Teachers Turning to Teachers

Teacherpreneurial Behaviors in Social Media

Bibliographic Data

ID11366147
AuthorsKaitlin Torphy, Kaitlin T Torphy (Michigan State University, corresponding author), Sihua Hu (0000-0001-5904-6722), Yuqing Liu (0000-0003-2417-3523, Michigan State University), Zixi Chen (0000-0001-6350-2997, Michigan State University)
Year2020
Volume127
Issue1
Pages49-76
Publication date2020-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0195-6744 • E-ISSN: 1549-6511
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/711012
OpenAlexW3092689695
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited43

There is growing evidence that educators engage in social media and virtual social networks across formal and informal settings to direct the trajectory of their curriculum. Interactions within and across virtual spaces provide opportunities to flatten hierarchical structures as teachers may directly or indirectly engage with educational decision making and reform implementation (e.g., Supovitz et al. 2015). This article examines an educational phenomenon, the emergence of a teacherpreneurial guild—that is, a teacher collective promoting professional practices, norms, and entrepreneurial activity—creating and defining knowledge underlying educational practices and classroom behaviors. Using a sample of Midwestern elementary teachers, this work identifies patterns of online educational resource access over 4 years across 135,000 pins shared within Pinterest, a social media platform. Results indicate teachers most often turn to one another for resources and professional materials. This may have implications for trust developed within teacherpreneurial guilds and teachers’ ability to exert agency within their profession

Agency (philosophy · Curriculum · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Phenomenon · Political science · Professional development · Public relations · Resource (disambiguation · Sample (material · Social media · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Online and Blended Learning · Psychology · Social Media and Politics