From Sacrifice to Shortage Or How We Can Defend Public Education by Reconceptualizing Teachers' Labor

Abstract

The U.S. teacher shortage is often framed as a temporary disruption or a failure of individual will. However,  this paper argues it is the predictable outcome of a deeper cultural narrative: the martyr teacher myth. Rooted in the gendered divisions of labor that emerged alongside industrial capitalism and institutionalized through the feminization of the teaching workforce, this myth constructs teaching as a vocation of selfless sacrifice rather than skilled labor deserving of fair compensation and sustainable working conditions. Drawing on Rosi Braidotti’s critical posthumanist framework and cartography methodology, this paper traces how the myth evolved and became embedded in the structure of public education. It shows how chronic undercompensation, unsustainable workloads, and emotional overextension have been normalized as part of teachers’ “moral duty.” These dynamics fuel the teacher shortage and create fertile ground for privatization efforts that exploit institutional instability to promote vouchers and market-based reforms. In response, this paper advocates for a politics of care that reframes teachers’ labor as socially essential work that must be supported, not through sacrifice, but through solidarity, investment, and systemic change. By telling new stories about teachers’ labor, we can disrupt the expectation of sacrifice that drives the teacher shortage, resist privatization, and defend public education through collective care and structural change.