Data, Dyads, and Dynamics: Exploring Data Use and Social Networks in Educational Improvement

• In Event: Promoting Data Use in Education: Promises and Pitfalls

Abstract

Recently, there has been an increasing national policy push for educators to systematically collect, interpret, and use data for instructional decision-making. The assumption by the federal government is that having data systems will be enough to prompt the use of data for a wide range of decision making. These policies rely on inducements to inspire local level changes; however, they leave the processes related to data use largely undefined. Moreover, there is a dearth of empirical literature regarding the use of data in educational decision-making, leaving policy-makers and practitioners with a limited evidence base upon which to provide support and build the skills for using data for improvement. The data use studies that have been conducted suggest that the interpretation and use of data takes place both within the individual and increasingly between educational actors who through social interaction are both co-constructing and making sense of data and its use. Many of these studies on data use either directly draw on network theory or invoke network-related concepts. Therefore, given the role of social relationships in data use studies, better understanding of the dynamics of social influence on the interpretation and use of data through the lens of social network theory and analysis may provide additional insight into data use within and across educational systems. This paper builds on existing data use studies and argues for the utility of network theory and analysis in examining social infrastructure as a way to understand individual and organizational level outcomes related to data use.

Author

• Alan J. Daly, University of California - San Diego