Supporting mathematics instructional change through professional-development message networks

A year-long listserv following an inquiry-based mathematics workshop linked qualitative coding with SNA. Thirty-five participants and 11 facilitators exchanged 281 messages; question and follow-up patterns sustained discussion, and 47 percent of messages included a community-building function. Treating messages rather than people as nodes reveals how support unfolds through conversational sequences and shows which facilitation moves help a professional-learning community remain responsive.

Thirty-two of 35 participants posted, 81 percent of responses arrived within two days, follow-up messages revived older threads, and nearly half of all messages contained primary or ancillary community building. The study examined one workshop cohort and one closed listserv, excluded private conversations, relied on interpretive coding of response functions, and did not compare instructional or student outcomes with a control group. The network patterns describe support processes, not causal effects of professional development.