Steam Vent or Percolator: Impact of a Teacher Blog on District Information Sharing and Morale
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
5-1-2011
Originally Published In
Poster presented at the Seventh International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, IL.
Abstract
This hybrid narrative discourse study blended postmodernistic and critical social theory approaches to examine a teacher-initiated, District-independent blog in one Great City School district facing fiscal and performance challenges. This analysis of the blog, which provided teachers opportunities to both share information and vent frustrations, provided significant insights into communications that can occur and interaction patterns that can develop among teachers in a large district when those teachers’ identities remain anonymous. Analysis of response patterns and content indicated specific challenges teachers believed unempowered them, as well as fears, concerns, and patterns of bias or prejudice developing among teachers within the District. Of particular interest were social network and hierarchical relationships revealed and what these patterns indicated for the future of blogging as a means of social discourse.
