Cultural Affordances of Twitter in Higher Education Professional Development: A Literature Review

Abstract

Twitter has become popular among higher education academics globally as a platform to engage in personal and professional development activities. However, while researchers have studied the experiences of academics, little work has been done to understand the role of culture in these experiences, and on Twitter as a cultural artefact in the higher education space. This systematic literature review examines how Twitter is used as a space for professional development among higher education academics through the lens of cultural affordance. Using thematic analysis three cultural affordances of Twitter emerged: agency, openness, and networked scholarship. However, these affordances are not ubiquitous nor is their cross-cultural nor cross-domain generalisability determined by this study as it focuses only on research in higher education. These findings therefore point to the need for further research on cultural affordances of Twitter when it is used across different cultural contexts and professional settings. From a practice standpoint the study points to the need to carefully develop tailored policies and practices that are cognizant of cultural factors and sensitive to cultural affordances of platforms to guide professional development activities relevant to higher education academics.