“There's no referee on social media”: Challenges in educator professional social media use

• Published in: Teaching and teacher education 2019-11, Vol.86, p.102904, Article 102904
• Main Authors: Carpenter, Jeffrey P., Harvey, Stephen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0742-051X; 1879-2480
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tate.2019.102904

Social media have become venues for self-directed professional activity for many educators. Although these activities are generally voluntary in nature and thus likely provide some benefits, professional social media use also features some drawbacks. We present challenges described by educators (N = 48) who had all actively utilized social media professionally over an extended period of time. Data were collected via semi-structured individual and focus group interviews. Four general types of challenges were experienced by the participants: intrapersonal, interpersonal, school community, and online educator community. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings for educators, teacher educators, and education researchers. •Social media create new opportunities and challenges for teacher learning.•We interviewed 48 educators regarding their professional social media activities.•The sample was international in nature and had used social media extensively.•Participants encountered four main types of challenges in their social media use.•We aligned the four types of challenges with a social ecological model.