Description
The history of Kenyan teachers strikes and struggle for better pay and terms of service stretches back a long time. There have been strikes and threats looming of strikes almost each year for the last decade. The conflict begun in 1997 after the government failed to honour a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) signed with the union. Teacher unions like Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) have not relented in representing teachers. The government argued that Kenyan teachers are well paid compared to others in the region. Teachers have formed groups on Facebook and WhatsApp where they share issues touching on their profession. These are most active during strikes. They are also active on Twitter. Data will be collected from these social media platforms. Can’t pay won’t pay Struggle of Kenyan Teachers in their Quest for Better Remunerations discusses the manner in which teachers discuss issues touching on them. They have a unique language with coded words, phrases and sentences. This jargon that the teachers use reveals their attitude towards their job and towards the insistence of the governments not to pay them. They are also unhappy about their inability to control students after corporal punishment was banned as well as stagnation due to slow promotion policy. Delocalisation also affects teachers in management level. The manner might be jocular but the recent hash tags like Teach and Go Home reveal the genesis of all the major problems facing the education sector today. Critical discourse analysis provides the theoretical framework for the study. It will be used both as a theory and a method. Descriptive survey research design and discourse historical approach (DHA) will be employed. It is hoped that the study will assist in understanding the strikes and general malaise in the education sector.
