Pre-Service Elementary Teachers Gone Wild!
“Drunken Pirate” – Will you Hire me?
This is a tough post to write. I don’t want to come off sounding like “father knows best.” The point of this post is not to say that pre-service teachers shouldn’t party, instead it is meant to make you think about the public persona that you project. For better or for worse, what you do on the web might become part of your future job application. Social networking sites are not just limited to those under 30. Many administrators, teachers and parents are savvy enough to check up on student teachers and job candidates.
Olson and Penning (2007) discussed the expectation that teachers, especially those at the elementary level, should be good role models for their students. The draft Iowa teaching expectations state that pre-service teachers should endeavor to meet the standards expected of a teacher such as appropriateness of dress, grooming, demeanor, punctuality, tact, discretion, courtesy, etc. All of these are fair expectations in professional situations, but should college students (and in-service teachers) be held to these standards in their personal lives?
Partying is definitely nothing new on college campuses, neither is taking pictures of friends in compromising situations or telling drinking stories. However, what is new is the ability to easily and publicly share these images and stories with friends and anyone else with an Internet connection and an interest in looking.
As an elementary principal, how would you react if you looked up an applicant’s Facebook page and saw a girl flashing gang signs, posing so the camera got a good look down her shirt all while sitting on a toilet with her pants down? I would guess that most would move on to the next resume! This was one of many images that two Iowa State University researchers found when surveying elementary pre-service teachers’ Facebook pages (Olson & Penning, 2007). Of the more than 400 elementary pre-service teachers that they researched, 32% had unrestricted Facebook pages and another 44% had pages restricted to friends only. Of those that were unrestricted, 68% had images or comments that were deemed inappropriate or marginally inappropriate.
Behavior was deemed inappropriate if it would be offensive to administrators or parents, including excessive drinking, underage drinking, provocative dress or poses, sexual contact (more than a simple kiss), gang or violence references, etc. The researchers also coded strong political comments and religious evangelism as marginal or inappropriate.
Negative repercussions from posts on a social network are not just a future possibility, they are a reality. CBS reported that an estimated 20% of companies search for online profiles as part of the hiring process. DeMello, a consultant and analyst, states “I think some of these sites out there are going to be the most expensive free Web sites to their careers that they’ve ever seen.”. A student teacher at Millersville University learned this the hard way when University officials saw a picture of her drinking out of a cup and wearing a pirate hat. The picture of the 25 year old student was labeled “Drunken Pirate” She was kicked out of the teacher ed program for unprofessional behavior. She’s suing the University and I hope she wins!
For better or for worse, when you post your private life online it becomes part of your professional portfolio.
Reference-
Olson, J.K. & Penning, K. (October 2007) “Elementary Teachers Gone Wild? An Analysis of Public Image and Historic Conceptions of Elementary Teachers.” Presented at the annual meeting of the Northcentral Association for Science Teacher Education, Madison, WI.
January 21st, 2008 at 10:09 pm
While the Millersville girl definitely should not have been expelled from the program (college students? drinking? the devil you say!), it is extremely naive to think that posting these pictures is a good idea (did she post them, or did a friend?). I have a very unique name and a pretty prevalent online presence – blog, Twitter, Facebook – so I know that any Google search for my full name is going to give up the goods immediately. I’m very cautious to be professional and more or less apolitical in any online endeavors that have my real name attached to them (e.g., never rant about my employer or students online, no pictures of me doing keg stands with Osama bin Laden at an abortion clinic, etc.). As I prepare to re-enter the job market, I’ve even considered deleting the one-line political preference from my otherwise bland and inoffensive Facebook page, just in case.
It’s an unfortunate but true fact of the modern job market, and especially when you work with kids, fair or no, all your online activities are fair game to prospective employers. Any non-professional activities, message boards, etc., that I think may be a bit questionable? That’s what handles & pseudonyms are for.