Protecting jobs and lives: Teachers’ passive resistance and subtle protest to curriculum policy in Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe

• In Event: Activism and protest as a fundamental part of education and a teacher’s responsibility

Proposal

Introduction
Curriculum policy is described as the “ghost of control” (Doll & Gough, 2002, p. 34), and teachers as “soldiers of reform” (Cuban, 2003, p. 4). This is mainly because, in most countries, teachers implement policy they never crafted - like soldiers who fight wars they never started. The metaphoric depiction of teachers as passive implementors of policy, under the watchful gaze of an invisible but omnipotent authority, is widespread in curriculum policy implementation literature. Ball (2003, p. 215) unpacks “the terrors of performativity” that perpetually haunt the teacher’s soul. Craig (2020) views policy as a demi-god which can penalize teachers for non-compliance. Priestley & Philippou (2018) portray policy as complex spider webs that entangle reformers and teachers in a maze of policy crafting and implementation. All these allegoric images paint pictures of captured miserable and subservient teachers. But there is also evidence to the contrary.
On the surface teachers may appear obedient and docile implementors of policy disseminated in a pyramidal power-coercive hierarchy. But in subtle ways, they can engage in latent protest (Al-Takhayneh et al., 2022), with far reaching consequences (Kazakbaeva, 2021; Priestley et al., 2015). Only in rare cases do “teachers as activists” (Hung, 2019, p. 573) emerge to protest curriculum policy, due to licensure requirements for professional ethics and fear of retribution from government authorities. Naguib (2006) argues that authoritarian states replicate dictatorial school systems that create an environment of obedience and surrender. This appears to be the case in Southern Africa.
The current theoretical paper, anchored in Scott’s (1985) “everyday invisible acts of resistance”, theorizes subtleties of teacher protest in Lesotho, South Africa, and Zimbabwe; where teachers cannot openly challenge policy (Kali, 2020; Ngoshi, 2021; Wills, 2020). The question driving this paper, therefore, is: Faced with shrinking democratic space, how are teachers in Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe resisting curriculum policy? This paper argues that, to protect their jobs and lives, teachers resort to subtle resistance so that they are not targeted as regime change agents by paranoid politicians. The unique contribution of this research is that it borrows Scott’s (1985) typology of “everyday invisible acts of resistance”, developed from an anthropological study of peasants struggle in a Malay village, to theorise teacher resistance in pseudo-democratic spaces. The current paper extends debate on how teachers can still resist policy while feigning compliance.
James Scott’s everyday invisible resistance
Most studies on teacher resistance focus on visible protest (Altinyelken, 2013; Amour, 2019; Fullan; 2007; Fullan & Hargreaves, 1996; Hung, 2019; Goodson et al., 2006; Kazakbaeva, 2021; Samuel, 2014; Wills, 2020). However, there is growing interest in exploring teachers’ passive resistance (Zembylas, 2021; Al-Takhayneh, 2022). Scott (1985, 1986, 1990) argues that subtle protest and passive resistance are “weapons of the weak”; which may be the only means of resistance where open protest is not tolerated and endangers lives. Passive resistance includes false-compliance, feigned ignorance, lack of initiative, and gossip. Scott argues that unarticulated everyday forms of resistance can disrupt the hegemony of the powerful and register the grievances of the oppressed.
Teacher resistance in three post-colonial states
Despite public government denials, teachers in Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe cannot freely mobilize protest without risking penalization (Glaser, 2016; Kali, 2022; Moyo, 2021; Ngoshi, 2021; Wills, 2020). The Progressive Association of Lesotho Teachers and associated unions organised protests in 2011, 2017 and 2018 demanding salary increments, recruitment of more teachers and provision of learning resources. But the aftermath of 2018 protests witnessed government retaliation. Teachers identified as ring leaders were dismissed. Other protesters lost income when government declared “no-work no-pay” (Kali, 2022, p. 573). Although some grievances were addressed, state violence silenced teachers. “The security forces in the country often unleash disproportionate force and kill some protesters. Hence, efforts to consolidate democracy are largely undermined by police and army brutality”, complains Kali (2022, p. 565). Consequently, teachers in Lesotho engage invisible resistance to save their jobs and lives.
In South Africa, teacher protest has a long history dating to the anti-apartheid struggle (Glaser, 2016; Wills, 2020). In the post-apartheid era, the most conspicuous protests were led by the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union in 2007 and 2010 demanding equitable salary structures. Under apartheid salaries were skewed in favor of white male teachers. After these two major strikes, proposals were made by the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, to declare teaching an “essential service” (Phakathi, 2017) – implying that teachers cannot strike. However, unions strongly resisted as the right to strike is enshrined in the Constitution. The proposal to declare teaching an essential service was made because “strike activity is damaging to teacher professionalism (where strikes disrupt the system and are occasionally characterised by riots, outbreaks of violent protest and intimidation) and are harmful for students” (Wills, 2020, p. 329). The threats to categorize teaching as an essential service partly stifles teachers’ voices making them resort to invisible resistance.
In Zimbabwe teacher protests are always violently crushed by the state. In 2019, four teachers affiliated to the Amalgamated Rural Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe were abducted by state agents for merely discussing Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Ndlovu, 2019; Ngoshi, 2021). They were physically assaulted and remanded in custody awaiting trial. Although the court acquitted them, a ‘message’ was sent to all teachers. Consequently, “many teachers are afraid to speak out because they do not want to lose their jobs” (Moyo, 2021, p.126). State sponsored violence against teachers is rife in Zimbabwe. Teachers are labelled regime change agents and often “tortured and whipped in the sight of their pupils and work mates…and frog-marched to political rallies” (Mutanda & Hendricks, 2022, p. 495). This repression makes teachers live in constant fear for their lives, making them refrain from active protest.
Conclusion
State repression makes it difficult, if not impossible, for teachers to openly air their grievances on curriculum policy and protest unfair labor practices. Faced with shrinking democratic space, teachers are pushed to subtle forms of protest and resistance, to protect their jobs and lives.

Authors

• Godsend Chimbi, University of the Free State

• Currell Jita, University of the Free State