Abstract: In this talk I will discuss how to apply the network theory rooted in complex systems to school-wide friendship in the education domain. The problem addressed in this research is about to know an extent to which sustainable school-wide friendship exists in a school. Drawing on theory of network, I will focus on bestfriendships that may contribute to positive school experience or school belonging in the context of school-wide interactions. I will emphasize that school-wide unity is essential to refer to shared perceived friendship experience at the school level. The basic trust of our research is that managers should consider interconnectedness as a complex system of entangled interactions among students. We investigate best friendship network on the meso-to-macro scale. Particular attention is paid to the network phenomena of the largest component and network correlations for examining school-wide unity. The results show that abundance of asymmetric friendships leads to unity around school wide interactions. As suggested by network theory, popular students’ tendency to avoid forming closed clusters assures sustainability in school-wide friendships, and having same gender type or being classmates correlate highly with the choice of best friends, in contrast to achievement scores. Metadata correlations reveal same-gender and same-class clubs. Incorporating meso level findings into macro level indicates that some metadata (e.g. gender) may be considered as salient characteristics of the communities while other metadata (e.g. achievement scores) may be irrelevant.

Speaker Biography: Mehmet N. Aydin, as Associate Professor of MIS at Faculty of Management, Kadir Has University, has provided organizations with proven expertise in the emerging field of Network Science, Data and Technology Management, Corporate Innovations Systems. He holds PhD in Information Systems from University of Twente, The Netherlands. Dr. Aydin worked at the Institute for Innovation and Technology Management, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada and at the Department of Information Systems and Change Management at the University of Twente, the Netherlands.

He has published over 50 articles as journal papers (e.g. Information Systems Frontiers, Computers&Education, Journal of Enterprise Management, Journal of Database Management), book chapters (e.g., Springer series on Lecture Notes in Computer Science). His contribution to the research field of information and method engineering is laudable and cited in various studies. Dr. Aydin experienced with various roles (project leader, lead scientist, academic coordinator) has participated in various research and development projects supported by parties including industry, university, and government. He can be reached at [email protected]

Webpage: https://mgmt.khas.edu.tr/tr/academic/2361

https://scholar.google.com.tr/citations?user=CUcdxlgAAAAJ&hl=tr