Push and Pull on Twitter: How School Leaders Use Microblogging for Knowledge Mobilization

• In Event: 21.033 - Knowledge Brokers and Boundary Spanners: Strengthening Ties Between Research, Policy, and Practice in Education

Abstract

Purpose and Perspective
Educational leaders can serve as knowledge brokers for the students, teachers, and families they serve. For example, it is not surprising that leaders might formally communicate information via staff meetings, newsletters, or other announcements. However, internet communications technologies and social media have also changed the landscape of this knowledge brokering. Today, leaders might also leverage new media platforms, such as Twitter, to bridge and communicate with their communities. For example, news that breaks on Twitter traverses among users and is disseminated around the globe almost instantly (Kwak et al., 2010). Many educators now use Twitter to share information about educational practices and reforms (e.g., new policies, research, conference proceedings) (Carpenter & Krutka, 2014; Authors, 2016; Authors, 2015), sharing information not only with professional colleagues, but with the Twitterverse at large.

Methods and Data
This paper is a synthesis of the literature that provides insight to early adopters of social media in education and captures trends, practices, and lessons learned that school and district level educational leaders use to push improvement and innovation. School leaders serve as a useful case study for exploring the benefits and barriers of this social computing system, because they may particularly benefit from a reduced sense of isolation associated with their position. To further understand the utility of technology-based communication, this paper also investigates the way education leaders engage with their professional colleagues and stakeholders through social media data and exchanges.

Building on previous research, we describe the history of Twitter as a popular social media platform among educators. In reviewing prior scholarship, we ask: how might leaders leverage social media to improve their practices and decision making? We draw from a variety of studies that focus on the intersection of Twitter and topics such as digital identity, professional learning, political engagement, categorical interactions, and influence. Highlighting qualitative and quantitative findings, this paper explores topics including the identity formation, perceptions, and behaviors of school leaders in the Twittersphere (Authors, 2016; Cho & Jimerson, 2017, Authors, 2015), the discourse and social network within Twitter as an online community of practice (Paskevicius, Veletsianos, & Kimmons, 2018; Ricoy & Feliz, 2016; Wang, Sauers, & Richardson, 2016), and the extension of the practice beyond geopolitical boundaries (Shah & Cox, 2017; Sullivan, 2017).

Results and Significance
Drawing upon this body of research, we describe insights not only into educational leaders’ uses of Twitter, but also the potential benefits and drawbacks of these practices for the future of education. Although we focus mainly on educational leaders, these implications speak broadly to practice and research in a variety of areas in which brokering and mobilizing knowledge may be important.

Authors

• Jayson W. Richardson, University of Kentucky

• Nick John Sauers, Georgia State University

• Vincent Cho, Boston College

• John Eric M Lingat, University of Kentucky