A Qualitative Study on the Role of Teacher Candidates’ Social Media Use in Education

This study aims to examine the ways in which pre-service teachers use social media platforms and the role of this use in education. The research is a qualitative research conducted with a total of 23 teacher candidates, 14 female and 9 male, who are continuing their education at Afyon Kocatepe University Faculty of Education in the 2023-2024 fall semester. In the study, data were collected using an interview technique based on a semi-structured interview form. The evaluation was made using content analysis. The findings obtained from the research are as follows: It was seen that teacher candidates prefer Youtube the most, one of the social media platforms and used social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter and Tiktok as well as this social media platform. When the prospective teachers were examined in terms of their frequency of use of social media platforms, it was found that they used social media for 6-8 hours. It was found that prospective teachers used social media mostly in exams and homework for resource purposes. It has been determined that teacher candidates believe that unrest will emerge in their lives when they stay away from social media platforms one day. In addition, the results of the teacher candidates sharing on social media in order to inform more within the scope of education. When the advantages and disadvantages of social media platforms within the scope of education are examined, it is concluded that they consider social media platforms as advantageous in terms of easy accessibility in their daily lives and education.