Teachers' views on organizational dissent

This research investigates views of secondary school teachers regarding organizational dissent. The participants are teachers working at public secondary schools in central Buca, İzmir, Turkey. In this study whether secondary school teachers' views on their dissident behaviors change significantly depending on their gender, being a union member, using email for in-school communication and using social media (Twitter, Facebook etc.), their educational status and tenure are investigated. The study is a descriptive survey administered to 347 secondary school teachers in central Buca. The teachers are given the Organizational Dissent Scale developed by Özdemir (2010) and the data are analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences 15.0 (SPSS, 15.0). The results indicate that the participants "sometimes" dissent. When they dissent they "mostly" employ upward dissent channel and their most frequently used dissenting behavior is to "directly object to the school administator him/herself". It is also found that the participants' least favored dissenting behavior is to "argue with the school administator and try to convince him/her". The participating teachers declare they "sometimes" employ lateral dissent. When they do so their most frequently used lateral dissent behavior is "I do not spend time at school other than my lessons". Their least favored behavior is "I do not talk to the school administrator" which is "rarely" used. The participating teachers also declare they "sometimes" whistle blow. Their most frequently used whistle blowing behavior is that they "sometimes" "report the issue to "unions, political parties or other non governmental organizations". Their least frequent whistle blowing behavior is to "report the issue to the press" and they "rarely" do so. Whether the participating teachers' views differ significantly depending on their gender, union membership, email and social media usage, educational status and tenure is also investigated. It is found that the participating teachers' views about their upward dissent behaviors do not change significantly depending on their gender, union membership, email and social media usage, their educational status and tenure. The participating teachers' gender, union membership, email and social media usage, educational status and tenure are also investigated in terms of their lateral dissent behaviors. It is found that the participating teachers' views about their lateral dissent behaviors do not change significantly depending on their gender, being a union member, using email and social media and tenure. On the other hand, it is found that teachers' educational status make a significant difference on their lateral dissent behaviors and teachers with graduate degrees employ more lateral dissent than their undergraduate counterparts. The participating teachers' gender, union membership, email and social media usage, educational status and tenure are also investigated in terms of their whistle blowing behaviors. It is found that the participating teachers' views about their whistle blowing behaviors do not change significantly depending on their gender, using email and social media, their educational status and tenure. On the other hand, it is found that teachers' being a union member makes a significant difference on their whistle blowing behaviors. Teachers with union membership employ more whistle blowing than their non unionized counterparts. Key words: Organizational dissent, teacher dissent, teachers' views, secondary schools, pedagogy of dissent, cyberdissident, e-mail, social media