The role of online crisis actors in teachers’ work and lives

Abstract

ABSTRACT It is not surprising that various sources have recently described the teaching profession in Australia as ‘in crisis’. The consequences of pandemic policy have provided opportunities for groups to exploit the cascading crises facing teachers. We argue the online political ecosystem recognises teachers as a trope useful for retaining or gaining power. Astroturfing is the process by which political actors seek to present policy platforms emerging in an organic way from ‘the people’. We detail how teachers were targeted as political leverage, within political frames that centred vaccinated teachers. We examine theTeachers’ Professional Association of Australia (TPAA), an example of an astroturfed member group. Using a qualitative approach to digital sociology we analysed the strategies used by the TPAA to manufacture a crisis associated with teacher vaccinations and answer this research question: in what ways was digital astroturfing present in the TPAA campaign against mandatory vaccinations? We find sufficient evidence to indicate that astroturfing did occur, and was employed by the TPAA in an effort to weaken traditional union movements in Australia producing a form of union uberfication. Such a development poses an existential risk to existing teacher associations and trade unions and more broadly to the health of democracies.