Proletarianized Professionals: the Teachers’ Movement and Martial Law

Abstract Ferdinand E. Marcos’s Martial Law regime tried to present itself as heralding the advancement of the country’s education system. To bolster this claim, it decreed the professionalization of the teaching vocation, among other ostensibly progressive education policies. However, teaching lost its prestige as an occupation during Marcos’s term. Why did this counterintuitive development happen? How did teachers respond to this situation? Anchored on historical analysis of primary documentary sources and framed by the concept of proletarianization, this article answers these questions and argues that Marcos’s policies, which led to inadequate salaries and poor working conditions in the education sector, thwarted his own promise of professionalization. A proletarianized group of professionals, these educators turned to working-class strategies and even joined hands with blue-collar laborers to fight for their rights.