A qualitative study of the perceptions of public school teachers and administrators on the teachers\u27 association and the collective bargaining process in an Iowa urban school setting

Previous studies have looked at collective bargaining and teachers’ associations and their impact on student achievement, but the results are mixed. Absent from the literature are studies that analyze data gathered after the passage of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The focus of this study was to explore urban Iowa public school administrators’ and teachers’ current perceptions of the relationship between teacher associations and collective bargaining. It is the intent of this research to understand what the administrators and teachers in this study perceive about teacher associations and collective bargaining and why they maintain these perceptions. For this study, semi-structured interviews were used to understand the perceptions of school administrators and teachers on collective bargaining and teacher associations in an urban Iowa school district. These interviews were designed to explain current teacher and administrative perception on this research topic. The research offers a number of implications for educators at all levels. The data collected from this study could assist school administrators and public school teachers in understanding the perceptions of others prior to entering collective bargaining negotiations. The various groups could use this information to provide professional development for each group to support working together and ensuring actions that serve the best interest of the students, all while protecting their own professional interests