Social media makes it possible to now study teachers’ informal professional development, something that previously has not been possible. Our study (DNR 2015-01979) probes teachers’ participation in social media, in specific in Facebook groups constructed by and for teachers themselves. Our data consist of around 600 posts and their comments from 6 different Facebook groups concerning the teaching of the school subject mathematics or Swedish, obtained through a stratified sample over a period of one year (van Bommel & Liljekvist, 2016). These data have been categorized using the Shulmans framework (1987) and further analysed using systemic functional linguistics (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2013). The results show that the linguistic features questions and offers are most frequently used (92%) whereas statements and calls are not existing to the same extend. Pedagogical content knowledge dominates in the questions and offers posted in the Facebook groups (63%). A difference between groups in mathematics and Swedish emerged: 13% vs 5% of the posts were categorized as Content Knowledge. Thus, the study shows that teachers constructing their own professional development focus on pedagogical content knowledge, further, teachers have different needs within different subjects.

Halliday, M.A.K. & Matthiessen, Christian M.I.M. (2013). Halliday’s introduction to functional grammar. 4th ed. London & New York: Routledge.

Shulman, L. (1987) Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review: April 1987, Vol. 57, No. 1, pp. 1-23.

van Bommel, J., & Liljekvist, Y. (2016, October). Teachers’ informal professional development on social media and social network sites: when and what do they discuss? Paper presented at the ERME, Berlin, Germany.