Understanding School-Community Partnerships Utilizing a Network Analysis of Social Capital in a Low-Income School Attendance Zone

• In Event: 33.049 - Using Complexity Theories to Move Toward Justice in Educational Research and Praxis

Abstract

We examine informal leadership in the attendance zone of a low-income elementary school to understand the complex network relationships among informal community leaders and how roles and interactive relationships influence access to resources and volunteerism. Analyses are performed using network analyses and multiple regression quadratic assignment procedures (network regression procedures). Fifty-one informal leaders were identified using snow-balling procedures, and 68% were interviewed. Findings thus far have described relationships among informal leaders, networked access to community resources, agent volunteerism, and cliques. The functions of informal leaders in the network have been identified. MR-QAP analyses will regress volunteering and access to resource onto Simmelian ties, closeness centrality, work relationships, and social relationships to help identify characteristics of informal community leadership.

Authors

• Russ Marion, Clemson University

• Bridget C Briley, Clemson University

• Forrest M. Stuart, Furman University