Social media and home-school partnerships from the social exchange perspective: An ethnographic study on three chat groups in China

Cai, Liangliang

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/122212 Copy

Description

Title

Social media and home-school partnerships from the social exchange perspective: An ethnographic study on three chat groups in China

Author(s)

Cai, Liangliang

Issue Date

2023-11-10

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Herrera, Linda

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Herrera, Linda

Committee Member(s)

• Pak, Yoon
• Witt, Allison
• Lindgren , Robb

Department of Study

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

Home-school partnerships, Social exchange, parent-teacher relation, online ethnography

Abstract

Social media has become a dominant method commonly utilized for home-school communication in China. How such utilization may transform educational practices and relationships remains under scrutinized. This research explores how parents and teachers interact via social media and how social media as communication technology shapes home-school partnerships in China from the social exchange perspective. An ethnographic approach was employed to interrogate three social media chat groups selected from three public elementary schools with different socioeconomic backgrounds. Data were collected over five months using non-participant observation on group interactions and supplemented by interviews with seven teachers and 15 parents. Data were organized and coded with the content analysis method. Findings show that social media communication presented evident patterns of social exchange. Three types of intentions have steered social media communication: seeking support, offering support, and building emotional connections. Parents and teachers interacted following three modes: request-respond, provide-select, and share-engage. The request-response mode involved teachers asking for support/resources from parents. The provide-select mode occurred when parents turned to teachers for support/resources. The two combined were a process of resource/support exchange. The exchanges produced two primary outcomes: enhancing the interdependent and reciprocal relationships between parents and teachers and sustaining home-school interactions. Social media influenced the exchange processes in four dimensions: the norm, the form, the exchange networks, and the power relation. (1) Norm. The uncertainties of the communication environment prioritized efficiency as a dominant norm for guiding home-school communication. The efficiency norm elevated the frequency and range of home-school exchanges while neglecting other transformative values of partnerships. (2) Form. Social media promoted productive exchange, which built reciprocal relations between individuals and the group. Productive exchange contributed to community building among parents and teachers. (3) Network. Social media fostered the building, expansion, and functioning of supportive exchange networks for schools and families by expanding the pool of external partners, elevating the capacity of network-building, and widening the channel of resource transmission. (4) Power relation. Social media reproduced the teacher-centered relation frame for home-school exchanges online by increasing parents’ dependency on teachers, amplifying teachers’ exchange resources, and decreasing teachers’ dependency on parents. Findings suggest: (1) the social exchange model of home-school partnerships has great potential for examining the sustainability of home-school partnerships; (2) interdependency, reciprocity, and power balance are useful indications for sustainable home-school partnerships. (3) Collective interactions promote community building among parents and teachers. (4) Access to educational resources and networks is the key to empowering parents. (5) Social media provides opportunities to empower underserved schools in disadvantaged communities.

Graduation Semester

2023-12

Type of Resource

Thesis

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/122212

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2023 Liangliang Cai

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