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f Provocateur Pieces: Striking Signs: The Diverse Discourse of the 2018 West Virginia Teachers’ Strike
- Source: English Education, Volume 50, Issue 4, Jul 2018, p. 365 - 374
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- 01 Jul 2018
Abstract
In February 2018, teachers and other school personnel in West Virginia went on strike over persistently low salaries and a series of other defunding and deprofessionalizing legislative proposals. Over nine days, teachers created signs that argued their cause and showcased their messages on roadsides, in their own communities, en masse at the state capital, and in media outlets across the globe. In this article, we describe five themes that emerged from a discourse analysis of 50 protest signs. In response to circulating dismissive and demeaning discourses, teachers positioned themselves as professionals, content specialists, moral authority figures, valuable resources, and inheritors of cultural legacies.
© 2018 by the National Council of Teachers of English