U.S. Teacher Strikes’ Impact on Racial Bias, Class Consciousness, and Public Interest in Social Justice

• In Event: Labor Politics and Worker Consciousness

Abstract

Teacher strikes are highly visible labor actions that disrupt daily life and institutions, forcing contestation over social and class inequalities, working/learning conditions, and the purpose of public education. Yet studies rarely test whether strikes events generate detectable shifts in large-scale racial attitudes or the texture of public consciousness. We address this gap with a preregistered muti-method analysis of three 2012 Illinois teacher strikes: Rockford (REA), Chicago (CTU), and Carpentersville (LEAD). We link strike timing to (a) population-scale implicit and explicit racial attitudes from Project Implicit and (b) public interest using factor-analyzed Google Trends search data (search terms spanned strikes, unions, class consciousness, protest, and social and educational justice). For attitudes, analyzed a primary timeframe of 30 days before versus 60 days after strike onset (plus 30/30, 60/60, and 90/90 sensitivity windows) and estimated effects at three nested geographies: strike MSA, Illinois, and the U.S. We fit MIMIC structural equation models estimating latent racial bias (indicated by implicit bias, explicit bias, and feeling-thermometer bias) with covariate adjustment. Results showed the CTU strike was uniquely associated with localized racial-bias reduction. In Chicago, latent racial bias declined after CTU strike onset across all windows (d = –.16 to –.21), with smaller negative shifts statewide (d = –.09 to –.14) and near-zero national change (d = –.01 to .03), consistent with moderation by strike proximity. REA showed no racial bias reduction (only small increases), and LEAD yielded small, inconsistent local changes. Google Trends analyses indicated strike- and class solidarity-related searches spiked sharply during the CTU strike and then subsided. Meanwhile, factors reflecting political-economic ideology and protest and revolution rose during and/or after the CTU strike across geographic levels. In sum, findings suggest that prominent teacher strikes can coincide with localized changes in racial attitudes and public interest around class solidarity and contentious collective action.

Authors

• Jeremy E Sawyer, CUNY Kingsborough Community College

• Yana Kuchirko, CUNY-Brooklyn College