New Directions for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Schools

Robert M. Carini

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DOI: 10.2190/CN.32.4.e

Abstract

Research on the implications of collective bargaining in schools has been sluggish in its progress over the past two decades. This article proposes new directions for future research to rouse the area from its lethargy. First, studies on student outcomes should remedy limitations in methods and analysis that have hindered earlier studies and perhaps compromised their findings. Second, scholars should explore whether bargaining wields conditional effects. Third, and perhaps most important, there has been myopic focus on student outcomes to the neglect of how bargaining shapes schools as workplaces. Nearly all studies suggest that bargaining has—at most—only modest effects on student performance. More attention is warranted where bargaining likely wields larger influences, i.e., on the social organization of schools. Such an emphasis would lead to a better understanding of how contracts shape the day-to-day experiences for millions of administrators, teachers, and support staff. Finally, better gauging the relationship between bargaining and workplace outcomes would enhance our knowledge of these variables as possible mediators of bargaining on student outcomes, thereby highlighting specific levers for reform.

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