No description available.

The National Education Association (NEA) has experienced negative publicity and discontent amongst its membership in recent years, thus causing some members to completely withdraw from the organization and still others to become detached. Yet some members remain completely committed. It is through examining the members' talk about identification, involvement, and loyalty that his/her level of commitment or detachment is explored. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 NEA members at two different local affiliates in the southern region of the United States. The conversations were transcribed and served as the text for content analysis. The major identification barrier for the informants was the NEA's liberal policies, specifically when it came to homosexuality. One local was more organized and committed to the national association, thus allowing their members to be more involved at the local, state, and national levels. The major barriers to involvement were overwork and life cycle issues (i.e., spouses, children, church, social obligations). There were four major themes surrounding loyalty to the NEA: recruitment, incentives for staying, future plans, and reasons for quitting. Most of the members were recruited as student teachers because they felt they needed the liability insurance. Most of them stay for the insurance. Committed members discuss their futures in the organization; detached members do not. The predominant reason members withdraw is because they disapprove of how the NEA handled a local grievance. NEA members are most likely to converse about the organization with their family members and this is usually in defense of the organization. The committed members reported avoiding conservatives when discussing the union. Topics of conversation include goals of the NEA, complaints about the organization, and the nonunion alternative. Prior to this research, identification was often the only variable considered when studying commitment of organizational research. Involvement and loyalty were virtually ignored. This research highlights that identification and loyalty are best understood by listening to the members' talk. Involvement can be easily measured with a survey. Additionally, both the local affiliate and the members' commitment need to be considered when pondering commitment or detachment of a member.

The purpose of the study was to collect, consolidate and report the perceived advantages and disadvantages of unified bargaining concepts currently operational in the state of Michigan as ranked by uniserv field representatives, local education association presidents, school board presidents and school superintendents.Data were generated through a forced choice questionnaire of twenty-six items drawn from a review of related literature and validated by professional consultants in the field of unified bargaining. Questionnaires were mailed to randomly selected participants in unified bargaining structures in each of the existing thirty-three multiple association bargaining organizations in the state of Michigan.Responses from the selected respondents were tabulated and reported by respondent group type. Frequency distributions according to items identified as advantages, disadvantages or not applicable to unified bargaining were presented tabularly and discussed narratively as were the-rankings of the most important advantages and disadvantages as perceived by respondents.Findings in the study indicated:1. Employee groups perceived the reduced probability of local associations ratifying sub standard contracts, standardization of contractual agreements, ready availability of professional negotiators and greater employee power in the bargaining process as the most important advantages of unified bargaining.2. Employee groups regarded the subordination of local association goals and autonomy to regional and state associations as the most important disadvantages of unified bargaining.3. Employer groups noted the increased utilization of professionally trained negotiators and the concomitant objectivity introduced into the bargaining process when professionally trained personnel negotiate as the most important advantages of unified bargaining.4. Employer groups identified decreased individual and local association autonomy and influence and the perception professional negotiators are not responsible for managing nor are subject to contracts bargained as the most important disadvantages of unified bargaining.5. A degree of congruence existed within and between employee and employer groupings. The greater degree of congruence between employee and employer groupings was noted in the ranking of disadvantages of unified bargaining.The following were among the conclusions drawn based upon the findings and the review of related literature:1. Individual and local education association autonomy and influence over. the business of the local education association is decreased as a result of participation in unified bargaining.2. Employee association power is increased when unified bargaining formats are operational. 3. Unified bargaining results in increased utilization of professionally trained negotiators. 4. Decreased amounts of direct employee-employer communication occur when unified bargaining formats are operational.5. The probability local education associations will ratify sub standard contracts is reduced when local education associations participate in unified bargaining.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University. / Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Richard Anderson. Dissertation Committee: Robert Birnbaum, Peter Moock. Bibliography: leaves 100-110.

Thesis--Munich. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [i]-xii at end).

Thesis--Munich. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [i]-xii at end).

Ph.D. (Educational Psychology) / The researcher explored and described principals’ management of union members’ aggression in schools. The overarching aim was to assist principals who experience aggression from union members in the schools they head. To accomplish this, the researcher developed, implemented and evaluated a psycho-educational programme to manage union members’ aggression through the facilitation of their mental health. Union members’ aggressive behaviour and attitudes have become the order of the day in schools. This hampers the quality of teaching and learning, and also contributes to the increased levels of stress and frustration for principals, who are the school managers. Notwithstanding the traumatic environment in the workplace, principals are still expected by the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) as well as the community, to fulfil their day-to-day functions: Principals impute violence and aggression as foremost reasons why schools have become dysfunctional and ungovernable. The research design was structured into four chronological research phases. Phase One: the situation analysis was conducted according to a qualitative research approach through individual phenomenological interviews with a purposive sample of school principals. Tesch’s descriptive approach to data reduction was applied. Thereafter a literature control was conducted. Trustworthiness was ensured through adherence to credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability...

I examine the passage of alternative teacher certification policies in the states between 1975 and 2000 using event history analysis and supplementing the event history analysis with an ordinary least squares regression analysis of the strength of the alternative teacher certification policies. In order to test both teachers unions political strength external to state legislatures and teachers unions political strength internal to state legislatures, I use two variables to measure teachers union political strength. One variable measures the percentage of teachers in a state who work under union-negotiated contracts. The other variable measures the percentage of legislators in a state who list their non-legislative occupation as K-12 education. Control variables include teacher shortages, per pupil spending, legislative professionalism, divided government, democratic governor, percentage of minority students, change in percentage of minority students, an electoral threat index, and a time counter. Although the event history model results were inconclusive with respect to the teachers union political strength variables, the policy strength model results reveal that states with large percentages of teachers who work under union-negotiated contracts are more likely than other states to pass weak alternative teacher certification policies. This result supports the notion that teachers unions operate in the education policy-making arena.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2004. Graduate Programme in Sociology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 343-359). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url%5Fver=Z39.88-2004&res%5Fdat=xri:pqdiss &rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NQ99221

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2009. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 204-210). Also available on the World Wide Web.