in the classroom
TikTok had over two million Australian users in 2022 .
‘ Teach tok ’
When teachers become social media influencers .
By Emilie Lauer
More teachers in Australia are joining social media platforms like TikTok to share their day-to-day lives in the classrooms and connect online with their students .
The new phenomenon has been called ‘ Teach Tok ’.
According to Curtin University media professor Crystal Abidin this is a “ cheeky coinage to describe the subculture of teachers teaching and having conversations about teaching on TikTok .”
“ As the beginning of the pandemic , teachers were on Teach Tok to remain connected with their students and that helped them better understand young people ,” Professor Abidin told Education Review .
“ Now teachers share the rhythm of their days ; some share stereotypes about the students they encounter in their classroom , while others are being very transparent about wellbeing and the challenges happening in the job .”
Professor Abidin joined Education Review to discuss the rise of Teach Tok .
ER : What sort of content do teachers post on TikTok ? There are a lot of different types . The first one is a-day-in-the-life kind of templates where teachers showcase the rhythm of their days , how they get ready for work , how they do classroom prep , how they do teaching , grading , marking , and then at the end of the day , the wind down and the admin work they have to focus on .
As newer cohorts of teachers join the profession , they ’ re also the groups of young people who grew up with social media .
A second very popular type of genre on Teach Tok is teachers quite cheekily imagining perceptions or stereotypes about students that they encounter in the classroom , like types of excuses students give when they ’ re late , types of students when they see their teachers in public , so on and so forth .
So there ’ s a bit of humour there that appeals a lot to the students .
22 | educationreview . com . au