Teachers on TikTok: Creative strategies and resources for making content go viral. An evolution in education?
Abstract
TikTok is experiencing exponential growth, especially among the younger generation. In the educational context, teachers are using the platform to disseminate personal publications and make them go viral. In this study, multimodal discourse analysis is used, together with grounded theory and the constant comparative method, to understand and interpret the resources and strategies being deployed by teachers to create content. It is found that teachers use different types of affordances of the TikTok platform. In terms of technological affordances, the short video stands out, as well as the ‘selfie shot’ and the teacher’s own voice for representing themself, rather than music or lip-synching. In terms of social affordances, there is trend-following, a casual and optimistic tone, games and humour. In terms of inherited affordances, the whiteboard and marker pen, the centrality of exams or the continued use of the classroom are introduced into the virtual world. This creates tension between these analogisms and their opposite: the ‘Tiktokification’ of the educational space. In the case of certain profiles, the educational purpose is replaced by a move towards personal growth on the internet and the promotion and commercialisation of products, imitating processes typical of influencers. There is also an overexposure of choreographed students, as well as indicators of sexualization of content, in an appropriation of the role of teacher for particular purposes. At the same time, the platform enables the visibility of educational profiles that offer expanded accessibility to very specific and concrete pedagogical content, without this resulting in the implementation of micro-learning strategies or representing a radical break with traditional education.
Keywords
TikTok, education, affordances, teachers, online learning, digital learningReferences
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