Social Media, Teacher-Student Relationships, and Student Learning

Abstract

Various social media tools, apps, and programs have emerged in education, and teachers today have to decide whether these tools would be useful for their teaching and consider how they might affect different aspects of their relationships with students. This study examines teacher perspectives on how social media is affecting the teacher-student relationship. Data were collected through qualitative interviews. Findings revealed that teachers perceived social media impacted the teacher-student relationship in terms of their interactions with students, as well as student behavioral and learning outcomes. Overall, the findings enhance our understanding of how the teacher-student relationship and interactions affect student learning and out-of-class communication and support, in real life contexts as well as in online environments.