Examination of variables used in educational administration research with social network analysis: a study in the context of Turkey

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to ensure that the existing situation of the field of educational administration is understood, to display the focal points, frameworks and popularity of studies, to shed light to future studies and to guide those who want to conduct study in the field. In line with this purpose, it is aimed in this study to examine with social network analysis the variables in the scope of doctoral dissertations in the field of educational administration in Turkey. The data consist of doctoral dissertations published in Turkey in the field of educational administration between 1998 and 2021. In collecting the data, a contiguity matrix created by the researchers and a review form containing other information about the dissertations were used. In the analysis of the data, descriptive statistics were employed together with the social network analysis method. As a result of the research, it was determined that there are 147 different variables and 538 links in the network. It was concluded that the network is generally divided into three parts; network density is low; the level of association of the variables with each other is low; the well-known and more common variables in the literature tend to be studied together with similar variables; the variables of managerial leadership, organizational commitment, organizational culture, managerial competency, teacher performance, organizational justice, organizational learning, teacher efficacy, and managerial behavior were the most discussed variables, but among these, the “managerial leadership” was the most central variable in the network. Keywords: Educational administration, educational administration research, social network analysis.