A virtual safe zone: Teachers supporting teenage student resilience through social media in times of war
Keywords
social network technology (SNT)
teachers
teenagers
emotional support
resilience
Publication details
| Year: | 2018 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.tate.2018.03.011 |
| Issued: | 2018 |
| Language: | English |
| Volume: | 73 |
| Start Page: | 35 |
| End Page: | 42 |
| Editors: | |
| Authors: | Rosenberg H.; Ophir Y.; Asterhan C. |
| Type: | Journal article |
| Journal: | Teaching and Teacher Education |
| Publisher: | Elsevier BV |
| Sample: | 11 secondary school teachers in addition to 113 adolescent students were recruited from a national panel of adolescents in Israel. All participants were Israeli citizens who reside within 45 km from the Israel-Gaza border. |
| Implications For Educators About: | Other |
Abstract
We examine how teacher-student communication through social network technologies may support student resilience during an ongoing war (i.e., the 2014 Israel-Gaza war). Based on student responses from open-ended surveys (N = 68), five content categories of emotional support were identified: caring, reassuring, emotion sharing, belonging, and distracting. The mere existence of continuous online contact with teachers also contributed to resilience perceptions. Interviews with 11 secondary school teachers revealed three main purposes for this communication: (a) delivering emotional support to students, (b) monitoring their distress; and (c) maintaining civilized norms of discourse. Practical implications and theoretical contributions are discussed
Outcome
Analyses of the teacher interview data revealed three main motives for engaging in SNT-based communication with their students: (a) to maintain civilized norms of online discourse in a stressful and emotional period; (b) to monitor student distress; and (c) to deliver emotional support to their students when they need it (Rosenberg, Ophir & Asterhan, 2018).The data from the student perspective further revealed that this emotional support was delivered and experienced in a range of different ways: the present study also showed that the mere existence of continuous online contact was perceived as an important form of support in and by itself.