Teachers' Social Network Papers at the 2009 American Educational Research Association Conference

The 2009 AERA Conference will occur from April 13th-17th in San Diego, CA.

Several papers and presentations will address Teachers' Social Networks.

Myself and Dr. Susan Yoon (University of Pennsylvania, GSE)  will be presenting our SNA research at a poster session on Thursday, April 16th. The title of the session is: "Building and Sustaining Innovative Science and Technology programs: Learning from Teachers' Social Networking Characteristics"  The presentation will describe our research on the social networking characteristics of teachers in a STEM professional development program, and the implications of the findings on future program design.

Another session that promises to be interesting is:

"The Role of Social Networks in Influencing the Commitment of Novice Teachers"

Presenters for this session include: 

From Michigan State University: Peter Youngs, Ben Pogodzinski, Nathan Jones, & Mark R. Low.  From University of Wisconsin-Madison, Patricia Burch, and from University of Notre-Dame, Sean P. Kelly

A session that may give a broader perspective on social networks in schools is: "Understanding the Nature and Function of Social Networks in School Organizations"  Presenters from this session include: 

From University of Washington: Michelle DeVoogt Van Lare, Irene H. Yoon. From University of Amsterdam: Nienke Moolenaar, Bonne J.H. Zijlstra, From Univeristy of Twente: Peter Sleegers,

From University of California- San Diego: Alan J. Daly, Jose Manuel Bolivar. From University of Rochester: Kara S. Finnigan, and from Stanford University: Allison J. Atteberry, Anthony S. Bryk.

One session that is more about students' social networks, but may have some good examples of innovative social network research is: Peer Networks and School Culture: Their Influence on Academic and Social Outcomes.  It will be chaired by Gabriella C. Gonzalez of the RAND Corporation.

I will be live-twittering from the conference - sign up to follow my twitter account if you'd like to follow along: http://twitter.com/KJBD .