The present era of wicked problems is characterised by complexity, divergence and uncertainty (McCune et al., 2024). What we know about the world is being challenged, what it means being a teacher is being reconsidered and what actions are needed to thrive are not easy to discover. To add further complexity, there is an abundance of technologies that are woven into our educational surroundings (Carvalho et al, 2024), and digital is noticed “by its absence, not its presence” (Jandrić, 2019, p. 893). This provokes a critical perspective on using technologies in education and brings in a concept of ‘postdigital’ (Fawns, 2019). In a postdigital world boundaries between digital and physical spaces are blurred and entangled. For example, higher education teachers in the current ‘postdigital lecture hall’ simultaneously interact with students who are in-person, connect with students, who watch live stream online, and transform themselves into digital ‘talking figures’ for students, participating asynchronously. The need to engage students differently and reimagine entrenched relationships between teachers and students is complex and messy, as hybrid learning environments become more prominent.

It can be seen that teaching has become complex in this fast-moving postdigital landscape where new technologies, digital platforms and online environments are catalysing our ways of teaching and learning. Lecturers are under pressure to be more visible in various digital spaces (Markauskaite et al., 2023), including performing publicly on social media platforms. However, ‘being a good teacher’ is expressed differently in such spaces. Digital media environments influence teachers’ identities, which are dynamic and multifaceted. They are constructed through social situations and negotiated within particular settings (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011; Hong et al., 2017). Higher education teachers are affected by competing expectations, roles and contexts enabled by technologies. Their identities are becoming more permeable, fragmented, performative and ambiguous (Gravett, 2024) and essentially, they are intermingled.

This paper draws from dialogical self theory developed by Akkerman & Meijer (2011) which approaches identities as different, not easily separated, and sometimes conflicting positions or perspectives that are continuously negotiated to form the coherent self. As a conceptual framework, this enables a focus on teachers’ negotiations in the postdigital educational realities. To illustrate these identity negotiations, the current research zooms in on higher education teachers, who create openly available educational videos for YouTube or TikTok. This study assumes that university teachers, involved in video creation practice, do so to fulfil different roles due to the blurred boundaries between formal and informal learning in postdigital education. These higher education teachers communicate with students in both environments where different facets of self may be mediated. The research question focusing this study is: What divergent roles do university teachers negotiate due to the practice of video creation in open media platforms, such as YouTube and TikTok?

This research is qualitative as it is embedded in the social world of people and attempts to explore the phenomenon by understanding the meanings that people assign to it (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011). The practice of creating educational content on video sharing platforms and its effect on identities is seen as a dilemma that requires greater understanding (Stake, 1995). The study is also guided by a social constructivist worldview since it frames identities as situated, dynamic and negotiated in different social contexts (McNaughton & Billot, 2016). After obtaining ethical approval the researcher conducted nine in-depth interviews with participants who have a teaching position at university in either New Zealand or Australia and create educational video content on YouTube/TikTok. Six higher education teachers from Australia and three from New Zealand took part in the study. Their field of expertise varied from STEM to business-related disciplines. The interview questions examined participants’ professional journeys, how they see the role of higher education teachers and how their practice of educational video creation changed them as university teachers. The interviews were transcribed and are in the process of analysis and interpretation. The researcher will examine the ‘borderland discourses’ in attempting to answer the presented research question. Borderland discourses can be described as tensions between disparate, somewhat conflicting, roles or positions that become integrated within the ongoing development of identities (Trautwein, 2018; Alsup, 2006). Although this research is situated in the Australasian context, the postdigital positioning and the dialogical self theory originated from European scholarship. This study demonstrates how different theories may be applied to different contexts providing their unique reimagination and contributing to the ongoing dialogue on addressing wicked problems.

This study offers insights on the value of social media environments, such as YouTube and TikTok, in navigating the complexity and changing nature of being a higher education teacher in the postdigital education. Two possible negotiations may be suggested. The first is a dialogue between being an ‘engaging teacher’ and being ‘edutainer’. They both revolve around making learning more engaging and humanised. These two roles direct attention to facilitating and building relationships with students (Koutropoulos & Koseoglu, 2018). For instance, one of the participants discussed it in the interview: “You have to play the role of the edutainer, you have to engage the students… Teaching is also about bringing enthusiasm and giving your students a reason to want to care about the material that you are teaching them”. The second negotiation is between being an ‘internally empowering teacher’ and being ‘externally empowering teacher’. Both roles impact students’ lives and support them in building their confidence and competence. An internally empowering teacher may influence students within university classroom walls, whereas an external one might reach broader groups of people. Video sharing platforms are openly available spaces and therefore, teaching ‘leaks’ outside of academic walls. For instance, one participant commented on that: “I am able to help educate somebody who may not have had that opportunity elsewhere”. It is crucial to emphasise that a more detailed analysis is needed to reveal the interconnections and nuances between those abovementioned roles in the case of higher education teachers activity on video sharing platforms.

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