Racial Homophily in Teachers' Social Networks

• In Event: The Work of Teachers: Understanding Teacher Networks, Identity, and Efficacy

Abstract

Despite our growing understanding of teachers’ social networks, there are still significant aspects of them we have only a limited understanding about, namely the role of race. In this paper, we examine the network implications of being a racial and/or numerical minority in different compositional settings. We find that White teachers’ relationships are more homophilous when they are in the minority, and that Black teachers’ relationships are generally more homophilous across the board, but not for instruction (vs. discipline advice or friendship) when they are in the minority. We show that previous findings on similarities between White teachers and teachers of color are contingent on staff composition.

Authors

• Jennifer Lauren Nelson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• David Diehl, Vanderbilt University

• Huriya Jabbar, The University of Texas at Austin