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  2. EDU S417

Social Relationships and Networks in School Organizations
EDU S417

Course Information

Description

Schools, like all organizations, are social systems. This means successful school outcomes cannot be achieved by simply having the right policies, programs, and routines. Social relationships also matter for school outcomes. This course uses the conceptual, analytical, and technical tools of social network analysis to help students think more systematically about how social relationships in schools matter. By the end of the course students will be able to answer questions such as: How does the strength of teachers' relationships to one another affect their instructional practice? Why do different kinds of social relationships evolve in different contexts? How do the features of a school's social network affect policy implementation, advice seeking, and social capital? How can the dynamics of social relationships and networks be leveraged to better design and evaluate effective reform policies? As part of the course, students will be introduced to the social network software UCINET and will apply their knowledge to identify ways to improve schools at the building, system, or sector level.

Permission of instructor required. Enrollment is limited to 24. Enrollment procedure will be posted on the course website.

Class Notes

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School Graduate School of Education
Credits 4
Cross Reg

Available for Harvard Cross Registration

Department Education
Course Component Regular Course
Instruction Mode In Person
Subject Education
Grading Basis HGSE Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Learning Goals N/A
Career Focus

The class is most appropriate for students interested in receiving an introduction to the basic conceptual, analytical, and technical tools needed to understand or use social network analysis in their future roles as school, system, or sector level leaders or as educational researchers. For those students interested in using advanced social network analysis for original empirical research, additional theory and methods courses would be required.