Teachers as nightmare readers: Estonian high-school teachers’ experiences and opinions about student-teacher interaction on Facebook

Abstract

This study explored Estonian teachers’ perceptions and practices about student-teacher interaction on Facebook. Four focus group interviews with high-school teachers (n=21) revealed that educators are used to monitoring their students’ posts on Facebook and consider it their role to intervene whenever something inappropriate is posted. Teachers viewed such social media surveillance as a routine and harmless practice which does not violate students’ privacy. The participants of our study do not see any need for formal social media policies to regulate student-teacher interaction on social media, as they consider themselves perfectly capable of making ethical choices in this realm.