Teachers Union Involvement in Educational Policy Making: Issues Raised by an In-Depth Case

Abstract

Existing arguments that support increased teachers union involvement in educational policy making assume that collective bargaining is the most important means, or the most legitimate means, by which teachers unions exert influence within the educational policy arena. This article provides an in-depth examination of a wide variety of traditional and emergent techniques that one teacher organization has employed during the 1990s as means of influencing provincial educational policy. The circumstances and reasoning that gave rise to specific influence techniques is included. A typology of educational policy influence techniques with their strengths and limitations is provided. The case raises issues that have important implications for governments, departments of education, and teachers unions in North American contexts.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bascia, N. (1994). Unions in teachers' professional lives: Social, intellectual, and practical concerns. New York: Teachers College Press.

Boyd, W. L. , Plank, D. N. , & Sykes, G. (1998, September 24-25). Swimming against the current: Teachers 'unions in hard times. Paper presented at the conference on Teacher Unions and Educational Reform, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.

Eberts, R. , & Stone, J. (1984). Unions and public schools: The effect of collective bargaining on American education. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.

Fergusson, N. (1990). The story of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union: From the formation of the Old Union in 1895 to the 1980s. Armdale, Canada: Nova Scotia Teachers Union.

Jenish, D. (1997, November 17). The battle for Ontario's schools. Maclean's.

Jessup, D. (1978). Teacher unionization: A reassessment of rank and file motivations. Sociology of Education, 51, 44-55.

Jessup, D. (1985). Teachers, unions, and change: A comparative study. New York: Praeger.

Kerchner, C. , & Koppich, J. (1993). A union of professionals: Labor relations and educational reform. New York: Teachers College Press.

Kerchner, C. , & Mitchell, D. (1988). The changing idea of a teachers' union. New York: Falmer.

10.

Kerchner, C. T. , Koppich, J. E. , & Weeres, J. G. (1997). United mind workers: Unions and teaching in the knowledge society. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

11.

Poole, W. (1998, April 13-17). The teacher union's role in 1990's educational reform. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.

12.

Shedd, J. , & Bacharach, S. (1991). Tangled hierarchies: Teachers as professionals and the management of schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.