WeChat Boundaries Between Teachers, Parents, and Students

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In one of the bazillion WeChat groups I’m a member of, I caught a spontaneous discussion on the rules of engagement between teachers, parents, and students. People were basically comparing their schools’ protocols, and talking about why they found them effective or not, and the idea of protocol for engagement between teachers, parents, and students translates across the world. The discussion got me thinking about such boundaries, and why teachers would appreciate them.

First off, I will admit that, as a parent, I don’t always follow the rules. My go-to for communicating with teachers is the Seesaw app. Even though I know the office always requests an email, in the year of our internet overlords 2021 it is more intuitive for me to use an app than to write an email. And when I’m in a hurry or not thinking properly, I selfishly use what is most convenient for me. So here is my public apology to my kids’ teachers, is what I’m saying.

I can project that if I had contact with teachers on WeChat I would use it. However, I doubt that teachers need their students’ parents to know every time they post a photo from the pub or how they spend their off time. But it likely goes deeper than that.

A friend of mine in the United States is a university professor, and he won’t friend or follow any of his students on social media, no matter whether they are undergraduate or graduate students. For him, it’s a matter of propriety and keeping his own life away from his classroom.

But what is it we say here? WeChat is life! So how can teachers keep their private lives private, and communication streamlined, in such a one-social-media-platform-fits-all society? And is it necessary?

One Year 7 and 8 teacher, who requested anonymity, told me that neither students nor parents in her international school are allowed to add teachers on WeChat, and vice versa. They have homeroom WeChat groups with parents and one administrator, but no teacher, which is also my own experience.

When asked if she thinks this approach provides the proper boundaries, she replied, “I think it does. No personal contact whatsoever. Parents cannot just turn up. They must make appointments. The norm is to email with questions or queries about their child. Students can also email us.”

Another early years teacher in a bilingual international school let me know that, officially, they aren’t allowed to use WeChat to communicate with parents or students. However, many of the Chinese teachers do so because it’s faster, particularly because WeChat allows them to send audio messages.

With the revelation that it isn’t illegal for teachers to have sexual relations with students aged 14 and over, I asked local Beijing teenagers what they thought as well. Recent high school graduate Gabriella Perez said that “Before this school year, and during quarantine, I communicated with more than half my teachers through WeChat, either privately or in groups, and I thought it was fine. I hid them from seeing my moments, and it was handy I could access them so easily.” This past year Perez’s school moved to Microsoft Teams, which she found more cumbersome.

However, another student at a different international school (BCIS), thinks it’s reasonable to have a policy of no WeChat contact between students and teachers. She’s been able to transition to Microsoft Teams smoothly, and email feels more formal than just using WeChat. For her, “WeChat has always been a texting app between my friends and me. We share gossip or send funny jokes. I just can’t imagine WeChat being as serious as email, and also it’ll be weird since WeChat is more of a personal chatting app for me.”

The distinction between how different students see the issue may have something to do with how long WeChat has been part of their lives. For Perez, she had only moved to China the summer before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, so using WeChat for teachers as well as friends may not have felt as odd as, say, using Facebook Messenger to talk to teachers in the US would have felt. The BCIS student has lived in China longer, and so may associate it more with her personal life.

An administrator of a private international activity center for kids under five, who spoke to us anonymously, says it’s important that teaching staff not exchange any personal information with parents, especially to avoid cultural miscommunications between foreign teachers and [local] parents. “Instead, we encourage our staff to speak often with parents in person and on-site. During the lockdown, when that was not possible, teachers were given access to the company’s WeChat account if they needed direct contact with a parent.”

Besides the boundaries issues, and knowing how quickly an errant comment on WeChat can cause communication to fly off the rails as people rush to react while still going about their day, I can’t imagine how a teacher would be able to stay focused on any conversation while also teaching and preparing lessons. For many of these reasons, erring on the side of safety and privacy when it comes to teachers, parents, and students is probably the best route for all involved.

Images: Pexels

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