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Educational research is reflective of the nature and structure of national and regional education systems and their historical evolution. Educational technology research, as an area within educational research, reflects this case particularly prominently. Although individual countries and regions have varying research traditions, the publication of research in English as the scientific "lingua franca" can lead to missing nuances in terminology, which is often not reflected upon. Despite this, the exploration of research from different countries can still uncover diverse topical clusters. This study aims to identify the research topics in educational technology research in three countries (Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom), each with their own research traditions, through the terms used. To this end, a bibliometric analysis of 3034 article abstracts and keywords from 29 English-language Web of Science journals in the field of education and educational research was conducted, with a focus on educational technology. In addition, the quantitative findings are comparatively analysed by considering the corresponding cultural clusters. Main findings include diverse research foci in the three countries, also showing that distinct research traditions are still present, despite using English as "lingua franca." Therefore, research articles written in English by non-English authors often do not reflect the same meanings in each country, despite using the same words. The conclusions reflect upon the need to establish ways of understanding the traditions behind those research articles and build collaborative systems to illustrate nuances in this research.

Matters of data privacy related to social media are increasingly relevant for educators as happenings such as the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal have attracted public attention. Many educators use social media for professional purposes, including with their students and should, therefore, be knowledgeable regarding data privacy issues that impact education. This research explores this issue from an interpretive paradigm based on a mixed‐methods approach derived from survey data from an international sample of 148 pre‐service teachers who were studying education courses at three universities. Data suggest that pre‐service teachers see both educational and distracting potential in social media, but lack knowledge regarding relevant policies and regulations, which reflects trends in the broader population. Attitudes toward educational social media use were not correlated with awareness of data privacy policies. However, comfort with companies' use of personal and student data and faith in governments' capacity to regulate social media companies were correlated. We discuss our findings in relation to the use of social media and related data privacy considerations and the need for data literacy training in teacher education programs. We include recommendations in light of the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]