Social Network Analysis and Teacher Education/Teacher Development

• In Event: Using Novel Research Methods to Understand Teaching and Learning in the Professions

Abstract

Scholarly interest in social network analysis (SNA) has grown rapidly in the last several decades (Carolan, 2013), paralleling the exploding popular interest about networks within the larger cultural consciousness. It is now common to colloquially speak of one’s social network because of the ever-present use of networking platforms and the range of social media embedded in mobile devices. This awareness has penetrated educational research, such that it is now common to discuss networks when addressing teacher professional communities (Penuel, Riel, Krause, & Frank, 2009), school redesign networks (Daly & Finnigan 2010), cyber-bullying (Kowalski & Limber, 2007), and the integration of technology into schools (Frank, Zhao, & Borman, 2004).

The overriding question addressed in this presentation is the following: In what ways can SNA be used to better conceptualize and study issues related to the professional education and development of P-12 teachers? Our presentation addresses this question through three objectives. The first objective is to show that SNA offers researchers a means for better capturing complex interdependencies and dynamics among teachers than many current and more popular methods. Second, we contend that SNA up-ends many established theoretical and empirical assumptions about individual and group behavior (e.g., the assumption of independence in ordinary least squares regression models). Third, we demonstrate that SNA’s analytical tools mirror these “new” assumptions and provide rigorous and precise means through which researchers can better describe and explain issues in the area of teacher education and teacher development.

These three objectives are addressed by showing how SNA has evolved in a way that marries both theory and method, what Marin and Wellman (2011) refer to as the “social network perspective.” This presentation reflects this perspective by drawing on several recent examples of how it has been applied to study issues related to the professional education and development of P-12 teachers. These examples highlight the perspective’s focus on (a) relations, not attributes; (b) networks, not groups; and (c) relations in a broader social context. Varied examples will make explicit the notion that in SNA it is difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish where theory ends and methodology begins. This integrated perspective is evident in Frank, Zhao, Penuel, Ellefson, and Porter’s (2011) study on how knowledge about technology flows into schools and then diffuses from teacher to teacher within schools. In this example, as well as several others, relationships are critical antecedents and determinants of teachers’ access to resources (e.g. information), and the value of these relationships, in turn, depends on the value of resources exchanged as they interact. In addition, these relationships are nested in networks bounded by context (typically schools), a dependency accounted for in relatively new network-based statistical models. This presentation uses numerous examples to demonstrate the defining characteristics of SNA and illustrate its advantages over other more popular methods. The significance of this presentation is that it sketches the defining contours of SNA and outlines the strengths of this perspective as they relate to issues surrounding the professional education and development of P-12 teachers.

Authors

• Brian V. Carolan, Montclair State University

• Sara Wasserman, Montclair State University