FOR EVERY ACTION THERE IS A STORY: NARRATIVES OF OKLAHOMA TEACHERS ABOUT THE 2018 WALKOUT AND TEACHING IN OKLAHOMA

Abstract

Members of social movements create and maintain the meanings of that movement (Snow & Benford, 1992). Interviews with 49 teachers between September and November 2018 provide the data for this qualitative study. This dissertation investigates how the stories of individuals who were teaching in Oklahoma at the time of the April 2018 walkout engage with public issues. Image Repair Theory (IRT) is used to explain how participants told specific types of stories to address public opinion about the teachers’ actions. Stories which frame the walkout, explain the formation of individual and collective identity, and address competing stories of leadership are all ways participants make sense of the walkout. Consideration of how stories and narratives shape Oklahoma teachers’ expressions of public and private action led to the identification of a new communication model I call the Coercion of Social Responsibility, which explains how implied social contracts led teachers to remain in untenable situations. I also identify how some participants escaped the coercion and what moved teachers to become involved in the walkout. Ways teachers talk to each other about civic engagement and their intent to be involved in political action are discussed. Implications for future research are addressed.

Keywords: social movements, political discussion, narrative, Image Repair Theory, leadership, coercion, social contracts