A Social Network Analysis of High School Geography Teachers’ Participation in GIS In-service Training

　　Recently, education reforms have been vigorously carried out in Taiwan, focusing on improving educators’ ability to teach information technology. GIS-oriented classes are accordingly added to the curriculum of Geography in Taiwan’s high schools. Some promotional organizations and resources are also planned in the new policy.
　　Methodologically, this study uses questionnaires to gather information of how teachers spread information of GIS-relevant learning opportunities, such as workshops. Social network analysis is used to visualize the connection of teachers and to help understand whether the network is compact. Lastly, I explore whether teachers’ centralities in the information diffusion network can affect the extent of their participation in GIS workshops.
　　Whole network analysis reveals that the network which depicts how teachers obtain GIS workshop information is much denser than the network which depicts how teachers spread workshop information. Geography education organizations play central roles in disseminating information of GIS workshops. Teachers, however, are more passive in terms of spreading workshop information to their peers. This leads us to discover that teachers’ centralities can only partially explain their frequencies of attending workshops. Other factors, such as teachers’ education level and the types of school they are from also matter. Teachers with higher education background and those working in public schools are more active in attending GIS workshops.