Communication Currents

Vol. 2, No. 1

In this piece, Cheryl Y. Maiorca presents a case study and qualitative analysis of interviews with K-12 Oklahoma teachers to examine their narratives about the 2018 Oklahoma teacher walkout between April 2 and April 12, 2018. These narratives are used then to argue for an inductive framework called the coercion of social responsibility (CoerSR). This analysis and framework provide insight into K-12 teachers’ experiences as well as institutional and discursive forces that shape these experiences and constrain teachers. Specifically, the author sought to understand how these narratives communicate structural power and what they revealed about teachers’ negotiations of competing public narratives about K-12 education.  

Interviews were conducted with 49 teachers from all areas of Oklahoma over a two-month period. Teachers were between the ages of 24 and 65 and included nine men and 40 women. They had taught from less than two years to over 40 years and five of them had experience teaching in other states before moving to Oklahoma. Positions on the walkout varied, some teachers interviewed were opposed, others were leaders or participants in the walkout, while still others were conflicted about the walkout. 

Several decades of events in the public education sector contextualize the 2018 protest. As enrollment increased between 1990 and 2018, budget allocations for education were decreased by the Oklahoma legislature, which also cut more than any other state after the 2008 recession while the number of available educators also declined. The cuts included teaching positions, teacher salaries, and per-pupil and classroom spending. When the Facebook page, “Oklahoma Teacher Walkout—The Time is Now!” was created, over 65,000 members joined in the first 10 days. As teachers demonstrated in their communities and at the state capitol building, they raised awareness for their low wages, inadequate classroom funding for books and supplies, overcrowding, buildings in disrepair, and a statewide teacher shortage. Then-Governor Mary Fallin responded by stating that the demands exceeded what the state could afford and likened the teachers to “a teenager wanting a better car.” 

Likewise, the role of public K-12 education has long been debated. Many see its purpose as creating a skilled workforce, while others argue that it should focus on “nurturing and expanding political and social democracy.” After events like the 1983 publication of A Nation at Risk and the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, public education—and federal funding of it—gradually shifted towards standardization, increased parental control, and the rise of neoliberal capitalism (i.e., which assumes that social issues are best combatted by market-based solutions). As a result, teachers were deskilled, robbed of their professional authority and autonomy, and began to function more like babysitters rather than experts in their field.  

When asked about their reasons for teaching, many participants described teaching as their calling to work with children and expressed a sense of belonging in the classroom. Some expressed that working in poor conditions in the state of Oklahoma actually enhanced these feelings, which may be explained in part by Social Contract Theory. Social Contract Theory explains that individuals sacrifice personal interests (e.g., salary, good working conditions) for the greater good (e.g., nurturing, protecting, or working with students) and have an internalized sense of obligation to their identity and social role. Accordingly, teachers also described their role as always present and not something that ends and begins in the classroom. 

Participants described the nature of their labor as caregiver and/or expert. When using language that likened teaching to caregiving, participants expressed emotional commitment to their role and the children, minimized the importance of being paid well, and also reflected the gendering of their profession which contributed to patriarchal disrespect for the field which, at least implicitly, is used to justify paying teachers lower wages. When teachers described themselves as experts in their fields, they expressed concern about the deskilling of the profession, as well as alternative and emergency certification of teachers who were less qualified in order to address widespread failure of Oklahoma districts to adhere to caps on class sizes. While many participants expressed that they kind of knew what they were getting into and readily accepted the challenges of being a teacher (i.e., what the author calls, “caveat emptor”), especially in Oklahoma, others expressed that they felt like they fell for bait and switch tactics when entering the profession.  

Regardless, poor teaching conditions in Oklahoma rendered the social contract for teachers as broken as basic needs were not provided. Teachers were empowered as they joined together for the 2018 walkout to advocate their collective concerns, although teaching conditions in Oklahoma ultimately have not improved now several years later. The author explains that the teachers are under coercive control (i.e., the use of nonviolent tactics to maintain dominance) in their social role, which is reflected by participants expressions of moral obligation, internalization of, and emotional commitment to their identity as a teacher. According to CoerSR, as teachers internalize messages about how they should perform their role to meet society’s needs, this internalization guides their behavior and encourages them to accept this control. Conversely, participating in the walkout reflected a rejection of this control when their environment and conditions became untenable, and they provided social support to each other through advocacy and resisted their place in a market-driven economy. 

Future scholarship may wish to investigate the presence of CoerSR in other career fields which yield social good. These professions my include firefighters, police offices, military service members, doctors, nurses, paramedics, or any other group that may feel that they negotiate social contracts.  

Communication Currents Discussion Questions 

1. Can you identify someone in your life who works in a career for social good (e.g., teachers, healthcare workers, first responders)? How do you see Coercion of Social Responsibility influencing their experiences or career choices? How might Coercion of Social Responsibility apply to your own career aspirations or current job? How do societal power dynamics (e.g., gender norms, economic priorities) shape the roles and responsibilities expected of professionals in careers for social good? 
2. Consider your own views on teaching or other professions. How might you, consciously or unconsciously, contribute to narratives that deskill these roles? How might narratives about these roles influence public perception and what are (potential) consequences of public perception that diminishes the value of these professions? 
3. Are there issues you feel passionate about that might benefit from collective action? How could you start building alliances to address these issues? What lessons about collective action and advocacy can we learn from the 2018 Oklahoma teacher walkout and how can we apply these lessons to address other social issues? 

For additional suggestions about how to use this and other Communication Currents in the classroom, see: https://www.natcom.org/publications/communication-currents/integrating-communication-currents-classroom  

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Cheryl Y. Maiorca is a Communication Instructor in the College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media at the University of Nebraska Omaha. 

This essay, by R. E. Purtell, translates the scholarly journal article, C. Y. Maiorca (2024). "You have to be willing to make the sacrifice": K-12 teacher narratives and the coercion of social responsibility. Communication Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2024.2404680  

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