Aziz Awaludin, Xinyu Guan

Exploring Partnership Evolution in Support of Systems Change towards Equity-

Centered Leadership

A Mixed-Methods Social Network Analysis

April 12, 2024

Outline

Introduction

Conceptual Background

Methods

Findings

References

INTRODUCTION

• The research aims to understand the partnership dynamics between school district leaders and stakeholders in fostering equity-centered school leadership preparation.
• Multi- and inter-organizational partnerships are crucial for successful educational reform, with collaboration and interconnected communities of practice being emphasized (Stoll & Louis, 2007).
• Establishing partnerships offers benefits such as increased resources, more effective professional growth interventions, and reciprocal institutional improvement (Darling-Hammond et al., 2007).
• Access to relational resources beyond the school community is essential for educational leaders to cultivate social capital and avoid organizational seclusion and limited innovation (Fleming et al., 2007).

• Research indicates that school districts often exhibit closed, reciprocated relations within specific work locales, hindering collaboration with school site personnel for improvement efforts (Daly & Finnigan, 2011).
• Boosting intergroup sharing within school districts can enhance performance through augmented social capital and collaborative energy (Daly & Finnigan, 2011).
• Equity is embedded in relationships, emphasizing the importance of varied social capitals in addressing social injustice and promoting equity-centered improvement agendas (Irby, 2022).
• Creating strategic opportunities for interaction across roles and levels within districts and establishing formal roles for facilitating cross-boundary communications are recommended practices for fostering equity (Hatch et al., 2020).

The present study seeks to investigate the process of establishing a shared focus and coordinated effort on equity-centered principal pipelines among educational leaders in one district context: Central School District (CSD).

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We posed the following research questions (RQs):

• RQ1. What is the role of partnership in enhancing a district-wide equity-centered principal pipeline?
• RQ2. What barriers and dynamics exist within district social networks that might influence the effectiveness of partnership over time?

CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND

• As we focus my attention on the role of social ties and formal networks in implementing equity-centered school principal pipelines, we utilize a broad network conceptual lens to frame this work.
• We begin this line of inquiry by discussing the link between partnership and effective school principal pipelines.
• We then ground our work in social capital theories to further delineate the relational ties within organizations and how these are understood in the literature.
• Furthermore, we discuss social network theory, including both the ties and structure of networks within an organization as well as the research base related to the evolution of network relations.
• Finally, we explain how networked communities can facilitate relational equity.

METHODS

Regarding qualitative data, interviews and key documents (such as district applications to the ECPI, logic model documents, strategic plans, interim reports, and regular meeting notes) were utilized, as Year 1 and Year 2 district reports from each school district.

Data Collection

Qualitative

Longitudinal relational data from two social network survey administrations conducted in springs 2022 and 2023 were utilized, with a deliberate focus on comparing two selected District Partnership Teams (DPTs) of the ECPI, namely Central School District (CSD) and Upper Public Schools (UPS).

Quantitative

Central School District DPT Actor Proportion by Role (n = 144)

For analyzing the transcripts and documents, we employed a thematic analysis method (Glaser & Strauss, 2017), with two phases of coding: initially assigning the "partnership" code to segment the texts, followed by segregating the coded "partnership" segments into two sub-codes derived from the two RQs.

Data Analysis

Qualitative

We used degree centrality (Freeman et al., 1991) and t-tests to compare network evolution over time, while also employing Stochastic Actor-Oriented Model (SAOM) analysis (Snijder et al., 2010) to explore network dynamics, addressing research questions on partnership network growth and structure.

Quantitative

FINDINGS #1

1. What is the role of partnership in enhancing a district-wide equity-centered principal pipeline?

The Central School District's foundational mission emphasizes the importance of collaborative efforts to improve educational outcomes. This is encapsulated in their ambition to "Build and sustain productive partnerships with public and private sectors to promote school improvement and student learning." This statement underscores the district's belief in leveraging community partnerships as a vital strategy for educational enhancement, reflecting a broad vision that extends beyond the confines of the classroom (CSD Year 1 Workplan, 2021).

1. What is the role of partnership in enhancing a district-wide equity-centered principal pipeline?

Promoting School Improvement

The district's initiative to deepen relationships with local higher education institutions is driven by a shared commitment to address systemic inequities. "We are eager to deepen our partnerships with two local higher education partners as part of our leadership pipeline... Like CSD, these higher education partners struggle to consistently translate their stated racial equity policies and goals into practice... We are eager to partner to address collective challenges across our systems." This approach not only acknowledges the challenges in translating policy into practice but also highlights a proactive stance towards fostering racial equity and social justice through collaborative efforts (CSD ECPI Application Document, 2021).

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1. What is the role of partnership in enhancing a district-wide equity-centered principal pipeline?

Translating Policy and Goal into Practice

Furthermore, the effort to create a unified vision and identity is articulated as an effort to "Articulate effective working norms and equity-rooted agreements to establish a collective identity as a core partnership team (District, University, State)." These efforts are complemented by the organization of core teams that engage in regular planning and refinement of practices, indicative of a structured yet flexible approach to achieving systemic change (CSD Year 1 Workplan, 2021; CSD ECPI Application Document, 2021).

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1. What is the role of partnership in enhancing a district-wide equity-centered principal pipeline?

Establishing Identity

Social Network Graphs

1. What is the role of partnership in enhancing a district-wide equity-centered principal pipeline?

Social Network Evolution

T1 - CSD Network

T2 - CSD Network

The district's network became denser and more influential (degree centrality) significantly from T1 to T2, as shown by a p-value of 0.01288.

1. What is the role of partnership in enhancing a district-wide equity-centered principal pipeline?

Social Network Evolution (cont'd …)

2. What barriers and dynamics exist within district social networks that might influence the effectiveness of partnership over time?

FINDINGS #2

The Central School District (CSD) has encountered significant obstacles in engaging community partners effectively, primarily due to bureaucratic inertia and difficulties in establishing trust. This is highlighted by the struggle to "get the right people at the table" and the initial engagement issues where "community partners who were there weren't sure the work they were doing was important, and they weren't sure what they were there to do. New community partners didn't feel comfortable" (CSD Logic Model, 2022; CSD PLC Meeting Notes, 2022). These challenges underscore the critical need for meaningful participation and the integration of equity into partnership frameworks.

2. What barriers and dynamics exist within district social networks that might influence the effectiveness of partnership over time?

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Bureaucratic Inertia and Trust Building

Entrenched mental models present significant barriers to systemic change, particularly in integrating racial equity, social justice, and community partnerships into the district's operations. The CSD aims to challenge prevailing beliefs that "equity, social justice, and family partnerships are separate from and not essential to achieving academic excellence for all students" and that "community partners are incapable or unwilling to contribute input on educational leadership" (CSD Community Engagement Document, 2023). Overcoming these mental models is crucial for fostering inclusive and equitable educational environments.

2. What barriers and dynamics exist within district social networks that might influence the effectiveness of partnership over time?

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Deficit Perspectives

Stochastic Actor-Oriented Model (SAOM) Results

2. What barriers and dynamics exist within district social networks that might influence the effectiveness of partnership over time?

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Network Dynamics

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* p <0.05; ** p <0.01; *** p <0.001 | Overall convergence ratio: 0.1862 (threshold: 0.25)

The Stochastic Actor-Oriented Model (SAOM) analysis reveals that despite high rates of tie formation within the CSD, the network suffers from sparse structures and a strong preference for homophily, indicating siloed interactions. "What I realized was that a key piece that was missing and all of those efforts that we had been participated in the past, and which we had some success in was the partnership aspect … is that [our university is] not entirely but for the most part, was engaged in this equity work in a silo." (CSD University Partner Interview, 2022)

2. What barriers and dynamics exist within district social networks that might influence the effectiveness of partnership over time?

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Sparse Network and Siloed Interactions

Stochastic Actor-Oriented Model (SAOM) Results

2. What barriers and dynamics exist within district social networks that might influence the effectiveness of partnership over time?

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Network Dynamics

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* p <0.05; ** p <0.01; *** p <0.001 | Overall convergence ratio: 0.1862 (threshold: 0.25)

The significant reciprocity effect within the CSD network suggests a high tendency for mutual ties, emphasizing the value of reciprocal relationships for support and resource sharing, especially in addressing equity and racism. This is further supported by the strategic focus on creating communication and interaction plans that center on "transparency, reciprocity, and continuous improvement." "[In this state], if you go across most parts of the state, there is a lot of racism. So, a lot of those networks is formed. It's partially for mutual support, as well as it is being able to provide and share those best resources" (CSD State Partner Interview, 2022; CSD plan documents).

2. What barriers and dynamics exist within district social networks that might influence the effectiveness of partnership over time?

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The Importance of Reciprocity

Appendix: SAOM Goodness of Fit

CALL for Equity Centered Leadership

www.call-ecl.org

call-ecl@wcer.wisc.edu

Research Team Authors

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Aziz Awaludin

Xinyu Guan

Richard Halverson

Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership Learning/Equity-Centered Leadership. Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership Learning/Equity-Centered Leadership. https://call-ecl.wceruw.org/

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References

2. What barriers and dynamics exist within district social networks that might influence the effectiveness of partnership over time?

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Reciprocity, Transitive Triplets, and Three-Cycles

reciprocity

a) transitive triplets

b) three-cycles