The subject of industrial relations is intimately connected with the nature of schooling - in particular, the teacher trade unions have played and will continue to play a crucial role in shaping the school system - yet this subject has been virtually neglected in educational literature. Mike Ironside and Roger Seifert's book redresses this balance and unravels the complex issues surrounding the employment and management of teachers. Recent changes in education have had massive implications for the way in which our education system is organised. In the light of recent events, this book questions who controls or ought to control schools, focusing on the government, Department of Education, LEA's, head teachers, school governors, parents and teaching unions. The authors argue that in order for schools to continue to function, industrial relations must be given priority, including the development of a proper framework for negotiation and the resolution of conflicts.

Collective bargaining in the public schools of the nation has its legal roots in the industrial labor model fashioned in the 1930s out of labor strife between union organizers and private businesses. This industrial union labor model was transplanted almost wholesale into the public sector over fifty years ago when teachers, fire and police personnel were granted the legislative right to collectively bargain their wages, benefits, and terms and conditions of employment in most states. What impact has this industrial model had on public education and on the relationship between teachers and administrators? Labor Relations in Education explores unions and collective bargaining in the public schools of America. The history of the laws, the politics of the response to collective bargaining and unions, and the practices of bargaining and managing a contract are explored in this volume. Changes that may move labor relations into professional relations and away from the industrial labor union model and diminish the schism that exists between educators are discussed. A fully developed simulation is included to employ the practices and concepts discussed in the book.

Interdisciplinary in approach and drawing not only on education research but also from the fields of industrial sociology, management studies and labour process theory, Industrial Relations in Education attempts to understand the reform agenda in relation to teachers, their professional identities and their experience of work by drawing on critical perspectives that seek to challenge orthodox policy discourses relating to remodelling.

All phases of education from pre-school to post-compulsory, in virtually all parts of the world, have experienced unprecedented reform and restructuring in recent years. Restructuring has largely been driven by a global agenda that has promoted the development of human capital as the key to economic competitiveness in the global market. This book adopts an inter-disciplinary approach drawing not only on education research but also from the fields of industrial sociology, management studies and labour process theory to locate the reform agenda within a wider picture relating to teachers, their professional identities and their experience of work. In doing so the book draws on critical perspectives that seek to challenge orthodox policy discourses relating to remodelling. Illustrating of how education policy is shaped by discourses within the wider socio-political environment and how unionization and inter-organizational bargaining between unions exerts a decisive, but often ignored, influence on policy development at both a State and institutional level, this book is a must read for anyone researching or studying employment relations.