What Network Analysis Can Do for Education Research: The Case of Study Abroad and Postsecondary Stratification

• In Event: Some Methodological Innovations for the Automated Analysis of Classroom Discourse

Abstract

The study presented in this proposal represents part of a larger mixed-methods project that takes as its overarching goal the identification of policies and practices at institutions of higher education that either facilitate or hinder study abroad participation among students. The study outlined here applies analytic tools borrowed from social network analysis, namely quadratic assignment procedure and spin-glass community detection, to qualitative data consisting of content codes applied to institutions’ study abroad website. The purpose of this analysis was to explore the connections created between institutions and their associated qualitative codes. Our results place emphasis upon distinctions among institutions that otherwise would have been difficult to find in our data via quantitative and qualitative content analysis alone.

Authors

• Melissa Whatley, School for International Training

• Amy Elizabeth Stich, University of Georgia