An Analysis of the Relationship of Teacher Job Satisfaction and Teacher Union Activism in the Detroit Public School System.

This research explores the relationship between teachers' job satisfaction and their activism in a union. (Activism identifies the level of participation via attendance at committee, chapter, and general union membership meetings, and other related union activies.) Through a self-administered questionnaire, the strength and correlates of this relationship among a sample of 400 Detroit teachers was studied. The purposes of the study were to determine if dissatisfied teachers were most active in the union and what other factors were associated with union activism. More specifically, the study sought to determine if the relationship between job satisfaction and teacher activism varied by the following demographic variables: age, sex, amount of teaching experience, income, type of academic subject taught, level of professional association activity, social class, religiosity, motivation for teaching, and political party affiliation. A sample of four hundred teachers was r and omly chosen form all teaching levels in the school system. The data was analyzed with the Midas Statistical software program at the University of Michigan Computing Center. Chi-square, "t", and "f" tests of significance at the .05 level were used to determine the independence of the factors. The findings of the study having significant implications for educational research, administrators, and teachers, especially union members, were the following: (1) Teachers who expressed the most job satisfaction with their work environment tend to be least active in the activities of the union; and conversely teachers who expressed the most job dissatisfaction with their work environment tend to be most active in the activities of the union. (2) Male teachers tend to be more active and militant in the activities of the union than female teachers. (Militant identifies the willingness of respondents to actually participate in union strike actions.) (3) Older teachers tend to be the most active and militant participants in the union. (4) Teachers with 5 to 10 years of teaching experience tend to be the most active participants in the union. (5) Teachers who are highly active in professional educational association activities tend also to be highly active in the union. (6) Teachers in the higher levels of income tend to be more active in the union than teachers at the lower levels of income. (7) Teachers with heavier teaching loads tend to be more active in the union than teachers with lighter teaching loads. (8) Teachers at the high school level tend to be more active in the union than teachers at the middle and elementary school levels. (9) Teachers who entered the teaching profession for extrinsic reasons tend to be more active in the union than teachers who entered for intrinsic reasons. (10) Teachers tend to be active and militant in the union without respect to their religious feelings. (11) Teachers tend to be active and militant in the union without respect to their political affiliation. (12) Teachers tend to be active and militant in the union without respect to the individual teacher's social class or social origin. (13) Teachers tend to be militant in the union without respect to the teaching level. (14) Teachers tend to be militant in the union without respect to their reasons for entering the profession. (15) Teachers with six years or more of teaching experience tend to be the most militant in the union. (16) Teachers tend to be active and militant in the union without respect to whether they taught an academic or non-academic subject. (17) Teachers in the higher income levels tend to be more militant in the union than teachers at the lower levels of income. (18) Teachers tend to be militant in the union without respect to whether they had heavy or light teaching loads. (19) Teachers tend to be active and militant in the union without respect to whether they are married or single.PhDEducational administrationUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/158087/1/8106129.pd