The education influencer: A new player in the educator professional landscape

Educator engagement with social media’s entrepreneurial and commercial facets has received limited scholarly attention. This conceptual paper defines and contextualizes the education influencer phenomenon in relation to literature on micro-celebrity, social media influencers, teacher social media use, teacher identity, and teacher entrepreneurship. Some educators use social media platforms to gain large audiences of followers, develop personal brands, and monetize their perceived influence. To illustrate the education influencer phenomenon, we provide empirical examples from our research. Education influencers can affect other educators’ practices, philosophies, and professional identities. We consider implications of the rise of education influencers and discuss future research avenues.