Teacher Identity and Crossing the Professional-Personal Divide on Twitter

• In Event: 43.075 - Technology Influences on Teachers' Identity and Practice

Abstract

Teachers have public personas that often combine aspects of their personal and professional identities, but little research has analyzed how this overlap is manifested in and affects their uses of social media platforms such as Twitter. We analyzed profiles and tweets from over 30,000 K-12 teacher accounts for examples of non-professional identifiers (i.e., family roles, religious stances, and political affiliation), common hashtag topics, and hyperlinks shared to determine the degree to which such accounts appeared to be used for personal and professional purposes. The analysis suggested that the accounts generally maintained a professional focus and disclosed limited personal information. We discuss these finding in relation to the extant literature and consider implications for policy, practice, and research.

Authors

• Jeffrey Paul Carpenter, Elon University

• Royce Kimmons, Brigham Young University