Functions and barriers to the use of social networks in educational management

The development of technology created a special kind of communication in academic life; On the other hand, today, the existence of social networks is considered as an effective tool in achieving educational goals. The purpose of this study was to identify and analyze the functions of effective use of social networks in the management and leadership of educational groups and also to examine the barriers and challenges of access to various types of social media and information. In this regard, in addition to studying the documents and findings of other studies, using the method of snowball sampling, 10 managers of departments of Allameh Tabatabaei University in Tehran were interviewed. The data were analyzed qualitatively using Maxqda10 software, which according to the obtained results, the functions of purposeful use of social network for educational leaders, including: "Professional, scientific and research growth; Creating a democratic management space; Improving the educational quality of the group; Accelerate administrative and executive performance; Psychological and social impact. In addition, according to the extracted themes, one of the most important barriers and challenges to accessing social networks, including "technical barriers and infrastructure; Managerial challenges; He called for "political barriers and personal barriers", which finally provided solutions for the efficient use of the media platform, including targeting the use of social networks for leadership activities, teaching, learning, and so on.