Community Schools Scaled: Using Twitter Data and Social Network Analysis to Map the Policy Ecosystem

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Doing Equity Work: A (Critical) Policy Analysis Approach to Complex Issues (Table 25)

Abstract

This research sought to understand how organizations with different policy priorities have adapted to the evolving policy ecosystem to scale and sustain a justice-orientated approach to education reform. The authors mapped the policy information network that formed to advance community schools, identified influential organizations in the network, and described key characteristics of its structure. Drawing from Twitter data and media articles over a five-year period, authors categorized actors engaged in the community school policy ecosystem by their involvement in the activities of creating new knowledge in the field, interpreting and dissemination of this knowledge, and acting on selected knowledge to develop Community School policies and initiatives. Findings demonstrate how community-driven, grassroots networking and collaboration influences community school politics and policy.

Authors

• Linda K. Mayger, The College of New Jersey

• Kathleen Provinzano, Binghamton University - SUNY