Teachers' Social Networks in Schools: How Do Principal Leadership Practices and Racial Context Matter?

• In Event: Distributed Leadership: The Process and Impact of Shifting Roles for Administrators and Teachers

Abstract

This project draws from research in sociology of organizations and social psychology to investigate how principals’ actions, including racial discrimination in interpersonal interactions with teachers and teacher hiring via social networks, affect employees’ behavioral responses, and how principal race, teacher race, and racial context moderate these effects. We use a factorial vignette survey from about 700 respondents, in which fictional scenarios are synthesized from randomized variables, to test these effects. We find differences in how Black respondents react to a principal who polices their social behavior at a faculty meeting. Similarly, we find that Black respondents reacted to variation in principal hiring practices. However, white respondents demonstrated no differences in reaction to either vignette.

Authors

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

• Rachel Elizabeth Fish, New York University