Stepping Into The Mirror Stage:A Study On Self-presentation Of Primary And Secondary School Teachers In We-Media

According to Goffman’s Dramaturgical Theory,the self-presentation of individuals in daily life is often accompanied by the building and expression of a certain role or identity.The rapid development of Internet technology promotes the rapid iteration and update of media.The birth of we-media breaks through the limitations of time and space and extends the stage of individual self-presentation from real life to virtual cyberspace.In the era of We-Media in which everyone is central and everything can be shared,the exemplary teacher group,as the disseminator of knowledge,has a natural fit with We-Media.At present,more and more primary and secondary school teachers crowd into the We-Media platform.On the premise of expressing their professional identity,they display their work,life and interests,or express their education-related views and opinions,so as to convey their personal identity to others and construct their self-image,which highlights the strong demand for self-presentation.This study focuses on this phenomenon and,based on the basic view of symbolic interaction theory,specifically combines Goffman’s Dramaturgical Theory and Cooley’s Looking Glass Self Theory,attempts to analyze teachers’ image building on the stage of We-Media as well as teachers’ inner world and multiple personalities behind these images.Therefore,this paper further explores the reasons why teachers present themselves in We-Media,as well as the positive impacts and hidden worries brought by this,and puts forward several suggestions for optimizing teachers’ selfpresentation in We-Media.Based on the above analysis,this study takes the most popular short video platform with more abundant presentation means as the research object.Considering the similarities between users and content creation of multiple platforms,Bilibili video website(B Site for short)is selected among the numerous short video platforms.The method of participative observation,text analysis and interview survey was adopted.In this study,the top 100 primary and secondary school teacher users were selected based on the number of fans,their published content was browsed and converted into text materials for analysis,the overall status of self-presentation by primary and secondary school teachers in the WeMedia was briefly described,and the types of roles created by teachers in the We-Media were divided.At the same time,six primary and secondary school teachers were randomly contacted through various ways to conduct in-depth interviews with UP masters(short for users of B site),aiming at a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the motivation and influence of teachers’ self-presentation.The research finds that,under the premise of expressing professional labels,current primary and secondary school teachers have created a series of rich images around professional content in the We-Media.They are not only the sharers of professional experience,disseminators of subject knowledge,but also the recorders of educational landscape and thinkers of educational events,and may also be the cross-walkers demonstrating their interests.These roles are shaped and formed under the joint promotion of multiple factors such as technological and cultural development,teachers’ self-pursuit,expectations of others and economic incentives.They reflect the diversity and contradiction of teachers’ "selves",that is,the "me" in the real system,the "me" shaped in the network stage and the "me" expected by the network audience.With the trend of performance and the generalization of influence,the effect and influence of teachers’ selfpresentation in We-Media are also increasingly prominent.On the whole,this behavior of teachers dispels the professional aura to a certain extent and breaks the public’s stereotype of teachers.Focusing on individual teachers also has direct or indirect influence on reconciling multiple self-contradictions and promoting their professional identity,career development and emotional resolution.Extending to students and schools as an educational community,teachers’ behavior not only brings teaching resources to weak schools and students,but also indirectly promotes the construction of non-teaching relations between teachers and students and promotes the construction of a more open management culture in schools.At the same time,the hidden worries caused by this behavior are also emerging.Whether it is teachers who view themselves in the mirror and perform too deliberately,the privacy disclosure of students and teachers in the network environment,the moral relationship crisis that may be triggered by the prevalence of consumerism,or the doubts caused by teachers because of the indirect income obtained from the operation mechanism of We-Media,these are all negative effects that need to be avoided and eliminated now and in the future.Although currently only a small part of teachers present themselves in We-Media,hardly representing the whole group of teachers,the collision between teachers and WeMedia will become a trend of The Times.With the change of teachers,more teachers will join We-Media in the future.Therefore,teachers need to improve their own quality,create quality content,promote professional development by relying on We-Media,and pursue the value of educating people while showing The Times of education.As an audience,it is necessary to view the teacher’s performance objectively and rationally and interact positively.In addition,we media platforms,schools and relevant management departments need to improve relevant mechanisms,introduce relevant systems and norms,and strive to optimize the external environment for teachers’ self-presentation,so as to help realize the correct establishment of teachers’ personal image from the outline of teachers’ personal image to the group image.