Equity Practice and Principal’s Social Positioning: A Critical Social Network Case Study

• In Event: Culturally Responsive Leadership for Social Justice

Abstract

The purpose of the mixed-methods explanatory sequential critical social network study is to better understand how school leaders’ social positioning shapes their perceptions of opportunity and constraint around equity practice. Network data was collected from 88% of a district leadership team, inclusive of central office and site leaders on instrumental, expressive, and equity networks. Scales including trust, autonomy, and social justice beliefs were also collected. Central and peripheral network actors were subsequently invited to participate in semi-structured interviews to understand their experiences of the organizational environment vis-a-vis their equity efforts. Preliminary findings reveal that site administrators’ strategies to justify their policy decoupling and in some cases, rule-breaking, were shaped by a complex interplay of organizational dynamics, identity, and social network positioning.

Author

• David Albert Rodes Trautman, University of California - San Diego