Tag a Teacher: A Qualitative Analysis of WhatsApp-Based Teacher Networks in Low-Income Indian Schools

Although WhatsApp-based communication is playing an increasingly large role in the professional lives of teachers in low-income schools, the nature of the interactions that occur and how these interactions enable cooperative work are not well understood. We contribute a qualitative analysis of 26 existing WhatsApp groups (35,567 messages) that examines (1) the strategies used to encourage interaction within teacher-focused WhatsApp groups, and (2) how these interactions are sustained by teachers, management, and organizations over a period of time. We use teacher networks and activity awareness model to make sense of WhatsApp-based interactions and show how WhatsApp narrows the gap between management and teachers, leading to additional work and stress for teachers. WhatsApp was also used to circulate polarizing and malicious information, leading to a variety of interesting content moderation strategies. Our findings expand the scope of research on teacher networks to low-income contexts and will inform future interventions that enable cooperative work among teachers.