Teaching With Social Media: A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis of Democratic and Participatory Potential

• In Event: Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Transcultural Perspectives on Digital Media

Abstract

As social media infiltrate education, they proffer mixed contributions, from creating more democratic and participatory spaces to increasing market influences and capacities for surveillance. These moves challenge researchers to show greater interest in the circumstances within which these technologies are located and to include issues of democracy and social justice. As teachers and learners engage new social technologies, questions arise over what teacher roles endure, what ones may be changing, which ones are being promulgated, and whether new ones are emerging. This paper presents findings from a multiple case study using a democratic progressive framework and Foucauldian discourse analysis and focuses on the discursive possibilities available within emerging subject positions engaged by teachers using social media in their teaching.

Author

• Susan L. Meabon Bartow, Miami University