To better understand the culture, norms, values, and other aspects of the Twitter-based teaching community of practice, I conducted a digital ethnography by analyzing past Twitter activity, participating in and observing related online activity facilitated through Twitter, and interviewing faculty who have engaged in online networks and communities of practice.
While faculty often teach in isolation, their teaching development is social. From a social practice perspective, faculty often learn about teaching from their own instructors, through the discipline norms of their colleagues and departments, and through trial and error. Many faculty love the work of teaching, but experience barriers to developing their teaching practice and identity. Some institutions have established teaching and learning centers to organize opportunities to develop teaching, often in cross-disciplinary efforts, but these opportunities are still limited. As teaching and learning centers and individual faculty consider ways to learn about teaching through online spaces, there is a need for a deeper understanding of what creates a thriving online network and community of practice related to teaching.
This dissertation study sought to better understand and describe one online-based teaching community: #Ungrading on Twitter. "Ungrading," a term that started to circulate on Twitter in 2016, is the practice of eliminating grades from the teaching and learning environment to the greatest extent possible. While the concept of ungrading is as old as grading itself, this term has unified a global audience with the hashtag #Ungrading, which has resulted in an ongoing conversation and smaller communities of practice digging into a commitment to #Ungrading.
These pages share condensed versions of my dissertation.
I am Christina Moore, under the direction of Dr. Jana Nidiffer, associate professor in Educational Leadership, the faculty advisor for this project. I conducted this research study to describe the dynamics of faculty online communities of practice based on teaching in higher education. If you have questions about the study, please contact me at christinamoorephd@gmail.com or reach out to my advisor at nidiffer@oakland.edu.
Oakland University's IRB approved study #: IRB-FY2021-269 on March 12, 2021.