Teachers’ social media networks: Lost connections weaken crisis responsiveness

Within Australia, prior to 2019, teachers, leaders and education support staff maintained a hive of both connected and disparate communities via social media. Amid bushfires, floods and the COVID-19 pandemic, these communities pulled together for deep collaboration and support. This chapter explores the nature of teachers’ online learning communities, presenting an autoethnographic portrait of the #AussieED community and its membership. This is significant because insights into private groups or direct messages are extremely rare. With a focus upon how a single community outreach project demonstrates the concept of crisis leadership. As emerging research is noting the importance and potentiality of social media platforms to develop teacher identity and political activism, as well as anti-racist, decolonising and justice-oriented professional learning—educators returning to these platforms seems as important as ever. Proposals for engaging with these networks in crisis situations are explored.