The Social Side of Change: District Reform Through the Lens of Social Network Analysis

• In Event: Studying School District Central Offices: Examining Issues of Methods, Research, and Context

Abstract

Purpose
Scholars have begun to take a systemic view of reform, examining relationships between district offices and schools in school improvement (e.g. Daly & Finnigan, 2012; Finnigan, Daly & Che, 2013; Honig et al. 2010). These limited studies underscore the importance of understanding relationships, particularly in the context of complex districtwide improvement efforts, Research has begun to highlight, bluntly, that social networks within districts are important to school improvement and that they are generally weak between central offices and schools; however, more robust methods are needed to understand the dynamics of urban systems where networks and ties between schools and central offices vary depending network location and reform implementation. To meet this end we offer that social network analysis combined with case study research provides a comprehensive set of tools to enhance district research.

Theoretical Framework
We draw on social network theory and methods, which foreground the influence of the social infrastructure of relationships on the movement of relational resources (e.g. Daly & Finnigan, 2010, 2011, 2012; Finnigan & Daly, 2010; Finnigan, Daly & Che, 2013). Network theory is grounded in the idea that the structure of social relations between and among individuals can support or constrain the movement of relational resources, which can have a direct impact on outcomes (Scott, 2000). Network structures may facilitate the transfer of resources, but they may also constrain resource exchanges if the ties do not have sufficient connectivity (Wasserman & Faust, 1998).

Methods
We have successfully used social network theory and analysis in longitudinal case studies of urban districts, enabling us to review patterns of interaction that often run counter to existing formal structures at both the district and school level. For example, in one study we used these methods to show a change in the interactions around expertise. Our research suggests a relationship between an individual’s position in the social network and perception of improvement efforts, with more central “actors” having more favorable views of the sharing of ideas and practices and more peripheral actors having limited view of the wider district reform effort. This paper will focus on the ways that the interplay between our social network data collection and interview data collection and analyses provide us with rich information about district reform.

Significance
We use our empirical work to argue the importance of social network analysis as a foundational method within case study research for the study of district reform to: 1. Offer robust and growing tools to examine the interplay between codified organizational structures and informal interactions at point in time and longitudinally; 2. Provide an efficient way to capture interactions among actors within a bounded system allowing for organizational and individual analysis; 3. Afford a sampling strategy to select interviewees based on network position; 4. Align with a variety of theoretical frameworks typically applied to district reform studies (e.g. organizational learning, sense-making); and 5. Allow a mixed method approach for both collection and analysis enabling network visualizations as an artifact for qualitative interviewing.

Authors

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

• Kara S. Finnigan, University of Rochester