Networks for Educational Improvement in Education: using social network analysis to support network development and design

• In Event: Collaborative educational improvement

Proposal

The Playful Schools Initiative (PSI), funded by the LEGO Foundation, aims to connect, and empower changemakers and schools embracing and sustaining Learning through Play (LtP) and to amplify their stories. By initiating or supporting activities (e.g., conferences, networks, or research) that activate the influencing mechanisms (i.e., storytelling, credible messaging, amplifying innovation and community-building), the initiative creates buy-in from an ever-growing number of practitioners and policy makers within the educational global ecosystem, thus expanding the influence of change makers and schools and supporting widespread diffusion of LtP.

To drive diffusion of innovation and system change, PS initiates, supports, and funds the design and development of local, national and global LtP networks that connect and empower innovators and schools within the educational ecosystem. This paper focuses on two networks that are part of PSI and that are both using social network analysis to examine the impact and influence of its membership: the Global Playful Schools Network (GPSN) and the Canadian Playful Schools Network (CPSN).

The GPSN takes on a multilevel approach to connect innovators already engaged in LtP initiatives in their schools and educational systems and who have affiliation the wider PS ecosystem. In a long-term perspective the network supports member schools and innovators to learn with and from one another, share their LtP practices and experiences, advocate for more and more schools across the globe to successfully embrace and sustain LtP and ultimately, for there to be changes in global policy makers’ mindsets in favor of LtP.

Similarly, the CPSN brings together school teams from across seven provinces from Canada that are deeply engaged in LtP across a variety of modes- digital play, machine play and outdoor play. The network provides opportunities for innovators to connect, share and coach one another, learn from LtP experts and funds further development of LtP in their context. The CPSN research team supports each school team to capture their LtP work and examine the impact on student learning, engagement, and wellbeing.

Both networks seek to foster positive long-term impacts on children and systems and that a growing number of children experience the benefits of LtP. At the system level, both networks aim for meaningful change in policy and curriculum that promote widespread adoption of LtP throughout the global and national educational ecosystem.

To examine the development and growth of both PSI networks, social network analysis (SNA) has been adopted as a research method. The GPSN uses Social Media (SoMe) data to observe several key outcome indicators, most notably degree of connectedness, empowerment, and influence. As SoMe data are generated organically and only indirectly as part of this initiative, these data can naturally only be used as proxies to monitor the outcomes of interest. Based on twitter data, we regularly map and track the evolution of the PS ecosystem over time, examine whether innovators and schools become more connected, more empowered, and more influential and gain insights into changes in policy makers’ mindsets in favour of LtP and supporting educational improvement for a more equitable world.


Using empowerment as an example, this means that we view an innovator that regularly creates his/her own LtP-related content on twitter as being more empowered than an innovator that “only” likes or comments others’ LtP-related posts. Hence, we only expect innovators to create LtP-related content if they feel a high degree of agency about LtP and are motivated to disseminate stories of LtP practices. As another example, we view innovators that comment on and share each other's LtP-related posts as more deeply connected and engaged in their mutual community of practice than innovators only following each other or liking each other’s posts.

In the CPSN, SNA has been adopted to highlight collaborations at the school and network level in an effort to strengthen the network and increase connections and links between members. UCINET (Borgatti et al. 2002) is used to analyse, map, and illuminate the structure and nature of the CPSN based on data collected from regular monthly reports completed by each participating school team. The data provided will enable the researchers to better understand and map out the strength of ties between members, the flow of LtP resources and influence, and which CPSN members hold brokering roles within the network. Each new network map is also presented to the CPSN members at their network meetings for feedback and to further develop relationships and ties within the community of innovators.

Initial findings from the SNA data from the CPSN and GPSN, as well as examples of network maps will be presented in this paper to spark a discussion on how SNA can be used in the design, development and sustainability of networks at a local, national and global scale.

Authors

• Trista Hollweck, University of Ottawa

• Patricia Castanheira, The LEGO Foundation

• Michael Gadegaard Espersen, Ramboll