The purpose of the study was to assess the general knowledge of Indiana school law possessed by Indiana public secondary school teachers. The population consisted of three hundred and thirty randomly selected Indiana public secondary school teachers.A researcher developed assessment instrument comprised of thirty items from Indiana school law in the areas of teacher tenure, pupil control, and tort liability was utilized. One statistical hypothesis and six statistical subhypotheses were analyzed with a Z test. The five percent level of significance was established as the probability level for non-acceptance of the hypothesis and subhypotheses.Conclusions1. The percentage of Indiana public secondary school teachers who possess a fair or better level of knowledge of pupil control, and tort liability is likely between seven and fifteen.2. There is no significant difference in the level of knowledge of Indiana school law possessed by Indiana public Indiana school law in the combined areas of teacher tenure, secondary school teachers when grouped according to years of teaching experience, location of their teacher education training, and inclusion of instructional units on school law in their teacher education training.3. The percentage of Indiana public secondary teachers who possess a fair or better level of knowledge of Indiana school law in the area of teacher tenure is likely between four and twelve.4. The percentage of Indiana public secondary school teachers who possess a fair or better level of knowledge of Indiana school law in the area of pupil control is likely between twenty-two and thirty-four.5. The percentage of Indiana public secondary school teachers who possess a fair or better level of knowledge of Indiana school law in the area of tort liability is likely between seventeen and twenty-seven.

In a 3-year timeframe, nearly 800 student negligence suits were filed, and most involved some claim of personal injury. Despite heightened public attention of negligence lawsuits against school districts and their employees, an empirical study of court decisions revealed that the volume of litigation against school districts remained steady from 1990 to 2005, the majority of cases were ruled in favor of the school district employees, and government and official immunity were most often the basis for these rulings. Researchers have concluded that immunity laws are strong in the United States, although they vary by state in their application. However, a primary recommendation was that, because of the misconception of a lack of immunity for public school employees, a comprehensive study on governmental and official immunity is needed. This dissertation employed legal research, analysis, and methodology to engage in a comprehensive investigation of teacher immunity in the four southern states of Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and New Mexico. Of central concern to this dissertation was the Tort Claims Act of 1978 from the State of New Mexico. The Tort Claims Act is the vehicle by which immunity is granted to public school employees. Court findings over the last 35 years point to three primary domains under which cases pertaining to immunity fall: negligence (62.5%), evaluation and supervision (16.7%), and student discipline (8.3%). Immunity appears strong across all three domains; however, only future studies on cases by state will determine whether states in the southwest United States are the norm or an anomaly.

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The purpose of the study was to investigate current liability insurance practices for professional school corporation personnel in Indiana. Fifty rural and fifty urban school corporations were surveyed with regard to: (1) number and character of suits against school corporations or professional. school corporation personnel, (2) amount of current liability insurance protection carried by school corporations, (3) degree of legal representation of school corporations and school corporation personnel, and (4) opinions of respondents about educational malpractice. An instrument developed to gather data elicited responses from 52 percent of urban and 6-8 percent of rural school corporations in the sample.An analysis of data was completed to test two null hypotheses with regard to: (1) need for liability insurance and (2) employment of legal counsel. Additional data were compiled arid reported descriptively in order to draw conclusions regarding the current status of personal liability insurance protection within Indiana school corporations. Findings of the study included:Urban school corporations had a significantly greater need for liability insurance as measured by number of suits involving school corporations or professional school corporation personnel. Respondents from 57.7 percent of urban school corporations reported involvement in at least thirty liability actions between 1972 and 1977. Respondents from 26.5 percent of rural school corporations reported involvement in ten liability actions between 1972 and 1977.Negligence and personal injury were grounds most often reported for school related liability actions, especially in actions involving urban school corporations.Judgments rendered against rural school corporations were settled for an average of $9,975. Judgments against urban school corporations were settled for an average of $14,506.Written teacher dismissal policies had been established by 58.8 percent of rural and 88.5 percent of urban school corporations.Results of a Chi-Square test indicated that no significant difference existed between rural and urban school corporations in the employment of legal counsel. Urban school corporations pay more than twice the yearly fee for legal services dealing with personal liability than rural school corporations. Legal counsel provided by school corporations would not represent employees from almost 40 percent of Indiana school corporations in liability litigation.Urban school corporations provide for more types of liability, greater amounts of coverage, and larger deductibles for liability insurance than rural counterparts. Deductibles in excess of $1,000 were obtained on 16.9 percent of all coverages with deductibles purchased by rural school corporations and on 52.6 percent of all coverages with deductibles purchased by urban school corporations. Four rural and nine urban school corporations reported deductibles of $10,000.Amount of annual premium paid varies with type and amount of coverage, amount of deductible, school corporation enrollment, number of school officials and number of school employees covered. Rural school corporations were providing liability insurance protection at an average premium rate of $1.20 per student enrolled. Urban school corporations were providing liability insurance protection at an average premium rate of $1.17 per student enrolled.School officials and employees from rural school corporations which have not been involved in liability actions tend to be less wary of implications of educational malpractice than school officials and employees from urban school corporations or from rural school corporations which have been involved in liability actions.

The problem of the investigation was to determine the legal status of public sector school oriented professional negotiations in the fifty states of the United States. Available data dealing with the status of public sector school oriented professional negotiations between boards of education and teacher organizations proved to be disorganized in terms of providing readily available, complete, and accurate information.The attorney general of each state was contacted by letter for the purpose of completing a questionnaire. The secondary source of information was the executive secretary of each state school board association.Thirty states have statutes mandating negotiations between boards of education and teacher organization representatives. Within each state statute information was gathered concerning (1) statutory inclusion, (2) impasse procedures, (3) grievance procedures, (4) scope of negotiations, (5) employee rights, (6) employer rights, and (7) strikes and penalties.Findings included:1. Thirty state legislatures have mandated negotiations between boards of education and teacher organizations.2. All state legislatures in the Northwest area of the United States mandate professional negotiations between boards of education and teacher organizations.3. One state legislature in the Southeast area of the United States mandates professional negotiations between boards of education and teacher organizations.4. One state statute prohibits boards of education from recognizing teacher organization representatives for the purpose of collective bargaining.5. All thirty state statutes mandating collective bargaining between boards of education and teacher organizations provide teachers with exclusive representation,6. All thirty state statutes mandating collective bargaining between boards of education and teacher organizations provide as negotiable items such matters as salaries, hours, and working conditions.7. All thirty state statutes mandating collective bargaining between boards of education and teacher organizations provide for settlement of impasse by mediation, factfinding, or arbitration.Conclusions were:1. Negotiation rights for teachers have come about more slowly than for most government employees.2. Increased organized efforts to formalize the negotiation procedures have continued to be faced by boards of education in all states.3. Teacher strikes are increasing in spite of anti-strike legislation in most states.4. Statutes have given priority to teacher rights in terms of the rights of teachers and boards of education.5. The passage of legislation is no panacea for problems stemming from board of education and teacher organization relationships and legislation will not eliminate the possibility of court cases, attorneys general opinions, and teacher strikes.Recommendations are:1. Periodic studies should be undertaken in order to update professional negotiation procedures.2. Specific statutory provisions should be studied in depth to determine if such provisions are fulfilling the needs of both parties.3. Attention should be given to professional negotiations within states to determine how legislation is being implemented and how the legal status is developing in states where no guidelines are provided.4. Further study should take place to determine the impact of statutory enactments on both parties.

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This thesis explores the experiences of Canadian academic women in terms of location, space and voice. Within this qualitative study, the spaces of and for women within the university are examined by way of women's subjective experiences of 'value' and 'being valued'. Differences in experiences between women based on age, colour, tenure and academic rank are described through the voices of thirty academic women. The study argues that the "illusionary practices of equity" operating within the university milieu, exacerbate the tensions inherent in contradictory subject locations that women occupy within academe. The struggles of representation and identity within these contested spaces raise the challenges of whose voice will have space within the privileged locations of higher learning.

The purpose of the study was to determine if the language of the negotiated agreements of Indiana School Corporations was reflected in professional growth and staff development activities. Collective bargaining agreements during 1982-1983 and 1988-1989 from 289 Indiana School Corporations were compared to identify the existence, if any, of (a) a trend in the acknowledgement of professional growth and staff development-related statements found in the contracts, and (b) policy statements delineating how staff development activities and curriculum-related activities were to be conducted in schools. Contract language in which comparisons appeared to be significant were subjected to the Friedman Two-way Analysis of Variance (Friedman ANOVA) to determine whether or not comparisons were statistically significant at the .05 level. Such statistically significant comparisons also helped to determine whether or not school corporations incorporated contract language, which gave instructional staff a legal position in decisions which affected teacher professional growth and participation in curriculum-related matters.Conclusions1. Compared to small enrollment Indiana School Corporations (3,000 students or less), large enrollment Indiana School Corporations (3,001 or more students) were more likely than statistically expected to provide salary compensation for higher levels of teacher education training and sabbatical leave compensation at statistically significant levels of .05 or less, based upon use of the chi-square statistic.2. The research findings failed to support movement toward greater Indiana School Corporation contract language in 1982-1983 and 1988-1989 in most of the specified staff development factors under investigation in the research. Therefore, contrary to the literature which claimed that collective bargaining would be used as a vehicle for staff development change, collective bargaining has not provided structural support for such change among Indiana School Corporations. / Department of Educational Leadership

The purpose of this study was to determine the level of satisfaction of selected teacher spokespersons toward Indiana Public Law 217, the collective bargaining law for teachers.A survey instrument consisting of forty-six items in five Likert-response categories was mailed to 125 randomly selected teacher spokespersons in Indiana. Space was provided for respondents to write comments or rationale for their answers. Fifty-seven teacher spokespersons responded to the survey.The following rank order was utilized for each of the sections of Indiana Public j 217 ranging from (5) highly dissatisfied, (4) somewhat dissatisfied, (3) neutral, (2) somewhat satisfied to (1) highly satisfied based on the mean scores.Findings1. Selected teacher spokespersons rated four section items between 4.00 and 5.00.2. Of the forty-six section items that were surveyed, seventeen sections were rated between 3.00 and 3.99.3. Negotiators for the teachers ranked seventeen sections of Indiana Public L&7_ between 2.00 and 2.99.4. Eight section items were rated between 1.00 and 1.99 by the teacher spokesperson.Conclusions1. Teacher spokespersons were dissatisfied with the inability to strike and the penalities for unlawful strikes.2. Teacher spokespersons were dissatisfied with the procedures and restrictions governing bargaining and discussions.3. Teacher spokespersons were dissatisfied with the provisions and procedures of fact-finding, arbitration and maintaining a status quo contract.4. Teacher spokespersons were dissatisfied with the sections of the law dealing with the rights of the employer5. Teacher spokespersons were dissatisfied with the stated intent of the law.6. Teacher spokespersons were dissatisfied with the structure and powers of the Indiana Education Employment Relations Board.7. Teacher spokespersons were satisfied with the definitions of certificated employees and exclusive representative.8. Teacher spokespersons were satisfied with the procedures of unfair practices as stated in the law.9. Teacher spokesperson were satisfied with the procedures of dues deductions as stated in the law.