Social capital

SOCIAL CAPITAL IN SCHOOLS

Group discussion.

Platform: The National UN Volunteers

Moderator: Mrs. Sima J Singh

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• Pooma: There is something in life called "Social Capital." 

The people you know; the  people who know you and how they know you.

• Mr. Nahid Raza: First we need to form ourselves as capital, establish it and serve it.

• Mrs. Sima Singh: Relationships with our students and parents in school .

Pooma: Quite unfortunately, people think or behave like social capital is only needed on weddings, family or social gatherings and burials....

That is why you see someone will not have contacted you in ten years but out of the blue they are sending you a message, "Hello so and so, long time. I was unable to connect

you....etc....behind that there must be a purpose to connect you or to get from a support at their need now.

• Mrs. Sima Singh: Need to engage students and parents in unstructured cocurricular activities

• Pooma: Social capital is not built overnight; it is reciprocal and does not need money (especially in this virtually connected world) to build. 

It just needs being sensitive that people have emotions and that you can't sneak into their lives only when you need help.

• Mrs. Sima Singh: Social media is a powerful tool in connecting ...if used constructively

• Pooma: Social capital is massively important and when built and used correctly, it can make a very big difference to one's quality of life. 

It can save you money, make you money, get you a better job, make things easier and safer, it can save you from prison, or save your life: it can save you time and effort, and make life more enjoyable and productive.

• Pooma: As we progress through the year, please learn to connect with people in your circles.

Check on people, send someone a birthday message, check their timelines and comment something positive and inspirational. 

Pick your phone and call someone, or text them. 

It could be your relative, your colleague, your former schoolmate, a former or current boss, your CEO, your parents etc.

Creating a connection with people is important for building your social capital. 

And even if they don't respond, at least keep in touch and don't just reach out when you are in need.

Most importantly, respect everyone no matter their status in life and be there when others need you.

Be a solution, an encouragement and inspiration.

Avoid being a leech, a user or nagger. Just be a nice person who in a calculated way stays in touch with people and brings joy, encouragement and hope.

The most important asset you have in life is not your job, money or title; its people. 

Your network is your networth!

Have you seen some of our used to fail to pick up calls or avoid responding calls made by us.

In true sense, they are missing massively their  calls and not other calls. Because the call is made for them and it does belong to them. This way they miss their capital. Similar is in our schools, classrooms........

Let's see to it one by one.

Will be interesting...please

• Mr. Nahid Raza: Social capital formation must be attached with vision and mission of school. The question arises here is HOW.

• Pooma: Social capital in schools

1. Types of capital in schools:

In schools, there are three clear types of capital. 

• The first is physical capital and this is what you can see and touch. It comprises the buildings, the books and all the equipment and materials needed to deliver a broad and balanced curriculum. 

The quality of the physical capital of a school is evident when we are shown the gym, the laboratories and the library.  

• The knowledge and skills of the teaching and administrative staff comprises the human capital.  

You can’t see this directly but you certainly know its there!  

It is the central focus for appointing new staff.  How much do they know and how well can they deliver? 

• But You can’t see social capital directly either but it is as important as the other two in the development of a high quality learning environment. 

Social capital is a valuable resource that would develop when individuals connected to others in meaningful ways. 

When this invisible social capital is lost in a society, it cannot provide the environment and education necessary to bring out the best in any individual. 

So the corner stone of any functions that involves human relationships is the social capital.

• Dr. M Ramachandran: Dear All, greetings and best wishes. School infrastructure is the hardware but its software components are quality of life at schools not only for pupils but even for teachers and non teachers. Best industrial relations is another factor. The value systems, vision and mission statements and its implementation in day to day life etc are some of the other factors. The satisfaction drawn by all stakeholders of the school system is another aspect. Finally, everything depends on the happiness curriculum. All Delhi schools in India has introduced happiness curriculum as a non- examinable discipline.

If children are happy, rest of the stakeholders are happy which will ultimately lead towards a happy society.

• Pooma: Therefore, A simple definition of social capital in schools is the relational quality between all stakeholders. 

It is what happens between teachers and students, between peer groups in both the classroom and staffroom, in the interactions between executive and staff and communications between the school and the family.

Most experienced teachers know exactly what does we mean about toxic environment of this kimd and how it makes people feel.  

It is illustrated by colleagues bad-mouthing each other, favouritism and cliques, bullying behaviours going unchecked, jumping to negative conclusions about intentions, lack of acknowledgement of effort, domination by the loudest voices and public put-downs....etc.... So Social capital is, in a nutshell, the opposite of a toxic environment, the environment which breaks the bond of human relationships.

Where social capital is high the atmosphere is positive as it generates good feelings about the self and others, it promotes motivation and commitment; collaboration flourishes and mutually agreed goals are more likely to be attained.  

Feeling good nature is nurtured if social capital is attained.

Being a school leader,  how do you raise social capital in your school? 

• Social capital requires high levels of emotional literacy and this again needs to start with school leaders - those who walk the talk by showing they can stay calm in a crisis.

• keep a sense of perspective - and a sense of humour - are good listeners and collaborators and explore issues before making judgments and decisions.

• Being able to admit mistakes gives permission to both teachers and students to do the same - and this opens doors to learning - something not. Another aspect of it is,

Social capital gives everyone a voice - facilitating authentic consultation on issues that affect everyone in rge organization/society...

Conflict is inevitable when people have different perspectives but how this is handled is critical.  

Both young people and staff in schools need to know how to be appropriately assertive and maintain a respectful approach when faced with challenges.

• Ms. Leena Rai: Social capital is itself to be earned yes first by the leader of the school the so called principal.

How that individual presents himself or herself counts a lot in the society of the school to which every single individual is linked the student the parent the staff the administration the outer world clients or  the outsources.

It is actually a trick to create that persona for everyone as feel good factor with your presence and always ready to be the solution provider and to be the part of problems with their rightful actions till the satisfaction

• Pooma: Social capital cannot be visualised as if changes in physical structures or changes in computer programmings.....

It is there in the expressions on people’s faces, in the way they talk to each other, in the sounds of laughter and the willingness to be flexible.  

It is not so much in the policy documents but in the acknowledgements, the sharing and the celebration.

• Ms. Leena Rai: The team leader is to be the leader and not the boss but a person who exemplifies as a mediator to let the toxins be released out of the campus without affecting the basic threads of strength and quality and personifies himself or herself as the biggest example

• Mr. Nahid Raza: It is soft skill. It connects people. It generates social web. It emanates empathy, servitude. It develops cooperation. It turns staff into team. It pens purpose of togetherness.

• Pooma: Why do we need social capital in schools? 

Is a happy school environment or school with rich social capital improve standard of the school?

If you feel to say Yes, you are wrong please. The reason why is.....

• Mr. Nahid Raza: Because we are social being. We live in society. We need each other. It provides happiness. It minimizes sadness. It provides energy.

• Mrs.Buvana: EQ ,KQ more important than IQ for social capital.....other point of view more important and listen first as a leader

• Mr. Nahid Raza: Listening is respecting. Responding is winning.

• Mrs. Buvana: After listening than response

• Mr. Nahid Raza: We work in team 50% more today than we did 5 decades ago.

• Mrs. Buvana: Taking credit along with team is a social capital.... accepting their mistake as yours......to build their confident. Ignoring mistakes also

• Dr Sekar Seenivasan: Social capital is the base line benchmark for the progressive institution. It literally combines the ethical values bonding the stakeholders of the institution. In a way not only the parents/teachers and the society, but also the contributions of alumini takes remarkable role in this. To strengthen these alumini act like brand ambassadors. We consider IIMs IITs and IISC as top ranking institutions since their social capital expansion is universal. These observations are more valuable in the days of changing structure where interaction of school administration from principal to highest level.

• Pooma: Need of social capital in schools:

Social capital in schools support to have all other capitals as said earlier posts.

Social capital creates physical capital, financial capital, resource capital,  good administration, peaceful environment......

Therefore, we can conclude that "Strong relationships between teachers, parents and students at schools has more impact on improving student learning than does financial support, new research shows."

Social capital is the root cause of successful business in schools.

Failure of school is not due to crisis in administration, finance, employees or employers. It is due to the crisis in social capital. It brings all capitals in the schools.

Your network is net worth. Social capital is the name scientists give to the network of relationships between school officials, teachers, parents and the community that builds trust and norms promoting academic achievement. When we talk about why some schools perform better than others, differences in the amount of money they have to spend is often assumed to be an explanation. But this is not true.

Of course, we found that money is certainly important. But this study also shows that social capital deserves a larger role in our thinking about cost-effective ways to support students, especially the most vulnerable. 

Research results showed that on average schools that spent more money did have better test scores than those that spent less.

But the effect of social capital was three times larger than financial capital. The study also found that the money spent on student learning was not associated with levels of social capital in schools.

That means schools can't "buy" social capital just by spending more money. Social relationships require a different kind of investment.

Now, let's think about how to generate social capital in schools?

• One point is for schools to generate social capital is to do more to help teachers work together.

• Research shows that the more teachers collaborate, the more they work together on instructional improvement, the higher the test scores of their students. 

That's because collaborative work builds social capital that provides students with access to valuable support.

• Building connections to the community is important, too. 

School-based mentoring programs that connect children to adults in the community is one idea.

• Sustained interactions over time focused on children's learning and effective teaching practice are the best way for people to build trust and build networks that are at the heart of social capital.

Ameen. Thanks for reading and helping us to get to know about a thing which is lesser known to us with some sort of solutions.

• Mrs. Sunita Yadav: Yes, because we get to interact, share our opinions, and learn as well from others too.

 

• Mrs. Buvana:  It relates to social relationships and social structures. It involves people knowing each other and having positive relationships based on trust, respect, kindness, and reciprocity. Above all life skills to be taught....

• Pooma: The creation of sound school-family-community partnerships is being widely acknowledged as it strengthens school programs, family practices, student learning and behavior, as well as development. 

Active participation of parents and communities in the school tends to reduce the traditional unidirectional accountability of teachers as a sole party responsible for learners’ success. 

Furthermore, such collaboration is said to cultivate new hope about schools and education, especially among rural communities. 

However, key stakeholders in education claimed that school-family-community partnerships were weak in primary schools in Indian school sectors.

The alternative way of making all other capitals is making a good social capital first which we failed to know.

How much emphasis is being given in best ways to score, marks in digits, we failed to score in digital networking to generate social capital.

Social networks are a valuable, invisible and floating asset, as interaction enables people to build communities, commit themselves to each other, and knit the social fabric in our society.

• Mrs. Nazima Somani: Good afternoon sima ma'am,  

A wonderful topic indeed to ponder over.. let's talk in simple language we will be talking about our good will in the school. Not only we as the stakeholders as in teachers,  principals and other management groups,  we need to see what role does the society in general and family plays in building this social capital..

This is what we can say it takes ages to develop this Goodwill in the field of education..a trust that needs to be developed.. 

Now my question is . Is our Indian Education System trustworthy of producing youth who is going to improve the quality of people and the economy as whole??

• Mrs. Aruna singh: Social capital as we are talking about is a virtue to be found everywhere and all the levels.

Let me speak about school ecosystems!

The biggest leveller is how are the students treated, how are they taught and how much of love, patience we show, how much of fun and values are there in the space a child is in. It’s not only the teachers but all the people in the school may be ayah, cleaners or any other person have to demonstrate the same value systems.

The most frequent interaction for children are the teachers, knowledge, patience, resilience and genuine care will make the environment a wonderful experience.

When these values are enforced everyday in a continuous manner the children learn the same and they have no other options. That is the reason when a child is with the school for 14 years they have learnt, imbibed , practiced social capital and which reflects in their personality, mindset and confidence.

• Mrs. Nikitha Kothari: With experience, I can say that when teachers are motivated to inspire students.. and there is connect.. a proper follow up.. assessment.. evaluation.. doubt clearing session..a helping hand for special students.. etc .. this can be few points incorporated .

• Mrs. Sima Singh: The onus of responsibility kied on the teachers who have to connect and build on this resource ..a school is known by the faculty. .for the faculty ..so in a way management has to be ensure there is no compromise oon faculty.