Share Paper: The Teacherdemic: A Social Media Analysis of Instagram Hashtags #careersforteachers and #teachersleavinged

1. Jason Harron, Kennesaw State University, United States

Abstract: On January 31, 2022 the Wall Street Journal published an article titled “Teachers Are Quitting, and Companies Are Hot to Hire Them”, which chronicles the ongoing exodus from the teaching profession. The article identified two Instagram hashtags used by teachers who were looking to switch careers. This brief paper uses snowball sampling to analyze the #careersforteachers and #teachersleavinged Instagram hashtags. This study found that the hashtags were being posted by only 10 users, of which nine were career coaches that were specifically seeking to coach teachers transitioning to new careers. In total, 187 hashtags are identified that are used in ...