Purpose: While leadership in educational contexts has been widely studied, less is known about how leadership dynamics shape social influence networks within school ecosystems. This study addresses this gap by examining how leadership structures social networks during educational reform, drawing on social network theory and a distributed…

Background/Context: Rural districts often struggle to provide organizational structures that support knowledge-building and sharing among educators, contributing to the challenge of change implementation in rural contexts. Although prior scholarship identifies social relationships centered on trust as important for fostering educator learning, we…

Drawing on theories of framing and social networks, we examine how educators define policy goals in a technology rollout, and how this framing process shapes teacher attitudes for technology. We analyzed social network data and 37 interviews with district leaders, digital learning coaches, and school staff from six elementary schools in a…

This study examines how teacher agency is being reconceptualized within emerging educational practitioner networks in Thailand, particularly the Kor Karn Kru community of practice. Through qualitative research involving 20 participants, including in-depth interviews, field observations, and focus group discussions, the study explores how new forms…

The purpose of this research was to explore the construct of teacher influence and consider it in the context of transformational leadership. Furthermore, it also investigates how to more broadly define teacher leadership liberating it from its reliance on specific district/school-assigned roles to include the belief that all teachers are capable…

In this manuscript, we discuss how we, four women scholar-practitioners of color (WSPoC), utilize their cultural intuition (CI) to navigate the work place and academia in the context of our professional roles situated within STEM-M (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics-Medicine) K-16 setting. We collectively shared our…

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), a reform effort "for states, by states," advances ambitious ideals for elementary science teaching, but the fate of these ideals will depend in part on the engagement of state science coordinators (SSCs). This article explores the responses of SSCs to NGSS in a purposeful sample of 18 US…

This study aims to examine the mediating role of professional learning on change in teacher practice through the proactive personality and network intentionality. This research also seeks to better comprehend and capture the antecedences and consequences of the network intentions. 438 primary school teacher from 24 schools participated in the…

Theory and empirical work suggest that teachers' social capital influences school improvement efforts. Social ties are prerequisite for social capital, yet little causal evidence exists on how malleable factors, such as instructional management approaches, affect teachers' ties. In this cluster-randomized trial, we apply a decision-making…

Amid soaring rates of teacher burnout and attrition, those at City Year are finding a trend that may seem surprising: Participants in their Network for School Improvement, when asked how likely they would be to recommend the network to other colleagues, have given an average rating of 9 out of 10. The authors have found that six key principles can…

Implementing inclusive education requires on-going commitment to teachers' professional learning. One way of implementing professional learning is to develop learning communities based on Lave and Wenger's ideas of situated learning and learning as social practice. Learning communities, drawing on models of Professional Learning Communities and…

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led to enormous societal changes worldwide and touched many different areas of daily life. One of the most serious restrictions to contain the pandemic was the closure of schools and kindergartens. Particularly in countries with comparatively low levels of digitalization in schools, this situation opened up…

The purpose of this multiple case study was to examine the practices and perspectives of four music teachers who integrated popular music and informal music learning practices into their secondary school music programs in the United States. A primary goal was to understand music teachers' process of enacting change. Data included 16…

This qualitative case study used General Systems Theory and social network analysis to explore the relationships between the members of a district central office and principals of elementary schools within an urban school district in the Midwest. Findings revealed sparse relationships between members of the district central office and principals,…

Crises have a way of shaking up the status quo and creating space for new thinking. When shocked out of their familiarity, people start to ask questions as to why things are the way that they are and brainstorm ways to make them better. Enter entrepreneurs. They are the people who take those ideas that are lying around and attempt to create…