Lehrer:innen als Influencer:innen

Teachers who use social media for professional purposes and have many followers are also referred to as Education(al)-Influencers. Influencers are regarded as influential people who often combine private insights with sponsored service or product marketing. To date, in an international comparison, there have been few empirical findings on the phenomenon of “teachers as influencers” in Germany. For example, there is still insufficient research into how they present themselves on social networks and whether they combine private insights with service and/or product marketing. The article analyses 42 profile descriptions and linked websites of teachers on Instagram. The prominently placed profile description, which can be freely designed by the teachers, are used to present themselves and their profile in a few words, so that the profile descriptions can be attributed a relevant (self-)representational function. A content-structuring qualitative content analysis can be used to show how teachers present themselves, about which topics they post about and which products and/or services they offer for sale. The findings show that teachers predominantly present themselves as committed and multitasking teachers who take on additional roles (e.g. author) and offer products and/or services for sale that are directly or indirectly related to the teaching profession, such as learning and/or teaching materials. Against the background of the “unternehmerischen Selbst” (engl. entrepreneurial self) (Bröckling 2019) the activities of educational influencers are interpreted as a new form of economization of education in which teachers act as independent entrepreneurs.