Formal teaching enters social media: students’ perspectives on teachers’ educational videos on YouTube and TikTok

This article aims to contribute to an in-depth discussion about what teachers’ educational videos on social media mean from the students’ perspective and to explore further questions related to the broader purposes of education. Based on a student survey, in which a total of 1065 lower and upper secondary students participated, we analyse usage patterns and students’ understandings of teachers’ educational videos on social media as resources for learning. Based on Drotner’s work on discourses about informal learning, students’ answers to open-ended questions about educational videos on social media were analysed, using thematic content analysis. Four main themes were found, concerning positive and negative aspects in relation to individual learning, social media versus regular teaching, student diversity and a connected generation. The analysis shows how a functionalist discourse is dominant, where the use of educational videos is seen as a means of achieving better results. The findings highlight that teachers’ educational videos have implications for the individual student, for the relationship to teaching and regular education and to broader societal implications as pedagogical relations become embedded into social media’s platform economies.