As the higher education landscape has shifted and calls for change and improvements have grown louder, researchers have turned to empirical investigations of what makes change possible in higher education. Recent studies on the impact of informal interactions for promoting change have given impetus to social network analysis as an approach to…

Reference to teachers as agents of change has become commonplace in the education literature, including change toward more inclusive practice in response to the changing demographic of schooling. Yet, little is known about how teacher agency relates to (1) their understanding of, and commitment to any given change agenda and (2) the institutional…

Innovation in higher education teaching is essential to respond to global challenges and actively improve teaching (e.g. through new technologies), necessitating the implementation of educational reform programmes that fund educational innovations. Although currently deployed strategies frequently promote networks between innovators to diffuse…

This article discusses the potential of mixed-method social network analysis (MMSNA) as a methodology for designing and conducting studies that address questions of interplay between human agency and social structures in educational settings. First, we discuss a rationale for using MMSNA referring to the theoretical calls for better understanding…

One of the goals of China's 'Double First-class' initiative is to boost the top-notch disciplines in those next-to-top universities and allow their differentiated paths towards development. This study investigates Chinese universities' policy interpretations and strategic responses to this national initiative through a social network analysis of…

This research sought to understand how organizations have adapted to the evolving policy ecosystem to scale and sustain a justice-orientated approach to education reform. Using descriptive social network analysis to map the policy information network that formed around Community Schools, the authors identified the influential organizations in the…

The complex dynamical systems (CDS) approach consists of a family of theories emanating largely from the exact sciences. These theories share a common focus on the behavior of systems and their interrelated parts and are concerned with the processes of stability, change, and unpredictability in those systems. This article takes stock of the…

Purpose: This study addresses a gap in the knowledge on how longitudinal engagement in a school improvement initiative influences change in middle leaders' (MLs') interactions and assesses how school-university partnerships around school improvement can support teachers with formal leadership roles (i.e. MLs') leadership development.…

The New Education movement was a remarkable coalition of national reform movements that emerged at the turn of the twentieth century. As a heterogeneous movement that was united only in its opposition to the schooling system at the time, its structure and boundaries in the UK have remained a matter of academic debate. This article implements the…

Educational systems worldwide promote the use of collaborative networks to foster teacher learning and improve practice in the pursuit of educational change to address longstanding equity and achievement issues. New Zealand is no exception, with its Communities of Learning/Kahui Ako policy mandating collaboration spanning across schools--a mandate…

(IOs) are influential policy actors in higher education. Yet, little is known regarding the role of philanthropic foundations in sponsoring IOs for policy promotion. By relying on longitudinal analysis of grants, semi-structured interviews, and social network analysis, this study examined the most central IOs within foundation-sponsored networks,…

The OECD is a key player in global education policy advice and part of the edu-business network. This network comprises of companies, philanthropies, consulting agencies and think tanks profiting from educational governance reforms and large-scale testing. This article investigates the structure of the OECD global policy network and its capability…

Background: Change leaders (faculty, administrators, and/or external stakeholders) need to develop "relational expertise", recognizing the perspectives of others, to enable emergent, systemic change. We describe how change leaders of a grant-funded instructional change initiative developed relational expertise by analyzing faculty…

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…

Stakeholders are increasingly calling for improving instruction in STEM by building environments that enable faculty to sustainably change their teaching practices. This study reports one institutional change effort that effectively facilitated faculty's adoption of evidence-based instructional practices (EBIP), which is to organize faculty into…