Social Capital and Social Networks

1 Course Unit

Schools are key organizational contexts in which students, teachers, and parents develop relationships with one another. Drawing on conceptualizations of social relations as a resource (i.e., social capital), a rich scholarship identifies the advantages of school-based relationships — from channeling information and advice to encouraging involvement, from providing emotional support to creating opportunities to socialize. The scholarship on social capital illuminates how the architecture of social networks and actors’ locations within these networks have significant consequences. This graduate seminar offers both an introduction to theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding school-based social structures. Summer Term 1 Course Unit