Social networks as spaces for informal teacher professional development: challenges and opportunities

Abstract

With the spread of the Web 2.0 there has been a proliferation of web-based communities for learning, across platforms that enable the creation of virtual communities. However, unlike business, the emergence of educational networking is still beginning. Recent research shows that social networks are powerful educational tools that offer teachers the opportunity to develop their knowledge and competences, contributing to lifelong learning and professional development in informal settings. In order to investigate the potential of educational networking as a source for teachers’ growth, a social network named PROEDI (http://www.proedi.com) was created in the beginning of 2011. In this project, the Interconnected model of teacher professional growth (Clarke and Hollingsworth, 2002) was the basic framework for the analysis of professional growth in informal settings. In this paper, the conceptual framework of the research is presented, as is some evidence obtained on the analysis of discussion forums created inside the community that underpin a discussion on the challenges and opportunities that social networking offer for teacher education.