Teacher trainees’ information sharing activities and identity positioning on Facebook
| Pages | 244-262 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-06-2016-0085 |
| Published date | 13 March 2017 |
| Date | 13 March 2017 |
| Author | Fredrik Hanell |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Teacher trainees’information
sharing activities and identity
positioning on Facebook
Fredrik Hanell
Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to extend the knowledge of how identity is connected to information
sharing activities in social media during pre-school teacher training.
Design/methodology/approach –An ethnographic study is performed where 249 students at a Swedish
pre-school teacher-training programme are followed through participant observations from November 2013 to
January 2014, and from September 2014 to January 2015. The material produced includes 230 conversations
from a Facebook Group used by 210 students and several teachers, field notes and transcribed interviews
with nine students. Comparative analysis is used to analyse the Facebook conversations to identify ways of
positioning identity and engaging in information sharing activities. Interviews with students are analysed to
contextualise and validate the findings from the online interactions.
Findings –Three identity positions are identified: discussion-oriented learner, goal-oriented learner and
customer-oriented learner. The way a student commits to others, to ideas and to a career choice affects
their identity positions and information sharing activities. Results suggest that information sharing with
social media should be understood as a powerful device for identity development in pre-school teacher
training.
Research limitations/implications –This study is designed to provide detailed accounts with high
validity on the expense of a high degree of representativeness.
Originality/value –No previous library and information science-studies have been presented that explore
the relationship between the identity of learners and the information sharing activities in which they engage,
in the context of social media or in relation to teacher training.
Keywords Higher education, Information literacy, Social media, Teacher training, Identity,
Information sharing
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
New information activities emerge and new venues for identity positioning are offered when
social media, such as the social network site Facebook, are introduced and used in higher
education. The connection between identity and learning is already well documented and
researched (e.g. Erstad, 2012; Wortham, 2006; Wenger, 1998). For example, Wortham (2006)
shows how social identification and academic learning depend strongly on one another.
Socio-culturally informed research, from the field of information literacy, also suggests that
identity is closely related to how information activities are undertaken. Lloyd (2009) shows
how the professional identity of ambulance drivers is connected to their use of information
sources, and Eckerdal (2013) analyses how information literacy practices, when choosing
contraceptives, are part of young women’s identity construction. Sundin (2002) explores
how information seeking and use is given meaning as nurses develop an occupational
identity. These studies from library and information science (LIS) have examined
the relationship between the identity of learners and the information activities in which they
engage. To date, no studies have been presented that explore this relationship in the context
of social media or in relation to teacher training.
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 73 No. 2, 2017
pp. 244-262
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-06-2016-0085
Received 23 June 2016
Revised 16 September 2016
Accepted 22 September 2016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
The author would like to thank the participants of the study and acknowledge the anonymous
reviewers for their valuable comments.
244
JD
73,2
Teacher trainees are both students within higher education and future teachers. Most
university students use social media, such as Facebook, to socialise and share information
during their adolescence and young adulthood (Lampe et al., 2011). As future teachers,
past experiencesof social media use is likely to affect how similar digital tools will be used in
pre-schools and schools. The way teachers use technology is connected to experiences
of technology use in teacher training (Tondeur et al., 2012). This makes studies of teacher
trainees’use of social media important. A vital type of activity to study is that of information
sharing, since it contributes to forming a collective understanding of a common project
(Pilerot and Limberg, 2011), such as teacher training. Furthermore, while teacher identity is
highly influential on experiences, beliefs and practices of teachers (Day et al.,2006), there are
still only a few studies that examine teacher trainees’identity formation in digital settings
(Lu and Curwood, 2015). The present paper reports findings from an ethnographic study on
how students in a Swedish pre-school teacher-training programme use Facebook to engage
in information sharing activities and enact identity positions.
From a socio-cultural perspective, which emphasises the social and contextual nature of
learning and information (Lupton and Bruce, 2010), information activities are situated, social
activities. These activities are shaped by institutional norms and traditions (Lundh, 2011) and
can include searching, assessing, producing and sharing information (Limberg et al., 2012).
This paper investigates information activities connected to information sharing. These
information sharing activities include how information needs are articulated and how
information is shared, as information is requested and provided to others (cf. Savolainen, 2011).
The aim of this study is to extend the knowledge of how identity is connected to information
sharing activities in social media during pre-school teacher training. The research question
guiding this investigation is how do pre-school teacher trainees enact identity positions and
engage in information sharing activities when they use Facebook for information sharing?
In addition to exploring a new empirical field for LIS, this paper can contribute to the
theoretical development of the discipline by deepening our understanding of the connection
between identity and information sharing activities. In the next section, previous research
relevant to the study is discussed.
Previous research
Identity is a multi-faceted concept that has been researched for a long time within several
disciplines. In LIS, research on identity covers several empirical fields such as development
of professional identities (Lloyd, 2009; Sundin, 2002), reading practices and social identities
among sexual minority groups (Rothbauer, 2004) and children’s identity construction
in virtual environments (Meyers, 2009). Josefsson and Hanell (2014) discuss how teacher
trainees and teachers perform and negotiate roles in Facebook Groups, but LIS has not yet
produced any other identity-related research on teacher trainees.
Identity is a key factor that influences the perspectives and practices of teachers
(Day et al., 2006). Accordingly, research on teacher identities has developed into a field of
research of its own (Beijaard et al., 2004). In a study of how pre-school teacher trainees
express and negotiate professional identity through course-endorsed blogging, Kvåle and
Rambø (2015) show how an emerging professional identity that integrates subject-specific
knowledge and personal commitment can be traced in the blog posts. Lu and Curwood
(2015) present the first study where the identity formation of teacher trainees is studied in
a non-course-endorsed online setting. They find two categories among the teacher trainees
using a closed Facebook Group: one category express identities of identification towards
each other by being reliant, helpful, supportive and sociable, while another category express
resistance to the social norms of group participation (Lu and Curwood, 2015). Lu and
Curwood’s results are highly relevant to the present paper but they do not address how
information sharing activities are undertaken as part of identity positioning. Although not
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Information
sharing
activities
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