The Reasons Teachers Protest

• In Event: Examining the Current State of the Teaching Profession: A Case Study of South Carolina

Abstract

South Carolina for Education (SC for Ed) is one of the largest grassroots teacher movements in South Carolina since the Civil Rights Movement. Connecting to the larger “Red for Ed” teacher movement gripping the nation, this group captured state and national media attention in making demands for higher salaries and greater investment in public schools through educational engagement, community, and advocacy in a state that was recently ranked 50th in education. Similar to other state teacher movements (Krutka, Asino, & Haselwood, 2018), a major component of this new wave of advocacy comes through public dialogue via social media, specifically Facebook. More specifically, launched as a Facebook page by one person in the spring of 2018, SC for Ed now counts over 28,000 Facebook members. Members have canvassed the state doing forums, legislative listening sessions, state lobby days, candidate interviews, rallies, and more. Most notably, SC for Ed organized a “walkout” event on May 1, 2019, that brought over 10,000 people to the state capital in a right-to-work state.

This paper presentation explores how and why South Carolina teachers that never identified as advocates or activists before the “SC for Ed” movement have changed course, taking on new (political) subjectivities and actions after years of inertia. Specifically, this presentation examines two teachers’ reflections and explanations about their (seemingly) sudden shift to public advocacy. The data sources for this examination lie in the teachers’ reflections and explanations about their social media posts and event pictures.

The two teachers are worthy of detailed analysis for several reasons. Before SC for Ed, the two teachers had little experience, or even desire to be involved, in “politics.” Both are 10+ year veterans but are still relatively young (~35 years old) and have chosen to stay and make their career in the profession despite the issues they recognize. The pair do not hold “official” positions in the SC for Ed leadership but are among a small group who have used sick/personal days to lobby at the statehouse in addition to attending numerous local events. This is important because it speaks to a group of teachers who may eschew official titles or positions, but are crucial to a prolonged movement.

This presentation seeks to understand how and why they shifted their teacher identities in a public way. This research fills a gap in the academic literature by qualitatively studying how teachers come to understand their role as political (education) advocates in one restrictive state context, South Carolina. The presentation is organized as follows. First, it will present a brief context of SC for Ed and the history of teacher activism in the state. Next, it will give a brief theoretical overview, post-structural notions of subjectivity and governmentality (Foucault, 1982, 1990, 1991, 2017) and how activism creates new subject positions. The majority of the presentation then will center on the two teachers’ posts, pictures, narratives, and reflections. Finally, the presentation will close with thoughts on how to motivate teachers to great action, reflection, and transformative self-making.

Author

• Timothy Monreal, University at Buffalo - SUNY
  Presenting Author