WhatsApp Omani Teachers: Social Media and the Question of Social Change

Visual Essay

Najma Al Zidjaly*

WhatsApp Omani Teachers: Social Media and the Questionof Social Change

DOI 10.1515/mc-2014-0007

It’s a matter of ap(p)tly theorizing

How does social change take place? And what is the role that social media play in it? This visual essay on the2013 teacher strikes in Oman, an Islamic Arabian social monarchy, addresses these two crucial questionswhich of late have attracted a plethora of research in the field of communication (e.g., Gerbaudo 2012; Howardet al. 2011; Stepanova and Eurasia 2011; Huang 2011). Notwithstanding the valuable insights of these studies,research into the discourse on social media, especially as it relates to what has been termed the Arab Spring,has hitherto been missing a key ingredient: human agency. Social change does not happen in a vacuum; it isan intricate phenomenon that requires the workings of multifarious aspects in tandem, rendering the theoriz-ing of “social change” of the utmost importance. To arrive at how social change is initiated, negotiated, andresolved from start to finish, this visual essay draws upon, and builds, the theory of mediated discourse(Scollon 2001), which keeps complexities associated with social activism alive through centralizing socialaction. Thus, in this visual essay, I foreground what social actors (i.e., teacher strikers in Oman) did with theresources available to them (i.e., they creatively drew on a cultural practice to design and share multimodalimages with the general public in Oman to win their cause), rather than highlighting the mediational meansthey utilized (i.e., WhatsApp messenger) to incite social change (i.e., raise in pay). In so doing, I introduce atheory of human action into the timely discourse of social media and political activism.

Art as mediated “protest” action

Introducing a human action theory necessitates defining both what we mean by an action and what we meanby human agency. Following mediated discourse theory, the unit of analysis in this research is the mediatedaction: the moment social actors act in real time within complex nexuses of linked practices, through the useof verbal (language) or non-verbal mediational means or cultural tools (WhatsApp messenger). All actions arenot just mediated, but are also social; they are inherently communicative as they produce and reproducesocial identities and histories. Specifically, building upon Habermas (1984), Burke (1950) and Wertsch (1991), Idefine social action as a communicative act that involves a scene-agent-means ratio. This ratio highlights thefact that actions result as a combination of the scene in which actions take place and the agents involved withall types of mediational means, thereby highlighting the multifaceted nature of social action. I define agencyas a collective process of negotiations of roles, tasks and alignments that takes place through linguistic andnon-linguistic mediational means (see Al Zidjaly 2009). To create social change (i.e., raise living standards ofOmanis through increasing monthly income), the teacher protesters had to gain the support of many,including: officials in their ministry and other government organizations; Omani public, including key figures;and Omani students, to name a few. The definition provided builds upon and integrates considerations of

*Corresponding author: Najma Al Zidjaly, Department of English Language and Literature, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat,Oman, E-mail: [email protected]

Multimodal Commun. 2014; 3(1): 107–130

Authenticated | [email protected] author's copyDownload Date | 7/2/14 10:57 PM

agency by Ahearn (2001), Harré (1998), Wertsch et al. (1993) and Burke (1950), which conceptualize agency asa collective, mediated sociocultural capacity to act.

A co-constructed and inclusive approach toward human agency and social action is a crucial startingpoint, but is in itself insufficient. To capture the multifaceted process of social activism, including theingredients that make up social change in relation to new forms of creative media, three further steps areneeded. First, I theorize all multimodal texts (and by extension all works of art) as mediated actions; they areto be conceived not as mere vehicles of expression or as representations, but rather as mediated social actionstaken by social actors to strategically generate certain identities and outcomes, including inciting change (seeAl Zidjaly 2011a). I further suggest the contextualization of all multimodal texts geosemiotically (Scollon andScollon 2003) or physically, socially and culturally. This requires widening the scope of analysis to includenot just the situated actions of the main players in any given action (e.g., the protestors and the Ministry ofEducation in Oman) but also the actions of others that take place outside of the immediate or main (inter)action (e.g., the general public in Oman which found itself included in the debate as an (un)addressed ratifiedparticipant [Goffman 1981]). Contextualizing the data (i.e., the protest images that Omani teachers used asmediated actions to advance their cause) geosemiotically should go beyond analyzing what visual texts meanto their users to investigating how they orient themselves toward them (i.e., how they use them) to affectvarious kinds of identities. Only then can the full power that human actors possess to mobilize change becaptured. This approach, thus, allows the documenting of how change transpires in reality and the role thatpeople play in bringing it forth, especially when the medium of choice is social media.

WhatsApp and the orchestrated dance of activism

On October 1, 2013, teachers of public schools in Oman, an Arab Islamic social monarchy, started a unified strikewith the motto: To Stop Education for the Sake of Education. In Oman, education, health care and other socialservices have been provided for free to the general public since the Omani renaissance in 1970, when the currentruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said came into power following the discovery of oil in the Arabian Gulf. In 2011, whennumerous Arab countries in the Middle East faced massive protests, Oman was no exception. However, unlikeprotests in other Arab countries, Omani protests were peaceful, and, most importantly, they were marked withdeclarations of love for their leader, requesting only financial reforms and ending government corruption (AlZidjaly 2011b). The Sultan of Oman immediately responded favorably by firing many government leaders andappointing new people into the positions, including the minister of education; he also promised the creation ofnew jobs and deliberating on the other matters that the protests highlighted. When Dr. Madiha Al-Shibani wasselected as the newminister of education, shewas immediately given a list of requested changes: to raise teachersalaries and to improve educational facilities, curricula and the overall livelihood of Omani teachers. Changeswere promised to take place shortly. When no forward movement took place for almost 2 years, Omani teachersdecided to take a different, and more drastic, approach to bring about the requested, much needed change.

Arabic culture is a texting culture (Al Zidjaly and Gordon 2012). Hence, whenWhatsApp, the free and easy tousemobile phonemessenger was introduced to Oman in 2012, it was immediately andwidely adopted byOmanisto create a sense of community through designing and sharing (usually) multimodal texts that enable Omanis todistribute, negotiate, and ultimately resolve, cultural concerns.WhatsApp is thus, formost Omanis, an importantpart of everyday cultural life. In consequence, the teacher protestors in Oman chose to use the free messenger asthe mediational means to negotiate with the ministry in question (the ministry failingly used old media outlets[newspapers and Omani TV] as their medium of negotiation). This choice allowed the teacher protestors to gainthe attention and sympathy of the Omani public, seen as a key factor in acing the negotiationswith theMinistry ofEducation. The Omani protesters also made another strategic choice in how they used WhatsApp: They utilizedthe already popular custom of sharing images with no or little captioning material; they decided to let selectedimages act for themselves. This decision proved to be powerful, leading the public, the mostly (un)addressedratified participant, including the religious leader of the country, to side with the Omani teachers. The

108 N. Al Zidjaly: WhatsApp Omani Teachers


negotiations resulted in a favorable outcome: Following a 1 month and 11 day strike and unsuccessful actions bythe Ministry of Education to put an end to it, the Omani government, led by Sultan Qaboos bin Said, issued adecree for a standardized pay scale across all government sectors, guaranteeing teachers the requested raise butalso creating a raise for other sectors. A social change larger than the expected one was incited.

To stop education for the sake of education

In the same spirit of the actions of Omani teachers, who used images to let the public decide for themselves, inthis section of the visual essay I let key mediated actions (i.e., the multimodal texts that the organizers of thestrikes sent on a daily basis through WhatsApp to the Omani public) of Omani strikers act for themselves,providing the reader (akin to the Omani public), the opportunity to formulate meanings from the actions. Hence,only contextualized translations of captions that appeared originally in Arabic are provided as opposed to full-fledged analysis. At the onset of the strike, the known number of protesting schools was 740 out of 1047, but bythe second week hundreds more schools joined in. Originally, it was also planned that the strike would last foronly 3 days, pending the approval of the requested changes which included: raising salaries, overhauling theeducational system and services, updating the curricula, implementing segregation of male and female elemen-tary students, and training Omani teachers. However, following the initial “patronizing” response of the Ministryof Education, it was decided to keep the strike open-ended. This shocked both the Ministry of Education and thegeneral public in Oman resulting in a critical juncture that coincided with the Islamic annual Pilgrimage toMecca. But it was also this move (i.e., leaving the strike open-ended) that led the general public decide tointerfere, including school children, by supporting the teachers and the requested reforms.

As mentioned, to gain the support of the Omani public, the strikers in Oman decided to lure the public intothe debate by sending them daily multimodal messages that informed them of the ongoing negotiations withthe responsible parties, akin to the daily multimodal exchanges they partake in. These multimodal texts,distributed daily through WhatsApp, consisted of photographs of actual protest sites; photographs of theresponses of the Ministry of Education, which appeared in traditional media outlets (Omani newspapers andnational TV); photographs of the responses of some key public figures, posted online (on twitter and face-book); and designed jokes and captions that relay the reactions of the strikers to the actions of other parties.

The multimodal texts selected in this visual essay symbolize the key mediated actions of Omani strikersthat have shaped the strike negotiations from start to finish. Those actions represent the following chiefturning points: the initiation of the strike across Oman; the “patronizing” response of the Ministry ofEducation; the ridiculing reaction of the strikers; international recognition; the critical period (3 weeks)coinciding with the Islamic pilgrimage; slight public backlash; intimidation by the ministry in question;general public support (including a key religious figure); awaiting the response of the supreme leader ofOman, and finally resolution: social change.

As a general member of the Omani public, I collected the data featured in this visual essay throughreceiving them (and sharing them with other members) daily for over 1 month on my WhatsApp. I have alsogathered many private insights from two of my research assistants in the ethnographic, multimodal project onsocial media and Arab identity from which this essay is taken. Both are Omani teachers who activelyparticipated in the strikes under scrutiny. Needless to say, the actions of the strikers in Oman (i.e., theirchoice to draw on a culturally acceptable form of negotiating cultural knowledge through the medium ofWhatsApp) have created an interesting juxtaposition between old forms of protesting (paper signs) and newforms of protesting (WhatsApp multimodal messages).

The featured actions represent the perspective of the teacher strikers in Oman. These are the actions(relayed through chosen images) that the organizers of the protests sent to their contact list on WhatsApp.Hence, all actions (i.e., all featured images) were sent via WhatsApp messenger to the Omani public daily.Because receiving and forwarding verbal and visual texts through WhatsApp is a common practice in Oman,the people who first received those daily actions immediately forwarded them to all the people on theircontact list and so forth, guaranteeing wide distribution of the actions first sent by the organizers of the

N. Al Zidjaly: WhatsApp Omani Teachers 109


protests. As the featured actions, representative of the daily actions the protestors constructed, were the topicof talk almost everywhere in Oman during the month of the strikes, it is safe to say that theses actions havereached a large portion of the Omani public, generating constant debate in schools, universities and publicplaces. I was not part of the protests; as an Omani citizen, I received the daily actions through my contactsand did my part in forwarding them to others; as a public figure in Oman, however, I did write about theprotests in one of the major Omani newspapers in an effort to bring a positive resolution without siding witheither camp. Due to having two research assistants who played an active part in the strikes, I was privy to thebackground negotiations that took place in the offices of the organizers of the 2013 teacher strikes in Oman.

BEGINNING

1. Strike Initiation

2. The Response of the Government of Oman

Mediated Action 1 Announcing the teachers’ strike on the buildings of participating schools

On the right: Stop Education for the Sake of Education.

On the left: Stop Education for the Sake of a Curriculum Appropriate for Education.

Mediated Action 2 The Omani media picking up the story

News flash: Dr. Madiha Al-Shibani, Minister of Education, in a special episode tonight: Join us for a program from Oman,as she takes questions on the subject of the striking of some teachers.



3. The Reaction of the Strikers in Oman to the Ministry ofEducation’s Rhetoric of No Empathy to Teachers

Mediated Action 3 The ridiculing reaction of Omani strikers to the tapedresponse of the minister of education, Dr. Al-Shibani, by posting animage of her with a caption that symbolizes lack of empathy and highlights athreatening demeanor

Dr. Madiha Al-Shibani: “You’ll be teaching the students tomorrow … or whaaaaat?”

Mediated Action 4 A second ridiculing reaction by the Omanistrikers to the taped first response of the minister of education

Wat dis, Boss Madiha? Where demands for teasher?



4. Patronizing Responses by the Ministry of Education

Mediated Action 6 A photograph of a formal letter by the Ministry of Religious Endowments and Affairs, which also sided withthe decision of the Ministry of Education to put an end to the strikes

Ministry of Religious Endowments and Religious AffairsOffice of the MinisterDate: 27/11/1434 (13 October 2013)

Urgent: Please be so kind as to forward to all preachers for tomorrow’ssermon the attached sermon: “On rights and duties.” And may Allah grant success.

Mediated Action 5 A photograph of a tweet by a protesting teacher regarding the response ofthe Ministry of Information which sided with the decision of the Ministry of Educationto silence protestersZaher AlabriThe Ministry of Information directs newspapers not to report on teachers’ strike

#So-called_freedom_of the press#Oman_teachers_strike



5. Publishing False News

6. The Reaction of Strikers to False News

Mediated Action 7 Another “patronizing” action by the Ministry of Educationto silence Omani teacher protesters by publishing untrue news

Oman newspaper (top): Strikers to return to work today.

Protesters response (bottom): Josef Goebbels: “Give me a press with no conscience,and I’ll give you a people who are unconscious.”

Mediated Action 8 A second ridiculing reaction of Omani protesters to theMinistry of Educations’ untrue information about the ending of the teacher strike

What! No one’s working, ha?



MIDDLE (Complicating Actions): Critical Period1. Continuation of Strikes

Mediated Action 9 Strike!

This action marks the beginning of week two of the strikes and the beginningof the critical period that baffled both the Ministry of Educationand the public in Oman.

Mediated Action 10 The critical period also coincided with the Islamic Pilgrimageto Mecca in Saudi Arabia

The schools are all on strike … I might as well go on the Pilgrimage



2. International Recognition

Mediated Action 11 International Recognition

It’s in the New York Times. Everyone in the world knows about the teachers’strike. News media in Oman and Ministry of Education, can you still hide thetruth and lie to the people?



3. Public Backlash

Mediated Action 12 Slight backlash from a few key figures in theOmani community

Khalfan b. Muhammad Alesry

The teachers’ strike pains me greatly, because consequences will inevitably be wide reaching. I wish the teachers would findsome other way to conduct themselves; they are supposed to be models of behavior and morality, and what they are doing is abad influence on our boys and girls. Striking, especially in sensitive professions like teaching, is harmful to the public good,and it contradicts our customs and the tenets of the Sharia.



4. Reaction of Strikers to Public Backlash

Mediated Action 13 The strikers response to the backlash

British teachers strike for better wages and work conditions; Arab teachers’ strike constitutesa crime …

A letter of support for the striking teachers in Britain from the American Federation of Teachers,the New South Wales Teachers Federation and the Educational Institute of Scotland.



5. Government Befuddlement Continues

Mediated Action 14 A second response to the backlash

Mohammad Al-Suleimani: One of my students whom I taught in 1993 is now acolleague at school, and our salary difference is 9 Riyals [less than $25]

Mediated Action 15 A chat on WhatsApp on the private reaction of theofficials at the Ministry of Education

What’s the view of the strike in the offices of the Ministry?

It’s got them all befuddledThey don’t know what to doThey’re waiting for answers from the ParliamentAnd if the strike lasts, it will succeedYou have to keep up a united front



6. Student Support

Mediated Action 16 A tweeted response of the Parliamentary Committee on Education

Tawfiq Allawati: The Parliamentary Committee on Education requests the suspension of the strike and a return to teaching andpreservation of the public good. The Committee had hoped that things would not reach the point of strike and the closing ofpublic offices with its harmful effect on students. The Committee demands that all responsible parties begin addressingteachers’ situation before 31/12/2013. The Parliamentary Committee on Education and Scientific Research in today’s sessionadopts teachers’ demands about pay and benefits.

Mediated Action 17 Beginning of public (student) support

News flash: From the Sohar Cubs to our dear mother Minister of Education Madiha Al-Shibani: Mother Increase teachers’ pay.We’ve had enough playing around in the streets; we want to go back to school. With best regards, Sohar Cubs Association forSupport for Teachers.



7. Spreading False News

8. Reaction of Strikers to False News

Mediated Action 18 The Ministry of Education spreading more false statements inOmani newspapers about the end of the strike

Ministry of Education Announcement: The MOE assures parents of the continuation of study tomorrow (Sunday) in all Sultanateschools, in accordance with the timetable set at the beginning of the school year 2013/14, with best wishes for success to thefaculty, administrations, and students.

Mediated Action 19 The response of the Omani strikers (strike continues)

Students at Abu Obeida School heading home …



9. Intimidation by the Ministry of Education

Mediated Action 20 Intimidation by the Ministry of Education and theresponse of the strikers juxtaposed in one single image

Saudi newspaper (Top): 10,000 Riyals ($2700) Eid gratuity per teacher!

Oman newspaper (Bottom): MOE to take steps penalizing strikers and walkouts

Mediated Action 21 Continuing intimidation on Omani national TV

Announcement about the Ministry of Education employee walkouts: The responsible parties will exercise all prerogativespursuant to applicable laws of the Sultanate for the detention and prosecution of lawbreakers.



Mediated Action 23 More proof of teacher detentionpublished on an online chat

The director and assistant at Al-Subaikhy school have been suspended until further notice because of their refusal to hand overthe names of striking teachers in the last few days. The result is a week of censure. This is doing the rounds on What’s App.

Masoud Al-Mushaifri: Right. And the assistant director who is my brother. They are now being held in Saham Prison. “If you willaid [the cause of] Allah, He will aid you” [Q 47: 7]. For me, “Allah doth suffice, and He is the best disposer of affairs” [cf. Q3:173]. Better days are coming.

Mediated Action 22 Proof of detention of Omani strikers in the Omani city of Nizwa

Notice of suspension without pay for Bashir school teacher employees, Nizwa.



10. Response of Strikers to Intimidation

Mediated Action 24 The response of the strikers to the intimidation initiated and carried out by theMinistry of Education (Note: This action is an old image taken from the original 2011 protests in Oman.)

We’ll never forget this, Our dear Government

Mediated Action 25 A second response by the strikers to the intimidation of the Ministry of Education

To strike is a legitimate right

We’ve gone old and grey, and still we are demanding educational reform



11. Public Support

Mediated Action 27 Public support

Are you with or against the strike?

8203 with/1269

against/536 no opinion

Mediated Action 26 Student support

We are with the strikers, and may the hand of Allah protect them



END (Resolution)

1. Awaiting the Response of the Supreme Leader of Oman

Mediated Action 29 Awaiting the response of the Sultan of Oman

Your Majesty, I’m certain that you’d be fair to me, your daughter the teacher.

The strike is planned by mad heroes, and the benefits are reaped by cowards who are afraid to strike.

Mediated Action 28 Support from the religious leader of Oman

#Oman_teachers_strike: Breaking news: Sheikh Al-Khalili (the religious leader of Oman) delivers teacher demands to theMinister of the Sultan of Oman’s Office



2. Positive Resolution

3. Positive Reaction to the Resolution

Mediated Action 31 A Loving tribute to the Sultan of Oman that paints him as empathetic and caring

The Sultan of Oman: So how about now? Hope all is well.

Mediated Action 30 The positive response of the Sultan of Oman as reportedon Omani national TV

His Majesty, the Sultan of Oman, orders the standardization of salaries in allcivil sector employees (equal pay for all)



Mediated Action 32 The reaction of the Omani public to the positive outcome of raising salaries

Hip, hip, hooray, Here comes a rise in pay!

Mediated Action 33 A thank you note to Omani teachers from the public

Yousuf Albaloushi: #unified_pay_civil_sector: The teachers’ strike was the main reason for the unified pay structure, and theydeserve praise and thanks for what they did. Our teachers, we thank you all.



4. Now What?

So what?

This visual essay is a first step to add an action element to the scholarly discourse on social media andsocial change, especially as it relates to the current, and continuing, unrest in the Middle East. Bycentralizing social action (i.e., how teachers in Oman creatively managed to gather momentum and incitechange for all) and theorizing the selected multimodal texts distributed among the Omani public by teacherprotesters in Oman as mediated actions, I hoped to highlight the power people are able to mobilize in theiruses of multimodal texts (i.e., highlight the agency of social media users in inciting social change). Thisessay, in other words, aims to shed light on the role that Omani teachers have played in bringing on a muchneeded economic and social change in Oman by selectively, and strategically, drawing upon the alreadypopular cultural custom of sharing multimodal texts (with captions) and distributing them on a daily basisthat has enabled them to gather full support for their requests (note: the Ministry of Education has promisedto take serious steps to address the other requests of the teachers). To understand social change, I thusrecommend to theorize the terms we use carefully, culturally, and contextually, and define the role thatusers of social media (not only the media themselves) play in affecting lives. This facilitates documentinghow change actually happens, and captures social activism and change as complex, distributed, collective,negotiated and mediated processes.

Mediated Action 34 What about the other requests?

Now what, kids? Do teachers want to change the textbooks, or is that it?The curriculum is ok? How about segregation?



Acknowledgments: As agency is collective, mediated and distributed, it goes without saying that todocument social change in Oman, I had to rely on the support of many great colleagues. I am foreverindebted to my research assistants, Ismail Al-Sheyadi and Rashid Al-Quraini for not just aiding me incollecting the data, but also for being two brave Omani teachers who actively and successfully carried outthe Omani teacher strikes that led to unprecedented changes that have affected the lives of thousands ofOmanis. I am equally indebted to my esteemed colleague David Wilmsen, the master of the art oftranslation, for the superb translations of the mediated actions featured in this essay that beautifullycapture the spirit of what Omani teachers attempted to accomplish. Last but never the least, I am indebtedto two anonymous reviewers and Cynthia Gordon, the editor laureate, for their valuable comments on anearlier draft of the essay that have successfully captured what I had hoped to accomplish in this visualessay about social change in Oman.

Funding: Research for this article was made possible by Internal Grants at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman(IG/ART/ENGL/12/01). The funded project is titled, “New Media Technology and Omani (Arabic) CulturalIdentity.”

References

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Bionote

Najma Al Zidjaly is an Associate Professor of Sociolinguistics (Intercultural Communication) in theDepartment of English Language and Literature at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. She is the editor ofBuilding Bridges: Integrating Language. Linguistics, Literature and Translation in English Studies (CSP, 2012).Al Zidjaly is also the author of the forthcoming book, Disability, Discourse and Technology: Inclusion and



Agency in Interaction. Her other publications include articles in Language in Society, Multilingua, VisualCommunication, Communication & Medicine, Multimodal Communication, Disability Studies Quarterly, andIntercultural Management Quarterly. Her research interests focus on multimodality’s role in illuminating theconnections between human agency and social media, as it manifests in the relationship between peoplewith disabilities and new forms of technology, on one hand, and the relationship between creative mediaand the ever-complex identity of (Omani) Arabs, on the other.



WhatsApp Omani Teachers: Social Media and the Question of Social Change

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