Preschool teachers’ experience of parents’ WhatsApp groups: technological ambivalence and professional de-skilling

ABSTRACT

The paper sheds light on preschool teachers’ experiences with the plethora of parents’ WhatsApp groups in Israel. Using a social constructivist approach, we conducted discussions with twenty-five preschool teachers. We argue that WhatsApp as a social medium contributes to the de-skilling of the preschool teachers’ labour. We identified three types of ambivalence in the teachers’ comments regarding interactions with and among parents: (a) instrumental ambivalence celebrates technology's efficiency while witnessing a shift in long working hours and a need to justify their pedagogical decisions; (b) substantive ambivalence indicates the intensified tendency to hold teachers in a need to engage in public relations; (c) critical ambivalence demonstrates a turn from a professional discourse between parents and teachers to a surveillance and accountability discourse. We conclude that the intense supervision by parents afforded by WhatsApp groups contributes to the de-skilling of preschool teachers’ labour by turning a caring profession to a managerial practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Preschool teachers
• teachers’ communication with parents
• ICT
• de-skilling
• ambivalence
• care work

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Professor Jonathan Cohen and professor Rivka Ribak, from Haifa University for their suggestion in the early stages of this research, we would also wish to thank two anonymous readers for attentive reading that improve our manuscript

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Simon Bar Kokhba (135 AD) led a rebellion of the Jews of the Roman province of Judea against the Roman Empire, The Hanukkah story celebrates the Maccabi's defeat of the Seleucid Greeks in 168 BC.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shosh Davidson

Shosh Davidson (PhD) is a lecturer at the Media Education and the department of Educational Leadership and Administration, Gordon Educational College, Haifa. Her areas of interest are education, childhood and motherhood in consumer culture.

Ornat Turin

Ornat Turin is a senior lecturer at the Media Education department in Gordon College and a research fellow of Hadassah Brandeis Institution. Turin Lives in Haifa Israel, she is a social activist in peace and feminist grassroots organization.