Thesis (M.Ed.(Onderwysbestuur, Reg- en Beleidstudies))--Universiteit van Pretoria, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1971. / Title from title page screen, viewed Sept. 16, 2004. Dissertation Committee: Elwood Egelston (chair), G. Alan Hickrod, Richard Desmond, Vernon Pohlmann, Thomas Edwards. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-124). Also available in print.

M.A. (Public Management and Governance) / This study focused on perceptions of the role of teacher unions within the basic education system in secondary schools in Soweto, a township in the south of Johannesburg, South Africa. The main aim of the study was to determine whether the role that teacher unions play contributes negatively to the state of education in secondary schools in Soweto. To make this determination, the study focused on two secondary schools in Soweto. The study discussed the key purpose of teacher unions in education, and provides the legislated guidelines as well as perceptions of stakeholders in education in secondary schools in Soweto with regard to the extent of the influence of South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) in two secondary schools in Soweto. As the biggest teacher union in the country with a large following of educators in secondary schools in Soweto, SADTU has significant power which can be directed to either enhance teaching and learning or inhibit teaching and learning in secondary schools in Soweto. If existing accountability processes are not implemented to ensure that teacher unions carry out their mandate in compliance with legislation, the state of education in secondary schools in Soweto may be at risk. The study utilized a qualitative research design, to analyze data gathered from existing literary knowledge on the subject, while qualitative interviews were conducted with respondents to establish their perceptions on the positive or negative contributions of SADTU in secondary schools in Soweto. The findings were that SADTU is perceived to be inhibiting the culture of teaching and learning in some secondary schools in Soweto. However, the study established that SADTU cannot be isolated as the only cause for a poor culture of teaching and learning in secondary schools in Soweto. The cumulative effect of the curriculum changes; lack of training of educators; pressure placed on the teaching and learning through strikes and dissent; and intimidation of some SADTU members are factors that have contributed negatively to the culture of teaching and learning in secondary schools in Soweto.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION in the Department of Educational Planning and Administration at The University of Zululand, 2004. / The study evaluates the efficiency and effectiveness of representation of educators, by their unions. Questionnaires and open-ended interviews were used to collect data from educators, union officials and school principals. Data is analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The study reveals that, while union officials recognize the significance of their role in educator representation, there are challenges in performing this role. Chief among these are: > Inadequate communication between union officials and educators. > Limited ability of union officials to: □ Build the capacity of educators as professionals. □ Familiarize educators about legislation such as the Labour Relations Act, Employment of Educators Act and others. Lack of capacity of both union officials as representatives of educators and educators as the constituency, presents a potential to threaten accountable industrial democracy. The candidate makes a series of recommendations to foster educator representation. These recommendations culminate in a model tabled in the last chapter of the study. This model gives guidelines on systems and processes, which underpin and enhance efficient and effective educator representation. The model is a contribution to building responsible democracy in general, but industrial democracy in particular, within the educator system in the country.

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South African primary school children need to be confronted with music in such a way that they can create, perform, listen and relate to it in a multicultural setting. This can be achieved by integrating music into the primary school curriculum, by means of ideas drawn from Comprehensive Musicianship, the spiral curriculum and outcomes-based education. Apart from the educational value of an integrated curriculum, the shortage of trained music educators makes it a necessity to involve generalist teachers in this way. There is thus a need, not being met by SASMT or SAMES, for a professional organisation to examine the goals and objectives of school music, and to equip teachers to put them into practice. In addition, as music is not specifically protected in Curriculum 2005, a professional organisation dedicated to primary school music is crucial to the survival of music education in South Africa. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M. Mus.

Thesis advisor: Mark Gelfand / Labor in the United States has been commonly associated with images of industrialism, factories, and skilled craftsmen. This narrow vision of labor ignores the millions of Americans employed by the federal, state, and local governments. As early national labor law failed to define the rights of government employees, each state was forced to create their own public labor law through judicial rulings and state legislation. This study is framed around the struggles of Rhode Island public employees, specifically public school teachers, to obtain the right to organize and employ labor's greatest weapon, the strike. An in-depth examination of the 1975 Woonsocket Teachers' Guild strike incorporating the experiences of union officers, labor lawyers, and other participants provides a concrete example of the difficulties encountered by government employees against the courts, legislature, and public opinion. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2005. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Thesis advisor: Marilyn Cochran-Smith / This dissertation explores the many, complex changes to educational policy making in recent years. I conduct a critical policy analysis of a Massachusetts law that limits seniority-based job protections for public K-12 teachers. Garnering considerable controversy, the law was the result of private negotiations between the state's largest teachers' union and Stand for Children, a national Education Reform Advocacy Organization (ERAO). I use data from interviews with policy stakeholders, observations of public meetings and policy artifacts to explore struggles over public engagement in what unfolded as a highly undemocratic policy development process. My theoretical framework combines Stephen Ball's "policy cycle" (Ball, 1993; Bowe, Ball & Gold, 1992) with deliberative democratic theory. Aligned with Ball's work, I explore the ways that political discourses shaped struggles in various "contexts" of the policy development process. I demonstrate that policy development was a messy, non-linear process that involved complicated argumentation about teachers' unions, ERAOs, and community organizing. Informed by deliberative democratic theory, I focus on concrete efforts taken to include, or exclude, the public from the policy debate, and I highlight discourses that appeared to justify these political decisions. I argue that the case is indicative of what I am calling "neo-democratic" decision making, in which high-level interest group conflict leads to narrow forms of democratic engagement. I trace changes in each organization's political identity over the course of the conflict, and I demonstrate that identity was connected in important ways to underlying beliefs about policy making and public engagement. Fueled by interest group conflict, both Stand for Children and the Massachusetts Teachers' Association sought to promote the organizational identity that best suited their political interests. In the process, each organization pursued narrow forms of democratic engagement that clashed with their own organizational mission statements. I use findings from the case to offer suggestions for moving beyond the "neo-democratic" era and towards a system of policy making that aspires to higher democratic ideals. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Submitted in partial fulfilment of a Degree of Master in Education Wits School of Education, Curriculum Studies University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa 2016 / This study considers black female teachers’ conceptions of themselves, their ‘identities’ as teachers and ways in which they negotiate this in relation to their membership in teacher trade unions. Drawing upon Wenger’s model of identity in practice, and recent research into identity construction and teacher activity in trade unions. The study uses a qualitative case study methodology. It uses semi-structured interviews with four Mpumalanga teachers from SADTU and NAPTOSA, within each trade union the study looked at a representative and an ordinary member of the trade union. A major finding of the study was that black female teachers partake in the reconciliation of their various identities, by filtering out what they deemed inappropriate and remaining with those identities which they felt led to less tensions with their teacher identity. It was also found that ordinary members of unions are disengaged with their union identity and therefore do little identity work to reconcile their union and teacher identities. The implications of this for teachers and education in South Africa are discussed. The study calls for further research that explores the process teachers undergo to take ownership of their union identity and therefore develop a sense of agency. / MT2017

Thesis (M. Ed.) -- University of Limpopo, 1981 / Refer to the document