoretical framework was comprised of two sections: the perceptual and the relational. In the perceptual, self-adequacy, self-concept and threat-anxiety were included. In the relational, communication, shared interests and reference groups were included. An interview schedule of twenty-one items based on the theoretical framework was developed and administered to forty selected school district teachers. The twenty-one questions were derived from the two major sections and the six subsections of the theoretical framework. Some demographic data were also collected. Strikers and non-strikers agreed more than they disagreed. There was general agreement among both strikers and non-strikers that human relationships were handled so ineptly by the superintendent and school board that the teachers perceived themselves to be demeaned and held unworthy.