Professional organizations can play an important role in the lives and work of educators. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore Alabama educators' experiences with membership in statewide professional organizations and to determine what benefits, if any, members feel their organizations provide them. Four main benefits that…

The purpose of this study was to explore the way twelve female leaders in English Language Teaching (ELT) in Latin America have lived their leadership roles in relation to their identity as transformational female leaders. This qualitative multiple-case study used a cross-case analysis to find the similarities and differences among the different…

Amidst increasing globalized pressures to raise student achievement, nations are heavily investing in various forms of teacher professional development. In the United States, teachers are increasingly electing to pursue National Board Certification, yet few studies have analyzed the experience within the greater complex system of teaching and…

For nearly two decades teachers unions and charter schools have defined the major points of conflict over school reform, forming an "us vs. them" narrative that pits one against the other. By design, charter schools are free from many state and district regulations--including collective bargaining agreements. And when students enroll in…

This article presents the results of an on-line cross-sectional questionnaire and further discussion about the characterization of ASOCOPI's affiliates, their expectations of being a member, and the contributions that the association has made to their professional development. The respondents' answers were analyzed by following a statistical…

Teacher professional agency refers to the ability of teachers to control their work within structural constraints. In this paper, we show how teacher activist organizations can assist in the development of professional agency. We focus on a teacher activist organization in a large urban district in the United States and identify three…

This modified case study examines how the members of the British Columbia Teacher-Librarians' Association (BCTLA), a Provincial Specialist Association (PSA) of the British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF), work together to advocate for strong school library programs headed by a credentialed school librarian. Since 2002, despite nullification…

Purpose: This study examined how labor-management relations between school districts and teacher associations seem to affect teacher contract provisions regarding the role of seniority in teacher assignment and how contract provisions and teacher assignment policies seem to affect beginning teachers' perceptions about their work environments.…

When California legislators passed the California Charter School Act of 1992, it allowed parents the choice of sending their children to public charter schools, places where teachers would have more autonomy and where schools faced exemptions from state education codes and from collective bargaining contracts. Hope Charter School (a pseudonym;…

The purpose of this report is to describe what the authors learned from studying eight teacher career advancement initiatives implemented across a variety of contexts, including urban, suburban, and rural districts; high poverty and affluent districts; and in schools/districts both with and without strong union presence. They describe key…

The study reported in this paper sought to identify reasons why teachers do or do not join unions. In addition, the study sought to disclose relationships between certain demographic characteristics and those reasons. The National Education Association/American Federation of Teachers (NEA/AFT) Membership Questionnaire, a Likert-type attitudinal…

An e-mail survey was conducted in the summer of 2007 to obtain information from state supervisors of mathematics (employees of state departments of education with primary responsibility for K-12 curriculum leadership) regarding the impact of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) 2006 publication, "Curriculum Focal Points (CFP) for…

This article reports on a study of Illinois school board presidents' perspectives on teacher tenure. It begins with an historical overview of the development of teacher tenure from its roots in the 1880s civil service legislation through the establishment of teacher tenure in the United States to an examination of current teacher tenure laws and…

In 1976 and 1981, surveys were conducted to determine the curricular role of geography in the New York State Community College System. The questionnaire solicited information on the geography courses offered; frequency with which they were offered; new courses planned; faculty degrees; responsiveness of geographical associations and community…

Surveys of teacher unions and school administrators examined teacher sexual abuse of elementary students in Ontario (Canada) 1987-92. Results indicate that accusations, charges, and convictions were few; the acquittal rate for teachers was high; and a number of teachers were falsely accused of sexual abuse each year. Includes administrator…