1. ECER 2016, Dublin
Examining Social Interactions, Dynamics and Friendship Networks of Students in Mainstream Schools
Christoforos Mamas
August 26th, 2016

2. Main Issues Addressed
Quantity and quality of peer relationships, particularly of students with identified disabilities.
Network structure and position of individual students/actors within a network.
Better understanding peer to peer friendships and social interactions at school may provide insight into learning, wellbeing and overall connectedness to the classroom and wider school.

3. Context - Pilot Study UK Devon, South West England 1 elementary school
2 grade 5 classrooms
USA
California
1 elementary school
2 grade 4 classrooms

4. Mixed Methods – Socionetnography.net
DATA COLLECTION
Social network questionnaire to students
Interviews with students
Interviews with teachers, principals, district leaders
DATA ANALYSIS
Social network analysis - network maps
Social network measures
Thematic analysis of interviews

5. Theory
Social Capital Theory
‘social relationships provide access to resources that can be exchanged, borrowed and leveraged to facilitate achieving goals’ (Moolenaar, Daly & Sleegers, 2012)
Social Network Theory
‘concerned with the pattern of social relationships that exists between people in a social network’ (Scott, 2013)

6. Social Network Analysis
Node, actor
Friendship tie
Reciprocated friendship tie
Direction of tie

7. Friendships – USA – Classroom 1
‘Please, check the names of as many classmates in the list (roster provided) below that are your friends’.
A friend is someone who is nice and loving to you; you don’t have to change; you can be who you are
Well in my opinion the reason that it’s important to have friends is because no one has to be lonely. And when you have friends they have your back when anyone is bullying you or something like that
Having no friends would make the class more boring, so I wouldn’t pay attention and then we would look at the clock till recess and not paying attention!
I really like it because um because like every time um when one of our friends is getting bullied ((breath in)) we- um like it’s good to have like someone who stand up for you
Blue circles/squares (21, 22, 14, 12, 5, 26): students with identified disabilities / Squares: boys -- Circles: girls

8. Recess – USA – Classroom 1
A friend means someone who plays with you at recess
Um sometimes like when I’m not having a good day I’ll play by myself or something
‘Check as many classmates in the list below that you play with during recess’.
When I’m feeling happy I’ll play with my friends but when I’m not feeling happy like I just got bullied or something happened with my family I don’t feel like playing with anyone.

9. Help – USA – Classroom 1
S: They um help you in like, they can lead you into stuff and that’s pretty much why I usually have friends.
I: They lead into stuff?
S: Lead you into like, help you read, learn and stuff.
I: Do you remember when a friend of yours helped you with something? Can you give me an example?
S: Umm it was in Math and it was a question that was hard and then she helped me in it.
I: Who did you ask for help?
S: M., the one right next to me.
‘If the teacher is not around who do you turn to for help on school work?’ `
I was stuck on a question and one of my friends helped me. Because we were 'Mathmyway' and we were partners.

10. Talk – USA – Classroom 1
If you are having a bad day who do you talk to?
Um I think if like um if you are like friend with someone like you can talk about more stuff to him and other so you can feel like more better

11. Initial student interview findings
Most friends are within the classroom
Gender differences, boys seem to exhibit more ‘aggressive’ behaviours
High importance of friendships: social, emotional, academic value
Students asked for more time to form friendships and get to know their classmates better
Stability of social relationships varies among students
Disability barely mentioned in interviews (USA) whereas in the UK students talked more about the behaviour of ASD classmates

12. References list Thank you - cmamas@ucsd.edu
Moolenaar, N. M., Daly, A. J., & Sleegers, P. J. C. (2012). Exploring patterns of interpersonal relationships among teachers: A social network perspective. In T. Wubbels, J. van Tartwijk, P. den Brok and J. Levy (Eds.), Interpersonal Relationships in Education. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: SENSE Publishers. pp
Scott, J. (2013). Social Network Analysis. 3rd edition. London: Sage.
Thank you -