ABSTRACT

The paper sheds light on preschool teachers’ experiences with the plethora of parents’ WhatsApp groups in Israel. Using a social constructivist approach, we conducted discussions with twenty-five preschool teachers. We argue that WhatsApp as a social medium contributes to the de-skilling of the preschool teachers’ labour. We identified three types of ambivalence in the teachers’ comments regarding interactions with and among parents: (a) instrumental ambivalence celebrates technology's efficiency while witnessing a shift in long working hours and a need to justify their pedagogical decisions; (b) substantive ambivalence indicates the intensified tendency to hold teachers in a need to engage in public relations; (c) critical ambivalence demonstrates a turn from a professional discourse between parents and teachers to a surveillance and accountability discourse. We conclude that the intense supervision by parents afforded by WhatsApp groups contributes to the de-skilling of preschool teachers’ labour by turning a caring profession to a managerial practice.

摘要

该论文揭示了学前教师在以色列众多家长的 WhatsApp 群组中的经历。我们使用社会建构主义方法与 25 名学前班教师进行了讨论。我们认为 WhatsApp 作为一种社交媒体有助于降低学前教师的劳动技能。我们在教师关于与家长互动的评论中确定了三种类型的矛盾情绪：(a) 工具性矛盾情绪庆祝技术的效率，同时见证了长时间工作的转变以及需要证明他们的教学决定的合理性；(b) 实质矛盾表明教师需要参与公共关系的趋势加剧；(c) 批判的矛盾心理表明家长和教师之间的专业话语已转变为监督和问责话语。我们得出的结论是，WhatsApp 小组提供的家长的密切监督，通过将关爱职业转变为管理实践，有助于降低学前教师的劳动技能。