Going Beyond "Traditional" Forms of School Organization: Leveraging Social Opportunity Spaces in Both Informal Virtual and Face-to-Face Settings

• In Event: Rethinking Schools in a (Post-?)Pandemic World: Innovative Conceptualizations of Schools as Organizations

Abstract

Educational systems face a wide range of challenges requiring a move from more “traditional” structures of school organization to new forms that support schools and teachers to develop and implement innovative and more collaborative approaches to accessing and sharing valuable resources. This seems particularly true in under-resourced communities, which often bear the brunt of inequities and limited resources. Most schools are not organized to get useful and focused knowledge into the hands of the right people at the right time to make meaningful change. We argue that a network perspective that leverages both online and offline interactions may provide innovative ways to re-think school structures, processes and access to valuable “just in time,” practice-oriented, and equity-focused resources. Distributing and accessing these resources is difficult amidst outdated organizational structures, information overload, and systems that are often resistant to change. We introduce the idea of online and offline social opportunity spaces (SOS) to foster and leverage informal learning networks that are integral to the way we learn, share resources, and organize our daily lives. Using a mixed-methods approach, combining network science, natural language processing, and qualitative design sprints, we highlight how SOS operationalized through an educational recommender collects, analyzes, and interprets data that is practitioner-oriented, supporting educators to advance practice in service of educational equity and new forms of organizing. We also explore implication for new forms of organizing schools that reflect expanded opportunities presented in these social spaces.

Authors

• Martin Rehm, University of Regensburg
  Presenting Author

• Marie Lockton, University of California - San Diego
  Presenting Author

• Anita Caduff, University of California - San Diego
  Presenting Author

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