TY - BOOK

T1 - Exploring social networks of municipal science education stakeholders in Danish Science Municipalities

AU - von der Fehr, Ane

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - Science education development is a field of many interests and a key interest is recruitment ofstudents who wish to pursue an education in science. This is an urgent societal demand in Denmarkas well as internationally, since highly skilled science graduates are needed for the continuousdevelopment in the science and technology industry. Therefore, much effort has been invested toimprove science education. The importance of school external stakeholders in development ofeducation has been an increasingly emphasised, also in the field of science education. This has ledto a growing focus on how conditions and structures in municipalities affect the development.Projects aiming at the municipal arena have thus been initiated and the Danish Science MunicipalityProject (SM project) was such a project. Part of the SM project was to create networks connectingdifferent municipal stakeholder involved in science education development. These municipalscience education networks (MSE networks) were identified as important for development ofscience education in the SM project. Therefore, it was a key interest to explore these networks inorder to investigate how the central stakeholders affected development of science education. By useof social network analysis (SNA), four MSE networks were approached empirically, and themunicipal stakeholders and the relationships connecting them were mapped. The centralstakeholders were identified based on quantitative network data. Through qualitative interviews itwas possible to explore how they affected the development. The analysis showed that theirpositions in the MSE networks enabled them to actualise resources among relevant stakeholders foruse in science education development and in this way they contributed to social capital in MSEnetworks. This insight highlights the potentials embedded in MSE networks and the importance ofsupporting central stakeholders to enable actualisation of resources in these networks in order tofacilitate development of science education in municipalities.

AB - Science education development is a field of many interests and a key interest is recruitment ofstudents who wish to pursue an education in science. This is an urgent societal demand in Denmarkas well as internationally, since highly skilled science graduates are needed for the continuousdevelopment in the science and technology industry. Therefore, much effort has been invested toimprove science education. The importance of school external stakeholders in development ofeducation has been an increasingly emphasised, also in the field of science education. This has ledto a growing focus on how conditions and structures in municipalities affect the development.Projects aiming at the municipal arena have thus been initiated and the Danish Science MunicipalityProject (SM project) was such a project. Part of the SM project was to create networks connectingdifferent municipal stakeholder involved in science education development. These municipalscience education networks (MSE networks) were identified as important for development ofscience education in the SM project. Therefore, it was a key interest to explore these networks inorder to investigate how the central stakeholders affected development of science education. By useof social network analysis (SNA), four MSE networks were approached empirically, and themunicipal stakeholders and the relationships connecting them were mapped. The centralstakeholders were identified based on quantitative network data. Through qualitative interviews itwas possible to explore how they affected the development. The analysis showed that theirpositions in the MSE networks enabled them to actualise resources among relevant stakeholders foruse in science education development and in this way they contributed to social capital in MSEnetworks. This insight highlights the potentials embedded in MSE networks and the importance ofsupporting central stakeholders to enable actualisation of resources in these networks in order tofacilitate development of science education in municipalities.

UR - https://soeg.kb.dk/permalink/45KBDK_KGL/fbp0ps/alma99122734782805763

M3 - Ph.D. thesis

BT - Exploring social networks of municipal science education stakeholders in Danish Science Municipalities

PB - Department of Science Education, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen

ER -