“I’m a licensed professional teacher, of course, I’m un(der)employed”: Teachers’ identities and social suggestions from transitivity in Facebook posts

Abstract

Neologisms and ingenuities can either impinge on language atrophy or induce much more open public discourses. A viral short linguistic template “I’m/We’re X, of course, I/we Y” on social media has afforded open discourses, albeit stereotypically. Using 343 clauses posted on a public Facebook page, this study combines the transitivity processes of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) with critical discourse analysis. Results show that Filipino Licensed Professional Teachers (LPTs) stereotypically view themselves as The Employed, The Un(der)employed, The Determined, The Practical, The Deprived, The Frustrated, The Needy, The Dictated, and The Questioned. These identities reinforce the emergence of the themes: un(der)employment; currency of the license; alleged backer system; and the exodus of LPTs to other countries due to unavailability of teaching items. The study contributes to the greater appreciation of the potent power of short linguistic expressions for wider discourses. While conducted in the context of the Philippines, the insights of this study may hold a universal relevance for the discourses of social inequality, nepotism, bureaucracy, and neoliberalism in the academe.