Abstract

The regional differences in education have an impact on educational equity, making them an important issue for investigation. The importance of the regional differences is relatively apparent in extant research on teaching and how it is communicated. This study focuses on the characteristics of research communication among teachers within counties, examining their regional differences. Data on research communication are collected from 71 geography teachers in 9 units in City A and 97 geography teachers in 27 units in County B in the southern and northern regions of Jiangsu Province, China. Social network analysis (SNA) methods are used to compare network density, cohesive subgroups, centrality, and core–periphery structures. This study finds similarities and differences in the characteristics of research communication between the two regions. For example, the density of communication among geography teachers in County B is greater than it is in City A, and the network structure in City A is center–dispersed while in County B it is interwoven. The study also discusses the potential impact of research communication differences on education equity, conducting analysis and providing explanations for the observed differences. Furthermore, the study aims to develop a reference that could be used to eliminate educational inequality caused by regional differences and to prepare for the establishment of SNA standards for regional research communication.

Keywords: Social network analysis, Teacher, Exchange, Region, Difference

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Copyright and license

Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

How to cite

Tong, Y., Yuan, L., Luo, Q., Li, S., Yuan, Z., Ye, C., Ji, J., & Lu, X. (2025). Regional differences in teaching and research exchange based on social network analysis: a case study of geography teachers in city A and county B of Jiangsu province. Education and Science, 50(224), 227-246. https://doi.org/10.15390/ES.2025.2498