Teacher Tweeting in the Time of COVID-19: An Exploration of Emergency Professional Learning via Social Media

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Algorithms of Teaching, Learning, and Oppression: New Research on Social Media

Abstract

As K-12 schools in the U.S. and Canada transitioned to emergency remote teaching during the recent pandemic, many educators turned to social media for support. Building on macro-level studies of educational stakeholders’ social media participation patterns during COVID-19, this in-depth qualitative case study generates insight into the nature of teachers’ professional learning-related social media activity during the pandemic-induced pivot to emergency remote instruction. Using interview and Twitter data, we describe teacher motivations, perceived challenges, and social media resource-to-practice connections in the spring of 2020. Such work centers the on-the-ground concerns and challenges of teachers and helps extend conceptions of professional learning networks (PLNs) to their functioning in emergency educational contexts.

Authors

• Christine M. Greenhow, Michigan State University

• Sarah Galvin, Michigan State University