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The participation of teacher union in educational policy decision-making at the central and local level

The study was to explore the degree of involvement of teacher union in the policy decision ¡Ðmaking process of the education authorities at the central and local level, to analyze the strategies the unions adopted during the participation, and to identify the viewpoints of these involvement from the related people, including policy decision-makers, legislators, and union leaders. Then, a theoretical model of teacher union¡¦s involvement in the decision-making process was testified against the cases in Taiwan. Finally, through the consultation with the experiences of UK and USA, an ideal operational model would be proposed for teacher unions around the island.
To achieve the above aims, the researcher adopted documentary analyses and questionnaire survey as the major research methods. The questionnaire was developed by the researcher based upon the literature review and documentary analyses. Surveyed sample of the central level included standing members and executive staff of the National Teacher Union(NTU), congressmen belonging to the Education and Culture committee of the country¡¦s Congress, employees of the Ministry of Education. Surveyed sample of local level included standing board members and executive staff of eight local teacher unions, county councilors belonging to the county council¡¦s education section, local PTA members, and employees of local education authorities.
The following 13 findings have been concluded:
1. Staff of the NTU cited the budgeting and management of education finance and the enactment of educational personnel regulations the most-often involved topic by the staff.
2. The perception of NTU¡¦s staff regarding the organization¡¦s involvement was ¡§high level of involvement, low degree of satisfaction,¡¨ which could lead to the more radical approach by NTU while dealing with the education authority in the future.
3. A more radical embarrassmen approach and a mild information approach were considered suitable measures by the NTU¡¦s staff while negotiating with the central education authority.
4. Much more policy makers than NTU¡¦s staff considered the NTU¡¦s role in the policy making process active.
5. All sample agreed that NTU use the information approach to influence the policy making most frequently.
6. Either central or local level, all sample regarded information approach and the alliance approach the two most appropriate measures.
7. All local sample considered the involvement of local teacher union was restricted to those sphere relating to the teacher¡¦s rights and privileges.
8. Local teacher union staff expressed ¡§low level of involvement, low degree of satisfaction¡¨ of their participation in the local policy decision-making process.
9. Compared with NTU, local teacher union showed limited use of different approaches of lobbying.
10. Alliance approach and information approach were considered by all sample the most used measures by the local teacher unions.
11. Local teacher union staff considered information approach the most appropriate measure in lobbying the policy makers, nevertheless, they showed willingness to utilize other approaches.
12. There were significant difference between the perceptions of PTA and local union staff concerning the teacher union¡¦s involvement in the policy making process.
13. County councilors¡¦ needs for educational information was extremely high, as a result, they showed support for the local teacher union¡¦s use of information approach in lobbying.
Finally, 12 suggestions were provided to teacher unions at both central and local level as well as the education authorities by the researcher.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0701103-171003
Date01 July 2003
CreatorsMa, Shiang-Chung
Contributorsnone, none, none
PublisherNSYSU
Source SetsNSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive
LanguageCholon
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0701103-171003
Rightsunrestricted, Copyright information available at source archive

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