Twitter: A Professional Development and Community of Practice Tool for Teachers

Abstract

This article shows how a group of language teachers use Twitter as a tool for continuous professional development through the #MFLtwitterati hashtag. Based on data collected through a survey (n = 116) and interviews (n = 11), it describes how this collective of teachers use the hashtag and evaluates the impact of their Twitter network on their teaching practices. The results show that most users try the suggestions and ideas that they find on this network, which have a positive impact on their teaching. Finally, the article assesses whether the hashtag users can be described as a community of practice.

How and why are educators using Instagram?

“…While schools may be staffed by adults who have been “brought together more by the vagaries of career paths and the central office than by affiliation or purpose” ( Huberman, 1995 , p. 195), social media can facilitate connections among educators with shared interests, needs, or goals. For example, various education-focused Twitter hashtags provide spaces where educators who might otherwise not have occasion to interact can discuss their particular content area ( Rosell-Aguilar, 2018 ) and myriad other education topics ( Carpenter et al., 2020 ; Greenhalgh & Koehler, 2017 ). Research on social media use during initial teacher preparation has also suggested potential benefits for aspiring educators, including access to increased sources of mentoring and development of professional networks ( Carpenter, 2015 ; Smith Risser, 2013 ).…”

What Should Be the Role of Social Media in Education?

“…The connectedness afforded by social media can play a critical role in teachers’ success and persistence in the field; numerous teacher surveys have reported that combating isolation is a prominent reason for educators’ social media use (e.g., Carpenter & Krutka, 2014; Hur & Brush, 2009; Trust et al, 2016). Social media can be a place to collaborate and network (Rosell-Aguilar, 2018), find mentors and more experienced peers (Cinkara & Arslan, 2017; Trust et al, 2016), and establish personal friendships (Noble, McQuillan, Littenberg-Tobias, 2016). In one study, teachers described going to Twitter for encouragement after bad days and to get personalized feedback on their lesson ideas (Noble et al, 2016); Twitter was a safe space where they could trust other educators to provide instructional and emotional support.…”

“…Teachers described traditional PD trainings as “formal,” “agenda-based,” and “content-driven” (Prestridge, 2019, p. 149); comparatively, PD on social media was characterized as informal and individualized. On social media, teachers can manage and control their own learning, easily accessed on an as-needed basis (Greenhalgh & Koehler, 2017; Rosell-Aguilar, 2018). Furthermore, teachers are able to connect with networks online that are much broader than is possible in face-to-face settings (Trust et al, 2016).…”

Digital Colleague Connectedness: A Framework for Studying Teachers’ Professional Network Interactions

“…CoP has also been used to explore how teachers use social media for professional development. These include blogs (Yang, 2009) and Twitter (Kulavuz-Onal, 2015;Moreillon, 2015;Rosell-Aguilar, 2018). Researchers sometimes use the term virtual communities of practice (VCoP) (Hsin Hsin et al, 2016;Peeters & Pretorium, 2020) to describe online professional development opportunities.…”