Evolving Ties Within a Preservice Teacher Cohort: Exploring Relationships in Support of Instructional Practice

• In Event: The Social Side of Initial Teacher Education: From the Perspective of Three Countries

Abstract

Purpose: Teacher preparation is critical work that has significant potential to improve public education. While research suggests the positive effect of social interactions and efficacy in a risk-tolerant environment pre-service teachers, we know little about the degree to which these positive factors change over the course of a teacher education program. The purpose of this study is to examine the degree to which pre-service teachers’ perceptions about climate, collective efficacy, and participation in training programs impacts the development of social ties related to instructional practice.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework: This paper draws on social network theory to explore the change in the pattern of social ties surrounding pre-service teachers during their preparation program. Concepts of climate and collective efficacy are used to understand cohort level factors in terms of the extent to which pre-service teachers perceive the climate of the cohort to be innovative and the extent to which they perceive the level of efficacy among their peers. We argue that these factors are critical in assessing the degree to which pre-service teachers develop ties with their peers with regard to instructional practices over time.

Method/approach: We test our study hypotheses by conducting a series of p2 selection models to investigate how pre-service teachers’ perceived collective efficacy and innovative climate affect the shaping of their ties related to instructional practice, controlling for demographic characteristics. As our outcome variable is individual pre-service teachers’ social network connections, we conducted p2 selection models as such analysis takes into account the interdependent and nested (ties between actors in a network) nature of social network data, as compared to conventional statistical modeling.

Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials: We collected both social network data regarding instructional-practice related relationships and survey data regarding individual perceptions of climate and efficacy at three time points over the course of a year and a half long elementary education program from 48 pre-service teachers (96% response rate).

Results: Our preliminary findings suggest that over time the network structure of pre-service teachers in exchanging new ideas and instructional materials changes. These changes are associated with perceptions of climate and efficacy. Specifically, over time the pre-service teachers tend to interact with peers from the same sub-program, suggesting a clustering pattern in exchanging instructional materials with each other. Our finding also indicates that while the overall network connections may slightly decrease over time, a pre-service teacher’s relationship seeking behaviors were associated with levels of efficacy. Finally, we found that the pre-service teachers’ perceived perceptions of risk-tolerant climate is related to their network connections in terms of exchanging new ideas with peers.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work: This exploratory study builds on rapidly growing scholarship using social network analysis in education and further sheds new light on our understanding of pre-service teacher development. As there is scant of work extant in the field, we feel our work may provide unique and important theoretical and analytic purchase in the study of pre-service teacher education.

Authors

• Yi-Hwa Liou, National Taipei University of Education

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