William S. Long Professor and Professor of Education Jeffrey Carpenter and his co-authors published the article in the “Journal of Research on Technology in Education."
Dr. Jo Watts Williams School of Education faculty member Jeffrey Carpenter recently published peer-reviewed research in the “Journal of Research on Technology in Education.” The journal article is Carpenter’s fourth co-authored piece focused specifically on teacher Instagram use.
Carpenter collaborated on the research with colleagues from two German universities: André Meyer, Dirk Richter, and Sebastian Kempert of the University of Potsdam, and Eric Richter of the Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. Their article, “Teachers’ perceived stressors and stress from Instagram use” is available open-access online. An earlier version of the article received a Best Paper Award from the Technology as an Agent of Change in Teaching and Learning SIG at the American Education Research Association’s 2025 Annual Meeting.
The article abstract reads as follows:
Many teachers use social media for professional purposes, but the impact of these activities on their well-being is underexplored. In this study, we developed four scales to assess stressors from teachers’ Instagram use and examined their relationship to Instagram-related stress among 304 teachers. Structural equation modeling revealed that information overload, social comparison, and procrastination are associated with teacher stress. Passive Instagram use (e.g. seeking information) was related to more social comparison and procrastination, while active use (e.g. sharing information) was associated with less social comparison. Our findings contribute to understanding potential side effects of teachers’ job-related social media use. Moreover, this study adds quantitative insights into how social media affects teacher stress, informing educators and policymakers alike.