Social Networks Sites as Pedagogical Spaces. Case Studies of Youth Work for the Professional Use of Social Network Sites 2018. Sozial Extra 42 (3): 12–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12054-018-0044-0

Abstract

Pedagogical professionals use social media platforms as professional spaces for action. This use includes the basic forms of pedagogical action, such as arranging, animating and informing/advising. "If I, as a professor of education, give advice to parents in a tram on how to deal with an obviously overtired child, then I am probably acting presumptuously, but not professionally, because the tram is not the place of my profession." (Giesecke 1997: 47) But how does it look when the places of pedagogical profession are now deliberately extended by pedagogical professionals acting pedagogically in online social networks (SONW)? SONW thus become new spaces for pedagogical action. The article uses selected case studies to show how SONW are used as pedagogical spaces of action by pedagogical professionals in open child and youth work (OKJA). Never before have so many young people and adults used the internet on a daily basis (mpfs 2017; Projektgruppe ARD/ZDF-Multimedia 2017). In view of this high importance, the question arises to what extent social work can also use the potentials of the internet and especially the potentials of SONW for itself. A pioneering role with regard to the use of SONW as pedagogical spaces for action is played by the pedagogical professionals of OKJA (JFF 2011). First of all, this article will illustrate how SONW are used as pedagogical spaces of action by means of some situations from OKJA. The examples used are taken from qualitative interviews with professionals conducted as part of the author's dissertation project. The following section deals with the question of how professionals perceive and articulate SONW as pedagogical spaces for action. In a summary, the situations described are categorised with regard to the basic forms of pedagogical action according to Giesecke. The article concludes with a position on the challenges posed by SONW and an outlook. Exemplary situations of SONW useIn the following, selected situations of everyday SONW use and their pedagogical implications are presented. The first set of examples shows this with the example of postings by young people. Because the youth worker Clara is friends with the young people on Facebook, she learns about insults and arguments and has the opportunity to influence them: "Then I noticed that she starts chatting with them and writes on the homepage: 'And you are so stupid' and hasn't seen it [to write]. And then of course I could intervene in advance. And then when they came, then I had information that I wouldn't have had otherwise and then I got them all into the office and addressed it quite openly." Intervening in disputes is everyday pedagogical work for the educational professionals in OKJA. In a first step, the situation is calmed down and then dealt with in a pedagogical framework with the parties involved. Clara can either directly enter into the interaction in the SONW by means of comments or force a conversation in the facility at a later time. She finds it very helpful to learn things indirectly, as the girl mentioned above might not have approached her on her own. Through her Facebook friendship, Clara also receives information that was not explicitly addressed to her, so it is up to her pedagogical competence to deal sensitively with this information and to decide whether she uses it actively or observes the situation passively. The youth worker Felix commented on a picture that two girls had posted. In this picture, the girls are staging themselves sitting on tram tracks. Felix seemed to need to question this: ''Okay, that's not so clear, what are you trying to say with this photo? Are you saying you don't like life anymore and you're waiting for the next tram to come and run you over?'" The girls experience self-efficacy as the youth worker responds to the photo. By openly thematising the picture messages, they are encouraged to reflect on their actions and thus educational processes are stimulated. Felix is also sensitised and can initiate a counselling or information situation at a later stage if necessary. Clara uses information that she receives about the young people from their postings to evoke a feeling of emotional connection in the follow-up communication: "And if, for example, you have already said on Facebook: 'I think it's great, you have a new dress'. Then they arrive: 'Gee Clara, really? Is that a nice dress? Tell me honestly.'" Here, the youth worker responds appreciatively to things that are of current concern to the young people, in individual cases, but also by the very fact that she engages with the young people's way of communicating. She thus creates a positive climate and evokes a feeling of emotional connection. Clara herself describes this as an intensification of contacts. Or in other words, she uses the SONW in a supportive way to continuously develop the relationship with the young people. These foundations for building a trusting working relationship are arranged by the youth worker. In the second set of examples, the pedagogical implications and intentions are presented based on the postings of the pedagogical professionals. Felix pursues both pedagogical and administrative intentions when he documents actions of the institution by means of picture postings in SONW. On the one hand, the postings have the purpose of promoting a sense of belonging to the institution by positively remembering shared experiences and encouraging the young people to reflect on and verbalise these emotions. "So if a nice photo is there, of course, and then the reaction to it would be: 'Yes, I was there. That was totally cool. Then that would already achieve a lot." Felix also wants to stimulate a dialogue about this specific action among the young people. With the comment function, he opens up a low-threshold possibility and thus motivates the young people to articulate themselves. En passant, he receives feedback through the comments and can arrange further corresponding offers. At the same time, both the documentation and the follow-up dialogue of the young people have a signal character to the outside: outsiders get an impression of the offers and the target group as well as an impression of how the educational professionals work; liveliness and openness are signalled. Both Clara and Felix use the SONW to arrange and initiate everyday educational offers or special experiences. They see an advantage above all in the fact that they can reach a large target group, namely all the young people associated with the institution, in a short time by means of postings. This becomes clear in Felix's facility, where the current educational offer is posted daily. In this way, he also reaches a target group that otherwise does not visit the facility, but only comes to outside events selectively. "Like now, for example, in the summer, when we go swimming somewhere then it is posted." Advertising the swimming trip by means of postings in SONW enables the above-mentioned young people to gain access to the facility or to the educational staff and to participate in the educational activities. Felix can in turn use this to get in touch with the young people and build trust. In addition, a different environment can provide a good framework to break down barriers between the different groups of visitors and to initiate new group dynamic processes. For example, Clara had tickets for the X Factor and Supertalent auditions and posted: "I got tickets. Who wants to come [...]?" or "I don't have tickets anymore." It thus enables young people to experience something special, not ordinary, and creates opportunities for educational processes. Arranging participation in special experiences and educational offers accordingly implies pedagogical action and goes beyond mass media advertising. The pedagogical action in SONW and SONW as pedagogical action spacesThe previous explications have shown the pedagogical content in dealing with mutual postings. In some examples, interventions were made directly in the SONW, making it clear how this is used as an additional, pedagogical space for action by the OKJA. However, the question now arises as to what extent the two pedagogical professionals perceive the SONW as a pedagogical space for action and describe it as such. When asked about her understanding of the term, Clara defines pedagogical action as "all actions that you carry out educationally in relation to young people". As an example, she mentions addressing conflicts on the basis of pedagogical and developmental psychological expertise, i.e. "knowing what can be meant by this and then addressing it". In doing so, she uses an evocative-provocative style of language, so-called modulations (cf. Cloos et al. 2009), to make the young people aware of their behaviour and its consequences. For Clara, this kind of pedagogical action is unquestionably also found in the SONW. She illustrates this with another example of a male adolescent who has photographed himself in a bodybuilder's pose: "And I say, 'My goodness, now you're being a muscleman!' and do it with a smiley face on the back, so that he actually knows what I mean." Again, she uses modulations to encourage the young person to reflect on their behaviour and to make them aware of the effects of the posted image. In addition, Clara would have the opportunity to use the interaction on Facebook for later follow-up communication within the institution. What is striking about Clara's understanding of pedagogical action is that she focuses on conflictual or problematic situations. For her, pedagogical action thus includes corrective action. In this, her definition differs from that of Giesecke. The latter defines pedagogical action as positively influencing people towards a mature personality by providing opportunities for educational processes (cf. 1997: 22ff.). Felix defines pedagogical action as arranging workshops, animating or teaching tolerance in the group. However, he only refers to face-to-face work within the institution, because Felix doubts that pedagogical action can be transferred to SONW: "And in relation to networks, the question can really be asked, is this a form of pedagogical action when I publish the offers? Because that is really only public relations work, information work. Although he does act pedagogically in SONW, he does not reflect and articulate this accordingly. For him, SONW are less additional pedagogical spaces for action than tools that facilitate administrative tasks. Giesecke also distinguishes the information output of mass media from pedagogical action and states that this always takes place face to face. Pedagogical action can only take place in the interactive situations that may subsequently be created (1997: 47f.). However, as the explications have made clear, this is no longer a fundamental condition for pedagogical action due to the interactivity of SONW today. Felix does use this interactivity in the practice of action, but interactivity does not play a role in reflection and articulation. Based on the two case studies, it becomes clear that the reflection of pedagogical implications in the use of SONW does not necessarily reflect practice. According to Giesecke, the antithesis of action is always reflection (1997: 45). He sees his concept of basic forms of pedagogical action as an instrument to reflect action (1997: 17). These basic forms (1997: 76ff.)1 now serve as a structure to reflectively clarify the pedagogical action of the explications. Arranging (1): By using SONW's multiple channels of communication, the pedagogical professionals arrange the conditions for trusting working relationships or arrange situations that make educational processes possible. Animate: The educational professionals encourage the young people to participate in educational arrangements such as excursions and other educational situations. They also encourage the young people to articulate themselves in SONW. Informing/advising: On the one hand, information and counselling can take place in the SONW, but on the other hand, it can also be related to the content of the SONW and take place offline/face-to-face. Both pedagogical professionals note that from their point of view, a face-to-face conversation cannot be replaced by messages via SONW due to the reduction of channels and that it is therefore important to always work "on two tracks" (Clara). Challenges and needs for reflection arising from the above examples are discussed below. Challenges and outlookSONW are not youth spaces. Companies are present there as well as adults who network there professionally and privately. Accordingly, the question of whether educational professionals should be in SONW is moot (cf. Stix 2014). It is more important to develop a way of dealing with each other that is not detrimental to either the pedagogical professionals or the young people. In order to reach the young people, the educational professionals use the SONW offers that are popular among young people. These are usually commercial and not very transparent or regulated when it comes to handling user data. From a pedagogical point of view, this requires checking and weighing the advantages and disadvantages. Accordingly, it can be important to have a conversation about a sensitive topic face-to-face and to communicate this to the young people, not only because of the channel reduction. A reflective and sensitive handling of data also applies to the documentation of actions, as Felix describes. When posting pictures, he has to consider the young people's right to privacy and check whether and which information might be revealed unintentionally. Furthermore, the ethical question arises to what extent educational professionals may actively obtain and use information from SONW (cf. Kutscher 2015). Another challenge arises from the question of whether young people who do not have access to SONW are excluded or disadvantaged. Reflecting on this is a task of pedagogical professionalism. The use of SONW offers pedagogical opportunities. At the same time, it also gives rise to new dimensions of responsibility for the professional action of educational specialists. The actions in SONW must be reflected on with regard to possible negative consequences for the young people. The development of one's own (media) pedagogical attitude as well as framing by the responsible body and collegial exchange can help here. Being pedagogically professional also means being aware of young people's trends and reacting to them pedagogically. In the case of social media, the masses have been moving towards offers such as WhatsApp and Instagram since 2015 (mpfs 2016: 32f.). It remains exciting to see whether WhatsApp with its other structures will also establish itself as a pedagogical space of action in the medium term and what pedagogical action there will look like in concrete terms - and what conflicts this will entail with professional logics and standards (cf. Deutscher Bundestag 2013, p. 394), which need to be reflected and included in the design of pedagogical action. (1) Except for teaching, understood by Giesecke as explaining relatively complex factual contexts in a longer process of argumentation (1997: 79).