A missed opportunity? Social media and pedagogy as teachers returned to school

Abstract

Social media and social networking sites have become popular across governments, enterprises, and non-profit making organisations. Nevertheless, education has evidenced conflicting views around the role that social media ought to play in pedagogy. This thesis examines whether or not social media can be incorporated into pedagogy successfully. The research aims are to examine the current relationship between social media and pedagogy, to identify factors that influence teacher engagement, and to determine whether or not social media can make an impact on student engagement and performance. The study is underpinned by Trowler’s (2008) socio-cultural theory and the research is based on a mixed methods approach. I applied a phase of online quantitative surveys that were analysed using descriptive statistics and two subsequent phases of interviews that were analysed thematically. I adopted purposeful sampling to recruit 434 secondary teachers with QTS to participate in the study. The results show that there is little meaningful, transformative professional development in schools in respect of using social media for pedagogy (Kennedy 2005 and 2014). I argue that CPD in schools should focus on developing pedagogical strategies with technology as opposed to focusing on the technology in its own right. Furthermore, teachers’ reflections indicated that the differences between the social media platforms are profound; thus, grouping them together can become problematic. In other words, YouTube’s functionality is applied in an opposite way to Twitter’s and with different audiences. Additionally, the study has uncovered a lack of thought towards applying technology in education policymaking, and this became problematic for schools during the U.K. lockdown. The study’s major themes illuminate the challenges involved with successfully embedding technology in education, particularly social media.