Notes!: Moore Johnson 1984

Johnson, Susan Moore. Teacher Unions In Schools. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1984.

the school is no longer the principal's empire (my term), now informal authority and collaboration with teachers is used more often, though most principals say that was always the better way to run a school (57)

there was a clear trend toward centralized administration of contracts, but particularistic labor relations at teh school-level continued (82)
Grievance procedures had made some schools more hierarchical, but many schools also resolved disputes more informally (82-83)
"pesonalities conitnued to be more important than roles" (83)
the experieces suggest there are strong influences within schools against massive centralization, and feelings that teachers/education demanded autonomy rather than control (83)

teachers look to contract to protect them from unreasonable work demands (made by administrators) (108-109)
careful balance between limiting administrator abuse and over-emphasizing limiting teachers obligations. the former is necessary, the latter can hurt school's effectiveness (109)
restricting teachers' obligations makes more work for administrators (109)

everyone in a district (teachers, admin, etc) thinks unions are responsible for the continued employment of bad teachers (133)
principals can still hve some power in trying to upgrade teachers, but it gets pretty hard to summarily dismiss a teacher

"teachers like to be part of a winning team" (163)
teachers seem OK with both partial democracy and partial authoritarianism...they don't want to be abused, but will work with principals who expect a lot from them

individual personalities and local-level constellations are still really, really important to how a school actually functions (167-8)

Notes!