TY - JOUR
T1 - Access, Activation, and Influence
T2 - How Brokers Mediate Social Capital Among Professional Development Providers
AU - Morel, Richard Paquin
AU - Coburn, Cynthia
N1 - Funding Information:
Richard Paquin Morel’s work on this project was supported by the Multidisciplinary Program in Education Sciences, Institute for Education Science, U.S. Department of Education (Grant # R305B140042 to Northwestern University). We thank Jim Spillane and Ebony Bridwell-Mitchell for comments on an earlier draft of this work, as well as the valuable feedback from the anonymous reviewers. Special thanks to Rodney Ogawa, Betty Achinstein, and Rebecca Buchanan who helped with the conceptualization and data collection of the project from which the data for this article came. All opinions and conclusions in this article are solely those of the authors.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 AERA.
PY - 2019/4/1
Y1 - 2019/4/1
N2 - Professional development [PD] providers can shape how teachers understand and implement new policies. Yet we have a limited understanding of how providers develop the ideas they promote. We explore this by examining social capital among mathematics PD providers. Using social network and interview data, we identified providers in brokerage positions and analyze their interactions. We found that broker behavior varied by organizational setting. Brokers in school districts typically discussed logistical issues related to PD delivery, while brokers outside of districts often discussed substantive mathematical topics. When district brokers did access substantive information, they rarely shared it. We conclude that (1) the disconnect between accessing and sharing diminished district brokers’ ability to support PD in their districts and (2) the lack of substance diminished their ability to influence ideas about mathematics.
AB - Professional development [PD] providers can shape how teachers understand and implement new policies. Yet we have a limited understanding of how providers develop the ideas they promote. We explore this by examining social capital among mathematics PD providers. Using social network and interview data, we identified providers in brokerage positions and analyze their interactions. We found that broker behavior varied by organizational setting. Brokers in school districts typically discussed logistical issues related to PD delivery, while brokers outside of districts often discussed substantive mathematical topics. When district brokers did access substantive information, they rarely shared it. We conclude that (1) the disconnect between accessing and sharing diminished district brokers’ ability to support PD in their districts and (2) the lack of substance diminished their ability to influence ideas about mathematics.
KW - in-depth interviewing
KW - organizational theory
KW - professional development
KW - social capital
KW - social network analysis
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U2 - 10.3102/0002831218788528
DO - 10.3102/0002831218788528
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85052599965
SN - 0002-8312
VL - 56
SP - 247
EP - 288
JO - American Educational Research Journal
JF - American Educational Research Journal
IS - 2
ER -