Teacher influencers: The Instagram side hustle helping educators pay the bills

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Expert comment on story concerning the state’s education department warning regarding Instagram “teacher influencers” that filming in classrooms and selling learning resources for educators may breach their terms of employment.

 

Dr Janet Dutton, the course director of Macquarie University’s Master of Teaching program, said new teachers needed to be aware of their legal and ethical responsibilities when using social media.

“But we also really appreciate the power of social media to raise awareness of the world of teachers and build that community,” she said.

She also attributed the growth of platforms like Teachers Pay Teachers to Australian teachers facing extremely high administrative workloads.

 

“They look to those online resources to use both because they are short on time, and as a potential income stream because we know teachers’ wages have stalled compared to other professions,” she said.