Social Network Theory (SNT) is a way of understanding the purpose and practice of networking within and across organisations and into community and government sectors. SNT provides insight into how the social processes and outcomes involved in change are stretched across individuals and levels of a social system.
When we look at people and organisations via SNT, we can ‘map’ the connections between individuals in (and across) organisations to understand how they connect and communicate. For example, we might be interested in learning who shares resources, who teachers turn to for professional advice, or whom they turn to for certain types of expertise.
This approach reveals how an organisation is structured in practice, rather than how it looks in a traditional organisational diagram.
SNT in The Connection locates the influential actors throughout the system, regardless of their position or rank in an organisation. This enables school leaders to discover influential educators in their buildings and then support them to make a positive difference beyond the classroom and across the network.
SNT helps us understand how the individual influences the group and how the group influences the individual. The Connection shows that with proper experiences, training and support, leaders can influence day-to-day practices in their schools in a positive manner, leveraging what they have learned in program activities to improve classroom practice.
Evidence tells us that participants call on their Connection colleagues between sessions for advice and ideas, and that many schools have established ongoing partnerships around key issues. This shows the two-way benefit of involvement in The Connection – individuals grow and learn while providing the same to others throughout the multi-school network by sharing their own expertise.