Content area
Abstract
A democratic profession should be a united one. The professional organization of educators has three distinct divisions: the local, state, and national associations. However, they are all part of one structure, and what affects one affects all. They all must work for common goals and objectives in addition to those phases which are unique and peculiar to their own status. In the inter-relation of three levels of the professional organizations of the teaching profession, it can be suggested that the local association is the cornerstone of professional organization activities; it is the workshop in training for service and leadership. The state and national association gain in strength and ability to serve as professional attitudes and loyalties are built through the activities of the local associations.
The present study is an endeavor to learn more of the "cornerstone of professional organization," as organized and carried on in cities having a population of 2500-100,000. Its problem is to secure data concerning forms of organizaton, the aims or objectives, and the entire range of activities of local education associations in cities the size of which has been defined. An additional feature is to determine what a board of carefully selected experts conceive to be the most desirable structure and activities for associations. Case studies of three associations enter into the study in that they are to assist in obtaining a better understanding of how local units are organized and operated in the field of professional education associations. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
