The effects of being Instateacher on English teachers' professional development and teacher identity

In recent years, especially after COVID-19, it has become popular to use social media as a part of teaching and professional development. Before the popularity of social media, teachers were forced to attend seminars or conferences that were chosen by educational institutions, and the administrators of the institutions used to decide on the professional development programs that teachers would attend. Top-down learning strategies were predominant and common however, with the popularity of social media, bottom-up strategies became popular, and teachers began to use them both for teaching and their professional development. The teachers also find standard-based professional development models ineffective and boring because they can't practice the activities in enough amount of time. Therefore, recently, the individual-based professional development model is much more preferable and popular. Thanks to the bottom-up, individual-based professional model, teachers started to choose the seminars they want to attend. On social media, it is easy to achieve anybody, any information, and any trends. In this current exploratory qualitative research study, the newly popular social media platform, Instagram is observed and the effects and contributions of being an Instateacher on English teachers' professional development and teacher identity are examined. The teachers who use Instagram for educational and developmental purposes by sharing materials, websites, lives, videos, seminars, or workshops are named as "Instateachers" in this study. This is the first time they are names as Instateachers. Interviews were conducted with 9 Instateachers from different parts of the world but mostly from Turkey. Conforming to the triangulation method, interviews were supported with related visuals from the accounts of Instateachers, and peer-editing was done by using initial coding. The findings of the study reveal that being an Instateacher and using Instagram contribute to English teachers' professional development and their teacher identities can be negotiated, changed and new identities can be added. It was proved that using Instagram actively and affectively helps teacher growth and the positive effects emerged in the data analysis with a truthful perspective of the subject matter.