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A Study Of The Generation Of School Social Capital

Posted on:2011-03-29Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:S J SunFull Text:PDF
GTID:1117360302497308Subject:Principles of Education
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Following the theories of physical capital and human capital, the theory of social capital also serves as a theoretical system and analytical framework used for explaining economic and social development. Because of its integration of three disciplines, namely, cultural anthropology, sociology and economics, the theory of social capital has been widely applied in the fields of sociology, economics, management, politics and pedagogy, and has gained strong explanatory power in terms of the development of nations and enterprises, employment, landing of jobs and promotion. Since its introduction into China in the mid-1990s, the theory has had an extensive and far-reaching effect for the following three reasons:China's long established cultural tradition of "Relation (Guanxi) Orientation", the bulging value of social capital spurred by the ongoing social transformation since the reform and opening up in 1978, and social capital as theoretical guidance in the construction of harmonious society.With China's ongoing social transformation and the formation of the school-managing and-operating mechanism adjusted to the socialist market economy, the competition for resources to push the development of schools and for their sharper competitive edges is becoming increasingly fierce. Under such a context, schools have to attach great importance to the investment and generation of their social capital. Unfortunately, there is an imbalance among schools in terms of their stock of social capital and level of awareness of its exploitation, and there are also, on the part of some school administrators, problematic views about the cultivation and investment of social capital, plus their lack of a clear idea of how social capital is produced, hence a cry for the theoretical guidance on the generation of school social capital.The theory of social capital is relatively a new thing in explaining China's educational reform and development, plus its immaturity and complexity, so studies concerning the theory of school social capital and its application suffered in depth and comprehensiveness. The problems in these studies are:Some studies didn't approach the nature of social capital from the perspective of "social resources;" other studies limited their subjects to such school personnel as schoolmasters, teachers and students, lacking in the research of social capital on the school level; still other studies focused only on the relationship between school social capital and school development, failing to investigate how school social capital is generated. This dissertation, entitled "A Study of the Generation of School Social Capital", intends to make up for the inadequacy of the above studies, enhance school administrators'theoretical knowledge of the generation of social capital, and offer some guidance to the generation of school social capital.In carrying out the research and finally reaching the conclusion, the following has been done: Academic literature concerning social capital and school management was widely collected and read; questionnaires were given to 281 administrators of kindergartens, primary and secondary schools; and 10 schoolmasters and university presidents were interviewed. Based on theories of social capital and school management, this dissertation defines school social capital as the social capital possessed by schools as social actors, specifically speaking, the social resources that are generated from the social network where schools are in (automatically "in" and actively "involved in") and that can be invested and exploited by schools for the realization of their goals. This study holds that the generation of school social capital follows its own laws; or rather there exists a law regulating the relationship between the elements that affect the generation of school social capital. The elements determining the generation of school social capital are respectively a school's outlook on social resources, its social networks, social credibility and social status, and the intrinsic relationship among the four elements may be explained as follows:School social capital is in nature a kind of social resources embedded in a school's social network, and it is of irreplaceable value to a school's development; the first step for a school to take in generating school social capital is to set its value orientation for "occupying social resources" and form its "outlook on social resources," because such an outlook determines the construction of a school's social network and the gaining of its social credibility and social status. The second step for a school to take is to construct its social network because its social capital flows in its social network, or in other words, the latter is the circulation channel or carrier of the former. The social network of a school is formed through the mutual profit and trust between the school and the parties concerned, so its social credibility, the "adhesives" or "lubricants" in forming the network, may directly affect its social prestige and the will of those parties concerned to use their resources in support of the school's development, hence the third step in generating school social capital: gaining social credibility. The fourth step is to upgrade the social status of schools. A school's social status may include its wealth and power and its prestige in the social structure, and in generating school social capital, the wealth and power of a school may help the school carry out its missions, take its social responsibilities, participate in social exchanges and win mutual profit among schools and their benefit-related counterparts, whereas social prestige is a comprehensive index signifying the social status of a school in that it is the precondition as well as the element for the gaining of social credibility. The above-mentioned four elements determine the generation of school social capital, and the four steps described show the process of its generation and characteristics. The interplay and interaction between the four elements eventually forms the law that governs the generation of school social capital.The study is of both theoretical and practical value:Theoretically, in using the theory of social capital for revealing the generating rules of school social capital, the research expands the theory's field of application, and enriches, in the specified field, the theory of social capital and of its generation especially. Moreover, the paper, based on the milieus and social structure that schools are in, explores the generating rules of school social capital, discusses, from the theoretical perspective of action and structure, the routes and logic along which schools may develop and operate, and offers methodological guidance and a new research framework to school management. Practically, the exploration of the generating rules of school social capital may guide the actual generating process in that schools as social actors, by mastering and employing the rules, may defend their given social capital and strive for more. Besides, the research may enable schools as social actors to know school from the angle of social structure, to end their atomist epistemology and the resultant phenomenon of schools as "isolated islands", and to afford guidance to the construction of a "functional community" of education and to the obtaining of various kinds of resources needed.There are three creative points in the paper as follows:Firstly, the topic itself is creative in that the perspective-the generation of school social capital-from which the study is conducted is new in the research field of education. Secondly, the logical system used is creative:The paper strictly follows a logical line in summarizing the generation of school social capital, from "forming the awareness of social resource" to "constructing school social network," to "winning societal trust" and finally to "obtaining school social status", and it is new as compared with studies about the generation of social capital in enterprises and other social organizations. Lastly, the arguments raised are new:It is the first time that the relationship between the generation of school social capital and three factors about school-"the awareness of social resource," "social network of schools,""societal trust of schools"and "the social status of schools"-has been systematically discussed.
Keywords/Search Tags:School, Social Capital, Generation, Social Resource, Social Status, Social Network, Societal Trust
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