Since social networks analysis in education offers valuable insights into social structures and social dynamics that shapes individuals behaviors and information storage and transmission, it has become a hot topic in educational science studies. The aim of this study is to examine the educational sciences studies conducted at higher education…

The paper provides an overview of the global research on graduate education. The study applied a combination of a bibliometric and social network analysis methods to bibliographic data from Thompson Reuters' Web of Science. More specifically, a keyword search approach was used to retrieve 2,454 articles on graduate education from 1996 until 2020.…

Background/Context: Social network methodology is particularly relevant to the types of social structures found in education research. The current study develops a finite mixture approach for clustering ensembles of networks (NetMix). Following a structural equation modeling framework, NetMix simultaneously estimates a measurement model comprised…

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…

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…

Mixed methods (MM) research is an emergent methodology that involves collecting, analyzing, and intentionally integrating qualitative and quantitative data in a study. MM is increasingly used by graduate students and scholars across contexts. These researchers? practices of MM research, however, have been found to be limited in the literature, and…

Social Network Analysis (SNA) is a promising yet underutilized tool in the international development field. SNA entails collecting and analyzing data to characterize and visualize social networks, where nodes represent network members and edges connecting nodes represent relationships or exchanges among them. SNA can help both researchers and…

Social network analysis (SNA) is becoming a prevalent method in education research and practice. But criticism has been voiced against the heavy reliance on quantification within SNA. Recent work suggests combining quantitative and qualitative approaches in SNA--mixed methods social network analysis (MMSNA)--as a remedy. MMSNA is helpful for…

This paper offers a detailed consideration of how the theoretical scope of the boundary object concept fits within an actor-network theory (ANT) sensibility when researching 'messy objects'. Messy objects are artefacts whose relational effects are inherently slippery and complex. As the aim of ANT is to show how non-human and human actors are…

The progressively global, neoliberal, privatised, and digital education environment poses new methodological challenges for educational researchers, prompting a need to innovate. It has been suggested, however, that better commentary and reflection on methodological innovation in education is required. This paper considers the benefits and…

This paper presents the Integrated Methodological Framework (IMF) which uses social network analysis (SNA) to structurally identify communities in higher education online learning (HEOL). Decades of research speaks for the value of community-based learning albeit in traditional, blended, or online environments. The communities of practice (CoP)…

Background/Context: Educators around the country are working individually and collectively to improve teaching and learning. Despite marked progress in some places driven by these improvement efforts, overall progress in the education field has been slow and outcomes remain highly variable. This is partly because the field is not organized to…

Social network analysis brings new perspectives to the study of social phenomena. Traditional sociological analysis is usually focused on the categorization of data. By contrast, social network analysis is focused on relations, aiming to describe the structure of relational ties. This case study will provide an example of the use of social network…

Networked learning and learning networks are commonplace concepts in most contemporary discourse on learning in the 21st century. This special issue provides a collection of studies that address the need for a growing body of empirical work to extent the limited understanding of the use and benefits of networks in relation to learning and…

An ecomap is a social work data collection tool that is used to gather data about a participant's environment. Derived from Bronfenbrenner's ecological system theory, the ecomap can be used in adult education and human resource development to record information of in-and-out-of-work and learning experiences and show how these interactions support…