Email: S.Kanavidou@soton.ac.uk
Sotiria is a Postgraduate Researcher based in Southampton Education School at the University of Southampton. Sotiria’s research focuses on the collaborative networks of school leaders and educators. She designed a social network intervention to promote strategic synergies across and beyond a formal school partnership in England.
Sotiria is also an EDI stakeholder at Public Policy Southampton and Southampton Education School.
Sotiria’s current research focuses on the social networks of educational leaders and educators and the evolution of their collaboration patterns over time. Utilizing social capital and network theoretical perspectives, she attempts to understand how relational capital can initiate behavioral and attitudinal change and therefore educational improvement. Sotiria uses various Social Network Analytical techniques and tools to visualize relational networks and design a social network intervention that aims to help school leaders promote strategic synergies and collaborative improvement across a formal school partnership in England. Sotiria has a keen interest in the interactions around learning and teaching, the use of data, the professional development of teachers, and community engagement. She is particularly fascinated by the roles of educational leaders across different leadership layers in spanning organizational boundaries and bridging different groups across the educational community.
Thesis title: Adopting a social network perspective to promote school leaders’ collaboration across a local school partnership in England.
Supervisors: Prof Chris Downey, Dr Maria Kaparou, and Prof Martin Dyke
Sotiria is currently working or has worked as a PGR Teaching Assistant on the following modules
EDUC6456 Educational Research: Practice and Methods
EDUC6353 Understanding Educational Research
EDUC6349: Management in Education Organizations
She also has the role of an EDI stakeholder with the Public Policy, Southampton. She has also been invited as a guest lecturer to discuss the following topic: 'Educational Innovation through Self-Improving Schools'.
After receiving her BA in Early Childhood Education from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Sotiria worked as a preschool teacher in several formal and informal contexts. In 2019, Sotiria received an MSc in Innovation and Practice from the University of Southampton and later she extended her studies to a Ph.D. level.