Health education, social media, and tensions of authenticity in the 'influencer pedagogy' of health influencer Ashy BinesHealth and wellness influencers are often criticised as dubious and unqualified sources of health education, presenting highly curated, commercialised lifestyles via social media platforms such as Instagram. While these critiques are important, they also present a narrow reading of complex digital cultures. In this paper, we examine a digital ethnographic case study of Australian entrepreneur and health influencer, Ashy Bines. We argue that Bines' pedagogical expertise is made possible through her seemingly contradictory media practices and messages, whereby she cultivates an 'authentic' personal experience for her followers. We frame these productive tensions in her social media practices as a form of 'influencer pedagogy'the indirect, mediated processes of education produced through relatable interactions between influencers and their followers on social media platforms. We do not assess whether influencer pedagogy is 'good' or 'appropriate' but instead explore how influencers like Bines cultivate authenticity and expertise, and thus pedagogical potential.
The 'neoliberal turn' in the higher education sector has received significant intellectual scrutiny in recent times. This scrutiny, led by many established academics working within the sector, has highlighted the negative repercussions for teaching and research staff, often referred to as the 'academic precariat' due to their tenuous employment prospects within an increasingly market-driven system. This critique of the modern university can also inadvertently position academics as either resisting or complying with neoliberal governance. This does not adequately account for the nuanced and poetic ways in which professional, personal and gendered subjectivities are formulated, intertwined and negotiated. In this paper we draw on the six overlapping yet distinct narratives of the six female authors, all early-career academics from Australia. We capture and analyse these narratives through collective biography, a qualitative methodology underpinned by the work of Davies and Gannon and others, that helps us to move beyond the 'good vs. bad', 'resistance vs. compliance' debates about academic life. We identify aspects of our lived subjectivities that offer rupture through poetic and hopeful ways of understanding how academics construct and negotiate their lives.
During a tumultuous period marked by a global pandemic, forced lockdowns, and educational institutions going ‘digital by default’, TikTok has emerged as a key platform for teachers to connect and share their experiences. These digital practices have been widely celebrated for providing teachers with an outlet during a challenging time, though little is known about the particulars of TikTok's appeal among teachers and their followers. This article focuses on a teacher from South Australia, ‘Mr Luke’, whose upbeat TikTok videos capturing ‘#teacherlife’ have seen him grow a significant following. Drawing on interviews with Mr Luke and an Australian pre-service teacher who follows him, we consider their thoughts on TikTok and its relationship to professional practice. We identify key factors that have enabled TikTok's popularity among educators, with implications for both teacher education and social media scholarship.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.