Teacher Colleagues’ Influence on Novice Teachers’ Perceptions of Teacher Unions and Labor-Management Relations

• In Event: Roundtable Session 104
  In Roundtable Session: Current Research on Teachers’ Work and Teacher Unions

Abstract

Using survey data from novice teachers and their teacher colleagues in 10 districts in Indiana and Michigan, this study examined changes in novices’ beliefs and behaviors regarding their union membership, their preference for union involvement in their work lives, and their rating of the labor-relations climate in their school as a function of their relationships with their colleagues. Specifically, using regression analysis we examined the extent to which teacher colleagues’ influence the beliefs and behaviors of novice teachers over two school years. The findings from this study have implications for how novice teachers are socialized into their school contexts and unions, and have further implications for the future strength and direction of unionism in schools.

Authors

• Ben Pogodzinski, Wayne State University

• Nathan Jones, Boston University