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 .

SEA conference - what's new, what's developing

Over the weekend I attended the Sociology of Education Association conference in Monterey, CA.

The conference was intimate, with all presenters and attendees in the same room for each session.  The theme was "Educational Transitions."  Much of the talk outside of the presentations was about thinking of new (or more in-depth ways) to describe and frame findings, beyond SES and gender. Several presenters used Social network theory or social network analysis to frame their work, which spoke to this challenge.  Below were some papers that used this perspective:

Melanie Toshiye Jones, "Fragmented or reliable information: Use of college information sources among African Americans"

This paper considered the social networks of high school students - how they accessed information to apply for college. I was particularly fascinated in how the "in-person" networks of students influenced their online practices and digital literacy. 

Janis McCabe [and Brandon Adonis Jackson], "The financial aid grapevine: Social capital in undergraduate' experiences with college cost."

Janis presented data on how college students social networks shape their access to information and resources for financial aid.  One particularly interesting aspect of her presentation was in the limitations of social capital - that ones' social network could only go so far in affecting larger institutional changes.

Also, Donnell Butler presented "From segregation to integration: The effect of race and high school segregation on social integration at predominantly white colleges,"  which had some interesting implications from a social network perspective.  His findings supported the viewpoint that densely connected, close, homophilic networks provide the highest degree of emotional support. I wondered about the drawbacks of these types of networks, in terms of access to resources and new information.

All in all, many new ideas to think about and explore!

Social Implications of Technology Conference

My friend and colleague Susan Yoon is helping to organize the IEEE Toronto International conference focusing on the Social Implications of Technology. Here is the link to the call for papers.

-K