An analysis of the role of social media in teaching and learning at a higher education institution in South Africa

Abstract

Higher Education Institutions have appropriated social media for teaching and learning. However, very little has been done to understand the role of social media in teaching and learning. In particular, there is very little knowledge about reconfiguring learning spaces in ways that promote horizontal interactions, co-creation of knowledge between students and lecturers in line with a decolonised pedagogy. Also, there is a gap in knowledge about social media’s potential to encourage decolonised teaching and learning. Firstly, this study investigates the role of social media in teaching and learning, and secondly, the study examines the nature of engagements between students and lecturers using social media. The study employed a virtual ethnographic approach. Follow up in-depth interviews were conducted to understand further the participant observation results in the WhatsApp class groups. Theoretically, the study used the Carnivalesque approach as it was a normative fit when studying the intersection of technology, power and learning. The results have shown that social media’s role is to enhance and support teaching and learning by creating horizontal power relations and horizontal communication engagements and further promoting deep understanding.