School-Community Relations

The course critically focuses on applied educational research approaches in order to analyze the relationship between school and “community”. Recognizing the importance of broader socio-political phenomena and processes that take place at a global level (e.g. population movements within and outside national borders, multicultural approaches to education, etc.), the course focuses on specific methods of solving educational problems that arise in the context of local communities. The course places particular emphasis on ethnographic examples that demonstrate the methods and practices by which applied anthropology works at the level of everyday life with communities to resolve educational issues within and outside the school context. At the same time, emphasis is placed on anthropological studies of informal learning in families and communities that provide rich descriptions of the everyday contexts in which children and youth develop skills and knowledge to be productive members of their community.
Awareness by members of the community and the people active in the schools plays a major part in establishing constructive cooperation between the school and the community, as well as the necessary strategies for promoting synergy. Openness by the teachers in the community, as well as interest by the local community in the school, shall assist with the development of quality social relations. Meetings between the people active in the school and members of the community relate to discussions on school problems as well as community problems, and the joint development of solutions. The participants shall have the capacity to express their views, comprehend their common problems and concerns, and shall actively participate in activities whose results shall be visible to all persons interested and involved.
The course focuses upon the analysis of certain concepts (socialisation, subject, active person, social interaction, inter-dependence, communication, sense, strategies, practices and social identity) from different sociological trends: Theory of symbolic interaction, ethno-methodology, and social phenomenology. The impacts of these theoretical approaches upon the analysis of educational phenomena are cited through both theory and research methods, which are recorded in a micro-sociology. Coupling of micro and macro analysis.
Study of the social relations between participants from within and outside school (between students and teachers, between students, between teachers and parents from different socio-cultural environments), the operation of schools, educational practices, strategies, social identity of the participants, and the content and methods for providing school knowledge. The focus of attention upon the school class as an objective of sociological study: Examining the processes for achieving school excellence, social interactions between teachers – students, as well as the processes that contribute to (re) producing inequalities. We shall focus upon various qualitative studies in order to better comprehend the impact by the framework, as well as the views of the various participants in the school system regarding the existing educational reality.
The course is structured around the following thematic areas:
1. Introduction-critical approaches of applied educational research
2. Analysis of key theoretical concepts (signified and signifier, socialization, social subject, agent/agency, social interaction, communication)
3. From the theories of social reproduction to the sociological constructivism-The social subject and agency
4. Theoretical approaches concentrating on the school and the community
5. The school in-between the local and national context-The school in the context of global processes
6. The operational framework of the school and the content of the school knowledge
7. Processes of school excellence, teacher-student relations and the reproduction of inequalities
8. Analysis of ethnographic examples in education- the point of view of the social subjects
9. Applied anthropology in education (epistemological and methodological issues)
10. Research, design and implementation of educational programmes at school and the community
9. Interedisciplinarity, design and implementation of educational programmes at school and the community
10. The research focus on the school and the class
11. The research focus on the family and the community
12.The study of social interaction among actors inside and outside school (students-educators, educators-parents of different backgrounds)
13. Presentation of studies