Cry, the beloved profession: a study of short-text messages service (SMSs) on the teaching profession

Abstract

The paper is based on a collection of cellular phone text messages (also known as S.M.S (Short-text Message Service) on the teaching profession that are currently being floated around in Zimbabwe. The observation technique was the major data-gathering instrument. The three researchers all set to gather verbatim the SMSs. Over one hundred SMSs on different subjects were gathered and stored in the 'archives' of one of the researchers' phones. It notes that these messages, largely ignored in academic discourse as mere trifles of humor, should be taken seriously as social commentaries. The paper finds that the messages in question bemoan, decry and poke fun on the declining standing of the profession in the country and do so with a condor, merit of form and structure that should earn them a place in the world of literary works of art. The paper calls for the improvement of the status of the profession in Zimbabwe so that the profession is restored to its glorious past.