“See You on the Square”: The Contested Nature of Teachers’ Public Activism

• In Event: The Challenges of Being a Good Citizen and a Good Teacher: Lessons From the Wisconsin Protests

Abstract

On February 11, 2011, recently elected Republican Governor Scott Walker unveiled his Budget Repair Bill, a series of proposals paving the way for budget cuts later in the month and a template for copycat legislation nationwide (Cooper & Seelye, 2011). In a state with a long history of organized labor and moderate politics, many Wisconsinites were shocked to discover a provision within the bill that would severely restrict collective bargaining rights for public sector unions as well as demand immediate concessions in benefits and pay. That weekend, union leaders began to organize testimonies for a public hearing. Starting February 15, thousands of concerned citizens began sleeping in the rotunda with more participating in weekend rallies; news reports estimated that such crowds had not been seen since protests against the Vietnam War (Simmons, 2011).

With 98,000 members, the Wisconsin Educational Association was one of the strongest unions at the forefront of the demonstrations. Aside from testifying against the bill, petitioning to stop the legislation, and gathering signatures to recall elected officials, many teachers in Madison and other districts risked sanctions by coordinating absences in “sick outs” that shut down schools for several days (DeFour, 2011b; Hetzner, 2011; York, 2011). These actions were hotly contested among their colleagues and within the state more broadly, a debate that intensified as nearly 1,000 students participated in walkouts to join their teachers during rallies at the capitol (DeFour, 2011a). Were teachers disregarding their responsibilities and abusing the public’s trust or were they demonstrating character by taking a stand against policies that would likely hurt them? Were they delinquent in their duties as educators and unduly influencing their students or was their action against the bill a valuable civics lesson in and of itself?

Among those who participated in public demonstrations, “See you on the square!” became a common, almost cheerful, refrain. Meant as an expression of solidarity among anti-Walker protesters, it also served as a reminder of the vulnerable visibility of teachers who chose to take public action against the bill: not only were they seen by fellow supporters but by those who vehemently disagreed with them. Using Hauser’s (1999) conception of rhetorical public spheres, this paper explores the competing notions of “good citizen” and “good teacher” revealed through teachers’ involvement in public debates by analyzing data collected from a purposeful sample of archival records documenting teachers’ decision to protest the bill. Records include news stories, letters to the editor, online responses, and blog commentary based out of liberal and conservative, rural and urban communities. By framing the sick outs as a “discursive event” (Fairclough, 1992; Fairclough, 1995), Critical Discourse Analysis (Rogers, 2003) can help examine the ways in which teachers’ civic actions were framed as conflicting or congruent with their pedagogic responsibilities. Though just one case study, the Wisconsin teachers’ sick outs offer insights into the contested expectations of teachers who struggle to negotiate their roles as citizens and as public employees entrusted with educating children in a democracy.

Author

• Katy Swalwell, University of Maryland - College Park