The Way Forward: Educational Leadership and Strategic Capital

Abstract

The vast majority of historical research on socioeconomic status (hereafter SES) and social capital in the field of higher education has utilized quantitative data, providing a rich source of demographic, economic, and educational information. A more nuanced understanding of social networks and the “strategic capital” that such networks leverage—namely synergized forms of capital (e.g. human, cultural, and social) that are deployed to achieve a strategic objective—may emerge from an qualitative analytical methodology that investigates college presidential leadership through historical, legal, and policy artifacts at three elite institutions. Elite institution is defined here using the Carnegie Classification Undergraduate Profile: full-time four-year, more selective, lower transfer-in (2015). Through exploration of the historical educational leadership demonstrated by the presidents of Harvard University, Dartmouth College, and the University of Chicago—either encouraging or discouraging various social networks and their medium of exchange, social capital—one may gain a deeper insight into the mechanisms that foster social networks and the strategic deployment of social capital. Why is this inquiry important? Presidential leadership at institutions of this ilk often set the pace for the field, serving as bellwethers or leading indicators of future trends at colleges and universities nationally.