The teachers’ and their profession in a virtual and expanding staff room– social media as a site for a new professional narrative

The project focuses on Swedish teachers´ voices in a virtual and expanding staff room, the teacher rebellion group (TRG) on Facebook. The goal is to understand what TRG can tell about today’s Swedish school and its teachers. It is important as the teaching profession are constantly in transition, shaped by several stakeholders in education.

The aim is to contribute knowledge about teachers´ self-initiated commitment, as expressed through TRG, and discuss its importance for the school, the teachers and national and local education policy.Data consist of TRG posts, dealing with teachers´ worries and opportunities in school, from two months during one year.

We will spend time within TRG, reading and saving teachers posts, totally about 240 with 7000 comments, and attend physical events and interview some key persons within TRG, from schools and politicians.The project is at the intersection of classroom and digital and social media research as teachers describe their classroom life, within the affordances offered by TRG.

Theories from narrative research are used with support of concepts from research on digital and social media.

Data are analysed and understood as teachers´ narratives about their profession and its conditions.The three-year project will be conducted by researchers from Karlstad, Linköping and Örebro Universities, holding broad competence in methodological and theoretical studies of teachers and their profession .