Collaborative transnational network building: A case study from the NORRAG network and the Social Systems Mapping tool

• In Event: Technological Orientations and Analysis: Digital Possibilities and Opportunities

Proposal

Background and Relevance to CIES 2025

In the context of a continuous and increasing globalization of education, organizations face significant challenges in fostering transnational connections that do not privilege and impose centralized perspectives, agendas, and solutions of Global North countries, but instead embrace and value transnational diverse knowledge, experiences, and worldviews. This applied research project examines the NORRAG Network's implementation of Regional Coordination and the use of the tool of Social Systems Mapping as an innovative strategy for collaborative network building in the education space. The paper reflects on the opportunities and challenges of creating a bottom-up, decentralized approach to community engagement, including the digital Social Systems Mapping. The Map is a valuable part of a larger strategy, focused on building transnational networks while remaining cognisant of regional contexts. In an increasingly yet unevenly globalized society, NORRAG and its community address emerging challenges like the rise of Generative Artificial Intelligence, the (in)visibility of Educators in Emergency contexts, and the persistence of structural inequities in resource and expertise flows between the Global North and South. NORRAG’s efforts contribute to participatory, evidence-based decision-making in international education. Our findings reflect on the successes and challenges of the project after its initial development and early implementation phase (2022 to 2024), and explore how this approach can benefit other organizations seeking to foster international, participation-driven networks.

Objectives and Methodology

NORRAG’s regional coordination employs a network-building approach that fosters decentralized participation, open access, and active user engagement. Social Systems Mapping, for example, is one of the tools that allow our network members to visualize and manage their connections via the map’s built-in filter functions while discovering opportunities to collaborate on the basis of shared interests, geographic regions, or thematic expertise. The project used a combination of the sumApp and Kumu platforms, which integrate social network mapping and systems thinking to create a dynamic, always-online environment for community building.
Besides prioritizing accessibility and democratizing access to NORRAG’s network infrastructure, localisation at the regional level has been a primary objective. We have approached this objective through four primary tactics:

Division of the network coordination responsibilities on the basis of linguistic regions. Currently our team focuses on Anglophone Africa, Hispanophone Latin America, the Lusophone world and Anglophone Europe, North American and Oceania.

Learning from regional stakeholders and our pre-existing network membership to identify regional priorities.

Pursuit of region-specific programming and partnerships through network presentations, trouble-shooting sessions and regional webinar series.

Translation of communication products such as newsletters, paired with regionalisations of already-existing knowledge products like the NORRAG Special Issues and blog series.

Evaluation and Discussion
The project demonstrated several key successes. First, it enabled the localization and integration of new members into the network, as well as the adoption of basic features by a wide range of users. Over the course of two years, the network grew by 25%, with 1000 new members, including a significant increase (400%) in the representation of underrepresented scholars. Additionally, NORRAG doubled its partnerships with institutions headquartered in the Global South and vastly improved its outreach and collaboration capacities in Latin America and Anglophone Africa. These partnerships have resulted in region-specific programming, knowledge product collaborations and enabled NORRAG to share expertise where needed.Our decentralized engagement has enhanced regional collaboration and addresses specific institutional and political contexts.

For instance, the European and North American regions boast significant institutional presence, a large portion of our network, and ample opportunities for collaboration: seeking institutional alignment is an effective strategy in this context. In Anglophone Africa, bandwidth and connectivity issues coupled, linguistic balkanization of education collaboratives coupled with reduced NORRAG name recognition renders bottom-up outreach activities a more viable short to medium-term strategy.

Also notably, the project recorded an increase in member profiles across previously underrepresented sectors such as civil society and practitioners including teachers. This has significantly enhanced NORRAG’s ability to facilitate the equitable exchange of ideas globally and in Anglophone Africa and Latin America especially. Through engagements and insights gathering involving diverse actors from an education ecosystem lens, the value that this strategy has generated extends beyond interactions on and about the Social Systems Map.

However, the project also faced challenges. The integration of digital and physical engagement strategies could have been strengthened, particularly in terms of complementing online interaction with in-person collaboration. Additionally, while the network's digital infrastructure provided a robust platform for engagement, some members experienced difficulties with nationality-based IP restrictions, low bandwidth accessibility issues, and limited member adoption of the network’s advanced features, such as self-reporting connections. The presentation will explore these challenges and discuss strategies to move forward.

Authors

• Bart Sebastiaan Gabriel, NORRAG, Geneva Graduate Institute

• Felicitas M Acosta, Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento & NORRAG

• Marina Avelar, Federal University of Minas Gerais and NORRAG

• Edemawan Dorothy Ossai, NORRAG