Catalyzing Teacher’s Professional Development through Teacher Social Capital

Abstract

―The most important factor in the success of higher Educational institutions is the quality and engagement of its faculty….‖ ( NEP, 2020). Teachers often work single-handedly but during the process of imparting education, they do engage in interactions. Recently there has been rising interest in this interaction and how it influencesthe professional development of the teachers. Community practice perspective on teachers‘ interaction portrays how interaction with each other and engagement in diverse activities enable professional development. It needs to be understood that teachers are participants in the community who take roles and try to improve, reproduce and even transform practices with the available resources. Their sharing of practices leads to the formation of social ties through which mutual exchange of expertise takes place. The more sharing of practices takes place the more readily knowledge and information are exchanged. There has been growing interest in mapping different aspects of teacher interaction through social network analysis embedded in the sociological concept of social capital (Baker-Doyle,2010). It has been also seen that there exists a strong tradition of research which focuses on how teachers are influenced by the environment of the organisation and how they contribute tothe co-construction of thought processes. National Education Policy 2020 emphasises the development of creative potential among teachers. It aims to bring about teachers‘ reform by modifying the work environment and promoting greater social interaction among teachers. This article aims to highlight the role of social capital in the form of teacher social capital in the professional development of teachers.