Mapping the community school policy network using Twitter data and social network analysis

Abstract

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 network and described key characteristics of its structure. They drew from Twitter data and related media articles over a five-year period to categorize the actors engaged in the Community School information network and map its geographic distribution across the United States. The findings depict a broad, multi-state network focused on promoting a proactive, positive policy agenda that differed substantially from those described in extant studies of resource networks that advance neoliberal education reforms. The authors close by discussing Twitter as a policy platform and how community-based coalitions can influence education politics and policy.