Professional self-presentation of research and teaching staff on social network sites

Abstract

. In the modern labour sphere, the image of an employee in the virtual space has a tangible value, becoming a significant social resource in employment and subsequent career advancement. The degree of demand for a personal brand in the online environment is associated with the characteristics of specific professions. For scientific and pedagogical workers, self-presentation in virtual social networks is significant not only for their career growth, development of social capital and personal brand, but also valuable as a factor in scientific communication. A competent professional self-presentation in the virtual space helps to form a favourable social image that enhances the prestige of a university teacher and scientist. During the pandemic and the transition of educational and research activities to the online space caused by it, the demand for professional self-presentation of educators in the virtual environment has increased significantly. The article analyses the practices of professional self-presentation of scientific and pedagogical workers in virtual social networks. A typology of strategies for using universal social networks (VKontakte, etc.) and professional (scientific) social networks (Research Gate, Academia Edu, Mendeley) is presented. Particular research interest is focused on the practices of communication and professional self-presentation through virtual social networks. The advantages and limitations of the use of online communication by teachers are identified, as well as the types of priority results that users achieve or would like to achieve. For the empirical basis of the analysis the authors used the data of a survey conducted by the method of semi-structured interviews by a research team with the participation of the author of the article of 120 scientific and pedagogical employees of six Russian universities included in the implementation of the 5–100 project. Based on the results of the study, a classification of higher education teachers was formed depending on their awareness and the desire to broadcast content in virtual social networks: experts and opinion leaders, conservatives, spammers, passive, absent. A typology of the strategy of professional self-presentation of scientific and pedagogical workers in virtual social networks has been created: voluntary, forced, non-priority professional self-presentation; refusal of self-presentation (external or internal).