"Frogs in Boiling Water": The Role of Relative Deprivation to the Past in Contemporary Teacher Strikes

• In Event: Labor and Labor Movements Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Roundtable 7: Labor Movements, Protest, and Political Contestation

Abstract

Relative deprivation in comparison with others have long been used in social movement studies. However, other types of pertinent comparisons are made, particularly, comparisons to the past. This article focuses on the role that relative deprivation to the past played in the recent unprecedented wave of K-12 teacher protest strikes. Through the narratives of teacher activist leaders, I find that relative deprivation to the past played a vital role as a grievance leading to the protest strikes, but that this grievance was not always automatic. Older and newer teachers both played important roles in sharping and strengthening shared grievances with regard to relative deprivation to the past.

Author

• Amanda J. Brockman, Northern Kentucky University