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Examining Capacity for “Cross-Pollination” in a Rural School District: A Social Network Analysis Case Study

Item

Title
Examining Capacity for “Cross-Pollination” in a Rural School District: A Social Network Analysis Case Study
Abstract/Description
Teacher collaboration is a vital factor in successful school reform, and the networks in which educators are embedded support (or constrain) access to essential social capital resources. In this study, authors used social network analysis to examine the changing structure of teacher collaboration networks over the course of a rural District’s 3-year Professional Learning Community (PLC) initiative. Visual depictions (sociograms) of district- and school-level teacher collaboration networks were generated, and measures of network cohesion – including size, density, connectedness, components, and degree – were calculated at three points in time. Authors worked in partnership with district administrators to explore how location of teachers and principals, and network capacity for diffusion of innovation, changed over time. School leaders may not know how to purposefully influence communication ties between teachers, relying instead on the invisible web of personal affiliations through which professional opinions travel. This study contributes to the field’s understanding of how administrator choices about organizational structure affect “cross-pollination” and the networks through which teachers are able to access and contribute the knowledge and ideas they need in order to deliver high-quality curriculum and instruction to all students.
Author/creator
Woodland, Rebecca H
Mazur, Rebecca
Date
2019
In publication
Educational Management Administration & Leadership
Volume
47
Issue
5
Pages
815-836
Resource type
en Research/Scholarly Media
Resource status/form
en Published Text
Scholarship genre
en Empirical
Language
en
Open access/full-text available
en No
Peer reviewed
en Yes
ISSN
1741-1432
URL
Official Publisher's Webpage (SAGE Journals)
Citation
Woodland, R. H., & Mazur, R. (2019). Examining Capacity for “Cross-Pollination” in a Rural School District: A Social Network Analysis Case Study. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 47(5), 815–836. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143217751077
Cited in
Continuous Improvement and "High Leverage" Educational Problems
Item sets
OB Citations - Continuous Improvement and "High Leverage" Educational Problems

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