Social Network Analysis Research Research Articles

Teachers' professional development in departmentalised, loosely coupled organisations: Lessons for school improvement from a case study of two curriculum departments

This paper describes a case study of 2 departments in a school, where teachers were inquired about their school's needs for improvement and how the institution and their department impacted upon their own professional development. The results show that the teachers' experiences of professional development, their interpersonal relationships within their department, and their views about school improvement differed radically between the 2 organisational subunits. Results are discussed on the basis of their implications for whole-school improvement efforts in departmentalised, loosely coupled educational institutions. The paper makes a case for the continuing relevance of models of schools as loosely coupled organisations and for the combination of social network analysis and qualitative research methods to illustrate how loose coupling manifests itself in schools and how it impacts on teacher development and on school capacity for improvement.

Using Social Network Analysis to Examine the Time of Adoption of Computer-Related Services among University Faculty

Research relating to the diffusion of innovations in education has been based primarily on looking at individual characteristics as predictors of use. This study proposes to use social network analysis and diffusion research to study the diffusion of two computer-based administrative services within a university faculty network. The relationship of time of adoption and the number of network nominations received, centrality closeness, spatial proximity, and organizational unit proximity were examined. Participants were 66 faculty members in a college of education at a southern university. They were introduced to the services and asked to provide demographic information and to identify communication partners for advice, friendship, and discussion. Results indicated that the number of friendship network nominations received was negatively correlated with the time of adoption. No correlation was found between time of adoption and spatial and organizational unit proximity.

Reappraisal of social network research in educational contexts

During the past seven years, several important studies of social networks have been added to the educational research literature (Sarason & Lorentz, 1979; Litwak & Meyer, 1974; and Gittel'l, 1979). The term has also become popular as a strategy for promoting educational change. In the more general interdisciplinary research area of systems, the sub-topic of social network analysis or structural analysis research is presently characterized by sophisticated quantitative methodological analyses and serious debates designed to clarify terms and theoretical concepts. Some scholars now refer to systematic social network analysis as an emergent paradigm (Holland & Leinhardt, 1979). Whether or not one is willing to agree with that assessment, it is clear that social network analysis is an important area of contemporary scholarship. 1