Dissecting Diffusion: The Movement of Research Evidence Throughout a School District

• In Event: 51.020 - Inter/national Knowledge Production and Mobilization in Education in a Post-Truth Era

Abstract

Purpose

The diffusion of research evidence (RE) in education is important as systems strive to improve the opportunities and outcomes of our nation’s youth. Attempts to bring about improvement are grounded in the notion that educators have the knowledge, skills, and access to RE to implement changes. Our study looks at who has access to RE and how RE is diffused in a school district. Specifically, we use social network analysis to examine whether there is a relationship between the attributes of high RE users and their location in the leadership network and whether their ego networks are associated with RE diffusion.

Framework

We draw on diffusion theory, which has roots in sociology, epidemiology, and geography, among other areas, and describes the mechanism by which new ideas, attitudes, and behaviors spread throughout a community (Rogers, 2003; Valente, 1993, 1995). Knowledge diffusion is largely influenced by interactions, which serve as the conduits (Moody, 2004), hence the importance of taking a social network perspective.

Methods

This study takes place in a large East coast county-wide district that serves approximately 150,000 linguistically, economically, and ethnically diverse students in 200 schools. We collected a variety of demographic, scale, and network data (including RE use) from over 304 individuals, including central office and site leaders.

We examined two key groups of individuals: high-end research users (meaning those who are most central in the research network based upon in-degree RE use ties) and key opinion leaders in other networks who are also in the research network but not RE users initially. We looked at these groups at Time 1 – following forward to see how ties emerge and spread occurs. Next we examined these two groups at Time 2 to see how exposure may have impacted who was considered a research user initially. We also examined the ego-networks of these opinion leaders and high-end research users to understand how exposure impacts RE ties.

Results

Preliminary results indicate that those leaders who were in the district for a shorter periods of time and who worked at the district office tended to be high end RE users and more likely to diffuse RE. However, they were also more likely to not be in their positions by the end of the study due to churn. Further, those principals of lower performing schools tended to not be identified as high RE users, and over time only generate ties with principals from other low performing schools who were also not high RE users.

Significance

Theoretical and practical understandings about how RE spreads through a system are quite limited. Yet diffusion has been shown as a critical factor in the adoption of attitudes and behaviors in fields including public health, psychology, health, and other areas (Frank, Zhao, & Borman, 2004; Goyal, 2011; Rogers, 2003). Our study provides a unique contribution by uncovering how networks influence the uptake and incorporation of RE in districts to inform districtwide improvement efforts.

Authors

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

• Kara S. Finnigan, University of Rochester

• Daniela Edith Luengo-Aravena, University of Rochester

• Christina Curti Leal, University of Rochester