The Significance of Social Capital in the Higher Agricultural Education System

Nematollah Naderi

doi:10.5455/ijamd.158241

Abstract

The academic achievement of students has been a focus of social research for decades. Yet little attention has been paid to social capital and its importance as a university context factor for academic success. We examine whether social capital has effects on students’ academic achievement. The population of this study consisted of all senior agricultural students of Razi University at Iran (N=257), that 154 of them were selected as the sample using the proportionate stratified sampling method. The main instrument in this study was a questionnaire which its validity was confirmed by a panel of experts and its reliability was established by Cronbach's Alpha coefficient (α>0.70). Data was analyzed by SPSS Win22 and LISREL 8.80 software in two phases of descriptive and inferential statistics. Results of structural equation modeling indicated that social capital was the main predictor of agricultural students’ academic achievement. Findings of this study can have practical implications concerning agricultural students’ academic achievement for higher agricultural education mangers, planners and educators.

Highlights

The academic achievement of students has been a focus of social research for decades
The results revealed that total score of social capital has a strong positive association (r=0.726) with student’s academic achievement
Educational achievement as one objective of any educational systems is pursuing, in this regard, studies results imply that many factors affecting academic achievement which generally we can summarize them as economic, cultural and social capital among which social capital has increasingly attracted especial attention as a key element in development process

Summary

INTRODUCTION

It can be said students who have more social capital, can be more successful in achieving educational goals (Pishghadam and Zabihi, 2011) In this regard, many researchers (Bankston, 2004; Field, 2003; Hervat et al, 2003), have studied social capital in educational systems and its relationship with learners educational achievement. Roger (2003) studied the relationship of the educational achievement and social capital considered as consisted of three components namely communication, networks, social trust, and social norms and values. Anne-Marie (2009) studied the social and cultural capital effect on educational achievement; she supposed social capital as including: social trust, social networks, social support, sharing knowledge and information His results revealed social capital and its components had positive, significant, direct and in direct effects on educational achievement. Other scholars found significantly positive correlation between social capital and academic achievement in higher education, some of which are: Bassani (2006), Neri and Ville (2008), Eng (2009) and Pishghadam and Zabihi (2011)

Social communication

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Findings

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION