Relational networks, social trust, and norms: A social capital perspective on students’ chances of academic success. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis

THERE is a broadly perpetrated fiction in modern society... The fiction is that society consists of a set of independent individuals, each of whom acts to achieve goals that are independently ar-rived at... The fiction derives in part from the fact that the only tangible actors in society are in-dividuals... It also derives from the fact that so-cial changes have moved modern society toward a structure in which individuals act more inde-pendently than they did in the past... Despite these changes the fiction is just that—for indi-viduals do not act independently, goals are not independently arrived at, and interests are not wholly selfish. (Coleman, 1990, pp. 300–301) Without question, the academic success of in-dividual students is influenced by their personal characteristics and dispositions. Equally true, however, is that as members of schools, families, and communities, students may have access to various forms of social support that can facilitate their success in school. Indeed, researchers have increasingly recognized the importance of social 59 support for students ’ academic success. For ex-ample, several researchers have shown a con-nection between strong relationships and studen