Gig Economy Teaching: On the Importance and Dangers of Self-branding in Online Markets

The gig economy is rapidly transforming service-based industries, including online teaching. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced millions of people worldwide to work remotely, gig economy teaching generated billions of dollars in revenue and was responsible for millions of lessons per month. Although the global labor market is currently experiencing a major shift because of the gig economy, applied linguists have paid little attention to gig-based work and its implications. The current study narrows this research gap by using self-branding theories to understand the ways in which gig economy teachers market themselves to potential students. The findings, which are based on 100 teacher profiles, reveal that teachers adopt four self-branding discourses when marketing their teaching services. These self-branding discourses may vary according to the teacher’s country of origin, professional qualifications, and first language background. The study argues that self-branding discourses reflect a larger, and perhaps more problematic, global trend in which individual workers directly compete against each other in a race to lower earnings and job security.