Poster #221 - A Mixed Methods Analysis of Middle School Teachers' Social Dynamics Management Practices

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Researchers and practitioners have long recognized the important role that peers play in students’ adjustment to middle school. More recently, attention has turned to the role that teachers can play in shaping their students’ social interactions and peer ecologies to promote healthy academic and social development. Farmer and colleagues (2011) conceptualized teacher influence as an “invisible hand,” a metaphor to represent teacher practices that shape students’ social dynamics and peer relationships (Farmer, Lines, & Hamm, 2011). Included in this metaphor are general teacher-student interactions, which convey expectations about the types of relationships students should develop with one another, and social dynamics management (SDM) practices, representing more explicit attempts to understand and influence social dynamics (Rodkin & Gest, 2011). Despite a growing body of empirical research demonstrating the benefits of SDM practices, the nature of these practices and the frequency with which teachers engage in them remains largely unknown, particularly at the middle school level.

Conceptual models of teacher SDM practices have typically proposed two broad categories of practices: social network management, and social status management (Farmer, 2000; Gest & Rodkin, 2011). The first includes efforts to manage friendship patterns in positive ways and promote social integration in the classroom; the latter includes efforts to mitigate social status extremes and bolster the status of rejected or alienated students. In the present study, we used a mixed method analysis to examine the frequency with which middle schools teachers engage in social network and social status management practices.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 teachers across two middle schools in the fall and the spring of the school year. Teachers were asked to report on the importance of social dynamics in their classrooms, the extent to which they considered social dynamics in their instructional and behavioral management planning, and the practices they engaged in to support low status youth, minimize the influence of popular but antisocial youth, manage aggression and bullying, and promote acceptance and friendships in their classrooms. All interviews have been transcribed and are in the process of being coded by the lead researcher and two trained graduate research assistants.

An additional 17 teachers from two different middle schools completed a rating scale adapted from Gest et al. (2014). The original items were created based on an extensive review of relevant literature and consultation with practicing teachers. For the present study, the wording of items was slightly modified and additional items were added to be more appropriate for middle school students, resulting in two scales: (a) SDM practices aimed at mitigating status extremes, and (b) practices aimed at managing social network dynamics. For all items, teachers responded on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from Never (= 1) to Sometimes (= 3) to Very often (= 5).

Results from qualitative and quantitative analyses will be presented via descriptive statistics, tables, and figures.

Authors

• Kate E Norwalk, North Carolina State University
  Presenting Author

• Molly Dawes, University of South Carolina
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amanda Traficante, North Carolina State University
  Non-Presenting Author