Educational Leadership in Times of COVID-19: Exploring Online Social Networks of School Leaders

• In Event: Social Opportunity Spaces: How Social Media Can Inform/Shape Educational Policy Processes

Abstract

Leadership is one of the most examined concepts in the education literature (e.g. Briggs & Coleman, 2019) and while the study of social networks is also gaining interest in recent years, the intersection between leadership and online social networks has received limited attention (Authors, 2010). The key notion underlying most leadership research is that the behaviors or attributes of a leader, typically a person in a formal position, matter for a variety of outcomes (e.g. Panahi et al., 2013). While offering valuable insights, this dominant view of leadership behavior and attributes underestimates the impact of (informal) social networks in online spaces (Authors, 2020). Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic is having a severe impact on all areas of public and private life worldwide. These new and unprecedented developments have immediate and not yet fully foreseeable long-term consequences. School leaders face a wide range of new questions and challenges that need to be addressed, including how to rapidly adjust to the circumstances by enabling and fostering online education. Consequently, they also turn to their (informal) social networks, in order to collect information, reach out to their communities and share experiences. The current study investigates two main questions: i) how educational leaders access and exchange information through online social networks, ii) how information on and around the COVID-19 pandemic is traceable in these networks.
Using a dedicated server, we accessed the platform’s application programming interface (API), and collected 122,811 Tweets in the time between July 01, 2019 and June 30, 2020. We harvested Twitter based on 15 US-based hashtags, including #WeLeadEd, #JoyfulLeaders and #FitLeaders, where educational leaders and policy makers exchange opinions, experiences and resources on the topic of school leadership.
Using a mixed-methods approach, we first identified underlying communication patterns using social network analyses (e.g. Scott, 2017). More specifically, we computed the in-, out-, and overall degree centrality metrics of all users taking part in the hashtag discussions (e.g. Grabowicz et al., 2014). We also determined underlying community structures and identified prominent roles (highly centrality) in the network. Second, in order to assess what types of information moved through the network and how this might be connected to individuals’ position within the network, we then also employed bibliometric methods. Using latent dirichlet allocation (e.g. Blei et al., 2003), we determined the underlying topical structure of the hashtag discussions.
Our work highlights several key structural dimensions as well as a host of highly influential actors. Moreover, we found bibliometric evidence for users sharing and diffusing information on topics such as “inspirational quotes”. Finally, we identified traces of school leaders promoting news and showcasing practical experiences on a range of different aspects, including information on how they deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
These findings are valuable for policy makers and educational leaders alike, as they map the underlying communication patterns and provide valuable insights into who is moving what types of resources as part of the emerging governance approach on social media.

Authors

• Martin Rehm, University of Regensburg

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

• Sara Moukarzel

• Miguel Del Fresno, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia