scholarly journals Power, brokers, and agendas: New directions for the use of social network analysis in education policy

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Emily Hodge ◽  
Joshua Childs ◽  
Wayne Au

In this special issue, Researching 21st Century Education Policy Through Social Network Analysis, authors use social network analysis (SNA) to explore policy networks, broaden the current literature of sociological approaches to SNA, and/or incorporate new lenses for interpreting policy networks from political science or other academic disciplines. This editorial introduction first provides an overview of policy networks and their relevance in education. Then, the editors describe existing work applying the tools of SNA to education policy and highlight understudied areas before describing the articles included in this issue. These articles apply SNA to a variety of education policy issues, including large scale policies such as the Every Student Succeeds Act and the Common Core State Standards, charter schools, and the relationship between system and non-system actors. Articles highlight multiple applications of SNA, including how SNA can be used to advance theory, as well as describe and predict policy networks.

PLoS ONE ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. e0146220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandra do Socorro da Silva ◽  
Silvana Rossy de Brito ◽  
Nandamudi Lankalapalli Vijaykumar ◽  
Cláudio Alex Jorge da Rocha ◽  
Maurílio de Abreu Monteiro ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (11) ◽  
pp. 1566-1581 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralf Wölfer ◽  
Eva Jaspers ◽  
Danielle Blaylock ◽  
Clarissa Wigoder ◽  
Joanne Hughes ◽  
...  

Traditionally, studies of intergroup contact have primarily relied on self-reports, which constitute a valid method for studying intergroup contact, but has limitations, especially if researchers are interested in negative or extended contact. In three studies, we apply social network analyses to generate alternative contact parameters. Studies 1 and 2 examine self-reported and network-based parameters of positive and negative contact using cross-sectional datasets ( N = 291, N = 258), indicating that both methods help explain intergroup relations. Study 3 examines positive and negative direct and extended contact using the previously validated network-based contact parameters in a large-scale, international, and longitudinal dataset ( N = 12,988), demonstrating that positive and negative direct and extended contact all uniquely predict intergroup relations (i.e., intergroup attitudes and future outgroup contact). Findings highlight the value of social network analysis for examining the full complexity of contact including positive and negative forms of direct and extended contact.


Author(s):  
Michele A. Brandão ◽  
Matheus A. Diniz ◽  
Guilherme A. de Sousa ◽  
Mirella M. Moro

Studies have analyzed social networks considering a plethora of metrics for different goals, from improving e-learning to recommend people and things. Here, we focus on large-scale social networks defined by researchers and their common published articles, which form co-authorship social networks. Then, we introduce CNARe, an online tool that analyzes the networks and present recommendations of collaborations based on three different algorithms (Affin, CORALS and MVCWalker). Through visualizations and social networks metrics, CNARe also allows to investigate how the recommendations affect the co-authorship social networks, how researchers' networks are in a central and eagle-eye context, and how the strength of ties behaves in large co-authorship social networks. Furthermore, users can upload their own network in CNARe and make their own recommendation and social network analysis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Teodora Erika Uberti ◽  
Francesco Salsano

The goal of this paper is to investigate policy networks in Migori, a small county in the Western part of Kenya, near the border with Tanzania and Victoria Lake. In this study we build a unique network database and we use Social Network Analysis techniques to detect the structural relations among different stakeholders (e.g. institutions and civil society actors) within this county and we focus on different topics (i.e. overall interactions, training and cooperation, and for specific decision making on health and nutrition, and agricultural issues). The main results show the importance to distinguish, in policy networks, the rationale of interactions and their intensity, i.e. weak or strong ties. Institutions and civil society organizations are differently connected according to the functions and intensity of networks in which they operate. For example, for health and nutrition the Ministry is the core actor; the opposite occurs in agriculture, where local communities are the core players; and finally in training and coordination we have an intermediate layout, if compared to the two previous ones.


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