Social Networking Sites and Teacher Integrity

Rethinking the Relationship Between Teacher and Student

Nov 26, 2008

As inappropriate internet communication increases, school systems and boards must grapple with privacy issues that affect professional standards of behavior by teachers.

Across the country, local school boards are confronting the issue of teacher usage of websites such as Facebook and My Space. Though primarily social networking sites, some educators have been disciplined and even faced termination over postings that were deemed offensive, crude, and sexually oriented. In the Charlotte-Mecklenburg system in North Carolina, one teacher was dismissed after a November 2008 probe uncovered numerous questionable web postings.

Two Related Issues

2. To what extent are teacher-student communications via social networking sites appropriate?

Teachers are role models. As such, they are often held to a higher degree of personal standards. Although websites such as Facebook may represent “off-the-clock” activities, their accessibility raise concerns over educator integrity if the content is demeaning or grossly offensive. This is particularly true of younger teachers transitioning from college to their first classroom appointments. Washington Post writer Ian Shapira (April 28, 2008; A01) states that, “these are adults, many in their 20s, who are behaving, for the most part, like young adults.” Shapira’s article lists several teachers caught in this dangerous web.

Monitoring personal faculty websites can be costly and time consuming. Expectations of professional behavior should include written guidelines that enumerate what kinds of on-line activities are acceptable as well as specifying all levels of disciplinary action if the offenses relate directly to professional conduct. Many occupations address potential conflicts of interest, and the educational institution should be no different.

A related concern involves teacher-student communication either through social networking sites or by private email and instant messenger. Such technologies can be beneficial in terms of on-going educational discourse beyond the classroom, but there are media that better fit this purpose such as Blackboard message boards or teacher web pages that allow for blogging. Keeping all student-teacher communication strictly professional protects all parties from charges of inappropriate discourse.

Privatizing the Social Life

Students will always be interested in the private lives of their teachers, especially if those teachers are near in age to their students. Just as students like to determine which of their teachers is the most fashion conscious, they are also interested in how and where their teachers spend their non-school hours. However tempting it may be to appear popular or “cool,” the private life should be closed to students, regardless of grade level.

Most accusations of improper behavior or professional misconduct result from situations where the private and the professional became blurred. Often, this relates to internet communication. Writing on a student’s “wall” or allowing students to comment on a teacher’s personal site should be avoided at all costs, even if it means limiting access to the site.

Additionally, popular web sites such as Facebook should be policed by teachers and administrators to find pages created by students about teachers. My Space, for example, has a specific protocol for having such sites removed immediately. When students create web sites about their teachers or pose as a particular teacher, privacy rights have been violated. Schools should publish and enforce specific disciplinary actions related to such activities.

Summary

Social networking web sites are here to stay, serving many purposes that, generally, are beneficial. With the advances in internet communication, school boards and administrators must address crucial issues involving professional deportment relative to such media. Proactive, published policies may go a long way in preventing avoidable staff confrontations and possible litigation. Seminars covering such issues should be a part of on-going professional development as well as mandatory for new-teacher orientation sessions.

The copyright of the article Social Networking Sites and Teacher Integrity in School Staff Issues is owned by Michael Streich. Permission to republish Social Networking Sites and Teacher Integrity in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.