Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Social media, teenagers, and the school context: a scoping review of research in education and related fields

  • Published:
Educational Technology Research and Development Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This scoping review of research explores which disciplines have studied social media as it relates to education and, more broadly, use by students of high school and college age. The sample explores 10 years of research (2009–2018). A search of Web of Science yielded 580 relevant peer-reviewed articles published through the end of 2018, with 260 (44.8%) of these articles focused on education. Research in this area has been on a steady upward trajectory since 2009, the first year when relevant social media articles appeared. About half of this research was conducted in North American settings, and quantitative surveys were the most popular data collection method. Findings show that within education, the dominant themes of research on social media were use as a teaching and learning tool; adoption, use, and beliefs; digital literacy; effects of use; and identity. Outside of education, the dominant themes were negative behaviors, health issues, identity development and expression, digital citizenship, and social relationships. This review shows several areas where education researchers and practitioners would benefit from attending to research conducted outside of our discipline. Although the field of educational research sufficiently addresses issues like teacher professional development and pedagogical uses of social media, the larger issues that affect our students and, in turn, the school context are being explored in other disciplines.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vanessa P. Dennen.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors confirm that they have no conflicts of interest.

Research involving human rights

This study does not involve human subjects, and was not funded by any agency.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Dennen, V.P., Choi, H. & Word, K. Social media, teenagers, and the school context: a scoping review of research in education and related fields. Education Tech Research Dev 68, 1635–1658 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-020-09796-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-020-09796-z

Keywords

Navigation