Teachers' Help-Seeking Before and During COVID-19: Professional Learning Spanning Space, Place, and Time

• In Event: International Perspective on Advantages and Disadvantages of Teachers' Social Media Use

Abstract

Purpose
Covid-19 disrupted educational systems worldwide, necessitating emergency remote teaching (Hodges et al., 2020) and coinciding with increased social media use (Koeze & Popper, 2020). Educators, unprepared for this disruption, turned to social networks spanning social media and other contexts for help (Authors, 2021), trends pre-dating the pandemic (Authors, 2014). This study explores American and British teachers’ experiences of formal and informal learning within social media and other contexts to advance understanding of teacher professionalization and the continuities/tensions between teachers‘ learning in various settings.

Perspectives
We draw on our reconceptualization of the boundaries of formal and informal learning through social media (Authors, 2016) underpinned by activity theory (Engeström et al., 1995) and professional learning network theory (Trust et al., 2016). Authors (2016) argued that social media use to support learning can blend formal, informal and non-formal learning attributes. Theories of boundary-crossing related to social media use in education suggest that formal and informal professional learning systems can share the same object, from an activity theory perspective (Engeström et al., 1995), of developing professional practice. However, they often operate within different boundaries and are composed of potentially overlapping communities and stakeholders from different professions and disciplines, each with its own boundary (Trust et al., 2017).

Methods and Data Sources
To qualitatively explore U.K. and U.S. teachers‘ experiences of professional learning spanning social media and other contexts we collected #UKEdchat tweets and #Edchat tweets from January 1, 2019–April 30, 2021. From these tweets, we identified middle or secondary school teachers in the U.K. (n=4) and U.S. (n=4) to interview about their professional learning needs and practices before (January 2019–February 2020) and during (March 2020–April 2021) the shift to emergency remote teaching in their countries (Authors 2021a, 2021b). Teachers were also asked to reflect on samples of their social media artifacts (tweets) on #Edchat or #UKedchat. Informed by our perspectives, we generated codes within three overarching categories: purpose of professional learning; location and context including space/place and social structures that frame the learning; boundaries and related concepts.

Results
From qualitative analysis, four themes became apparent. First, U.S. teachers and U.K. teachers had two main purposes for their professional learning spanning social media and other contexts: to access new practices and contribute new resources or practices. Second, teachers from both countries experienced benefits in using social media for professional learning. These included transcending modal (i.e., layering text-, visual, other communication modes) and temporal boundaries and facilitating self-directed, peer- or other-influenced learning and unintended network effects. Third, teachers‘ experiences in both countries experienced blurring of professional learning boundaries: physical/virtual, local/global, pre-/during-pandemic via social media. Continuities introduced in boundary-crossing could advantage teachers‘ learning; however, discontinuities alienated some teachers from their occupational culture, contributing to their planning to or exiting their workplace.

Scholarly Significance
This paper expands conceptualizations of learning contexts, affordances and challenges of using social media for teacher professional learning, and the continuities and tensions between learning and participation in various settings. Implications for research and teacher education are discussed.

Authors

• Christine M. Greenhow, Michigan State University
  Presenting Author

• Cathy Lewin, Manchester Metropolitan University
  Non-Presenting Author