Preservice+Teachers+and+Social+Networking

Erin Ehrlinger, Jessica Todd, Maura McDanniels, Brittany Gonitzke

Background Reading for Learning Team - []

It is apparent in everyday life the increasing advances in technology and popularity of these technological advances. A popular topic of technology today is the amount of different social networking websites, “Wikipedia lists 110 active,” for people of every age (Carter, Foulger, & Ewbank, 2008, p.682). These different social networking sites have many positive influences on people today, for instance, “Myspace” which is “currently the sixth-most-visited website on the Internet,” and “Facebook” are popular and easy ways to communicate with friends and family from all different parts of the world (Carter et al, 2008, p.682). “LinkedIn” is another popular social networking website that is made for employers and possible job candidates to find job opportunities and even submit a resume to different companies. What most people who choose to join a social networking website don’t realize is the negative consequences, especially in the workforce, that can arise from things they post on their profile pages. A recent target of speculation is the social networking pages of preserive and inservice teachers and what is deemed appropriate by faculty and parents on profile pages of teachers educating the future generation.

Society expects teachers to teach students skills about good character and morals through lessons, as well by being a role model. Society also expects that any adult conduct that does not represent these skills and morals, such as questionable or inappropriate behavior, be kept private (Olson, Clough, & Penning, 2009). But today’s teachers face an added challenge concerning privacy. This challenge is social networking. Social networking has “…blur[red] the distinction between public and private space.” (Olson et al., 2009, p. 444). Any information that is uploaded can be viewed by “… students, parents, administrators, and strangers…” (Olson et al., 2009, p. 444). Information and photographs can come from that individual or from any other person. Any questionable behavior found on these websites may lead any teacher or perspective teacher to “suffer career-ending consequences.” (Olson et al., 2009, p. 444).



Some examples of content on social networks that is considered inappropriate are partying, sex/sexual content, inappropriate clothing/too much skin, political views, vulgarity, alcohol, criminal references/behavior, and religious views (Olson, 2009). Olson, Clough, and Penning (2009) conducted a study of the 471 elementary education majors attending a university and their Facebook content. 358 out of the 471 students had a Facebook (Olson et al., 2009). According to their study inappropriate content was found in groups that the student was in, photographs, and in the information section of their Facebook (Olson et al., 2009). Below is a graph that shows the percentage of students that had inappropriate content in their photos. The red section of the alcohol column, are the students under 21 years of age (Olson et al., 2009). Below is the a graph that shows the percentage of student that had inappropopriate content in their information section.



Teachers have always seemed to be held to a higher standard than any other profession. Whether it is their personal or professional life, teachers seem to be under a microscope. Some employers have started to take extra steps before hiring a person, including looking at these social networking sites before they make the final hiring decisions (Sluder & Andrews, 2010, p. 2). A study was conducted where the purpose was to “investigate the effect that social networking sites (e.g. Facebook and Myspace) have on hiring practices in K-12 public education (Sluder & Andrews, 2010, p.2). The participants were given a survey where they were asked general questions about themselves and if they used a social networking site themselves. They were then given a list of items and asked what would be a negative impact if they were hiring a teacher (Sluder & Andrews, 2010, p. 3). Thirty three percent of the participants were social networking site users (Sluder & Andrews, 2010, p.3). Eighty seven percent or more of the participants agreed that “Pictures of alcohol consumption, nudity, those that are sexual in nature, and using obscene language were all considered factors that might negatively impact an applicant” (Sluder & Andrews, 2010, p. 5). Over half said that pictures of teacher applicants smoking would negatively impact their decision and forty percent said that organizations that the applicant was affiliated with would negatively impact their hiring decision as well (Sluder &Andrews, 2010, p.5).

While Social networking sites can negatively influence hiring of preservice teachers, they can also cost inservice teachers their jobs. “Recent reports in the media have shown teachers being reprimanded for what school districts consider “inappropriate activity” (Carter et al, 2008, p.683). “In St. Augustine, Florida, middle school physical education teacher John Bush was fired over the content of his MySpace profile. He was dismissed when the district superintendent viewed what he called an inappropriate photograph and comments on the page. The superintendent admitted that the content was not pornographic but claimed that the profile contained things that students and parents should not know about a teacher.”(Carter et al, 2008, p.683. With all the controversy over inappropriate posting on social networking websites, some teachers feel as though they are losing their right to freedom of speech. In both Pickering v. Board of Education and Connick v. Myers, the Supreme Court has set boundaries for the First Amendment. “In //Pickering// v. //Board of Education//, the Court clarified that a teacher’s speech is protected if it is speech in regard to issues of public importance. Yet in //Connick// v. //Myers//, the Supreme Court further elaborated on that ruling by citing that the First Amendment rights of a public employee are weighed against the ability of the government employer to maintain an efficiently run organization. Under the Pickering/Connick test, a teacher could be disciplined for speaking out publicly against a school administrator only if that speech interfered with the efficient operations of the school” (Carter et al, 2008, p. 684).

While there are many negative consequences of social networking, teachers have begun to recognize the potential social networking has for educational purposes. Many teachers have realized the opportunity to further student-teacher relationships through social networking. (Baran, 2010). According to Mazer, Murphy and Simonds (2009), “…students accessing the Facebook website of a teacher with high self-disclosure reported higher levels of teacher credibility.” (Baran, 2010). After doing a 12-week study of 32 students, to see the benefits of using Facebook for educational purposes the results were, “Most of the students believed that students could share school-related knowledge on Facebook (n = 29; 90.7%) and many of them indicated that communicating with their classmates helped to motivate them in their learning (n = 21; 65.7%). However, many of the students were still largely undecided as to whether or not Facebook was of high value to teaching (n = 23; %72), although many agreed that they would be willing to use Facebook on other courses (n = 19; 59.4%)” (Baran, 2010). There may be a certain invasion of privacy with these social networks, but a few educators have put it to an educational cause.

Overall, social networking websites are a popular issue in society today when it comes to teachers. Inappropriate posts or pictures on a social networking site can influence a pre-service teacher from getting a job and can also cost an in-service teacher their job. With these social networking sites available to everyone and commonly used, they are being looked at more often by employers, especially for teachers. While there can be positive ways to incorporate social networking sites into education, it is up to the educator to do it in an appropriate way in which they represent themselves and the school well. School boards are still trying to figure out how to deal with inappropriate social networking. While it is unfair and unconstitutional to tell a teacher they are not allowed to have a social networking site, they are asking teachers to make sure they don’t have anything on their site they would be embarrassed for parents or advisors to see or that would “interfere with the efficient operations of the school” (Carter et al, 2008, p. 684).