On social media such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, which generally have nothing to do with school, teacher and student sometimes add each other. However, this can lead to inappropriate behavior from teachers. Social media has such a big impact on the world in 2019 that it can cause both good and bad things; this is also the case in the field of teacher-student relationships. Is contact with your teacher on social media useful or inappropriate?
Social media in education
In education, social media such as WhatsApp and Facebook are often used for group conversations or pages in which teacher and student communicate with each other. Questions can be asked via social media or important information for a test, for example, can be passed on. However, it is also possible to have a conversation via such a group with just the teacher, one-on-one.
Wrong behavior of teachers
This contact between teachers and students via social media can go wrong. At Sint Ursula in Horn, Limburg, a teacher accidentally sent a photo of his genitals to a class of students via WhatsApp. After this accident it turned out that this was not the only case in which teachers at that school were too intimate with the students. This inappropriate behavior can even lead to job loss: a lawyer for the AOB teachers union deals with approximately 25 dismissal cases every year due to incorrect behavior of teachers on social media (Wal, 2015). For example, in Zwolle a teacher was in court because of sexually suggestive messages and nude photos he had sent to a student (Nieuws, 2015) and in Best a teacher was suspended for inappropriately approaching students via social media (Dominicus, 2017). Things sometimes go wrong, not only in the Netherlands: in the United States, photos of drunk and drugged teachers were shared (Preston, 2011).
(Adverse) influence of social media on reputation
These examples of wrong behavior between teacher and student are not only harmful to the reputation of the teacher himself. A teacher from Maastricht who was filmed snorting coke at a football match, which was then shared many times by students via social media (Wal, 2015), makes you realize that teachers also play a large part in determining the reputation of a school. According to Remco Pijpers, researcher for Kennisnet, privacy does not exist on social media. Not even for teachers.
Benefits of social media in education
The fact that private life does not exist on social media can also have an advantage: through social media, a teacher can show his or her human side, which can make students enthusiastic and they will probably show more interest in the lessons of the teacher in question. Social media can also help students with schoolwork, for example they can ask teachers questions about homework.
Possible solutions
There are a number of possible solutions to use the advantages of social media while limiting the disadvantages. According to Rik Spruijt of YoungWorks, it is possible for teachers to create two accounts on social media: one for personal matters and one as a teacher. For WhatsApp this is a different story, as these conversations are one-on-one. This ensures that less control is possible; others cannot watch (News, 2015). One option to ensure that it is clearer that communication is about school matters is to set a time after which communication with a teacher via WhatsApp is no longer permitted, whereby questions can only be asked after that agreed time, for example by email ( KPN, 2017). There is still little control possible, but there is a guideline that both teacher and student can adhere to, which can reduce the risk of inappropriate behavior.
Conclusion
Although contact between teacher and student has already crossed boundaries in several cases, social media can help students with school work by giving them the opportunity to ask questions to teachers. A teacher is not your best friend, but social media allows teachers to show their human side, which creates more enthusiasm among students. Controlling contact between teacher and student is not always possible, but the danger can be limited by taking measures.