From authorised visitor to key person – a trajectory of participation in teacher Facebook groups

ABSTRACT

This article reports a study on members in self-organised Facebook groups for teachers. The aim is to investigate how teachers’ needs and actions form their roles in the extended staffroom. 26 teachers from six different Facebook groups within two different school subjects, mathematics and Swedish, are interviewed. The results reveal a trajectory from a lurking behaviour as authorised visitor to a key person within the community of the group or an influencer, where teachers can function as authorities in their field. In relation to this trajectory, the interviewed teachers describe the choice to become public as a crucial step, emphasising the courage needed. A next important step can be identified when teachers leave the role as consumers of content that others provide, asking questions and commenting on others’ posts, in favour of a more contributing role, publishing their own posts and expressing an agenda. Further, these kinds of large Facebook groups can be seen as a node in teachers’ social media networks.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media
• teacher facebook groups
• professional development
• community of practice

Acknowledgments

We are grateful for valuable feedback from professor Kenneth Ruthven, University of Cambridge, UK.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council under Grant number 2015-01979.

Notes on contributors

Ann-Christin Randahl

Ann-Christin Randahl has a position as associate professor in Swedish with specialization in didactics at the Department of Swedish, Multilingualism, and Language Technology at Gothenburg University. Her main research interests are writing, professional development, and social media. She is part of ROSE and the LCT Nordic network.

Yvonne Liljekvist

Yvonne Liljekvist is an Associate Professor in Mathematics Education at Karlstad University. Her research focus on conditions for mathematics teaching and learning and its relation to teachers’ professional development and school improvement.

Christina Olin-Scheller

Christina Olin-Scheller is a Professor of Applied Pedagogy at Karlstad University. Her research interests are reading instruction and young people’s reading and writing in and outside school, with a specific focus on today’s media landscape. She is the director of the Center for Language and Literature in Education, (CSL) as well the research group Research on Subject-Specific Education, (ROSE). She coordinates the international network Knowledge and Quality across School Subjects and Teacher Education, KOSS, and participates in the Nordic excellence center Quality in Nordic Teaching, QUINT.

Jorryt van Bommel

Jorryt van Bommel is an Associate Professor in mathematics education at Karlstad University in Sweden and at Høgskolan Innlandet in Norway. In her research she focuses on early mathematics, teaching quality as well as on teachers’ professional development.