Making Sense of Teachers Communities of Practice with Social and Epistemic Network Analysis

About Making Sense of Teachers Communities of Practice

Making SENse of Teachers' Communities of Practice with Social and Epistemic Network Analysis is a PhD project conducted by Barbara Dzieciatko at the University of Edinburgh, funded by the ESRC (Interdisciplinary steer), supervised by Dr Nataša Pantić (lead, Education), Professor Dragan Gašević (Informatics) and Dr Gil Viry (Sociology).

The project uses Social and Epistemic Networks (SEN) to understand change mechanisms in social practices by analysing teachers’ Communities of Practice (CoPs) as social networks that shape and are shaped by their sense-making processes. Communities of Practice – a form of collaboration characterised by shared purposes and mutual support – can make a difference in teachers’ practices and students’ learning. But how do teachers build such communities in the first place?

About TRAC tool

The Log for Teacher Reflection on their Agency for Change (TRAC) is designed to help teachers reflect on how they use their social networks of colleagues, families or other professionals to make a difference in their school.

The log can be used in individual and whole-school professional development as well as in research and professional inquiry projects.

The log is particularly well suited for collaborative projects designed and implemented together by schools and researchers. Schools can receive research-based feedback for their school development, while enhancing our knowledge about teachers’ collective agency for change. If you would like to discuss a collaborative project for your school, please email Natasa.Pantic@ed.ac.uk