Abstract:

This paper evaluates the findings of a small-scale research project into how applying Gibbs’ (1988) reflective model can help trainee teachers examine their use of social media platforms as pedagogic tools. This model is frequently deployed as one of the preferred models of reflective practice among public sector professionals, yet its limitations rendered the model a departure. Indeed, trainee and newly qualified teachers are sometimes subject to superficial ideas on reflective practice (Hebert 2015; Pratt and Tynan, 2019).The broader aims of this paper are to explore the value and limitations of Pinterest - a social media platform - for use in a classroom and in the context of the literature. A supplementary aim is to contextualise Pinterest in the world of educational technologies (or edtech).

The study used mixed methods of data collection and deployed thematic analysis as a methodology for analysing the qualitative data. Thematic analysis helped the researchers identify and analyse semantic and latent codes (Braun and Clarke, 2019) and this helped provide ‘structure and form’ to subjective viewpoints (Brown, 1986 pp 58). Initial findings reveal a disconnect between trainee teachers’ social media use in schools. The taxonomies, definitions of social media vis-a- vis edtech are still problematic and contested semantically, ontologically and ideologically. Further limitations of the study were its small sample size, some contradictory or redundant data and the paucity of peer reviewed or policy literature specific to social media and Secondary education. This paper proposes collaborative authoethnographies as a valid method of exploring the ontological and epistemological questions arising from qualitative inquiry. The likely impact of this study is to contribute to emerging debates about personalised and remote learning post-Covid-19.

Keywords:

Social media, autoethnography, teacher education, teachers, pgce, Pinterest, reflection, reflective models, ethnography, edtech, technology, teaching.