Using Twitter for Civic Education in K-12 Classrooms

Abstract

This paper is a report of a qualitative case study of two teachers who use the social media platform Twitter with their students to teach civic knowledge and skills. Although the use of Twitter in higher education has been studied, few studies have been done to understand the use of Twitter in K-12 education (Greenhow et al., 2020). This article adds to that literature on Twitter in K-12 education by examining the ways in which one elementary school teacher and one high school teacher use Twitter in their classrooms to prepare their students for lifelong civic engagement. This study showed the elementary teacher used Twitter to teach her students how to interact with others on social media, while the high school teacher used Twitter to increase student engagement and civic participation. For both, Twitter provided a space where each teacher and their students could learn and practice the knowledge and skills necessary to participate in civic life across the lifespan.