This paper explores the possibilities and challenges of using the social media tool WhatsApp to support language teacher development in the Zataari refugee camp in Jordan. It takes a sociocultural perspective on teacher development where WhatsApp is a mediating tool in the broader sociocultural landscape. A thematic analysis of the postings and exchanges from the WhatsApp group revealed three main uses of the WhatsApp chat: for interpersonal interactions, for professional development, and for organisational purposes. The analysis suggests the WhatsApp group contributed to the teachers’ English language knowledge, provided a platform for them to share and discuss issues related to the challenges of their particular context, enabled them to contribute to the development of some teaching materials and begin to address some of the issues they had in a meaningful way. It also raises issues of participation, access, equity and sustainability. We conclude by suggesting there is good potential for the use of social media tools such as WhatsApp for teacher development in challenging contexts, despite the contextual constraints observed and described. While this specific case involves language teachers, the general findings can potentially be applied to any teacher education or training context where access to training or education might be curtailed for a number of reasons, including the most recent changes enforced by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

本文探讨了使用社交媒体工具WhatsApp支持约旦 Zataari 难民营的语言教师发展的可能性和挑战。它采用社会文化视角来看待教师发展，其中WhatsApp是更广泛的社会文化景观中的调解工具。对WhatsApp组的帖子和交流的主题分析揭示了WhatsApp聊天的三个主要用途：用于人际互动、专业发展和组织目的。分析表明，WhatsApp小组为教师的英语语言知识做出了贡献，为他们提供了一个平台，让他们分享和讨论与他们特定背景下的挑战相关的问题，使他们能够为一些教材的开发做出贡献，并开始解决他们遇到的一些问题以一种有意义的方式。它还提出了参与、获取、公平和可持续性等问题。最后，我们建议使用WhatsApp等社交媒体工具有很大的潜力尽管观察和描述了情境限制，但在具有挑战性的环境中进行教师发展。虽然这个具体案例涉及语言教师，但一般性调查结果可能适用于任何教师教育或培训环境，其中培训或教育的机会可能因多种原因而受到限制，包括全球 COVID-19 大流行实施的最新变化.