Silenced Conflict: Surveillance and Normalization Using WhatsApp Groups at School

• Published date: 01 April 2023
• Author: Camila Moyano Dávila,Sebastián Rojas‐Navarro,Raúl Domenech
• Date: 01 April 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12816

RESEARCH

Silenced Conflict: Surveillance and Normalization

Using WhatsApp Groups at School

Camila Moyano D

avila

1

| Sebasti

an Rojas-Navarro

2

|

Raúl Domenech

3

1

Escuela de Ciencias de la Familia,

Universidad Finis Terrae, Santiago, Chile

2

Facultad de Educacion y Ciencias Sociales,

Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile

3

Departamento de Sociología, Universidad

Alberto Hurtado, Santiago, Chile

Correspondence Camila Moyano D

avila,

Escuela de Ciencias de la Familia, Universidad

Finis Terrae, Santiago de Chile. Pedro de

Valdivia 1509, 7501015, Providencia, Santiago,

Chile.

Email: cmoyano@uft.cl

Funding information

This work was supported by the National

Research and Development Agency under the

grants FONDECYT/INICIACIÓN/

N11200428 and N11190285.

Abstract

Objective: To understand the particularities of the surveillance

produced by parents’WhatsApp groups and the consequences

they have for schools and families.

Background: The literature on the use of these groups and

platforms for online communication has contended that

teachers and parents feel that they are under constant sur-

veillance when they are using them. The advantages and

disadvantages of these platforms are presented, as well as

recommendations for good practices.

Method: Qualitative analysis of two WhatsApp chats of

parents from two schools in Chile, one public and one pri-

vate, using a grounded theory approach.

Results: Using a theoretical framework of science, technol-

ogy, and society studies, we examine the particularities of

this surveillance observed in three dimensions: conflicts as

smoke bombs, operational surveillance, and affective sur-

veillance. In this respect, we argue that in these groups,

intimate surveillance leads to the normalization of certain

behaviors that cause conflict to be silenced.

Conclusion: We argue that silencing of conflict is problem-

atic in that it does not allow the emergence of different

ways of being a teacher or parent, which has significant

consequences for families and their relationship with the

school, especially in locations similar to the one we stud-

ied, where communication between families and schools

has relied heavily on messaging apps such as WhatsApp.

Implications: WhatsApp groups appear to offer opportunities

to subvert the surveillance of digital platforms, as long as con-

flicts are allowed to be sustained when differences emerge.

KEYWORDS

conflicts, difference, normalization, schooling, surveillance, WhatsApp

groups

Received: 30 May 2022Revised: 12 October 2022Accepted: 20 November 2022

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12816

© 2023 National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2023;72:547–564. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 547

In recent years, and particularly since the start of the global pandemic, digital communication

devices and platforms have been used on a massive scale in educational contexts for family–

school relationships, prompting various possibilities and challenges for families (Rojas-Navarro

et al., 2022). In Chile, regardless of the socioeconomic level of the school, the use of these types

of platforms has become widespread. Mobile Internet is widely used in Chile, as it is one of the

countries in Latin America with the cheapest mobile Internet plans (Cable UK & Instituto Fed-

eral de Comunicaciones, 2020). Both these factors indicate that the use of digital platforms in

education is not concentrated in privileged spaces but is an increasingly extensive practice. This

has meant that applications are also used more frequently for instant communication in the

educational context, either between parents or between parents and teachers (Cascales-Martínez

et al., 2020). Thus, applications such as WhatsApp, which allow different experiences of daily

life to be shared instantly, have transformed communication and school–family relationships

(S

anchez-Garrote & Cortada-Pujol, 2015).

Chilean and international scholars in education and the social sciences began exploring the

use of these technologies and their effects in the classroom several years ago, when they first

started having a significant impact on learning processes and communication issues in educa-

tion (Fenwick, 2011; Fenwick & Edwards, 2016; Lindh & Nolin, 2016; Williamson, 2017). Spe-

cifically, research has concluded that digital communication technologies (DCTs) create a

certain state of surveillance among teachers, parents, and students, primarily due to the blurring

of boundaries between classroom and home dynamics. In this literature, surveillance is under-

stood as the mechanism through which teacher and families feel that the other party is observ-

ing and evaluating their actions and practices. It is therefore crucial for public policies and

social and educational research on interactions between teachers and parents, and between par-

ents regarding their own and the students’roles, to focus on spaces that go beyond the geo-

graphic limits of schools. The mass use of WhatsApp for families, and specifically for families

to relate with their children’s school life, makes this digital platform an ideal space to investi-

gate these dynamics that are “outside territorial limits.”

For example, scholars have found that teachers may feel that the use of instant messaging to

connect teachers and families in real time increases parental intervention in their classrooms.

Furthermore, instant messaging is also used among parents (e.g., parental WhatsApp groups),

and thus teachers perceive a blurring of boundaries between families (Addi-Raccah &

Yemini, 2018; Wasserman & Zwebner, 2017). Other research has focused on aggressions,

misunderstandings, students’lack of responsibility concerning school duties, rumor-spreading,

and other negative outcomes related to the use of DCTs in education (Addi-Raccah &

Yemini, 2018; Chiquillo Enguix & Llopis Bueno, 2020; Cetinkaya, 2017a,2017b; Hern

andez

et al., 2017; Mayangsari & Aprianti, 2017). Other studies have examined how the use of DCTs

changes the interactions in school communities, increasing parental involvement regardingchil-

dren’s educational processes (Kurtz, 2014; Wasserman & Zwebner, 2017). In Chile, research on

these kinds of digital technologies is limited and has focused mostly on cyberbullying (Halpern

et al., 2017), recommendations for the “positive and responsible use of technologies”(Halpern

et al., 2016, p. 100) and how instant messaging can cause communication and affective tensions

among families (Carrasco Rivas et al., 2017). Thus, although current research has identified

various benefits of using DCTs in education, primarily regarding immediacy, it has also found

negative outcomes. However, almost all studies show the importance of the state of surveillance

perceived by teachers, parents, and students while using DCTs.

While these studies have provided useful insights into the benefits and disadvantages of

using DCTs in education, they have failed to examine the consequences and complexities of the

state of surveillance that actors describe as resulting from using them. In other words, the stud-

ies mentioned here identify misunderstandings and possible conflicts resulting from the use of

these technologies, but they do not explore in depth the establishment of various behavioral

norms and rules among teachers, parents, and students that could affect family relationships

548 FAMILY RELATIONS