Browsing by Author "Hynynen, Milla"

Aims. This particular case study focuses on teachers who write lifestyle blogs. The aim is to discover, analyse and interpret how lifestyle-blogging teachers see their teachership in relation to their private life and how they experience the potential influence of lifestyle-blogging on their teachership. The aim is also to examine how, why and where teacher-bloggers draw the line of privacy in their blog posts and whether drawing the line is influenced by their teachership. The previous study of blogging and teachership is focused on how blogs can be utilised as a tool in teaching. This case study aims to bring a new point of view to the study of social media and teachership. Methods. Five teacher-bloggers who write public lifestyle-blogs were interviewed for this study. A survey was used to collect basic information on teacher-bloggers and their blogs and to get an understanding of their views regarding teachership and blogging. The results of the survey were used to create the form for the focused interview. The individual interviews were made either face-to-face or with Skype. The interviews were transcribed. After that, 14 titles were created to help the analysing process. The study material (transcribed interviews) was analysed in accordance with the principles of data driven content analysis. First the material was categorized and then combined into minor and, if possible, major categories. The unit of analysis was a thought or an idea. Findings and conclusions. In the discourse of the teacher-bloggers was highlighted the teachers' right to privacy and private life. Public blogging was justified through a common belief in the right to use one's private time however one might want to. To successfully combine blogging and teachership required drawing a strict line between work and private time. Teachers didn't want to process their work on the blog, which is a part of their private life. By leaving the teachership and everything that it includes outside of the blog teachers protect their teacherships and school communities. To present an authentic representation of one's self on the blog seems to be more of an aim than an achievable goal. Bloggers inevitably brand themselves by the material they decide to publish in their blogs and what they choose to omit.