This is the presentation of my invited talk at the University of Reading on 13 Feb 2018.

1. Of rhizomes and assemblages in
freelance language teachers‘
becoming(s) on…and with…and
through Twitter
Martina Emke, The Open University
Martina.Emke@open.ac.uk
Twitter: @MartinaEmke

2. Tweet and hashtag assemblages
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3. What is this (all) about?
• Background and research questions
• A Deleuzo-Guattarian research approach
• Pathways into data enquiry (analysis)
• On data
• Situational Analysis and situational mapping
• Social Network Analysis
• Data vignettes
• Emerging lines of discussion
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4. Research background & RQs
• Increase in number of Part-time language teachers (PTLTs) across
educational sectors (Beaton & Gilbert, 2013)
• Increase in professional development (PD) demands (Locke, 2014)
• Limited access to organised, formal professional development for
PTLTs (Stickler & Emke, 2015)
• RQ1: How does freelance language teachers’ professional
development on…and with…and through Twitter work?
• RQ2: What does freelance language teachers’ professional
development on…and with…and through Twitter produce?
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5. A Deleuzo-Guattarian research approach
• A Thousand Plateaus (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987): a book as (a)
rhizome
• Plugging into the Deleuzo-Guattarian concepts
• non-binary, non-linear thinking, fluid concepts
• no fixed identities  subjectivities are produced through and within
assemblages
• becomings pertain to humans and non-humans
• production of new concept(s) (methodology as research assemblages, Twitter
machine)
• seeks to produce new thinking and temporal knowledge about social
phenomena
• experimentations: Situational Analysis working with Social Network Analysis
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6. Key concepts: assemblage, rhizome,
becoming
• Rhizome: image of roots, multiplicity
• Assemblage: human and non-human comings-
together that are capable of producing
becomings
• Becoming(s): pertain to human and non-
humans; fluid, unpredictable, constantly
changing states
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Source: Mackness, Bell, Funes (2016), CC-BY

7. On data
• data collection: 1 Sep 2016 – 15 Mar 2017
• online narrative frame questionnaire (n=14)
• 6 research participants (closer investigation)
• tweet capture:
• one month individual tweets per participant (n= 2,020)
• one month Twitter network tweets per participant
(n=13,834)
• Twitter networks deemed important for professional
development: #ELTchat, #TBLTchat, #LTHEchat
• 6 semi-structured online interviews
OU Residential weekend, 10 Feb 2018

8. Pathways into data enquiry (analysis)
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cross-reading
cross-reading

9. Situational Analysis (Clarke, 2005)
• Grounded Theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) needs to be
pushed and pulled around the postmodern turn
• “[S]ituational analyses seek to analyze a particular situation
of interest through the specification, re-representation, and
subsequent examination of the most salient elements in
that situation and their relations.” (Clarke, 2005, p. 29).
• Maps as analytical tools
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10. Situational mapping
Univiersity of Reading, 13 Feb 2018
• looks at salient elements and their
relational workings
• research participants’ professional
development is connected to the
ELT industry and working
conditions within complex and
dynamic relations of power and
competition
• emerging concept of Twitter
machine: algorithmic assemblages
and assemblages of practice that
constantly plug into tweet and
hashtag assemblages via
recommendations, metrics and paid
advertisement 10

11. Social Network Analysis (SNA)
• SNA for gaining insight into the structure of Twitter networks, e.g.
#ELTchat
• “A NETWORK is, in its simplest form, a collection of points joined
together in pairs by lines.” (Newman, 2010, p. 1)
• SNA measures and maps relationships and flows between network
actors (vertices, nodes); links (edges, ties) show relationships or
flows
• Most important types of tweet analyses
• time series  looks at peaks or low points in tweets over a period of time
• network analysis  looks at the structure of a network; measures the links
between nodes in a network and the position of nodes / group of nodes
• content analysis  looks at the most frequently used words / word pairs,
themes, hashtags, URLs
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12. #ELTchat social network analysis
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• Network structure: 273 edges, 124
vertices, 102 self-loops
• Hanna: retweeted a voting tweet
• Marc: was mentioned in #ff
• Heather: blog post on being a self-
employed language teacher (14 Jan
2016) was retweeted
• Maria: participated in one-hour chat
on how students’ English
conversational skills compared to
their L1 and wrote summary
• Martina: tweet on translation
vacancies, which included Rachel
was retweeted

13. #ELTchat word pairs analysis
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• analysis of most frequently co-occurring
words in #ELTchat network (15-20 Oct
2016); numbers are treated as words;
• direct connection between Maria and Chat
Moderator (CM) who helped disseminate
and promote Maria’s chat summary 
Twitter machine
• two other chat summaries visible: “How to
help teachers become more comfortable
with teaching pronunciation? “How to
develop teachers digital literacies?” 
chats produce becomings (summaries) that
may connect with teaching practice
• Maria: “I'm happy to do the
summary.Hopefully,it will be a chance to
start my own blog :)”

14. Data vignette: #ELTchat situational map
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• strong connection between
#ELTchat and #TBLTchat,
#ELTwhiteboard networks
(SNA and interviews)
• weak connection between
#ELTchat and #LTHEchat
• moderated one-hour
weekly chats + slow-burn
closely related to teaching
practice (topics are voted
on)

15. Data vignette: #ELTwhiteboard
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• English language
teachers tweet
whiteboard classroom
pictures
• teaching assemblages
connect with
professional
development
assemblages on…and
with…and beyond
Twitter
• becomings are still to be
explored

16. Emerging lines of discussion
• re-conceptualisation of professional development as non-
linear, unpredictable moment-to-moment becomings
through and within human and non-human assemblages
• re-conceptualisation of the relationship between language
teaching and professional development as entangled,
dynamic and co-constituting
• methodology as assemblages: making Deleuzo-Guattarian
thinking and concepts work within one’s research
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17. Thank you for your attention!
…. And if you would like to know more, please contact me on
@MartinaEmke
Martina.Emke@open.ac.uk
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