Date of Award

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Master of Education (MEd)

First Supervisor/Advisor

Nicholas Wachira

Second Supervisor/Advisor

Fortidas Bakuza

Department

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

Abstract

This study sought to find out how social media can be used to leverage teacher professional learning. It adopted a designed-based research approach with a pre-intervention, an intervention and a post-intervention phase. There were four different types of data sources analyzed: questionnaires, an online survey, and interviews with administrators and TPL providers. In addition, the contributions and activities of teachers on social media platforms were examined. Data suggest that while social media is currently being used in TPL its affordances are not fully exploited. WhatsApp is the most used social media in TPL. Findings suggest that when teachers are oriented in the use of social media in TPL they are easily able to access materials, create materials, respond to activities, communicate and establish communities of learning. Furthermore, because teachers already know how to use social media they easily accept it, can personalize it for their use, and become more amenable to independent learning. Social media and specifically WhatsApp proved to be a useful tool because it was cheap to use, had the capacity to include many teachers from different places and allowed one to embed multiple social media applications

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