Nienke Moolenaar
Nienke Moolenaar is a faculty member at the Department of Education at Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
Nienke earned her PhD (cum laude - with honor) in June 2010 at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on research on social networks in elementary school teams. Her dissertation has been awarded the 2010 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Award in the category Educational Leadership and Strategy.
In her dissertation, titled 'Ties with potential: Nature, antecedents, and consequences of social networks in school teams', Nienke focused on how social relationships among teachers matter for schools, in terms of innovation, trust, shared decision-making, and ultimately, student achievement. She conducted her research in 61 elementary schools in The Netherlands. She also replicated her study in the US in five elementary schools in the greater San Diego, CA area. During this period, Nienke was in residence at the University of California, San Diego, where she collaborated with Prof. Dr. Alan Daly.
From 2012 to 2014, Nienke worked at the University of California, San Diego on research funded by a Rubicon Award from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Her work focuses on the co-evolution of social networks and educational change. Drawing on complexity theory and literature on dynamic systems, and using longitudinal network modeling and multilevel modeling, her work aims to understand how educators' social networks change during educational reform and how this network change supports and constrains school improvement in terms of teachers' instructional practice and student achievement.
Supervisors: Peter J.C. Sleegers and Sjoerd Karsten
Phone: +31 6 24 24 57 59
Address: P.O.Box 80140
3508 TC Utrecht
The Netherlands
Nienke earned her PhD (cum laude - with honor) in June 2010 at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on research on social networks in elementary school teams. Her dissertation has been awarded the 2010 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Award in the category Educational Leadership and Strategy.
In her dissertation, titled 'Ties with potential: Nature, antecedents, and consequences of social networks in school teams', Nienke focused on how social relationships among teachers matter for schools, in terms of innovation, trust, shared decision-making, and ultimately, student achievement. She conducted her research in 61 elementary schools in The Netherlands. She also replicated her study in the US in five elementary schools in the greater San Diego, CA area. During this period, Nienke was in residence at the University of California, San Diego, where she collaborated with Prof. Dr. Alan Daly.
From 2012 to 2014, Nienke worked at the University of California, San Diego on research funded by a Rubicon Award from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Her work focuses on the co-evolution of social networks and educational change. Drawing on complexity theory and literature on dynamic systems, and using longitudinal network modeling and multilevel modeling, her work aims to understand how educators' social networks change during educational reform and how this network change supports and constrains school improvement in terms of teachers' instructional practice and student achievement.
Supervisors: Peter J.C. Sleegers and Sjoerd Karsten
Phone: +31 6 24 24 57 59
Address: P.O.Box 80140
3508 TC Utrecht
The Netherlands
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Publications by Nienke Moolenaar
The aim of the study was to examine the impact of social network structure on schools’ collective orientation towards innovation, as mediated by collective involvement in decision-making.
This article reports on a study among 775 educators in 53 elementary schools in a large educational system in the Netherlands.
A quantitative survey using Likert-type scales and social network questions on work-related and personal advice was analyzed using social network analysis and multiple regression analyses.
Findings indicated that the more densely connected teachers were in regard to work related and personal advice, the more they perceived their schools’ climate to be supportive of innovation. Highly dense work-related network structures also typified teams that perceived strong teacher involvement in decision-making. Moreover, results suggested that the positive relationship between density of work-related advice networks and innovation-supportive school climate could be partially explained by increased shared decision-making. Implications of the study for teachers, organizations, leadership, and policy are discussed.
Findings indicated that transformational leadership was positively associated with schools’ innovative climate. Principals’ social network position, in terms of centrality, was also related to schools’ innovative climate. The more principals were sought for professional and personal advice, and the more closely connected they were to their teachers, the more willing teachers were to invest in change and the creation of new knowledge and practices. Moreover, work related closeness centrality was found to mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and innovative climate. Implications of the study are discussed."
Using social network analysis, correlational and regression analysis, and an advanced social network technique, namely p2 modeling, we analyzed data collected among 708 educators in 46 Dutch elementary schools. We also offer a visualization of the district social network to explore principals’ relationships with other principals in the district.
Findings suggest that principals who occupy a central position in their school’s advice network are also more likely to occupy a central position in their district’s collaborative leadership network. Moreover, transformational leadership was found to affect the extent to which principals are central in both networks.
Our study is unique as it simultaneously explores principals’ social relationships in schools and the larger district. Moreover, we advance our knowledge of transformational leadership as a potential mechanism that may shape this pattern of social relationships, thereby connecting two streams of literature that were until now largely disconnected. Limitations to the study warrant further qualitative and longitudinal research on principals’ social relationships in schools, districts, and the larger community.
Purpose. The goal of this study was to increase our understanding of how network content shapes social network structure in elementary school teams. The study examines the extent to which various work-related (instrumental) and personal (expressive) social networks among educators are related. In addition, we explore a typology of social networks in schools and investigate whether the common distinction between instrumental and expressive social networks could be validated in the context of elementary school teams.
Method. Social network data were collected among 775 educators from 53 elementary schools in a large educational system in the Netherlands. The interrelatedness of seven social networks was assessed using the Quadratic Assignment Procedure (QAP) correlations. Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) was used to discern underlying dimensions that may explain the observed similarities. Finally, we describe and visualize the seven networks in an exemplary sample school.
Conclusions. Findings suggest small to moderate similarity between the social networks under study. Results support the distinction between instrumental and expressive networks in school teams and suggest a second dimension of mutual in(ter)dependence to explain differences in social relationships between educators.
Social networks change over time. In schools, social networks among teachers reflect a web of relationships through which teachers exchange valuable resources, such as instructional materials, information, knowledge, and social support. Availability of these resources, or a lack thereof, can support or hinder both teachers’ instructional practice and student achievement, especially in times of educational reform (for instance, the implementation of a new reading curriculum). However, empirical knowledge on social network change during educational reform and its association with educational outcomes is limited.
Drawing on complexity theory, and using a mixed method longitudinal design, this study aims to understand how teachers’ social networks change during educational reform and how this network change enhances school improvement in terms of teachers’ instructional practice and student achievement. Understanding the dynamics of social networks in the context of educational reform promises valuable insights for educational theory and practice as these networks may be leveraged to better create, use, and diffuse resources in support of school improvement.
This mixed-methods exploratory case study examined five schools within one underperforming school district as it enacted a system-wide reform. Quantitative survey data was collected to assess social networks and teacher work perception of five schools enacting the reform. Qualitative data was gathered through individual interviews from educators within representative grade levels as a way to better understand the diffusion and implementation of the reform.
Despite being enacted as a system wide reform effort, results suggests significant variance within and between schools in terms of reform-related social networks. These networks were significantly related to the uptake, depth, and spread of the change. Densely connected grade levels were also associated with more interactions focused on teaching and learning and an increased sense of grade level efficacy.
Our findings underline the importance of attending to relational linkages as a complementary strategy to the technical emphasis of reform efforts, as social networks were found to significantly facilitate or constrain reform efforts. We offer implications and recommendations for leadership, policy and practice that may support the design and implementation of reforms, that may ultimately increase student performance.
This study makes a unique contribution to the reform literature by drawing on social network theory as a way to understand efforts at reform. Our work suggests that the informal social linkages upon which reform is layered may support or constrain the depth of reform.
Keywords: Reform, Social Networks, Leadership, Collaboration, Change