As graduate enrollment in English falls, largely due to program reduction, many college and university English departments are recruiting freshman composition instructors from other fields. Although they may be skilled writers, many receive little or no formal training in how to teach writing. Issues concerning the unionization of teaching…

Examines various services available to migrant farmworkers and their families in northwest Ohio, including labor recruiting, welfare services, health services, day care and Head Start, and legal services. Argues that although such services were established ostensibly to help farmworkers, they assist farmers in crucial ways and help perpetuate the…

Compares the structure of education enterprises and workplace practices with those in other enterprises in the public and private sectors. Finds that labor-related and control-related factors in education differ substantially from enterprises in the public and private sectors. (Contains 60 references.) (PKP)

This article discusses the value and feasibility of carrying out evaluation research on teacher development and uses as points of reference the author's experiences in two countries, Sri Lanka and Mexico. In Sri Lanka, an evaluation study was designed to understand the effectiveness and costs of teacher development at the elementary level linking…

The Australian Federal Government recently amended the Higher Education Support Act 2003. The effect of this amendment, which came into force on 1 January 2006, is to abolish compulsory up-front fees for the funding of student unions. Voluntary student unionism has been a plank of the Liberal (conservative) platform for many years, but its…

The Department for Education and Skills refers consistently to the Social Partnership Agreement (SPA) with unions representing teachers and support staff in education. Those inside the partnership will have their own perspectives on its operation. This article does not seek to describe, therefore, the day to day relationships of unions, Government…

Teachers may be the most important element of an effective school, but does that mean that K-12 improvement must wait on the ability of schools or systems to recruit, nurture, and retain outstanding teachers? Such a strategy implies that widespread excellence hinges on the ability of publicly funded school systems to attract more than 3.3 million…

Cooperation between different types of libraries to increase ease of patron access was not capable of great strides until the technological advances of the mid-1980s. Writers in the field are reporting increased pockets of activity, but also say that traditional ideas, such as pride of ownership or fear of future results from fixed commitments,…

In fall 1993, Owens Community College (OCC), in Ohio, conducted a survey of 2,277 currently enrolled students to gather data on significant needs and characteristics to inform institutional effectiveness efforts. The survey instrument asked students to rate 76 items grouped into the categories of educational need, professional need,…

Manitoba, Canada, workplace stakeholder groups were interviewed to determine the issues they faced and their awareness of, and ability to deal with, workplace basic skills issues. Interviews collected the opinions of 78 employer representatives, 121 employees, and 5 union representatives in the 6 emerging economic sectors of health care products,…

Written by a negotiator for the Chicago City College Board approximately a year after the signing of the first faculty collective bargaining agreement at the college on May 2, 1967, this paper reviews the climate and key elements of the collective bargaining process. First, an overview is provided of the negotiation process, indicating the…

Labor unions have provided English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction in the workplace since the early 1900s, to serve a growing immigrant workforce. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, an increase in immigrant population, decline in manufacturing jobs, new technology, and work restructuring brought a new urgency to union-sponsored worker…

During the early 1990s, the Hartford, Connecticut, public school system experienced serious financial problems and a downward trend in the key indicators of educational success. In 1994 the Hartford, Connecticut, board of education granted Education Alternatives, Incorporated (EAI), a 5-year contract to manage the school district. This paper…

The nature, extent, and likely future of outsourcing in the United Kingdom was examined through an extensive literature review and interviews with small numbers of local authorities, companies, and contractors. Despite the limited data available, it appeared that outsourcing is concentrated in ancillary activities and is relatively marginal, both…

Technological changes affecting the health care industry spurred the development and implementation of a curriculum to upgrade the skills of Philadelphia health care workers in written communication, mathematics, computer literacy, oral and listening communication, and issues surrounding their union employment in the health care field. The…