Entrepreneurial Sign and Click-Worthy Teachers in the Digital Social World

• In Event: 34.089 - Semiotics in Education: Paper Session

Abstract

For teachers laboring under the public gaze, social media affords greater control over their teaching narratives and a move from the perpetual gaze to the transient glance (Zulli, 2017). This study examines intersections of society, economy, and identity in high-profile teacher-centered Instagram® posts. We apply Kress’ (2010) critical multimodal social semiotic approach to language and sign to show how #teachersofinstagram social media users reify and subvert racialized and gendered archetypes (Meiners, 2002) and neoliberal ideologies (Brown, 2015) embedded in American education. We argue that rather than signaling deprofessionalization, this reimagining of professional, personal, and social boundaries signals a reprofessionalization of teaching, with each post a potential point of transformation.

Authors

• Mel M Engman, University of Minnesota

• Laura Lemanski, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Leah Shepard-Carey, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities