Research: How social media powers discussions of burnout, career transition among teachers
New research from three University of Georgia alumni shines a light on the way teachers congregate and discuss issues in the profession, specifically burnout and transitioning away from teaching, via the social media platform Reddit.
The study, published in “Teachers College Record,” is co-authored by three alumni of the Mary Frances Early College of Education: Stacey Kerr (Ph.D. ’16), an independent scholar; Mardi Schmeichel (M.Ed. ’09, Ph.D. ’12), an associate professor at University of Nebraska-Lincoln; and Beth Wurzburg (Ed.S. ’11, Ph.D. ’15), a clinical associate professor in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice.
Prior studies focused on the positive aspects of social media for teachers, such as how it provides support, networking, and other resources, which the research team initially planned to further investigate. However, after joining teacher groups on their own Facebook and Instagram accounts, they saw evidence of the opposite point of view.
“As we, with our own social media feeds, started joining some of these groups that teachers were in, we just couldn’t deny that there was this emerging current of real dissatisfaction with teaching,” Schmeichel said.