School & Society SecondaryModule

Ministry of Education
Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching (PGDT)
MODULE TITLE: SCHOOL AND SOCIETY
COURSE CODE EdPM _____
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: 4
December 2013
Ministry of Education
Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching (PGDT)
MODULE TITLE: SCHOOL AND SOCIETY
COURSE CODE EdPM _____
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: 4
Module Writer: Tarekegn Haileselassie (Lecturer)
Technical Advisor: Dr. Tilaye kassahun (Assoc. Prof.)
2
Address of the Writer and Technical Advisor
Address of the Writer

Tarekegn Haileselassie Gebremichael (M.A)
Mekelle University, Institute of Pedagogical Sciences Lecturer
Mobile Number: 0914112531
Email: tarekehselassie@yahoo.com.
Address of the Technical Advisor

Dr. Tilaye Kassahun Assoc. Prof.
PRIN
Mobile tel. Number: + 251-911837266
Email address:
3
Table of Contents
Page
UNIT ONE:
UNDERSTANDING THE SCHOOLS ENVIRONMENTAL COMPONENTS.............................................................

1.1. Defining a Society..................................................................................................................................................
1.2. Understanding the Nature and Characteristics of Society.....................................................................................
1.3. Unique Nature of Educational Organizations and the Schools..............................................................................
1.3.1. The Purpose of Schooling: Contemporary Goals of Education......7
1.3.2. The Peculiar Nature Of Educational Institutions/Schools...10
1.4. School- Society Relations in Education...............................................................................................................12
Unit Summary.............................................................................................................................................................15
UNIT TWO: DIVERSE NATURE OF THE SCHOOLS AND SOCIETY....................................................................19
2.1. The Varieties and Purposes of Schooling.............................................................................................................19
2.1.1. Relationships between Social, Political, and Economic Forces and Educational Goals................22
2.1.2. Forms of Education.................................................................................................................................24
2.1.3. Relationship between Formal Policy, Informal Practices, Formal and Hidden Curriculum..30
2.2. Diversity and Differences: Students, Family and Communities..........................................................................37
2.3. Culturally Responsive Pedagogical Practices......................................................................................................39
2.4. Diversity Management in Schools and Education...............................................................................................48
2.5. School's Organization: Professional Roles and Relationship, School Culture and Leadership............50
2.6. Expectations of the Community54
Unit Summary................58
UNIT THREE: AN OVERVIEW OF PARTICIPATORY SOCIETAL PARTICIPATION..............................................61
3.1. The Essence of Participatory Approach (Societys participation on development issues Including Education)
.....................................................................................................................................................................................61
3.2. Defining Decentralization, Accountability and Empowerment...........................................................................65
3.3. Major Goals of School-Society Relations............................................................................................................71
3.4. Obstacles to School- Society Relations.74
3.5. Major Partners in School- Society Relations77
3.5.1. The Government: Bureaucracies and Bureaucrats.80
3.5.2. The School: Principal and Teachers81
3.5.3. The Society: Parents and Local82
3.5.4. Non-government Organizations (NGOs).83
Unit Summary.86
UNIT FOUR: SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM AND SOCIETAL PARTICIPATION....................................90
4.1. School Improvement Programs and the Role of Society.....................................................................................90
4.1.1. Domain of SIP.95
4.1.2. The Role of Parents/Community and the Larger Society in Implementing SIP.98
Unit Summary..108
UNIT FIVE: AREAS OF SOCIETAL PARTCIPATION IN EDUCATION.................................................................112
5.1. The Diagnosis of Educational Conditions, Needs, Priorities and Resources.....................................................112
5. 2. Policy Making and Governance.115
5. 3. The Instructional Programs118
5. 4. Benefits of Societal Participation in Education121
Unit Summary.................................................................................................................................125
UNIT SIX: METHODS TO PROMOTE SOCIETAL PARTICIPATION IN EDUCATION........................................128
6.1. Social, political, Cultural and Organizational Norms........................................................................................128
6.1.1. Institutional and Individual Openness129
6.1.2. Commitment to Participation..131
6.1.3. Autonomy and Empowerment..132
6.2. Collaborative Strategies and Organizations.......................................................................................................133
6.2.1. Strategies at the Macro-level of the Education system..134
6.2.2. Strategies at the Micro-level of the School and the Society.137
Unit Summary...140
4
MODULE INTRODUCTION
Dear Learner! Welcome to the course School and Society. It is assumed that if the teacher is to be
an informed, critically reflective, and aware member of the teaching profession, he/she should
develop an understanding of his/her role in society as well as the role of the school as a
socializing agency and institution in Ethiopian society. This course will, therefore designed for
students attending a Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching (PGDT) program.
Course Rationale
The development of sound and constructive relationship between the school and the society has
become an essential function of democratic systems in a changing environment. Evidently,
schools cannot adopt themselves to the swift changes or make the necessary improvements
without involving their societies. There must be a structured, systematic and active participation
on the part of the society in developing educational policies, programs, plans and their
implementations. This course will enable students critically examine the cotemporary theories of
school and society relations in education. It also tries to integrate the diverse nature of the school
and society. Moreover, it encourages students to examine societal participation in education in
school improvement program with the theories and practices identified in their progress.
Course Description
The course school and society introduces students with the basic knowledge and skills that are
required to promote the relationship between school-society by addressing the purpose of
schooling. It helps the students to find out the unique nature of schools and their affiliation with
the society by focusing on sociological, historical, philosophical, and political issues. It also
enable the students to comprehend how schools function in a dynamic societal environment,
recognize the role of society on key issues like school improvement program, school culture, and
organizational learning. For the sake of convenience to the learner the module is divided into six
units. The first unit of this module presents general understanding of schools environmental
components. The second unit tries to look the diverse nature of the school and society. The third
and fourth units deal with an overview of societal participation and school improvement
respectively. The rest two parts of this module tries to look areas and methods of societal
participation in education.
Learning Outcomes of the Course

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
Explain the essence of school and society.
Describe the major components of school environment.
Illustrate the unique characteristics of schools and educational organizations.
Explain the rationale of creating close relation between the school and society.
Describe the major approaches to creating better school and society relations.
Portray the purpose of schooling in addressing the contemporary goals of education.
Appreciate major challenges to create close relations between the school and the society.
Design and monitor viable school and society relation strategies that promote cooperation
between the schools and their societies.
Manage diversity existing within the society and the school community.
5
Explain the role of the society in improving schools, in creating safe, sound, attractive
and supportive school environment.
Methods of delivery and assessment
Dear Learner! General exposure is a central idea to this material; an attempt is made to expose
the learner to a variety of conceptual and practical aspects of school society relations in
education. Therefore, the reference section of each unit should be seen as a lead source and help
the learner and other interested groups.
In this module, each topics start with text questions that attempt to relate your prior knowledge
and experience with the content to be dealt with. We have also included many activities in each
unit and lessons that will provide you with opportunities to check your understanding based on
the learning objectives stated under each unit. By doing so, you will gain much from your efforts
and you will realize your objectives. Thus, you are required to attempt each staring activity
before you read the detail notes from the module. At the same time, at the end of each unit
activities are designed so that you will have the opportunity of assessing your own learning
progress by attempting the entire activity question.
6
Acronyms and Abbreviations
CSOs Community Service Organizations
NGOs Non-Governmental Organizations
PGDT Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching
PLSS Parent Learning Support System
PTAs Parent Teacher Associations
REB Regional Education Bureau
SMCs School Management Committee/Council
SCRs School-Community Relations
SBM School-based management
ICONS USED
Dear Learner!
Please note that the following icons or symbols are used in this module for making quick
reference easier for you. The meanings of the icons are given below.
This tells you there is an introduction to the module, unit and section.
This tells
you to note and This tells you there is a question to answer or think about in the text.
remember
Thisantells
important
you therepoint
is an activity to do.
This tells you there is a self-test for you to do
This tells you there is a learning outcome
7
School and Society Unit 1: Understanding the
Schools Environmental Components
UNIT ONE
UNDERSTANDING THE SCHOOLS ENVIRONMENTAL
COMPONENTS (Time allotted 11 hrs.)
UNIT INTRODUCTION
Dear Learner: I am greatly happy to say you welcome to the first unit which is regarding
conceptual framework. This unit, as an introductory part of this module, deals with the basic
concepts and theories of school and society relations and environmental components. Accordingly,
the whole unit is divided into four sections. The first part of this unit begins with basic key terms
and concepts about the meanings of society. At the same time, it gives insights with regard to the
nature and characteristics of society. Then we will discuss about the unique nature of educational
organizations and the schools. Finally, it attempts to provide the rationale for school society
relations in education. I hope you will have a nice time reading and doing your activities
throughout the unit.
Unit Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this unit, you should be able to:
Differentiate the essence and characteristics of community.
Conceptualize the unique nature of educational organizations and schools.
Portray the purpose of schooling in addressing the contemporary goals of education.
Explain the different segments/components of the society around the school.
Adapt goals of school society relations to the contexts and realities of schools and
educational institutions.
Discuss the rationale for school-society relations.
Lesson One
1.1. Defining a Society
Activity 1.1. Group Discussion (5 minutes for discussion, 5 minutes for reflection)
Dear Learner, what is your definition of society?
Think of a society which you are a member and try to describe it as much as you can.
Try to list down what comes to your mind about the issue. Good job!
This term society has been derived from a Latin word 'socious' that means association or
companionship; thus society means 'a larger group of individuals, who are associative with each
other'. From the initial word, we can understand that society exists only where social beings
create relationship with one another. Thus society is a web of social relationships. However,
society is defined in a number of ways by various practitioners, such as educators,
anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, etc. So, let us look some of the definitions
given by different disciplines.
Sociologists define society as the people who interact in such a way as to share a common culture.
The cultural bond may be ethnic or racial, based on gender, or due to shared beliefs, values, and
activities. The term society can also have a geographic meaning and refer to people who share a
Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 1

common culture in a particular location. For example, people living in arctic climates developed
different cultures from those living in desert cultures (Etzioni, 1996:83).
From the above definition, culture and society are intricately related. A culture consists of the
objects of a society, whereas a society consists of the people who share a common culture.
When the terms culture and society first acquired their current meanings, most people in the world
worked and lived in small groups in the same locale. However, in today's world of more than six
billion people, these terms have lost some of their usefulness because increasing numbers of
people interact and share resources globally. Still, people tend to use culture and society in a more
traditional sense.
For anthropologists and sociologists, human societies are most often organized according to their
primary means of subsistence. Based on this, social scientists have identified society as hunter-
gatherer societies, nomadic pastoral societies, horticulturalist or simple farming societies, and
advanced or intensive agricultural societies, also called civilized societies. Some consider
industrial and post-industrial societies to be qualitatively different from traditional agricultural
societies. Some also used special or different name (e.g. fishing societies or maritime societies).
In political science, societies may also be organized according to their political structure. In order
of increasing size and complexity, there are bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and state societies. These
structures may have varying degrees of political power, depending on the cultural, geographical
and historical environments that these societies must contend with.
Educational practitioners, Daramola (2012) and Ottaway (1980) define society as the whole range
of social relationships of people living in a certain geographic territory and having a feeling or a
sense of belonging to the same group.
When we are looking the contemporary usage, the term society is currently used to cover both a
number of political and scientific connotations as well as a variety of associations. Regarding this
point, Mandatum (2008) argue that defining society is apparently a much simpler task to
accomplish, although it is problematic to define what we call society and what its relationship
might be to a geographic unit, a nation, a language, a culture, the state and statehood. A dictionary
might be useful again here and this time a social science dictionary would be the most useful. The
Collins Dictionary of Sociology defines society as follows:
1. The totality of human relationships.
2. Any human group that perpetuates itself more or less linked to one specific geographical
region, holding its own institutions and culture; both tribes and nation states in the modern
sense belong to this category.
Activity 1.2. Summary Activity (Reflection individually for 5 minutes)
Dear Learner! What do you deduce from the definitions given by educators,
anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists regarding society?
Currently the criterion for a community to be defined as a society was the potential for their
members to interact with each other: what counted was the frequency and scale of these
interactions. Even in the most isolated societies there must exist some communication among its
members, otherwise they could not be called societies. Another criterion for recognition of a
society, besides those above is whether its cultural and institutional continuum could be sustained
in the course of its history. However, the most recent sociological trend shows a different
direction. Society as a basic concept may no longer be the key to getting to know our world since
the examination of single societies may divert our attention from other interactions taking place

between and beyond societies such as globalization (Mandatum, 2008: 21). Globalization refers
here to the increased interdependence and mutually exerted influence between countries and
between human communities on a global level, which shapes economic, cultural and political
subsystems.
Based on this influence, Information society is a term used to describe the most recent stage of
social history. In the 20th century the most developed countries gradually entered the state of
information society and it is expected that within a matter of a few decades the majority of the
worlds population will be living and working in a global information society.
From the above definitions society can be understood as a collection of individuals; a group of
humans broadly distinguished from other groups by mutual interests, participation in characteristic
relationships, shared institutions, and a common culture. At the same time, society considered as
institutions and culture of a distinct self-perpetuating group; an organization or association of
persons engaged in a common profession, activity, or interest. More broadly, a society may be
described as an economic, social, or industrial infrastructure, made up of a varied collection of
individuals. Members of a society may be from different ethnic group. A society can be a
particular ethnic group, or a broader cultural group, such as a Western society. The word society
may also refer to an organized voluntary association of people for religious, benevolent, cultural,
scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes.
Activity 1.3. Analytical Group Activity (5 minutes for discussion, 5 minutes for reflection)
Dear Learner! What differences and similarities do exist between the concepts of community
and society? Here we will focus on understanding within education context and ask yourself
why should educators be interested in them?
Having said these, I think it is better to clarify the concept of society and community in relation to
this module. When we review different literature, on the one hand, we can found that community
would be described on a local scale; whereas society would describe the whole world. Based on
this premise, society is nothing but of people residing in the area, locality, town, city, state or in
the country irrespective of religion, sex, race etc., and community relates to particular caste,
religion, sex, race or the like (Daramola, 2012; Ottaway, 1980).
On the other hand, the term community has two distinct meanings: 1) A group of interacting
people, living in some proximity (i.e., in space, time, or relationship). Community usually refers to
a social unit larger than a household that shares common values and has social cohesion. The term
can also refer to the national community or international community, and, 2) in biology, a
community is a group of interacting living organisms sharing a populated environment. In other
words, a community is a group or society, helping each other (Cohen, 1985). The latter
definition will coincide to the archaeological studies of social communities. The term
community is used in two ways in archaeology, paralleling usage in other areas. The first is an
informal definition of community as a place where people used to live. In this sense it is
synonymous with the concept of an ancient settlement, whether a hamlet, village, town, or city.
The second meaning is similar to the usage of the term in other social sciences: a community is a
group of people living near one another who interact socially. Hence, in establishing the
theoretical framework for this module, I think it is better to explore the initial word derivation of
the two concepts. The word "community" is derived from the Old French communit which is
derived from the Latin communitas (cum, "with/together" plus munus, "gift"), a broad term for
fellowship or organized society. As we have seen the term society in the first lesson of this unit,
the word society has been derived from a Latin word 'socious' that means association or

companionship; thus society means 'a larger group of individuals, who are associative with each
other'.
Against the backdrop of the above, here we will initially explore the term society/community has
common features to address the same concept. There is, of course, a strong possibility that these
different ways of approaching society/community will overlap in particular instances. Thus, when
we say society/community, it connotes as an organized group of persons associated together for
religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, or other purposes. And, it is a highly structured
system of human organization or a body of individuals living as members of a community.
Territorial or place society/community can be seen as where people have something in common,
and this shared element is understood geographically. At the same time, in interest or elective
communities people share a common characteristic other than place. They are linked together by
factors such as religious belief, ethnic origin or occupation. Here, we can argue that
society/community involves two related suggestions that the members of a group have something
in common with each other; and the thing held in common distinguishes them in a significant way
from the members of other possible groups. Society/Community, thus, implies both similarity and
difference. This leads us to the question of boundary what marks the beginning and end of a
society/community? From the latter it is clear that boundaries may be marked on a map (as
administrative areas), or in law, or by physical features like a river or road or common interest and
the like. It is the nature of the relationships between people and the social network of which they
are a part that is often seen as one of the more significant aspects of society/community. In other
words, interaction enables people to build societies/communities, to commit themselves to each
other, and to knit the social fabric.
To sum up this portion, the school community is generally considered to include students,
families, school staff, other professionals, other support staff and volunteers. The school
community may also include members of other organizations in the wider community who support
the operation of the school that is society. Therefore, through out this module, we use the term
society/community as one concept and preferably, we use the term society as generic word in all
sections of this module.
Activity 1.4. Practical Group Activity (5 minutes for discussion, 5 minutes for reflection)
List down and identify the main features of society and discuss them with your peer.
How a society does benefit its members.
Lesson Two
1.2. Understanding the Nature and Characteristics of
Society
Dear Learners, in the previous section we have seen that society can be defined according to the
characteristics that the members share, such as culture, language, tradition, law, geography, class,
and race. This implies that some societies are homogeneous while others are heterogeneous; and
some are united while others conflictive. Some communities are governed and managed by leaders
chosen democratically and some others are governed by leaders imposed from above who
represent central authorities. However, there are some elements that members of society have
something in common. Therefore, an understanding of the nature and characteristics of a society,
what they look like, what they want and why they want it, their background, is prerequisite for any
program design, planning, administrative organization and determine content, teaching materials

and methods. Accordingly, the following are important characteristics or features of society that
must be considered for any endeavour as cited by Bhatt (2011).
1. Social Organization: Members of a society are socially organized. Society itself has a
structure and the important components and elements of social structure are norms, rules,
statuses, power, authority, groups, associations and institutions. The norms are the
important which give it stability, order and structure to human society that without them
social interaction would be difficult and chaotic. Organization of human society is
maintained with the help of norms and institutions that pervade the society. Social
organization helps maintain society in social equilibrium.
2. A system of social relationships: Society refers to social relationship. The meaning of
social relationship shall be clearer if we distinguish it from physical relationship. Social
relations are those which exist between mother and child, brother and sister, teacher and
student, husband and wife etc. are determined by reciprocal awareness or interaction.
Without reciprocity there is no social relationship, no society. Thus society is a network of
social relationship. Human societies are characterized by patterns of relationships between
individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be
described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent members.
3. Variety of interactions: The society is full of interactions and the different social processes
and going on in the society. The people come face to face and interact among themselves.
People share certain interests, attitudes, aptitudes, traditions, customs, values, objectives
and mores. The people of the society depend upon each other for their survival. The self
influences society through the actions of individuals thereby creating groups,
organizations, networks, and institutions. And, reciprocally, society influences the self
through its shared language and meanings that enable a person to take the role of the other,
engage in social interaction, and reflect upon oneself as an object.
4. Comprehensive culture: Every society has its own distinctive culture and the individual
relationships are organized and structured by the culture. Culture consists of the art,
knowledge, behaviors, objects, beliefs, morals, law, value, custom, tradition, literature,
science, philosophy and other characteristics common to the members of a particular group
or society acquired by individuals as a member of society. Society preserves the culture
and also transmits it to the future generations. Thus society is the store and centre of
human culture. Through culture, people and groups define themselves, conform to society's
shared values, and contribute to society. The society will be differentiated by the other
society because of its unique culture. Culture is present in human society and the same is
absent in animal society. Thus, culture includes many societal aspects: language, norms,
mores, rules, tools, technologies, products, organizations, and institutions. This latter term
institution refers to clusters of rules and cultural meanings associated with specific social
activities. Common institutions are the family, education, religion, work, and others.
5. Functional differentiation: All the individuals in human society never perform similar
activities and functions. They perform different functions depending upon their sex, age,
interest, abilities, skills and other qualifications. There is more and more specialization in
each work and are expected to do their work allotted to them. There is division of labor
depending upon different considerations and the functions assigned to them are performed.
This develops functional inter relationship among the members of the society.
6. Feeling of Solidarity: Since individuals of the society occupy a common territory,
common customs and traditions common values, common history, common cultures, and
self contained interdependence on each other obviously cause oneness and develop feeling
of solidarity among them. Though occasionally interact with other societies, they never
lore their identity and remains united as long as their society survives.

7. Inter-dependence: In a society all members depend upon each other. For example, family,
the first society in which we all are closely and deeply associated is based on the biological
inter-dependence. Similarly, in a family some members earn and all depend upon them.
The children depend upon their parents in childhood age and parents depend upon their
grown-up children in their old age. Both male and female members in the family cannot
survive without the inter-dependence upon each other in every sphere. Thus inter-
dependency is most significant element of society. At the higher level, one nation depends
upon the other in the economic, social, political, cultural fields.
8. Likeness: Society means likeness. It exists among like beings, like-bodies and like-minded
people. It is likeness which provides for understanding each by the other. This
understanding is based on friendship, intimacy, association, institution and any such other
types of relationships. Similarities are found among the people of society in customs,
traditions, folkways, mores, norms, values, beliefs, attitudes, needs, objectives etc. So
likeness or similarity is an essential element of society.
9. Differences: Though there is likeness in the society yet it is characterised by difference
also. In every society, there are people who differ from one another in a number of ways.
For example, family rests upon the biological difference between the sexes. Some are
males and others are females. Similarly people differ from one another in respect of their
ability, talent, capacity, interest, tendency etc. Human beings also differ from one another
irrespective of rights and duties, thoughts and ideals, professions and economic activities.
So society involves both likeness and differences.
10. Co-operation and conflict: Society is co-operation crossed by conflict. Both co-operation
and conflict are the essential elements of society. Co-operation plays a vital role in every
aspect of our social life. Society cannot exist without co-operation. People cannot lead a
happy and comfortable life unless they co-operate with each other. Family rests on co-
operation. The members of the family co-operate with each other to live happily and
peacefully. Not only co-operation but also conflict is essential for society. Society needs
struggles to solve social as well as personal problems. Society also requires conflicts for its
formation and growth, harmony and disharmony, association and dissociation as well.
Conflict is a universal process through which all things have come to existence.
11. Society is abstract: Society is an organisation which consists of social relation, customs,
laws, mores, norms, values and so on. These are abstract and intangible. People only feel
and realize these relations. Thus society is same thing which cannot be seen or touched. It
can only be felt and experienced by its members. Society does not include any concrete
form and therefore, society is abstract. That is why abstractness is a significant
characteristic of society.
Based on the above clarifications, we can summarize the characteristics of society as follows:
1. It is a largest human group.
2. It satisfies the needs of its members.
3. It is having sense of belonging and cooperation. It is more or less permanent association
4. It is abstract (because social relationships can be felt and imagined and cannot be seen).
5. Everyone in society is dependent upon every other member.
6. It should be organized i.e. will be having division of labour.
7. It will be having likeness and differences. Due to these differences, variety in human
behaviours and division of labour and specialization of roles is there.
8. There is consciousness of kind among the members of society.
9. Society is a dynamic entity or always changing.
10. It has its own means to survive.

11. It is a self-sufficient social system.

12. It lasts for a longer period of time than groups.
13. It will form a social structure through social institutions i.e. family, education, economic,
political and religious institutions. These basic five institutions are found in all societies of
the world.
14. It has its own culture (Farooq, 2011).
Activity 1.5. Investigative Home Take Activity (10 minutes discussion in group)
According to the describing features of a society, think of a society you belong to and describe it.
What are the issues to be analyzed for the better understanding of a given community? Nice!
Lesson Three
1.3. Unique Nature of Educational Organizations and the
Schools
Dear learner, in the previous section we have seen that the general concept of society and the
nature and characteristics of society. These topics are basic issues and will help you to
comprehend the subsequent topics. In this section, we are going to see the unique nature of
educational organizations and the schools. Under this section, we are going to look the purpose of
schooling with contemporary goals of education. At the same time, the peculiar nature of
educational institutions or schools from other organizations is the major topics that are going to be
addressed under this section.
1.3.1 The Purpose of Schooling: Contemporary Goals of Education

Dear learner, why do we have school in the first place? Why should we send our children to
school? What is the purpose of schooling in general? Please try to reflect on this issue. Really
excellent, now let us examine different views of purpose of schooling provided by different
scholars and compare your answer with that of the scholars.
At some level it is comforting to know that the current struggle to define a common purpose for
schooling is not a new condition. Centuries ago, Aristotle noted there was no consensus regarding
what should be learned by the young; he mentioned the possible purposes of study being
usefulness in life, seeking goodness, or advancing the bounds of knowledge. To give emphasis,
Cremin (1975) called for a great public dialogue about education that raised the most important
questions that can be raised in a society. What knowledge should we the people hold in
common? What values? What skills? What sensibilities? When we ask such questions, we are
getting at the heart of the kind of society we want to live in and the kind of society we want our
children to live in (Potthoff & Others, 2009).
Activity 1.6. Individual Home Take assignment (Take 25 minutes)

In a world characterized by astonishing progress in so many domains, why has the question of
common purpose for schooling proven so difficult to achieve? Please give your own argument.
Nice attempt! Now compare what you have reflected with what follows. Let us look in detail for
lack of common purpose for schooling and the difficulty based on the assumptions provided by
different scholars. According to different practitioners, confusion in the meaning for two key
terms, education and schooling is a first explanation for the lack of a shared common purpose.

Roland-Martin in Potthoff and Others (2009: 48) argues that the public mind views education and
schooling as nearly synonymous but schooling, in truth, is but one element of a vast educational
system that can be detected in virtually all aspects of our lives including homes, neighborhoods,
places for worship, clubs, museums, libraries, and recreation facilities. Other differences between
education and schooling are also noted. For example, whereas there tends to be a clear ending to
most individuals formal schooling, education never ends; rather, education is an endless process
of growth (Dewey, 1916). Establishing a clear focus on the more definitive and narrower common
purposes for schooling is a needed step.
Another assumption is that one chief purpose of school is to instruct students. By this is meant
that teachers know and students do not. The teachers task is to convey what they know to their
unknowing students, and then confirm the efficacy of this transaction by testing the students
ability to remember - or at least recognize - what they have received. The lesson may be
transmitted to the student by the teacher, but often the instruction takes place by textbook or other
medium. In other words, students receive their lessons primarily through what they hear and what
they see. Other modes of learning such working with the hands, demonstrating through
gymnastics, and practicing elocution are secondary, perhaps entirely neglected approaches.
Teaching is not only involved in the transfer of knowledge but also serves to focus insight and the
self-learning forces within the child - each requiring modification based upon the developmental
stage of the child (Mitchell & Others, 2008).
This assumption is valid only if by education we mean simply the transmission of information. A
teachers task is not to pour in material but to draw out students nascent capacities. Herein lies the
fundamental difference between instruction, which in its etymological origins means to pour
stones (Latin structus) into an empty vessel, and education, which in its origins means to lead or
draw (Latin ducere) forth or out (Latin e-). When they instruct, teachers insert what they know
into the empty vessel of the student who knows not. By contrast, when they educate, teachers draw
forth from a student what he or she in some sense already knows, whether implicitly or explicitly.
This latter approach to educating is sometimes called the discovery method or, in some forms,
constructivism, or even the Socratic method, and yet all too easily education is replaced,
either for lack of time or lack of teaching skill, by instruction (Mitchell & Others, 2008).
A second mitigating factor is the issue of who decides the common purpose(s) for schooling. Over
the past 50-60 years, an increasing percentage of schooling decisions have been made at the state
and/or national levels or generally at the top echelon. In any event, the reduction in local control
remains controversial. Goodlad (1994), for example, places greater trust in local control: the
purpose of the local school is to provide all the young with the education not provided elsewhere
in the cultural context. The purpose of schooling is to support all the local schools in this
endeavor.
A third factor that slows progress toward achieving a common purpose for schooling is the
changing nature of the larger society. Schools do not operate in a vacuum. As the nature and needs
of society change, the expectations for schools also change (Potthoff & Others, 2009).
The confounding factors noted above, while vexing in and of themselves, are not the whole story.
The inability to forge a common purpose for schooling while reflective of philosophical
differences also reveal conversations in which people struggle to reach agreement regarding two
key purpose-related issues. One conversation pits purposes for schooling focused on economic
issues (i.e., preparing youngsters for the world of work) in competition with purposes designed to

prepare youngsters for citizenship in a democratic society. I think, it is better to clarify the two
primary opposing views or philosophical differences exist regarding the purpose of schools stated
by Potthoff and Others (2009).
1. Purposes for schooling focused on economic issues

According to the first assumption, the chief purpose of education is to prepare students for the
work force. This assumption posits an economic motive for an essentially cultural activity. On this
view, the mark of successful schooling will be students who are productive wage earners. To the
extent that this paradigm rules the learning experience, testing will focus on skills having to do
with economic values such as competition, efficiency, and speed.
Based on this, the primary purpose of schools should be to create workers who have skills and
personal styles to fill and perform available jobs and schools need to ready the next generation to
compete in the global marketplace. Hence, as an approach, schools are expected to perform two
essential tasks: first, create a pool of workers with at least minimum competence and attitudes
from which businesses can select employees; and then provide a way of sorting workers in rank
order of ability, eliminating those from the pool who do not have the perceived capacity to
function as employees. The goal for businesses, of course, is to have a large pool of potentially
qualified candidates with requisite skills that far exceeds the availability of jobs. This allows the
business to select the best candidate. The resulting competition for jobs allows them to keep wages
lower, thus decreasing costs and increasing profits. This goal becomes evident through the call for
identified minimum standards and the use of standardized testing with higher levels of skills.
2. Purpose of Schooling focused on active citizens

The second assumption of purpose of education is to prepare students to become responsible
citizens in a democratic society. The motive for teaching, here, is to inculcate the values of a
society and thereby help students align themselves with their political and social environment. Far
from raising children to fit a pre-existing order, education was intended to cultivate a generation of
leaders who would ceaselessly renew society out of their own insights and their own thinking. For
this group of people, schools should seek to develop active citizens, helping children develop their
own capacity for personal achievement and contributing to society as an active citizen for
democracy. Hence, as an approach, schools seek to help students achieve personal excellence and
become effective citizens, their learning activities must be organized quite differently. In such
schools, the curriculum would necessarily offer many rich opportunities rather than focusing only
on narrow basic skills. Students are nurtured to become adults who have skills, attitudes, and
knowledge to be productive community members, leaders, parents, as well as workers.
In addition to the dichotomy represented by the advocates of schooling for economic reasons
versus schooling to prepare for citizenship, a second conversation posits there are two common
purposes for schooling that may be complementary at times or conflicting in other instances.
One view is that the common purpose should be maximizing development of the individual.
European-based writers from the 18th century declared that education should encourage the full
development of the human being in ways that permit self-expression while avoiding repression
and conformity.
The second of the views in this conversation proposes that the common purpose for schooling is to
prepare youngsters for contributing to the common good of all (Goodlad, 1994). Dewey (1916)

and Apple and Beane (1995) are among the many who stress the importance of democratic ideals
which promote the common good.
In sum, education needs to be pursued for its own ends, not for some extrinsic goal beyond itself.
The moment education becomes primarily a means to some other goal, political or economic; it
begins to lose its cultural value (Mitchell & Others, 2008). And what is this integrity? Here we
return to the question posed earlier about the reason for sending children to school. If not to fill
them with instruction, train them for the work force, or outfit them as good citizens, what are the
most important purposes of education? In all three phases, the overarching purpose of education
is to assist human unfolding. Ultimately, school serves not the business world nor any political
agenda, but rather the child and young adult as he or she unfolds those capacities that make him or
her uniquely human. And what makes the human being unique?
Activity 1.7. Practical Group Activity (5 minutes for discussion, 5 minutes for reflection
Dear learner! Based on the above justification, what do you think as major purpose of
education? Please discuss in group and reflect your stand to the whole class. Very Good!
1.3.2 The Peculiar Nature of Educational Institutions /Schools/
Educational organizations are social entities that have exceptional mission and orientation towards
their goal fulfillment. As it has been repeatedly described by scholars and educators, although they
have some major commonalities, schools and other educational institutions differ from industrial
plants and other similar organization. Hence, due to their unique feature, they also require
management with special attitude and skills inline with the special activities. Some of the
prominent features are presented as follows.
Activity 1.8. Investigating Home Take Activity (Take 15 minutes)

Dear learner! Discuss in brief what really makes educational organizations and schools unique
social institutions. What do you think is the implications of these unique features in view of the
management of educational organizations and schools? Please take as a home work and come
back with your argument to reflect in the whole class.
Well! I presume you have very well tried to scrutinize the peculiar features of educational
institutions from other social organizations. Now, check your reactions with what pursues.
With respect to the above, Compbell in Ayalew Shibeshi (1991) have identified the following six
features that make educational institutions and its management to be distinctive from others.
1. Crucial to the society: Educational institutions are unique and become important in the
range of their functions and centrality of relationships to the other social institutions and
society at large. All Social services and other economic sectors require qualified
manpower. Schools provide education and training services with the necessary skills,
attitudes and values of the manpower inputs of the various social systems and economic
sectors. It is the base for the effective functioning of all other sectors of any country.
Therefore, the school management should give due consideration to the activities that help
to fulfill these societal and economic demands.

2. Public visibility and sensitivity: School and its functions are more visible and sensitive to
members of the community larger than any other organizations. Most of the members of
the community are sensitive about the service of educational organizations and their
internal operations. Because the school and the education system, in general, serve the
society and its functions is always a core concern for the parents, the government and other
parties. It is expected to follow the interest of these stakeholders. Hence, school is required
to establish healthy relationship with the community around the school and address diverse
expectations and interests of the society.
3. Complexity of functions: Educational institutions are constituted with people such as
teachers, non-teaching personnel, students and members of the community. Schools
directly deals with the human being (the most complex organism), delivery of training to
produce skilled manpower and attempts to change behaviors. These people have different
individual and group needs and interests that they want to be addressed by the school.
Addressing diversified needs and interests of the different people makes the function of the
educational manager very difficult and complex.
4. Intimacy of Necessary Relationship: The teaching and learning process is impossible to
be carried out by a single individual or a part of the system. Unlike other organizations, the
degree of relationship among school personal (relationship among students, between
teachers and students, among teachers and between teachers and parents) is very strong
having greater degree of human intimacy. For the successful achievement of the overall
objectives, the school organizations and their managers must create intimate relationship
among school personnel, and between the school personnel and the community.
5. Staff Professionalization: Do you remember the qualification of most or all of the staff
members of the teachers in your secondary school? What was the qualification of the
principal of the school? The managers and most or all staff in schools are from a common
professional background with shared values, training, and experience and relatively
constitute more professionally trained manpower. Professionalism entitles teachers to claim
enjoying a higher degree of autonomy in their key tasks: the teaching-learning process. In
a school where most of the employees tend to be professional in education and outlook,
personal disposition of the staff are affected by professional values, superior intelligence
and communication. In such a situation, it seems clear that managers in schools must pay
greater attention to personal dispositions than managers in factories and other service
giving organizations. Therefore, schools cannot be managed in the same way as factories
or offices. For instance, decision-making in schools should be organized on a participatory
approach rather than on hierarchical basis.
6. Difficulty in Appraisal: As it is described by Bush, et al (1980), the raw materials of
schools are mainly human beings. These raw materials, at the end of the education
program and in the process of education, are expected to manifest desirable behavioral
changes. The change involves knowledge, skills or attitudes all of which influence
behavior. But because human beings cannot be processed, programmed, or manipulated as
can any raw materials in industries, change of behavior in educational institutions is not
visible in a short period of time. It requires accumulation of evidences from many sources
for a considerable period of time to determine the sustainable change of behavior. As a
result, it is difficult to measure the level and degree of behavioral change of the students
and effect in schools when compared with other social institutions. Although examination
results contribute to the evaluation process, they cannot tell the whole story about the
development of children, which may include, the physical, mental and emotional and the
over-all personality development of children. Since behavioral changes may not be
manifested in a short period of time, the educational managers are in a difficulty to

appraise or measure the degree of performance even if special measuring instruments or

procedures are devised.
Activity 1.9. Analytical Activity (Take 15 minutes)

What do we mean by Behavioral change? How do you know whether you, as a learner, brought
a behavioral change or not? Would it be possible to justify the behavioral change of a student
through his/her exam results? How can it be described and measured then?
To sum up this lesson, the above unique aspects of educational management are the special
conditions under which it operates and which may entitle it to stand apart from other form of
management as a special profession. Therefore, it seems evident that the great demands upon
schools, the number of points where it touches people and their institutions, and the sensitivity of
these points of contact with children, value system, professionalization of staff, problems of
evaluation are unique features that characterize educational institutions. Hence, from the above
explanations, it can possibly be concluded that, the essence of school tasks and its success or
failure has to be evaluated against these vital but elusive criteria. This in turn, the management of
these institutions and their staff calls for a special kind of profession. Thus, the range of its
functions and the centrality of its relationship to the other systems and social institutions is one of
the unique aspects of the educational system which influences its organization and management.
Lesson Four
1.4. School- Society Relations in Education
Dear Learner! In the previous three lessons we have seen that the essence of society, the nature
and characteristics of society, the purpose of schooling in addressing the contemporary goals of
education and the unique nature of educational organizations from other social institutions. This is
the last lesson of unit one. In this lesson, we are going state the major objectives of creating close
school society relations and discuss also the rationale for school society relations.
Activity 1.10. Reflective Group Activity (5 minutes for discussion, 5 minutes for reflection)
Dear Learner! Why do we bother for close school society relations? Is close school society an
end or a means to any other ends? What objectives has your primary or secondary school
attained so far? Please mention few of the objectives of close school society relations from your
own experiences.
Very good! Now read the information below and compare your answer with the information
provided. First, before dealing the school society relations, let us look the meaning of school,
school society relations, how schools are organized and the functions of the school to the wider
society in brief. School is a special environment where a certain quality of life and certain types of
activities and occupations are provided with the object of securing the childs development along
desirable lines. Schools ensure the harmonious development of child personality through pre-
planned objectives. For that reason, school is the only agency through which cooperation of
different agencies such as the family, the community and the state may be successfully achieved.
Therefore, the best system for organizing a school system revolves around accountable community
autonomy, which takes into account the strengths of both community-centered school systems and
state-regulated school systems. Here, school society relations refers to as a systematic function of

on all levels of school system, established as a program to improve and maintain optimal levels of
student achievement and to build public support.
Perhaps another way of expressing the same concepts is to say that sound and constructive
relations between the school and society are achieving through a process of exchanging
information, ideas, and viewpoints out of which common understanding are developed and
decisions are made concerning essential improvements in the educational program and
adjustments to the climate of social change. Hence, the greater the community involvement in the
process, the greater the input of different groups within the community, then the more likely that
what is generated will be an accurate reflection of that society. Thus, by actively involving
children and adults in decisions about education about issues that concern them, and aspects of
community development, appropriate decisions could be made about problems within the
community.
Having said these, let us now come to our focus on the relationship between education and society.
It acknowledges a strong relationship between the two concepts. Education is seen as a means of
cultural transmission from one generation to another in any given society. On the other hand, we
have seen that society as the whole range of social relationships of people living in a certain
geographic territory and having a sense of belonging to the same group. The relationships between
the two concepts are so strong that it is not possible to separate them because what happens to one
affects the other and whatever occurs in the society influences or shapes the educational system in
all its ramifications. Educational institutions are micro-societies, which reflect the entire society.
The education system in any given society prepares the child for future life and instills in him/her
those skills that will enable him/her to live a useful life and contribute to the development of the
society.
When we are looking the rationale, Daramola (2012) disclose that education as a social
phenomenon does not take place in a vacuum or isolation; it takes place in the society and this
normally begins from the family, which is one of the social institutions responsible for the
education of the child. Many sociologists have observed that there is a strong relationship between
education and society. This observation is borne out of the fact that it is not possible to separate or
draw any line of demarcation between the two concepts. Durkbeim (1961) was one of the first
sociologists to appreciate the relationship between education and society. He saw education as a
social phenomenon through which a society assumes its own continuity by socializing the young
in its own image. The components of the educational system that constitute perfectly defined facts
and which have the same reality as another social fact are inter-related. They are inter-related
internally, so that a given education system has unity and consistency, and also externally so that
the education system reflects a society's moral and intellectual values.
In every society, whether developing or developed, complex or primitive, there is always an

education system. Education systems are not the same, as no two societies are identical. Therefore,
education systems differ from society to society and their aims, contents and techniques also differ
from one society to another. From the foregoing, one might postulate that educational institutions
are micro-societies, which mirror the entire society. This is one of the reasons why societies try to
evolve education systems and policies that would meet the needs, beliefs, attitudes and the
aspirations of their people. Havighurst (1968) observed that the way to understand a society's
education system is to understand how it is related to the other basic institutions of that society, in
particular the family, the church, mosque, the state, the polity and the economy.

We have seen education in particular as a means of cultural transmission from one generation to
another. The parents are the first teachers of the child and they still maintain an educative function
throughout the early and formative years of the child. In most of the developing nations of the
world, including Ethiopia, parents are responsible for sending their children to schools. Schools
are established in many societies of the world so as to instill in the students those skills which will
afford them the opportunity of taking their rightful positions in the society; but this function
cannot be adequately accomplished without the assistance of the home because both the home and
the school perform complimentary functions in the moral and intellectual development of the
child. This means that the child cannot be educated in a vacuum or in isolation. Therefore, for a
child to be educated there must be interaction between him/her and his/her physical and social
environment. By this we mean that education is the development of personality. It is something
which goes on both inside and outside the home and in the school. In other words, education is an
activity of the whole community.
This means that education is used in the transmission of the cultural values. One important
implication of looking at education as the transmitter of cultural values is the fact that education
can be influenced by the culture of the society in which it takes place. For this reason, one may
infer that for a child to be educated, he/she must be influenced by his/her environment and, in turn,
be capable of influencing it. And it is only by the concept of the continuous interaction of the
individual and his/her society that the development of personality can be properly understood. We
have noted above that education is a means through which the cultural values of a particular
society are transmitted from one generation to another. Through this process, the society is able to
achieve basic social conformity and ensure that its traditional values, beliefs, attitudes and
aspirations are maintained and preserved.
Clarks (1948) observed that a general knowledge and acceptance of the aims of our society is
essential for all its citizens, and it must be achieved through education but in a form, which makes
it compatible with freedom. So he reconciles the double purpose by saying that admittedly, the
purpose of the educative society may be to make human being conformable. But overmastering
that must be the purpose to make human being free. A society needs a stable and dynamic set of
values and a unified purpose. It is when this is ascertained that meaningful economic, political and
social programs can be embarked upon for the overall benefits of the citizens.
Activity 1.11. Brainstorming (5 minutes for discussion)

Dear Learner! Based on the above argument, explain the importance of schools and their
functions to the society.
Ottaway (1980) contended that the transmission of culture still remains a vital function, and is not
to be dismissed as merely conservative in the sense of being old-fashioned. He further observed
that our children are potentially the society of the future, which still belongs to the non-social
community, and education in this respect can be regarded as a socialization of the young.
Education depends on the total way of life of a people in a society. This suggests that the type of
education provided will differ from society to society. Besides, each society has its own norms,
values and its own ideal persons who stand out clearly for the younger generations to emulate. It,
therefore, implies that children have different people to emulate in different societies.
It is logical to expect that the type education given in each society will change from time to time
as the society changes. Many writers have argued that education is one of the causes of social
change in the society, but another school of thought is of the opinion, that educational change

tends to follow other social changes, rather than initiate them. Ottaway (1980) observed that ideas
of change originate in the minds of human beings; often in the mind of a single individual.
Exceptional individuals invent new techniques and propound new values for their society. These
ideas arise from the impact of human beings on their culture, but do not change the culture until
they are shared and transmitted by a social group.
Another area of the relationship between education and society is through the arrangement of the
entire society into a hierarchical order that is, through the social structure in which education plays
a prominent and significant role in fixing educated individuals into social classes. Ottaway (1980)
observed that education is the process of preparing people to fit into this complex social structure
and to play particular social roles as members of more than one institutional group. Individuals
have to learn to be fathers or mothers, school teachers or civil servants, shopkeepers or priests.
They have to learn to keep the law, to understand how they are governed and to be prepared to try
and change the social moves when they see that they can be improved.
Education as a social phenomenon is also concerned with the preparation of the child for his future
occupation in life. This is one of the main economic functions of education and this is in the
interest of both the nation and the individual. Through education an individual knows the structure
of the society and the different types of relationships that exist among those structures in the
society. The child is taught how to perform different roles within the social structure in the society.
These roles are inter-related. For example, the role of a father is a relational role; a father could be
a son to another person. So education allows the child to perform his role adequately within the
social structure in the society. In addition, the child is able to understand the network of inter-
relationships among the different social institutions that make up the society.
Another aspect of the relationship between education and society is in the area of social
interaction. Social interaction may be defined as any relation between people and groups, which
changes the behavior of the people in the group. There is a need for social interaction by the child
before he/she could acquire the culture of his/her society. This interaction in the society is
therefore part of the child's education, provided that, that type of interaction brings about positive
changes in the child's behavior in a right direction as required by the educational system. One
important point here is that the child has been taking part in group interaction long before he/she
starts to attend school and the most common among these group interactions are within the family
and the peer group. These groups in which the child interacts give him/her the opportunity to learn
from the wider circles in the society. From his/her social contacts, he/she learns his/her roles in
different groups and this influences his/her personality development.
Finally, education has to fulfill both the individual's needs and those of the society and must keep
pace with other sub-systems in the society, as both variables are inter-related. All stakeholders
should have to recognize the crucial role that schools have in contributing to the reconciliation of
our society. This is not a job solely for schools, but schools do play a critical role (GRF, 2010: 11).
For that reason, the school committees, school councils or parent-teacher groups establish to
facilitate participatory decision-making must be based on a collaborative management philosophy
of governance. One of the core principles of good governance is to facilitate public participation in
the decision-making process (We will see the concept of governance in detail in the later units).
Unit Summary

A society is nothing more than a group of people who voluntarily pool their efforts in support of
shared goals and values. When we are looking the nature of society, it is a group of people related
to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical
or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations.
Societies are social groups that differ according to subsistence strategies, the ways that humans
use technology to provide needs for them. We have seen also in this unit regards to characteristics
that society would be considered as a collection of individuals who have the same beliefs, ideas,
values, history, life experiences, and social environment; and associated together for religious,
benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes. At the same time, society is
characterized by a highly structured system of human organization for large-scale community
living that normally furnishes protection, continuity, security, and a national identity for its
members. As pointed out in lesson three of this unit, the various organizations found in the society
share many common characteristics. They, at the same time have different characteristics. Their
differences emanate, at least, from their mission and objectives. For example, business
organizations and health organization are organizations. They both have distinct structure,
objectives, require specialization, etc. These are some of their common features. However, their
mission and objectives, among other things are different. Similarly, educational organizations have
peculiar features that differ from other organization based on the range of its functions, the
centrality of its relationship, professionalization of staff, problems of evaluation which influences
its organization and management.
With regards the purpose of education, two primary opposing views exist: on the one hand, the
primary purpose of schools should be to create workers who have skills and personal styles to fill
and perform available jobs. Others believe this outcome is too narrow. For this group of people
schools should seek to develop active citizens, helping children develop their own capacity for
personal achievement and contributing to society as an active citizen for democracy. Finally, many
sociologists have appreciated the relationship between education and society and have concluded
that the two are so interrelated. That one cannot draw any line of demarcation between them. It has
been observed that the educational system of any nation must be based on the needs and demands
of the society and that any educational system that fails to meet the needs, aspirations and
ambitions of the society is not relevant and is bound to fail.
Review Questions
Part I: Choose the correct answer and write the letter on the space provided.
____ 1. Which one of the following is correct about society?
a. an organized voluntary association of people
b. society considered as institutions
c. totality of human relationships
d. All
____ 2. Which one is true regarding the term community?
a. interacting living organisms
b. people, living in some proximity
c. a social unit larger than a household
d. All.
____ 3. Among the following which one is not a characteristic of community?
a. Variety of interactions
b. Not dependent to each other
c. Functional differentiation

d. All
e. A and C
____ 4. Which one of the following is not included in purpose of education?
a. Prepare students for the work force
b. Schooling focused on economic issues
c. Purposes for citizenship in a democratic society
d. All
e. None.
____ 5. Which one of the following are not considered as the relationship between education and
society?
a. Transmission of the cultural values
b. Arrangement of the entire society into a hierarchical order
c. Preparation of the child for his future occupation in life
d. All except A
e. All
Part II: Write True if the statement is correct and False if the statement is incorrect on the
space provided.
____ 1. Social relationships can be felt and imagined and cannot be seen.
_____2. The overarching purpose of education is to assist human unfolding.
_____3. Many communities are not at all homogeneous in nature.
_____4. One of the relationships between education and community is through the arrangement of
the entire society into a hierarchical order.
_____5. Organization of human society is maintained with the help of norms and institutions that
pervade the society.
Part III: Write short answers for the following questions on the space provided.
1. Write down five unique natures of educational organizations and the schools.
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
2. Explain the relationship between school governance and community participation.
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
3. Specify the differences between community and society.
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
4. List down three merits of community participation in education.
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
5. Educators must be sensitive to the status-oriented family issues, what does it mean? Please
debate on this issue.
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
Methods of Delivery
Up on teaching this unit, the course instructor can apply multiple of teaching strategies. Among
these lecture method which is supported by brainstorming, questioning, group discussions and
reflections could be used.
Students Activities

Students are expected to identify the power structures within the society in which a school
operates, and how it affects the school system. In order to do so:
Students will be grouped in to sub-groups
Take one school of their own interest (could be a school in which one member of the group
attended long years of his primary or secondary education)
Identify the different power structures with in that particular society
Discuss how these power structures influence the school system
Present the groups report to the whole class.
Instructional Facility Required

Laptop, LCD, flip charts and others.
Unit Assessment
Continuous assessment such as group presentations and term papers are more appropriate to assess
students learning progress for this unit. In evaluating this unit, the participants reflection on the
school culture, strategies for effective school-community relationships and school structure will be
considered.
Mandatory Reading Materials for the Unit

Daramola, C.O. 2012. Education and Society: What type of Relationship? Retrieved from web site
www.unibrin.educ.ng.
Mandtum, G.K. 2008. Information Society: From Theory to Political Practice. NET-IS. Retrieved
from http://purposesforschools.blogspot.com/
Mitchell, D., Gerwin, D., Schuberth, E., Mancini, M. & Hofrichte, H. 2008. Assessment without
High-Stakes Testing: Protecting Childhood and the Purpose of School. Retrieved from
www.whywaldorfworks.org 11 Jan 2008.
Ottaway, A.K. (1980). Education and Society An Introduction to the Sociology of Education. New
York: The Humanities Press.
Potthoff, D., Kleinsasser, A., Badiali, B., Baugh, S., and Mantle-Bromley, C. [n.d.]. Retrieved
September 27, 2009 from http://purposesforschools.blogspot.com/.
Supplementary reading materials for the Unit

Apple, M., & Beane, J. (1995). The case for democratic schools. In J. Beane & M. Apple, (Eds.),
Democratic Schools (pp. 1-25). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Aristotle. 1984. Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation, 2 vols., ed.
Jonathan Barnes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Ayalew Shibeshi. 1991. Approaches to Organization and Management. Addis Ababa University,
Faculty of Education, Department of Educational Administration.
Bush, T. et al. 1980. Approaches to School Management. London: Harper and Row Publishers.
Clarke, F. (1948). Freedom in the Educative Society London: University Press.
Cohen, A.P. 1985. The Symbolic Construction of Community. London: Routledge.
Cremin, L. (1975). Public education and the education of the public. Teachers College Record, 77,
1-12.
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. New York: The MacMillan Company.
Durkheim, E. (1961). Moral Education, English Translation. London: Free Press.
Etzioni, A. 1996. The Good Society. Seatile Journal for Social Justice, 83-96.

GRF (Good Relations Forum). 2010. Ensuring the Good Relations Work in our Schools Counts.
Belfast: Equality Commission and Community Relations Council.
Havighurst, R.J. (1968). Education, Social Mobility and Social Change in Four Societies.
Homewood, III: Dorsey Press.
Goodlad, J. (1994). Common schools for the common weal: Reconciling self-Interest with the
common good. In J. Goodlad & P. Keating (Eds.), Access to knowledge: The continuing
agenda for our nations schools (pp. 1-21). New York: College Entrance Examination
Board.

School and Society Unit 2:
Diverse Nature of School and Society
UNIT TWO
DIVERSE NATURE OF THE SCHOOLS AND SOCIETY
(Time allotted 14 hrs.)
UNIT INTRODUCTION
Dear Learner! Would you please once again remember what you discussed in the previous unit?
Yes, you have learned the basic concepts and theories of school and society relations. We have
seen that society is defined and characterized in a number of ways and relationships by various
practitioners in different disciplines. At the same time, we have seen also the peculiar nature of
educational institutions from other organizations, the major objectives of creating close school
society relations and the rationale for school society relations.
This unit will help you to have understanding about the diverse nature of the schools and society.
Especially we are going to examine the varieties and purpose of schooling by describing the
contemporary goals of education and diversity and differences in schools and society that affect
the process of education. For these purpose, the whole unit is divided into five sections. The first
part of this unit begins with the variety and purpose of schooling. At the same time, it gives
insights with regard to the contemporary goals of education. Then we will discuss about the
diversity and differences exist in students, family and society at large. Finally, this unit attempts to
provide the schools organization roles, relationships, school culture and leadership, and the
expectation of the society.

Explain how some of the broader issues in society affect the process of education
Describe the relationships between the social, political, and economic forces and
educational goals
Portray the varieties and purposes of schooling
Describe possible forms of education
Describe the contemporary goals of education
Differentiate the relationship between formal policy, informal practices plus the formal and
hidden curriculum
Appreciate and manage diversity existing within the society and the school community
Analyze the school culture and devise mechanisms to improve school functioning
Analyze communities demands and expectations.
Lesson One
2.1. The Varieties and Purposes of Schooling
Dear students, Do you remember what you have learnt regarding the purpose of schooling
in addressing the contemporary goals of education? We have seen that different
assumptions for not having unified purpose of education. So how do you relate this concept
with varieties and forms of education? Please discuss on this issue. Good job!

To begin with, continuous learning with clear purpose and connection to the real-world is critical
to developing the capabilities, dispositions and literacy required to participate in society and to
deal with the complexity of issues and change. Knowledge is situational, complex, diverse and
rapidly changing. Learning is inquiry-focused, requiring application construction and creation of
knowledge. Therefore, any national goals for schooling recognize the capacity of all young people
to learn and the role of schooling in developing that capacity (MCEETYA, 2005). Over the span of
a century, schools have broadened their mission and scope toward becoming more inclusive and
marked a major shift in philosophies and policies governing ones country education.
Dear learner, education is a purposeful activity. People having different philosophies of education
try to state the purpose of education differently based on their philosophies. For that reason,
different philosophers explain the purpose of education in different ways. Under this section,
therefore, let us look at how the various purpose of education is presented by different
philosophers.
What are some major philosophies of education cited in most the education literature?
What are the implications of these philosophies to the purpose of schooling?
Have you attempted? That is great! In this module we can see the purpose of education is to enable
individuals to reach their full potential as human beings, individually and as members of a society;
this means that these individuals will receive an education which will enable them to think and act
intelligently and purposefully in exercising and protecting the rights and responsibilities claimed
by different proclamations, constitutions and their own will. However, different philosophers
explain the purpose of education in different ways as their philosophy of education is not alike. So,
let us look at how the purpose of education is presented by different philosophers.
To start, contemporary thinkers are addressing the issue of democracy. For instance, Dewey
proclaimed that democracy constituted the highest ethical ideal for humankind. Thus, for Dewey,
schooling is an imperative that derives directly from his understanding of the ethical ideals of
individual freedom and democracy. Schooling is the vehicle for the dissemination of knowledge. If
freedom implies knowledge and knowledge brings economic and political benefits, then Dewey
has found a formula for social justice through democratic schooling. Knowledge became not only
the factor that preserves a just society, but also the power which transform an unjust community
into a just one. Therefore, Deweys purpose for schooling is to promote a democratic state. For
Dewey, democracy is the ultimate ethical ideal for human being. To Dewey, democracy is the
political system in which humans ethical ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity can best be
realized (Cimpean, 2008).
As an Aristotelian thinker, Adler believes that politics is the supreme human activity; education is
one of several central dimensions within the domain of politics (Adler, 1988). Therefore, the role
of education in general and of schooling in particular is to serve the state. For Adler, the ideal
political regime is democracy. Thus, the purpose of schooling is to promote the flourishing of a
democratic state.
If you are looking different articles on this issue, you can found different purpose of schooling,
examples of the purpose of schools include: develop reasoning about perennial questions, master
the methods of scientific inquiry, cultivate the intellect, create positive change agents, develop

spirituality, and model a democratic society are some of commonly mentioned in the literature. So,
let us look the common mentioned philosophies of education in brief.
A) Perennialism
Perennialism believes that the focus of education should be the ideas that have lasted over
centuries. They recommend that students learn from reading and analyzing the works by history's
finest thinkers and writers. They recommend that schools spend more time teaching about
concepts and explaining they are meaningful to students. Perennialism is rooted in realism;
expounds the past and teaches universally agreed upon knowledge and cherished values of society
to the universal truths and absolutely reason and faith (Foundations of American Education Sixth
Edition)." Perennialism teaches principles rather than facts; teacher is a master of subjects and
guides discussion and they believe that whatever is taught should be used throughout your life.
Most perennialists stress a strong liberal arts common curriculum for all students that includes
subjects as philosophy, mathematics, history, geography, political science, sociology, theology,
languages, and literature, physical and life sciences, and the fine arts and humanities. If these
subjects are highly studied and mastered then you completed necessary training for a well
developed intellect. Based on this, the purpose of education are: general and liberal education;
providing ample opportunity for personal development; preparing students for the political duties
and responsibilities of citizenship with all the trained intelligence and preparing students for
earning a living, not by specific training for specific job.
B) Essentialism
Essentialism focuses on teaching the essential elements of academic and moral knowledge.
Essentialists urge that schools get back to the basics; they believe in a strong core curriculum and
high academic standards. Essentialism rooted in idealism and realism; curriculum should be
geared to the fundamentals or essentials and not rooted in the past; concerned with contemporary
scene. Hence, the method of teaching in essentialism focuses on acquisition of knowledge of the
most important subjects such as philosophy, history, literature, art and learning by having
experiences to fully understand the subject matter that require experiences. Therefore, the purpose
of education of essentialism are: liberal education, development of intellectual powers to realize
human potential; improvement of human by help students understand, establish, and live by a
hierarchy of values; provision of the habits, ideas, and techniques that students need to continue to
educate themselves throughout their lives and promotion of political freedom or social reform by
development of understanding and judgment.
C) Progressivism
Progressivism is based largely on the belief that lessons must be relevant to the students in order
for them to learn. The curriculum of a progressivist school is built around the personal
experiences, interests, and needs of the students. Progressivism is rooted in pragmatism; reform
social and political order in society; how to think; not what to think and teach through activities,
experiments, problem-solving, inquiry, projects and thematic approaches through concrete social
experience cooperation and self-discipline. Hence, the purpose of schooling focus on social,
emotional, and mental development as well as full experiential growth of the individual to meet
immediate needs and desires of students.
D) Reconstructionism
Reconstructionism emphasizes society-centered education; appropriate for a society in crisis
some believe our society and international society today. Then, curriculum emphasizes cultural
pluralism, equity and futurism; look at global issues and the larger social order as well as study
empirical analysis and scientific approaches plus social, political and economic ideology. Social
reconstructionists separated from progressivism because they desired more direct and immediate

attention to societal ills. They are interested in combining study and social action, and believe that
education can and should go hand in hand with ameliorating social problems.
E) Existentialism
Existentialism is derived from a powerful belief in human free will, and the need for individuals to
shape their own futures. Students in existentialist classrooms control their own education. Students
are encouraged to understand and appreciate their uniqueness and to assume responsibility for
their actions.
Dear Learner, How are these philosophies reflected in school practices? /Purpose?
Try to list down what comes to your mind about the issue. Good job!
When we are looking the above philosophies, essentialism and perennialism give teachers the
power to choose the curriculum, organize the school day, and construct classroom activities. The
curriculum reinforces a predominantly Western heritage while viewing the students as vessels to
be filled and disciplined in the proven strategies of the past. Essentialists focus on cultural literacy,
while perennialists work from the Great Books. Whereas, progressivism, social reconstructionism,
and existentialism view the learner as the central focus of classroom activities. Working with
student interests and needs, teachers serve as guides and facilitators in assisting students to reach
their goals. The emphasis is on the future, and on preparing students to be independent-thinking
adults. Progressivists strive for relevant, hands-on learning. Social reconstructionists want students
to actively work to improve society. Existentialists give students complete freedom, and complete
responsibility, with regard to their education.
Dear learner! As presented in the above paragraphs, the aim of education varies across different
philosophies of education but generally the purpose of education is to educate individuals within
society, to prepare and qualify them for work in economy as well as to integrate people into
society and teach them values and morals of society. Role of education is means of socializing
individuals and to keep society smoothing and remain stable. Education in society prepares
youngsters for adulthood so that they may form the next generation of leaders. It will yield strong
families and strong communities. Indeed, parents taking an active role in their child education
produce a willingness in children to learn. Education and society provides a forum where teachers
and scholars all over the world are able to evaluate problems in education and society from a
balanced and comparative social and economic perspective.

What serious questions does the reading raise regarding the nature and purpose of
schooling? What serious omissions re left out of the article or reading?
In what ways does this article reinforce, extend, challenge, or oppose your own views on
schooling? Be specific.
2.1.1. Relationships between Broader Social, Political, and Economic Forces and
Educational Goals

Dear Learner! In the previous lesson we have seen that there are different views with regard to the
purposes of schooling based on different point of views of practitioners and philosophers. From
this variety of education, we can understand that the challenge of achieving the education goals is
both central to and strongly influenced by so many factors; among these, the social, political and
economic context are the major one (UNMP, 2005). So, let us look what type of relationship
between the broader social, political and economic forces exist to influence the overall educational
goals in brief.
To start with, whenever we have in mind the discussion of a new movement in education, it is
especially necessary to take the broader, or social, view. It is to this, then, that I especially ask your
attention: the effort to conceive what roughly may be termed the "new education" in the light of
larger changes in society. Let us then ask after the main aspects of the social movement; and
afterward turn to the school to find what witness it gives of effort to put itself in line.
And since it is quite impossible to cover the whole social forces, it is better to confine the relation
between social conditions with regard to educational goals. A society is a number of people held
together because they are working along common lines, in a common spirit, and with reference to
common aims. The common needs and aims demand a growing interchange of thought and
growing unity of sympathetic feeling. A spirit of free communication, of interchange of ideas,
suggestions, results, both successes and failures of previous experiences, becomes the dominating
note of the recitation. It is within this organization that is found the principle of school discipline
or order emanates.
The great thing to keep in mind, then, regarding the introduction into the school of various forms
of active occupation, is that through them the entire spirit of the school is renewed based on these
society demands. This is the fundamental fact, and from this arise continuous and orderly streams
of instruction. The aim is not the economic value of the products, but the development of social
power and insight. It is this liberation from narrow utilities, this openness to the possibilities of the
human spirit that makes these practical activities in the school allies of art and centers of science
and history.
From political point of view, through it the face of the earth is making over, even as to its physical
forms; political boundaries are wiped out and moved about, as if they were indeed only lines on a
paper map; population is hurriedly gathered into cities from the ends of the earth; habits of living
are altered with startling abruptness and thoroughness; the search for the truths of nature is
infinitely stimulated and facilitated, and their application to life made not only practicable, but
commercially necessary. Based on this political influence, even our moral and religious ideas and
interests, the most conservative ones because the deepest things in our nature, are profoundly
affected. These political forces should affect education system to bring new arrangement and goals
so as to respond to the immediate needs and aspirations of the society.
When we see from economic perspective, the entire industrial process still revealed every where,
from the production on the farm of the raw materials till the finished article was actually put to
use. Not only this, but practically every member of the household had his/her own share in the
work. The children, as they gained in strength and capacity, were gradually initiated into the
mysteries of the several processes. It was a matter of immediate and personal concern, even to the
point of actual participation in educational processes.

Hence, it is through occupations determined by this environment that human being has made its
historical and political progress. It is through these occupations that the intellectual and emotional
interpretation of nature has been developed. It is through what we do in and with the world that we
read its meaning and measure its value. In educational terms, this means that these occupations in
the school shall not be mere practical devices or modes of routine employment, the gaining of
better technical skill as cooks, or carpenters, or any other field, but active centers of scientific
insight into natural materials and processes, points of departure when children shall be led out into
a realization of the historic development of human being.
However, this transformation is not something to appear suddenly, to be executed in a day by

conscious purpose. It is already in progress. Those modifications of our school system which often
appear to be mere changes of detail, mere improvement within the school mechanism, are in realty
signs and evidences of evolution. The introduction of active occupations, of nature-study, of
elementary science, of art, of history; the relegation of the merely symbolic and formal to a
secondary position; the change in the moral school atmosphere, in the relation of students and
teachersof discipline; the introduction of more active, expressive, and self-directing factors
all these are not mere accidents, they are necessities of the larger social evolution.
To do this means to make each one of our schools an active with types of occupations that reflect
the life of the larger society and permeated throughout with the spirit of art, history, and science.
By the same token, the development of a broad knowledge base, namely the ability to grasp the
meaning of things, to comprehend and to make judgments, is the first factor in adapting to social,
political, economic and labor market change. This need for a solid and broad knowledge base
which is literary, philosophical, scientific, technical and practical, does not only concern initial
training. There is, moreover, an increasing degree of convergence between business and the world
of education when it comes to the usefulness of reconciling general education and specialized
training. More generally speaking, the forceful return of a broad knowledge base as the key to
understanding the world outside the context of education can be seen. And, this will affect the
goals of education in general and forms of education in particular. Hence, it is better here to show
what types or forms of education exist to respond to the above forces are the focus of the
following section.
Activity 2.5. Brainstorming (Take time for 5 minutes for discussion)

What are the forms of education?
How are the forms of education classified? Give specific examples.
2.1.2. Forms of Education

Dear learner, would you please once again remember what you discussed in unit two? Yes, you
have learned the variety and purpose of schooling, including relationship between social, political
and economic forces impact on educational goals. This sub-section will make you to have
understanding about the basic concepts, context and different forms of education in order to avoid
confusions attached to them. In the subsequent section therefore, the three forms of education, i.e.
Formal, Non-formal and Informal education will be discussed.
There are various ways of classifying education. The definition and relationship between formal
education, non-formal and informal education can be considered from both conceptual and
practical angles. Several criteria must be applied simultaneously to determine the extent to which

learning is formal, non-formal or informal. Often, this is done within a specific context and /or for
a specific purpose. One way of addressing this problem is to search for ways to group the criteria
to identify deeper underlying organizing concepts. The criteria used in distinguishing the three
forms can be grouped as follows:
Process: This include learners activity, pedagogical/andragogical styles and issues of assessment,
the learning practices, and the relationships between learner and others (tutors, facilitator, teachers,
trainers, mentors and guides).
Location and setting: Is the location of the learning within a setting that is primarily established
for education, community or work place? Does the learning take place in the context of fixed or
open time frames? Is there specified curriculum, objectives, and certification? etc.
Purposes: Is the learning secondary to other prime purposes, or the main purpose of itself? Whose
purposes are dominant - the learners, or others?
Content: - This covers issues about the nature of what is being learned. Is this the acquisition of
established expert knowledge/understanding/ practices or the development of something new? Is
the focus on propositional knowledge or situated practice? Is the focus on high status knowledge
or not?
These four dimensions of formality/non formality/ informality are useful in analyzing and
understanding learning in a variety of contexts. To this end, it is essential to view the forms of
education not only as three different forms of education. But also the formal, non-formal and
informal should be seen as three predominant modalities for children, youth and adult education
rather than discrete entities. Hence, let us see the most common of these divisions into formal,
non-formal and informal.
Formal Education
Formal education is the highly institutionalized, chronologically graded and hierarchically
structured education system, spanning lower primary school and the upper reaches of the
university and generally full time and sanctioned by the state (Coombs and Ahmed, 1974). Formal
learning takes place in a planned way at recognized institutions such as schools, colleges, and
universities. Teachers mediate the learning in a formal setting, and the student generally follows
the teacher/leaders agenda. The teachers goal is to impart knowledge, and the learners goal is to
increase his/her knowledge and skills. The problem with these definitions is that people often
organize educational event as part of their everyday experience and so the lines blur rapidly.
In short, this system has the following features:

a) it is highly institutionalized;
b) it includes a period called 'basic education' (which varies from country to country, and usually
ranges from 6 to 12 years) which is compulsory, implements a prescribed curriculum
-approved by the state - with explicit goals and evaluation mechanisms, hires certified
teachers, and institutional activities are highly regulated by the state.
c) it is preparatory in nature (in the sense that each level prepares learners for the next one, and
that to enter into a certain level it is a prerequisite to satisfactorily complete the previous
level)
d) it is a hierarchical system, usually with ministries of education at the top and students at the
bottom
e) at the end of each level and grade, graduates are granted a diploma or certificate that allows
them to be accepted into the next grade or level, or into the formal labor market
(Schugurensky, 2000).

From the above definition, one can deduce that formal education is compulsory and universal; at
the same time it is also terminal and selective, in the sense that there are fixed entry and departure
points. It is thus designed and intended for children and the youth generally from age five to seven
up to the early twenties. So, the participants are forced to enter the system at a set age and to leave
at a point where they are prevented from going any further by examinations or other regulations. It
is essentially and inherently competitive and certified.

How do you define Non-Formal Education? Do you think that there is wide gap between
the characteristics of NFE and formal education?
What is the relationship between formal and NFE? Give specific examples.
Non-Formal Education
The definition problem and of drawing boundaries dominated the discussions about Non-Formal
Education (NFE) have been a source of running controversy over the last 30 to 40 years. The
argument here is that these debates are, mostly, beside the point. Non-formal is used in two
different senses. The dominant meaning (especially among senior planners and policy-makers) is a
form of administration and program provision (governmental or non-governmental) which takes
place outside the formal education system. The other meaning is in terms of the style, or process,
of education, which is non-formal rather than formal. This tends to mean that it does not adopt the
rigid set forms and relationships of traditional schooling, with regimented curriculum, classrooms,
teacher disciple, and syllabus, but is more flexible and diverse, being adapted to the particular
needs of each group of learner adults and their unique circumstances.
So, initially when we are looking the emergency of the program, some people said that NFE first
appears in countries where not every body has access to the formal education system; it is a
community-based program, attractive for the under-privileged groups in terms of accessibility,
duration, curriculum and teaching-learning environment (Mernier, 2007). On the contrary,
according to Rogers (2004) stated that NFE seems to emerge at a point within the educational
reform cycle when an alternative to formal education was being sought, either by changing formal
schooling or abolishing schooling. Formal education with its urban and formal economic sector
bias could not meet the needs of the new mass target groups for development interventions.
Hence, a sense of crisis is the key to the emergence of NFE a crisis within education as a whole.
Philip Coombs book The World Educational Crisis: a system approach, published in 1968 which
first set out NFE as one of the key elements in an attack on the ill-health of the formal system of
education.
Based on this, it was suggested, and sometimes still is, that NFE could be categorized by the
degree of formalization of the learning process, or by the degrees of integration between education
and its environment, or by the degree of flexibility in client participation, or again by all three.
Accordingly, NFE has traditionally been associated with out-of-school education, with adult
education, and generally with flexible education addressed to meet the learning needs of special
groups. However, NFE is today associated also with children and youth, and with school
education. In recent years, terminology has once again become a prominent issue. Some specialists
are arguing that the very term non-formal education has lost its meaning and relevance
altogether, because of both the current enormous diversity of forms and the difficulties in drawing
a line between what is formal and what is non-formal, when so many, initiatives show

characteristics belonging to both. So, for the sake of clarity let us look some of the definitions
given by different authors.
Coombs and Ahmed (1974) define NFE as any organized, systematic, educational activity carried
on outside the framework of the formal system to provide selected type of learning to particular
subgroups in the population, adults as well as children. It is simple and flexible and can be
delivered at any place convenient to the learners; and it is generally designed also to meet the
basic learning needs of disadvantaged groups and can be given at any age. Among the definitions
given based on diverse characteristics, Hoppers (2006) stated that the term NFE has come to cover
education (training) initiatives as far apart as extension services for farmers, HIV/AIDS peer group
support, community schools, functional literacy programs, programs for street children,
shepherd schools, entrepreneurship development programs, language classes, multimedia
community development centers, evening classes, computer courses, environmental awareness
groups, and in service course for teachers.
Non formal learning occurs in a planned but highly adaptable way, in institutions, organizations,
and situations outside the spheres of formal or informal education, and is usually short-term and
voluntary. It shares with formal education the characteristic of being mediated, but the motivation
for learning may be wholly intrinsic to the learner. Examples of NFE include continuing education
courses, organized field trips, museum visits, and structured programs developed by organizations
such as the Boy Scouts. The learners objectives may be to increase skills and knowledge, as well
as to experience the emotional rewards associated with increased love for a subject or increased
passion for learning (MENON Network, 2004).
In general, NFE refers to the varied assortment of organized and semi-organized educational
activities operating outside the regular structure of the formal system, aimed at serving variety of
learning needs of different sub-groups; and the following characteristics are associated with NFE:
a focus on clearly defined purposes; concern with specific categories of person; flexibility in
organization and methods; learner centered teaching learning process; need based curriculum and
content; more practical rather than theoretical, and more economical because it could use existing
facilities.
Based on the above elaborations and characteristics, the meaning of NFE can be summed up:
It is based on the needs of the participants;
It is flexible, and is subject to change when found necessary;
It gives high credit or importance for the experience of participants;
It is related with or tied with practice, is a problem-solving, brings about immediate change
on the life of participants,
The program is taken and provided to where the participants live and work;
The program is arranged in a way that suits the participants. The month, date and hour are
set upon agreement with the beneficiaries, so that there may not be interference with their
daily chores;
It is conducted based on active participation and motivation of the participations;
It is based on self-help principles;
The Educational approach is participant-centered; and
The acquired knowledge and skill is put into effect immediately, which results in
productivity and improvement of the living standard of the participants.


Analyze the similarities and differences between NFE and Informal education?
Give specific examples.
Informal Education
Informal education is the life long process by which every person acquires and accumulates
knowledge, skills, attitudes and insight from daily experiences and exposure to the environment-at
home, at work, at play, from the example and attitudes of family and friends; from travel, reading
newspapers and books, or by listening to the radio or viewing films or television. Generally,
informal education is unorganized and often unsystematic; yet it accounts for the great bulk of any
persons total lifetime learning - including that of even a highly schooled person (Coombs and
Ahmed, 1974). As Livingstone (1999: 51) points out, informal learning can be defined as "any
activity involving the pursuit of understanding, knowledge or skill which occurs outside the
curricula of educational institutions, or the courses or workshops offered by educational or social
agencies." Put it in other words, the category of informal learning includes all learning that occurs
outside the curriculum of formal and NFE institutions and programs (Schugurensky, 2000).
The clearest example of this kind of natural learning and one which has been explored several
times is that of language learning. Learning a first language is always informal - it is done on the
job. The first language is learned through the use of language without any structure, learning
through tasks of communication and through play with sounds, experimentation, etc. We can give
other examples of this kind of learning which continues throughout life - but more needs to be
studied. The examples most often cited are the informal way in which young people learn to
manage new technologies without any formal inputs. Joining new organizations, taking on new
tasks at work, in the home or in the community, all call for a learning curve. But it goes beyond
this into everyday experience.
Activity 2.8. Reflective Individual Activity (Take time for 5 minutes for discussion)
Who taught young people how to write text messages on their mobile phones?
How do most people learn to send e-mails or solve the many problems that comp up
through using computers on a daily basis? Give some more specific examples of your own.
In the concept of 'informal learning' it is important to note that we are deliberately using the word
'learning' and not 'education', because in the processes of informal learning there are not
educational institutions, institutionally authorized instructors or prescribed curricula. It is also
pertinent to note that we are saying 'outside the curricula of educational institutions' and not
'outside educational institutions', because informal learning can also take place inside formal and
non-formal educational institutions. In that case, however, the learning occur independently (and
sometimes against) the intended goals of the explicit curriculum (Schugurensky, 2000). By
definition the informal learning is accidental, active, intrinsic and spontaneous and these
characteristics allow people with a non successful education background but having interests,
needs and priorities to start to gain knowledge/improve competence and act in a learning
environment which is less structured and less similar to the previous school experience. This leads
to a question: Is it possible to develop taxonomy of informal learning?
In some instances, some authors also try to define informal education by classifying into two parts.
According to Jember (1996), for instances, it is classified as incidental and informal education.
Incidental education refers to learning which takes place without either a conscious attempt to

teach on the part of the source of information or a conscious attempt to learn on the part of the
learner. On the other hand, informal education indicates learning results from situation where
either the learner or the source of information has the conscious intent of promoting learning- but
not both (e.g. educational radio message broadcast to the general public have the intent of
teaching, but may or may not find listeners who are willing or able to learn from the message).
Similarly, Schugurensky (2000) develop a taxonomy which identifies three forms (or types) of
informal learning: self-directed learning, incidental learning and socialization by using two main
categories (intentionality and consciousness). Let us see the three taxonomies in brief.
Self-directed learning: refers to 'learning projects' undertaken by individuals (alone or as part of a
group) without the assistance of an 'educator' (teacher, instructor, facilitator), but it can include the
presence of a 'resource person' who does not regard herself or himself as an educator. It is both
intentional and conscious. It is intentional because the individual has the purpose of learning
something even before the learning process begins, and it is conscious, in the sense that the
individual is aware that she or he has learned something for example: a child decides that she
wants to start putting her socks on by herself, and after many attempts finally succeeds.
Incidental learning: refers to learning experiences that occur when the learner did not have any
previous intention of learning something out of that experience, but after the experience she or he
becomes aware that some learning has taken place. Thus, it is unintentional but conscious. For
instance, a child touches a hot iron and immediately learns that it is not wise to do it again.
Socialization: Socialization (also referred to as tacit learning) refers to the internalization of
values, attitudes, behaviors, skills, etc. that occur during everyday life. Not only we have no a
priori intention of acquiring them, but we are not aware that we learned something. For example, a
child learns to speak a first language, or a child acquires eating habits (e.g. not to eat insects),
without being aware that those were learning processes in which imitation played an important
role. Or an elementary school teacher has different expectations of male and female students, and
treats them differently, and neither the teacher nor the students are aware of the impact of the
hidden curriculum in gender role socialization (we will see this issue in the next section).
It is pertinent to note that although learning through socialization is usually an unconscious

process, we can become aware of that learning later on through a process of retrospective
recognition, which could be internal and/or external. For instance, by being exposed to a different
social environment, a person can be prompted to recognize that she or he has certain prejudices
and biases that were the product of primary socialization. Likewise, some people may not be
aware that they have learned something in a particular experience until they have a conversation
with a person who asks questions about their learning, eliciting retrospective recognition
(Schugurensky, 2000).
Informal learning can be characterized as follows: it usually takes place outside educational
establishments; it does not follow a specified curriculum and is not often professionally organized
but rather originates accidentally, sporadically, in association with certain occasions and from
changing practical requirements. It is not necessarily planned pedagogically conscious,
systematically according to subject, test and qualification-oriented, but rather unconsciously
incidental, holistically problem-related, and related to situation management and fitness for life; it
is experienced directly in its natural function of everyday life and it is often spontaneous.
To summarize, informal education is considered as the lifelong process by which every person
acquires and accumulates knowledge, skills, attitudes and insights from daily experiences and
exposure to the environment.

We all know that we live in an age of life long learning. Lifelong learning is no longer just one
aspect of education and training; it must become the guiding principle for participation and
provision across the full continuum of learning context (EC, 2000); especially, it has emerged in
recent years as a key issue on the policy agenda and different practitioners. However, when we are
looking the definitions given by different people, lifelong education is a broad, imprecise and
elastic term which can appeal to a wide range of people and perspectives (Johnston, 2000). There
is an overall shift in focus from education to learning and from lifelong education to lifelong
learning. Lifelong learning must encompass all aspects of the education system so that expanding
human capital needs can be addressed through innovation, adjustments, flexibility, and quick
reorganization. This view stands in stark contrast with a more traditional notion of education
systems that compartmentalize the different components of education: formal versus non-formal,
compulsory versus non-compulsory, elite versus mass, and so forth. That is why to say that
lifelong education has been activated today as the key organizing principle for education and
training systems, and for the building of the Knowledge society of the 21st century.
In general, the three forms of education have their own different functions, purposes and distinct
advantages. Learning is generally achieved by the integrated role of all the three forms. So, it is
more helpful to examine the dimensions and the differences among formal, non-formal and
informal education meaningfully based on their relations and differences to particular contexts and
purposes. Of course, all this various sub-sectors or systems of education do not stand alone; they
are complementary to one another in many ways. Hence, each individual learner will call on the
resources of both forms of education throughout lifelong learning.
Dear Learner! Identify the characteristics of formal, NFE and informal education.
Which form of education do you think is most important? Why?
Distinguish the relationship and differences between formal, NFE and informal education.
The key issue involves how all three learning formats can be integrated and seen as a means of
providing a unique path/strategy for individual/personal/organizational/societal development. The
success element is determined by the way each learning format can communicate and dialogue
with the others, how informal-and non-formal can be integrated in formal learning and how they
can serve and benefit the others.
To conclude this section, consideration of quality within formal, informal and non-formal learning
means focusing on the quality of the learning experience in itself in terms of:
Meaningfulness, coherence, relevance for the final users and for the context in which the
user is living and working;
Use of resources (human and materials) which have intrinsic elements of quality and that
can initiate, foster and accompany the learning process; support the motivation and the joy
of learning, and accommodate the different ways of learning and the emerging and
changing needs;
Design and implementation of processes and steps which are based on methods,
procedures and strategies which have been pre-designed, documented, and tested and
which have produced previous positive results (Menon Network, 2004).
2.1.3. Relationship between Formal Policy, Informal Practices, Formal and Hidden
Curriculum

Nowadays, education systems are investing in schools as learning communities with strong
partnerships between students, teachers, families and the wider community. In this contemporary
society, schooling is embedded in social, political and economic activity, because, society
significantly impacts on education and on the worlds of students, their families and their schools.
Above all, our society is shaped among other things by: international interdependency and global
engagement; values, ethics, responsibilities and cultural sensitivity; communities and economies
exploiting communication, information and knowledge; rapid development and uptake of ICT in
work, learning and leisure as well as access to technologies and policies to address inequalities
(NCEETYA, 2005). Therefore, in order to respond for these aspirations, innovative new models of
schooling that utilize technologies in the redesign of organizational structures and curriculum are
required. Here, we can raise one question with regard to what are the factors that influence a
national or school-based curriculum design so as to fulfill the above aspirations. Assuming that
the school curriculum developers design their curriculum with the child in mind, there are a
number of factors that they need to consider. These are described below.
Originally, the curriculum was considered as the product of a technical process; in other words, as
a document prepared by experts, depending on the state of the art of disciplinary and pedagogical
knowledge. However, following the works of different practitioners and researchers in education,
the major part of the educational community considers that the curriculum has both a political
dimension and a technical or professional dimension. Indeed, the curriculum relates to the
connections between the goals of education and everyday life in learning institutions, schools,
colleges and universities.
Then, when we are looking the major factors, first, national goals of education, has paramount
decisiveness. Learning in any country is guided by its national goals and philosophy. These are
influenced by political considerations to ensure national identity. Hence, curriculum development
can be centralized at the national level or decentralized to the local level. Second, number of
subject options available the central pattern of curriculum design is further influenced by the
number of subjects in the national curriculum. Normally, a school cannot include on its list a
subject that is not on the national curriculum, so the school curriculum is limited to what the
national list has to offer. Third, the Learner in addition to national goals, the school curriculum
is influenced greatly by the mental, physical and emotional requirements of the child. The school
curriculum developers look at the childs level of development and maturity. The juniors should be
given what they can handle in terms of depth and quantity (Harnett, 2004). On the other hand,
education is deeply implicated in the politics of culture. The curriculum is never simply a neutral
assemblage of knowledge, somehow appearing in the texts and classrooms of a nation. It is always
part of a selective tradition, someones selection, and some groups vision of legitimate
knowledge. It is produced out of the cultural, political, and economic conflicts, tensions, and
compromises that organize and disorganize a people. Based on the above factors, education
consists of three related areas: curriculum what is to be learnt; pedagogy how it is to be
taught and assessment how progress and attainments are judged (NACCCE, 1999).
Dear Learner! Bring in examples of issues shaping curriculum (might be drawn from your
particular professional school/community situations, national reports, newspaper articles, other
readings at a local, state, national or global level). No written response required, but be prepared
to lead a discussion on the issues brought forward.

When we are looking curriculum more specifically, a curriculum considers the learners and their
interaction with each other, the teacher and the materials. The output and outcomes of a
curriculum are evaluated. Bringing all these points together, the curriculum is viewed as a
composite whole including the learner, the teacher, teaching and learning methodologies,
anticipated and unanticipated experiences, outputs and outcomes possible within a learning
institution (COL, 2000). Then, the question to ask at this stage is, What is a curriculum?

Dear Learner! How would you define curriculum?
The real meaning of the word curriculum can be demonstrated by looking at its origin. The word
comes from a Latin word meaning race-course. It is the path which a runner or a horse needs to
follow if he/she is to finish the race. This word is also the basis of the word current, meaning the
course along which water or electricity for example flows. When applied to education, the word
curriculum means all the activities which the students do, especially those which they need to
pursue if they are to finish the course and to achieve the goal. It is the path they have to follow. It
is not just the contents but also the program, the course which they need to complete to be
successful. And it also includes what they do outside of the classroom, on the sports field and in
any spare time which the school, college or training institution may provide for them (UN, 1998).
Because of this wide-ranging view of curriculum, many people have tried to define the word, but
so far a definitive version has not yet been produced. The following are some selected definitions.
After reading and discussing the topics in this lesson, you might wish to revise the statement you
have written above so as to produce a definition which you feel suits your own perspective.
Among the many definitions of the curriculum are the following:

All the learning which is planned and provided for children at school (Hawes, 1979);
A framework for the enhancement and organization of the varied and numerous
experiences of students in the school setting and beyond the school (Skilbeck 1984);
The learning experiences and activities that are provided by the school and society for the
education of the child (Salia-Bao, 1988);
According to Ralph Tyler, twentieth century Americas best known curricularist, the school
curriculum is all learning, which is planned and guided by the school, whether or not it is
carried on in classes, on the playground, or in other segments of the students lives.
There are several different elements here which it may be useful to disentangle:
the learning which the students achieve;
the activities and experiences which bring the learning about;
the process of planning and organizing these activities and experiences; and
the piece of writing which embraces this planning; all of these have been called the
curriculum by different writers (UN, 1998).
Most definitions of the term curriculum refer to all the learning which is planned and guided by
the educational institution, whether in groups or individually, whether inside or outside the
institution. The essential element behind many of the definitions is that the word curriculum refers
to those things which the students do more than those things which the teacher does. It is certainly

not something which the teacher does alone. The curriculum is the process by which the students
learn actively.
There is also often confusion between the terms curriculum and syllabus. The two words syllabus
and curriculum are often used interchangeably. As a teacher, you should be aware of the
differences between them. For many people, curriculum means a list of the subjects or topics at
different levels which are taught by a teacher. This is not a curriculum; it is a syllabus. Generally, a
syllabus is defined as a course of study offered by a learning institution in a specific period of
time (Debin and Olshtain, 1986). Other authorities have considered a syllabus to be a collection
of topics on the same subject matter that are required to meet the course objectives. Farrant (1980)
defined a syllabus as a series of statements of what is to be learned. Thus, the syllabus is the list
of contents of a course, what is to be taught. It does not necessarily deal with the issues of how or
why the subject mailer is to be included or with the separate roles of the teachers and the students
(UN, 1998).
The curriculum, on the other hand, is much broader than the syllabus. Curriculum contains a broad
description of general goals; indicates overall philosophy of education that applies across subjects
and reflects national and political trends. Here, the question to be asked at this point is What is
included in the curriculum?
The curriculum, as many writers like Kelly (1989) have noted, is a broad area of study. It deals not
only with the content, but also with the methods of teaching and learning. It deals also with the
aims and objectives it plans to meet, and with the ways in which its effectiveness is measured.
These elements all relate to the course work of the education and training program. But the
curriculum will go wider than the activities in the classroom and any assignments which the
teacher may set. It also includes the context in which the learning takes place. This aspect of the
curriculum pervades the whole process. For example: (1) students will learn one thing if the
teacher tells them; (2) they will learn other things if they are shown them; (3) they will learn still
other things if the teacher shows them first, and then encourages them to try things out for
themselves; (4) they will learn yet other things if they are asked to find something out for
themselves, if the teacher gives them a problem to solve and leaves them to solve it on their own
(UN, 1998).
In the first and second of these four cases, the students will learn that the teacher does not believe
they can learn on their own, but that they are dependent on someone telling them or showing them.
In the third and fourth cases, the students will learn that they are thought to be capable of learning
on their own. Again, in the first two cases, the students will learn that the teacher wants them to do
things in the same way as the teacher does them. In the third and fourth cases, they will come to
understand that the teacher wants the students to do things in their own way, not the teachers way.
In the first two cases, the students will tend to believe that they are dependent learners. They will
come to think that learning is passively receiving other peoples knowledge. They will learn not to
think for themselves but to copy. They will learn that it is wrong to make mistakes. In the third and
fourth cases, the students will learn that it is necessary for them to be active if they are to learn,
that they must do it for themselves. They will come to understand that making mistakes is one of
the best ways of learning so long as one reflects critically on those mistakes and tries things in a
different way (UN, 1998). In the end, the formulation of a curriculum comes down to what the
curriculum developers believe about the learner. Do they believe that the students are capable of

learning by themselves? Or do they think that students cannot learn if the teacher is not
present?
In fact, the term curriculum is mostly used to refer to the existing contract between society, the
state and educational professionals with regard to the educational experiences that learners should
undergo during a certain phase of their lives. For the majority of authors and experts, the
curriculum defines: (i) why; (ii) what; (iii) when; (iv) where; (v) how; and (vi) with whom to
learn. This means that a curriculum is not just the subjects which are taught, or the subjects which
the students study and, hopefully, learn. It also includes the methods used. Methods and contents
are often treated separately, but in fact they cannot in practice be kept apart. Methods are major
parts of the curriculum, for the students learn as much from how they are taught as from what they
are taught (Un, 1998).
And the above justification leads us to ask at this point is What are the major types of curriculum
incorporated here to attain the intended objectives for the students to learn? Therefore, before
describing the relationship between formal policy, informal practices, formal and hidden
curriculum, we first provide background on the formal, informal, and hidden curricula, particularly
as they relate to our education context as cited by COL (2000), Horn (2003), Jackson (1968) and
Tanner and Tanner (1975).
Formal Curriculum
According to Urevbu (1985: 3), formal curriculum refers to what is laid down as the syllabus or
that which is to be learnt by students. It is the officially selected body of knowledge which
government, through the Ministry of Education or any body offering education, wants students to
learn (COL, 2000). The University of Zimbabwe Distance Education Module EA3AD 303 (1995)
refers to formal curriculum as all the work that teachers plan and use with students. This
curriculum meets specified objectives of educating identified groups of learners or students in
their varying settings. In other words, formal curriculum is the selected written programs or
courses students go through. Here, we use the term formal curriculum narrowly to mean the actual
course of study, the planned content, teaching, evaluation methods, syllabi, and other materials
used in any educational setting from lecture halls to labs to seminar rooms. Also included are
formal policy statements, regulations, expectations, and competencies for every educational cohort
conceivable.
Actual Curriculum
This refers to both written and unwritten syllabuses from which students encounter learning
experiences (Tanner and Tanner 1975). Learning experiences can be selected from other sources
rather than the prescribed, official and formal syllabuses. The actual curriculum is the total sum of
what students learn and teachers teach from both formal and informal curricula.
Informal Curriculum
Urevbu (1985: 3) refers to informal curriculum as the curriculum in use. Teachers or instructors
may not adhere to the presented formal curriculum but can include other aspects of knowledge
derived from other sources. This additional material is called the informal curriculum. We use
the term informal curriculum to denote much of what occurs often unplanned instruction that takes
place between anyone who is teaching (attending) and trainees. Informal curriculum commonly
referred to as hidden curriculum, due to its implicit nature, addresses behavioral and character
aspects of life which include, but are not limited to: social responsibility, personal relationships,
competition, respect for authority and time management. These aspects are taught by such

methods, techniques and procedures as class bells, restroom passes, dress codes, classroom
etiquette, class rank charts, etc.
Core Curriculum
You may have also come across the term core curriculum in your readings. This is not an
independent type of curriculum. It refers to the area of study, courses or subjects that students must
understand in order to be recognized as educated in the area. In other words, core refers to the
heart of experiences every learner must go through. The learner has no option but to study the
prescribed course or subjects.
Extra-Mural Curriculum
You have probably heard and said a lot about this type of curriculum. It refers to those learning
activities or experiences students are exposed to by their teachers but which are not stipulated in
the formal or official curriculum. Teachers deliberately plan and teach these experiences and
sometimes even assess their outcomes. Coaching and training in various aspects of school sports
are some of the extra-curricular learning experiences available to students. As you know, these
experiences are not stipulated in the formal curriculum.
Activity 2.12. Analytical Group Activity (5 minutes for discussion)
Dear Learner! Is there a "Hidden Curriculum"? Where is it hiding? Why we call it
hidden? How would you define curriculum? Please give your own argument.
Hidden Curriculum
Urevbu (1985: 3) describes the hidden curriculum as the nonacademic but educationally
significant component of schooling. Tanner and Tanner (1995) prefer to call it the collateral
curriculum. They argue that the word hidden implies deliberately concealing some learning
experiences from students. Since this is not written or officially recognized, its influence on
learning can manifest itself in students attitudes and behavior, both during and after completing
their studies. What is acquired or learned from hidden curriculum is usually remembered longer
than information learned at school. Tanner and Tanner (1975) recommend that positive learning
from the hidden curriculum should be acknowledged and treated as an integral part of the planned
and guided learning experiences.
However, as Jane Roland Martin, Changing the Educational Landscape: Philosophy, Women, and
Curriculum, 1994 cited a hidden curriculum is not something one just finds; it is rather one must
go hunting for it. Some degree of disconnect usually exists between what we hope our students
will learn and the learning that actually takes place. On one hand, we believe that trainees acquire
knowledge, skills, and attitudes as a result of formal and informal instruction in lecture halls,
seminar rooms, labs, tutorials, and all kinds of settings. On the other, we know that what students
learn is often in direct contradiction to our intentions and what the formal curriculum purports to
teach. This is not an original or revolutionary thought; indeed, anyone who teaches in any setting
is more or less aware of this phenomenon even as most of us proceed throughout our teaching
lives as if the content and methods of our teaching matter in mostly positive ways.
Some educational historians trace the concept back to philosopher John Dewey, who, in the early
20th century, referred to the collateral learning that goes on in educational settings that may have
more of a lasting effect on learners than the formal curriculum. Most would agree, however, that
the name most associated with the concept is Philip Jackson, a scholar who first used the word in
1968. Jackson (1968) is recognized as the first to apply the term hidden curriculum to refer to

the transmission of norms and values within school settings that define acceptable forms of
knowledge and behavior.
Hence, hidden curriculum is a broad category that includes all of the unrecognized and sometimes
unintended knowledge, values, and beliefs that are part of the learning process in schools and
classrooms (Horn, 2003). According to the Blackwell dictionary of sociology, hidden curriculum
is a concept used to describe the often unarticulated and unacknowledged things that students are
taught in school (Blackwell, 2000). In other words, hidden curriculum refers to the unintended or
implicit values cultivated in the practices exercised in the classroom and educational institutions
through the application of the curriculum. For example, children are said to be rewarded not only
for learning their subject curriculum but appearing to do so with enthusiasm, alertness, and
deference to and respect for authority. In this way education imparts not only formal knowledge
but an understanding of how to act properly in wider society.
Finally, in education, the hidden curriculum refers to the way in which cultural values and
attitudes (such as obedience to authority, punctuality, and delayed gratification) are transmitted,
through the structure of teaching and the organization of schools (A Dictionary of Sociology,
2005). For example, unintended stereotypical messages about minorities or ethnic groups, about
the role of male and females, about the work ethic to be cultivate or the meaning of success and
failure in schools.
One would be hard pressed to find a teaching philosophy, idea or technique that was introduced
without some form of criticism, skepticism or opposition. So, despite concerns from educators in
regards to the countless challenges that students face beyond the scope of academics, an air of
skepticism still lingers among many. The general consensus is that hidden curriculum has the
potential to teach, stimulate and foster good or bad lessons, behavioral pattern and character traits
respectively. However, some educators feel that hidden curriculum is creating more negative
repercussions for students and society, than it is positive results. John Taylor Gatto (1992)
expressed his concern during a speech by stating that these are the things you pay me to teach:
Confusion, Class position, Indifference, Emotional dependency, Intellectual dependency and
Provisional self-esteem one cant hide. Precisely, because teachers have their own personalities,
values, interest, strengths, and weakness, these also affect the hidden curriculum.
Dear Learner! A donor wants to assist your school in promoting learning in areas not stipulated
in your formal curriculum. What might you want students to learn from the hidden curriculum?
What can students learn from the hidden curriculum?
What considerations about your own learners were taken into account in making the curriculum
you are using? Which learning experiences can you classify under the hidden curriculum in your
school? Have you tried? Very Nice!
Generally, whether we call it formal, informal or hidden curriculum, what is the major issue to be
mentioned here is a curriculum can become one's life course of action. It can mean the paths we
have followed and the paths we intend to follow. The more we understand ourselves and can
articulate reasons why we are what we are, do what we do, and are headed where we have chosen,
the more meaningful our curriculum will be (Connelly & Clandinin, 1988).
Although the National Curriculum is not the whole curriculum, it is the most significant part of it.
It represents the national priorities for learning and assessment. It is the framework for school

inspection, accountability and quality assurance; and it is the basis of the National Standards for
Initial Teacher Training. However, if the school system is to develop young peoples creative
abilities, steps must be taken to create the conditions in which this can be done. Schools should
have increased freedom to devise patterns of curriculum provision to meet these requirements.
Because, the ways and means of changing and evaluating a curriculum are closely connected to
the ways and means of organizing the social control of schooling as a whole, and to the role
teachers and the school administrations have paramount importance in these endeavor.
Accordingly, the teaching institution and the classroom teacher create the hidden curriculum as
well as the formal curriculum. Teachers then need to look carefully at their classroom work to see
what lessons their students are learning from them, even though they are not discussing these
subjects directly! But when developing a curriculum, as a teacher, you need to know what
curriculum means in order to:
Relate education to the socio-economic, technological, political and environmental
demands of your society.
Relate content or the body of knowledge to your local setting.
Apply the most effective and relevant teaching and learning methodologies.
Evaluate teaching and learning processes in your education system (COL, 2000).
Above all, learners are different. Learning is both an individual process and a relational process.
Any curriculum is potentially diverse: it changes as knowledge changes. For students to learn
optimally, the implications of these differences must be recognized. The curriculum is always
subject to minor changes as teachers take up the prevailing ideas and respond to technological
change. Sometimes it is necessary to formalize these changes. Formalization has to take into
account the mission, aims and objectives of the institution in which the society resides.
To sum up this section, curriculum is the study of what should constitute a world for learning and
how to go about making this world. What is the good life? What is a good person? What is the
good society? (Macdonald, 1978). Therefore, the curriculum is not a fixed and authoritative
structure which contains the organized content for learning. It is a dynamic instrument. It reflects
the educational purposes to be attained and the educational experiences that should be provided to
achieve those purposes. And since those purposes will change over time, so will judgments as to
what are the best experiences likely to achieve the purposes. Thus, the curriculum will change and
develop as the program itself is implemented. There is a need for continuing curriculum reform as
society itself develops and changes. Thus, as historical text, the school curriculum and the field of
curriculum stories are incomplete stories. The stories that are not told, like other silenced histories,
beg to be revealed. For its delivery the curriculum is dependent upon teachers who function within
some kind of unit that gives coherence to the subject being taught, teachers may leave out or add
to the material, or change the way in which it is taught and assessed by them. But these changes,
which while from the teachers' perspective provide for continuous quality improvement, you will
also need to watch carefully for the hidden elements, for these reveal (often very clearly) what you
think and feel about the participants and they will pick up these feelings and ideas very quickly.
Lesson Two
2.2. Diversity and Differences: Students, Family and
Communities
Activity 2.14. Investigative Group Activity (5 minutes for discussion, 5 minutes for

reflection)
In what ways do our individual differences reflect genetics, environments, and cultures?
What allows diverse groups of people to be productive?
When is identity diversity relevant? When isn't it?
What prevents diverse collections of people from being successful? Good job!
To start with, we remember in our primary or secondary school life when we taught natural
science. It says atoms interact to become cells, diverse cells become people, and diverse people
become societies. The new sciences of complexity give us a way to understand these
interactions. From this fact we can understand that to more accurately understand human
differences, one must draw upon systems thinking. In reality, all of the factors in the system
environmental, genetic, and non-genetic-biological work together to construct our
characteristics. Here, we can ask ourselves what is diversity after all?
According to the dictionary, diversity means difference. Given this definition, the critical
question becomes, Different from whom, or what? In current educational discourse, the terms
diverse and diversity most commonly refer or include a wide range of student and family
characteristics and affiliations. From the universe of possibilities, this lesson focuses specifically
on three categories: race or ethnicity, culture (including language), and socioeconomic status or
class differences. These three categories reflect the most common use of the term diversity
(Boethel, 2003). From this we can understand that diversity has many dimensions, including race,
sex, age, and organizational membership. Diversity refers to the ways in which we differ from
each other. Some of these differences may be visible (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, age, economic
differences in families, geographic region), while others are less visible (e.g., culture, ancestry,
language, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background) (Boethel, 2003).
From this, we can understand that diversity is a complicated matter because it comes in many
different forms. In any given group there may be several sources of diversity that interact to affect
group functioning. For example, Hoffman in Boethel (2003) notes that almost every definition of
diversity focuses on the experiences of minorities that have historically been ill-served by
education and socioeconomic structure. At the same time, the ways in which race and
ethnicity are defined and used vary considerably in the conceptual literature related to diversity.
For the most part, however, the studies reviewed here did not concentrate on the concepts or
definitions of race or ethnicity. However, diverse does not mean deficient. As we have seen
above, diversity includes a number of factors. Each factor can influence the relationship between
teacher, student, family, and community in our context. One struggle now is to capture those many
dimensions on one team (Swafford & Daint, 2009).
So, when we are looking from our educational context, the definition of a family has changed
greatly in the past three decades. Today children may live in a variety of family structures.
Because different family structures are associated with different educational outcomes, it is
important to examine how the structure of families has changed over time. At the same time,
different family structures are associated with different educational outcomes, even though the
effects of family structure are likely to be confounded by family income, parents education level,
race/ethnicity, and the amount of time that parents participate in their childrens education. In this
lesson, the term families is used to describe any of the wide variety of home arrangements that
people establish to care for and rear children. Family structure can be defined in terms of parents
relationships to children in the household (for example, biological or non-biological), parents

marital status and relationships history (for example, divorced, separated, remarried) and the
number of parents in the family. And these all factors have an impact in our education system.
On the other hand, there is also another important dimension of diversity: Cultural Diversity.
Many people mistakenly use such phrases as American culture, White culture, or Western
culture, Ethiopian culture as if such large, common, and homogenous cultures exist in the
United States, Ethiopia today. These people fail to acknowledge the presence of cultural
diversity, or the presence of multiple cultures and cultural differences within a society. In reality,
many different cultural groups comprise even in the smallest town or city.
Activity 2.15. Take home assignment and explain these issues

Dear Learner! Relate how families differ in terms of ethnicity, race, culture, economics, gender
roles, religiosity, and geographic region in your surrounding.
Reflect on implications of family differences for early childhood educators.
Here, we can add one critical issue: Why do we need to address diversity? As more and more
students from diverse backgrounds populate 21st century classrooms, and efforts mount to identify
effective methods to teach these students, the need for pedagogical approaches that are culturally
responsive intensifies. This is because diversity can lead to synergy when collectives have
common goals, common identity, and common worldview (agreement on options), but with
different preferences or goals. Otherwise, diversity can lead to competition and conflict. That is
why we said that the issue of how to address diversity in schools promises to be the foremost
educational issue well into the 21 st century (Boethel, 2003). For this, we can mention many
justifications; let us see the major ones.
First, families are different in many ways. It is crucial that early childhood teachers work to
increase their understanding of differences in families and interact sensitively with these
differences in mind. It is the responsibility of early childhood teachers to foster a climate that
encourages various types of family involvement so that all children may reap the benefits known
to occur from home and school partnerships. Second, according to Rehm and Allison in Swafford
and Dainty (2009), all students are diverse, even those from the same cultural background.
Respecting diversity requires that teachers look at all students with interest and openness, and
utilize flexibility when providing instruction. Students may be considered at risk and need the
development of resiliency factors to be successful. Teachers who have been taught to appreciate
diversity are more self-confident, have increased abilities, and move beyond judging students by
superficial attributes such as skin, color, speech patterns, and exceptionality.
Third, as we have seen above, factors such as family income, family structure and parents
education have been shown to influence a childs educational opportunities. These conditions have
been shown to be associated with children experiencing problems such as repeating a grade,
requiring special education services, and being suspended and dropping out of school. Especially,
students from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds and low income families are more at risk for
poor school outcomes and are becoming an increasing share of the student population. Changes
over time in the composition of students in terms of factors such as student language proficiency,
family income, parents education, and family structure affect the social context of education.
Therefore, in order to provide equal educational opportunity, policymakers must be aware of
differences in the background of students, as well as differences in the climate and resources of
schools. The learning environment of schools can be enhanced by what students with a variety of

backgrounds and interests bring with them; however, heterogeneity of student ability levels and
preparation for school may create increased challenges for schools to meet the needs of students
from different social backgrounds.
Eventually, it is important for schools and community organizations not to simply ignore issues
related to diversity or to act as if differences dont exist. The study by Lareau and Horvat in
Boethel (2003) showed that ignoring racial issues, for example, can push parents and schools
farther apart. Similarly, a report on community youth programs points out that institutional
silence, an atmosphere in which race is never mentioned, can lead to unspoken perceptions of
discrimination and intergroup tensions; group differences must be acknowledged.
Hence, every school should have to have a space open to the plurality of languages and cultures
or any diversity. The school brings together speakers with different repertoires who have one
language in common or several language varieties, which all social actors, and not least as
learners, has already developed prior to their entry into schooling. School is also a place of contact
among those diverse repertoires, and between those repertoires and varieties of the language of
schooling. The purpose of schooling is to contribute to inclusion and cohesion by developing
mastery of languages of schooling and also by taking into account what has already been acquired.
Case Study 1 Ms. Almaz Practice in work Place
Ms. Almaz is a second grade teacher at Dugum Primary School, Hawzen Woreda, Eastern Zone, Tigray. She feels that
she's under a tremendous amount of pressure to succeed, considering she's a first year educator. Ms. Almaz has
recently attended a lecture about diversity and character education. She was impressed by the lecture, but isn't sure she
can manage merging any new programs with her existing curriculum. What's something Ms. Almaz can do to
implement diversity and character education without affecting her current curriculum too much?
a. Teach a traditional curriculum for the first half of the year, and diversity and character education for the second
half of the year.
b. Try a different technique every day until she finds one that's reasonable.
c. Adopt a new curriculum which is completely dedicated to diversity and character education.
d. Integrate moral literature into her daily storytelling time.
Discuss with your peer and check the answer at the end of this unit.
Lesson Three
2.3. Culturally Responsive Pedagogical Practices
Activity 2.16. Discussion (for 5 minutes)
Dear Learner! How can teachers involve families from diverse backgrounds to
support classroom instruction?
In what ways do you draw a lesson plan upon parents knowledge and
experiences in students learning activities? Very Nice!
Dear Learner! This is the third section of unit two. Have you got valuable information regarding
diversity and cultural practices of the community? What is the difference and similarity between
diversity and cultural practices of the community? Have you ever acquainted with the concept of
culturally responsive pedagogical practices before? What kind of programs and process of
culturally responsive pedagogical practices have you ever executed as practitioner in your
settings? Based on the concepts gained in unit two, What is the Ethiopian government intention
and priorities with regard to culturally responsive pedagogical practices? Please think on these
matters thoroughly. At the end of this sub session, you will describe the major concepts and
dimensions of culturally responsive pedagogical practices; interpret the problems encountered in

this endeavor and implications to our education system. In order to understand all the lessons
indicated in Unit Two, let us examine the practical aspect of culturally responsive pedagogical
practices from different literature review visa vise the governments priority area and emphasis.
To begin with, culture encompasses everything around us; it is a part of every environment. Often
we forget that children and youth bring their very own culture from home into school, and as a
result they may struggle with trying to make it all fit. Successful learning depends greatly on
everyone's ability to accept, listen and embrace cultural diversity so that we can celebrate our
unique strengths and contributions to our school community, one which is composed of families,
children and youth, educators and administrators. Just imagine what can happen if we give
ourselves the opportunity to learn from the contributions that our many cultures bring to the table
(Carter, 2003). Then, to avoid learning outcomes that reflect negative, unrealistic, and fragmented
biases, make sure curriculum and other resources, such as audio visual, bulletin boards, and
posters, represent both males and females in supportive and nurturing roles within the family. To
address invisibility make sure each cultural group in your class as well as individuals with
exceptionalities are also depicted in a positive light (Swafford & Dainty, 2009). This means in
short we should have to create culturally diverse classrooms. By the way, What is Culturally
Responsive Pedagogy?
In a culturally responsive classroom, effective teaching and learning occur in a culturally

supported, learner-centered context, whereby the strengths students bring to school are identified,
nurtured and utilized to promote student achievement. Culturally responsive pedagogy comprises
three dimensions: (a) institutional, (b) personal and (c) instructional. The institutional dimension
reflects the administration and its policies and values. The personal dimension refers to the
cognitive and emotional processes teachers must engage in to become culturally responsive. The
instructional dimension includes materials, strategies and activities that form the basis of
instruction. All three dimensions significantly interact in the teaching and learning process and are
critical to understanding the effectiveness of culturally responsive pedagogy. So, let us look these
three dimensions in brief as cited by (Richards & Others, 2006; Shaeffer, 1994; Sullivan & Avant,
2009).
The Institutional Dimension: What Must the Educational System Do?

The educational system is the institution that provides the physical and political structure for
schools. To make the institution more culturally responsive, reforms must occur in at least three
specific areas:
1. Organization of the schoolThis includes the administrative structure and the way it relates
to diversity and the use of physical space in planning schools and arranging classrooms.
2. School policies and proceduresThis refers to those policies and practices that impact on
the delivery of services to students from diverse backgrounds.
3. Community involvementThis is concerned with the institutional approach to community
involvement in which families and communities are expected to find ways to become
involved in the school, rather than the school seeking connections with families and
communities.
Although all three areas in the institution must become more culturally responsive, a particular
concern is the impact of school policies and procedures on the allocation of resources. As Sonia
Nieto noted in Richards and Others (2006), we must ask the difficult questions: Where are the best
teachers assigned? Which students get to take advanced courses? Where and for what purposes are
resources allocated? We must critically examine the educational systems relationship to its

diverse constituents. Hence, developing and supporting equitable educational systems is the
cornerstone to safeguarding the nations social, civic, and economic future. In many educational
systems, policies, procedures, and practices need to be re-conceptualized in order to ensure
equitable opportunity and access for all students. Here, multiculturalism emerged as a means of
promoting cultural competence and educational equity through various dimensions of educational
practice (e.g., pedagogy, curriculum, assessment, discipline). At its most basic level,
multiculturalism is about recognizing diversity; more progressive conceptualizations focus on
cultural pluralism, challenging racism, and embracing difference (Sullivan & AVant, 2009).
More broadly, the need for multiculturalism in education is defended as a necessary element of
multiculturalism in society at large, with schools characterized as a microcosm of the larger
society. Multiculturalism and pluralism are highlighted as a means of preparing all students to be
contributing citizens in a multicultural society. However, despite decades of attention to this area,
there has been surprisingly little progress in closing achievement gaps or creating more equitable
education systems. So we must ask whether multicultural approaches have been successful, and
what changes continue to be necessary in order to create systems with the capability of supporting
diverse learners (Sullivan & AVant, 2009). This notion entails to us to move toward culturally
responsive school practices.
Because, a culturally responsive approach to education is grounded in the belief that all students
can excel in academic endeavors when (a) their culture, language, heritage, and experiences are
valued and used to facilitate their learning and development; and (b) when they are provided
access to high-quality programs, services, and supports (Klingner et al., in Sullivan & AVant,
2009). Such an approach to school psychological practice encompasses several key characteristics
as cited by (Sullivan & AVant, 2009).
Affirmation of diversity: At its most basic level, a culturally responsive perspective requires
affirming diversity and difference. Culturally responsive practitioners respect and value the
cultural differences of students, families, communities and colleagues. This will require moving
beyond superficial descriptions of the differences between groups in order to understand the social
realities and histories that shape individuals lived experiences. Attention to diversity must be
infused throughout ones practices, including assessment, consultation and academic and
behavioral interventions. Practitioners must strive to understand the experiences and cultures of all
students and use that understanding to facilitate the services provided. Being culturally responsive
means negotiating new standards and norms that acknowledge the differences and similarities
among different groups so that the cultural heritage, contributions, and strengths of all members of
school communities are acknowledged and valued.
Cultivation of socio-cultural consciousness: In order for practitioners to be culturally responsive,
they must understand how race, culture, language, and experience influence learning and behavior.
This will require the often difficult process of examining assumptions of power and privilege, in
addition to questioning structures that support or hinder equitable access and participation in
educational opportunities for members of different groups. Viewing our field specifically, and
educational systems generally, from a culturally responsive perspective means considering how
certain assumptions or practices benefit some and not others, and for what purposes, and
formulating a vision to prevent the marginalization, denigration, and oppression of individuals on
the basis of membership in a particular group (e.g., students identified as minorities, disabled).
Examination of the different cultures that shape schools: Fostering cultural responsiveness also
requires recognizing and examining the cultural nature of schooling and educational practices. We
must be cognizant that in addition to the cultures from which individuals come, specific cultures
are created within schools and classrooms. Consequently, systems and practitioners develop

formal and informal regularities (e.g., beliefs, theories, policies) that guide professional behavior
(e.g., selection of practices, instruments). Often these regularities are enacted with little conscious
thought; they are simply the way things are, which is also assumed to be the way things should
be, which blinds us to the possibility of change or improvement. We must also be aware of the
organization and distribution of power in the system of education, from the federal level to
individual interactions. Power relations are manifested in classrooms, buildings, districts, and
communitiesand the way in which they play out must be considered for their implications
regarding student learning and behavior.
Promotion of change: A culturally responsive practitioner should work to foster positive change
and collaborate with educators to promote equity. Given that systemic change is difficult, start
with your own practice and work out and up. An important element will be engaging educators
and families in collaborative work - whether engaging in assessment, intervention, or consultation,
seek to engage all relevant stakeholders, including students and families, in the processes from the
onset. Work to establish positive, respectful relationships with them and arrange ways for them to
engage meaningfully in the process, integrating the input from all in the final decisions and
processes (e.g., problem definition, data collection, generation of option, implementation plans,
evaluation, etc.). Change efforts, whether large-scale or small, have greater chances at success
when they meaningfully involve all of those directly and indirectly affected by the change. Not
only must changes occur institutionally, but personally and instructionally as well. Especially,
school practitioners must provide services that are not only technically, empirically and
theoretically sound, but culturally responsive as well if we are to meet the demands of an
increasingly multicultural society (Richards & Others, 2006; Sullivan & AVant, 2009).
The Personal Dimension: How Do Teachers Become culturally Responsive?

Teacher self-reflection is an important part of the personal dimension. By honestly examining their
attitudes and beliefs about themselves and others, teachers begin to discover why they are who
they are, and can confront biases that have influenced their value system. Because teachers values
impact relationships with students and their families, teachers must reconcile negative feelings
towards any cultural, language, or ethnic group. Often teachers are resistant to the notion that their
values might reflect prejudices or even racism towards certain groups. When teachers are able to
rid themselves of such biases, they help to create an atmosphere of trust and acceptance for
students and their families, resulting in greater opportunity for student success. Another important
aspect of the personal dimension is exploration. It is crucial that teachers explore their personal
histories and experiences, as well as the history and current experiences of their students and
families. With knowledge comes understanding of self and others, and greater appreciation of
differences. When teachers are unbiased in their instruction and knowledgeable about themselves
and their students, they can better respond to the needs of all their students.
As stated by Gay and Lucas in Richards and Others (2006), the following specific activities for
becoming a culturally responsive teacher are forwarded:
Engage in reflective thinking and writing: Teachers must reflect on their actions and interactions
as they try to discern the personal motivations that govern their behaviors. Understanding the
factors that contribute to certain behaviors (e.g., racism, ethnocentrism) is the first step toward
changing these behaviors. This process is facilitated by autobiographical and reflective writing.
Explore personal and family histories: Teachers need to explore their early experiences and
familial events that have contributed to their understanding of themselves as racial or nonracial
beings. As part of this process, teachers can conduct informal interviews of family members (e.g.,
parents, grandparents) about their beliefs and experiences regarding different groups in society.

The information shared can enlighten teachers about the roots of their own views. When teachers
come to terms with the historical shaping of their values, they can better relate to other individuals.
Acknowledge membership in different groups: Teachers must recognize and acknowledge their
affiliation with various groups in society, and the advantages and disadvantages of belonging to
each group. For example, for female teachers, being a female presents many challenges in a male-
dominated world. Moreover, teachers need to assess how belonging to one group influences how
one relates to and views other groups.
Learn about the history and experiences of diverse groups: It is important that teachers learn
about the lives and experiences of other groups in order to understand how different historical
experiences have shaped attitudes and perspectives of various groups. Further, by learning about
other groups, teachers begin to see differences between their own values and those of other
groups. To learn about the histories of diverse groups, particularly from their perspectives,
teachers can read literature written by those particular groups as well as personally interact with
members of those groups.
Visit students families and communities: It is important that teachers get to know their students
families and communities by actually going into the students home environments. This allows
teachers to relate to their students as more than just bodies in the classroom but also as social
and cultural beings connected to a complex social and cultural network. Moreover, by becoming
familiar with students home lives, teachers gain insight into the influences on the students
attitudes and behaviors. Additionally, teachers can use the families and communities as resources
(e.g., classroom helpers or speakers) that will contribute to the educational growth of the students.
Visit or read about successful teachers in diverse settings: Teachers need to learn about
successful approaches to educating children from diverse backgrounds. By actually visiting
classrooms of successful teachers of children from diverse backgrounds and/or reading authentic
accounts of such success, teachers can gain exemplary models for developing their own skills.
Develop an appreciation of diversity: To be effective in a diverse classroom, teachers must have
an appreciation of diversity. They must view difference as the norm in society and reject notions
that any one group is more competent than another. This entails developing respect for differences,
and the willingness to teach from this perspective. Moreover, there must be an acknowledgment
that the teachers views of the world are not the only views. We can remember our late Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi slogan here:
Participate in reforming the institution: The educational system has historically fostered the
achievement of one segment of the school population by establishing culturally biased standards
and values. The mono-cultural values of schools have promoted biases in curriculum development
and instructional practices that have been detrimental to the achievement of students from
culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Teachers need to participate in reforming the
educational system so that it becomes inclusive. As the direct link between the institution and the
students, teachers are in a pivotal position to facilitate change. By continuing a traditional
conform-or-fail approach to instruction, teachers perpetuate a mono-cultural institution. By
questioning traditional policies and practices, and by becoming culturally responsive in
instruction, teachers work toward changing the institution. In relation to the importance of
accommodating diversity and cultural values of community and students, Berns (2010: 232)
acknowledge the teachers role as socializing agent as follows:
For more than 25 years, I have asked my students to think back over their education in elementary,
middle, and high school and remember the characteristics of their best teacher and those of their worst.
Though the exact wording differs, without fail best teachers are interesting, competent, caring,
encouraging, and flexible, yet have demanding standards; worst teachers are boring, incompetent,
distant, demeaning, and rigid with inflexible standards, or inconsistent with lax standards. After
exploring reasons for students choices, the message becomes quite clear: best teachers make students
want to learn and reinforce their efforts, while worst teachers turn students off.

When we are applying the above suggested functions, we may confront with so many problems.
To mention some: a cultural mismatch between teachers and the children they teach can result in
uncomfortable classroom experiences for some children and teachers. Their teachers often differ
from their families in race, culture and language. Classroom expectations and patterns of
communication may also differ from those at home. Still, understanding and acknowledging the
validity of different cultural behaviors and beliefs can present challenges for some teachers.
Hence, as teachers plan for their groups of children and as they set their classroom rules and
policies, checking for inclusiveness must be a part of the process. Even the most sensitive and
knowledgeable teacher may err in this process; however, the important act is what teachers do
when they realize that their classrooms are not inclusive.
Todays classrooms require teachers to educate students varying in culture, language, abilities, and
many other characteristics. To meet this challenge, teachers must employ not only theoretically
sound but also culturally responsive pedagogy. Teachers must create a classroom culture where all
students regardless of their cultural and linguistic background are welcomed and supported, and
provided with the best opportunity to learn.
Eventually, the following is a list of suggestions to facilitate the creation of a culturally diverse
classroom (Swafford & Dainty, 2009).
1. Since teachers are models for their students they should use language that respects all
diversities. An example would be to use person first language by referring to the student first,
such as the child with special needs rather than the handicapped student.
2. Display articles and advertisements that discuss diverse cultures.
3. Display simple phrases or label items in the classroom in multiple languages. Visual aids are
more effective when they are graphic and pictorial.
4. Build a classroom community where all are treated with respect.
5. Use cooperative learning and activities that enhance a mutual respect and ones that allow
students to learn about each other.
6. Treat each culture as a unique culture by not lumping together all minorities or
exceptionalities. For instance, do not assume that all students that speak Amharic or Tigrigna
speak the same dialect and can understand each other. For example, there are many dialects in
Amhara Region.
7. Encourage participation of all students even if it requires the uses of nods, hand signals, and
visuals.
8. Use peer tutoring and collaborative activities to assist students.
The Instructional Dimension: How Does Instruction Become Culturally Responsive?

When the tools of instruction (i.e., books, teaching methods, and activities) are incompatible with,
or worse marginalize, the students cultural experiences, disconnect with school is likely. For some
students this rejection of school may take the form of simply underachieving; for others, rejection
could range from not performing at all to dropping out of school completely. Culturally responsive
pedagogy recognizes and utilizes the students culture and language in instruction, and ultimately
respects the students personal and community identities. As stated by Bananks in Richards and
Others (2006), the following specific activities for becoming a culturally responsive instruction are
important:
Acknowledge students differences as well as their commonalities: While it is important for
teachers to note the shared values and practices of their students, it is equally incumbent that
teachers recognize the individual differences of students. Certainly, culture and language may

contribute to behaviors and attitudes exhibited by students. For example, some cultures forbid
children to engage in direct eye contact with adults; thus, when these children refuse to look at the
teacher, they are not being defiant but practicing their culture. However, for teachers to ascribe
particular characteristics to a student solely because of his/her ethnic or racial group demonstrates
just as much prejudice as expecting all students to conform to mainstream cultural practices.
Moreover, because each student is unique, learning needs will be different. Recognizing these
distinctions enhances the ability of the teacher to address the individual needs of the students. The
key is to respond to each student based on his/her identified strengths and weaknesses, and not on
preconceived notions about the students group affiliation.
Validate students cultural identity in classroom practices and instructional materials: Teachers
should use textbooks, design bulletin boards and implement classroom activities culturally
supportive of their students. When the school-assigned textbooks and other instructional materials
perpetuate stereotypes or fail to adequately represent diverse groups, teachers must supplement
instruction with resources rich in diversity and sensitive in portrayal of individuals from different
backgrounds. By utilizing images and practices familiar to students, teachers can capitalize on the
strengths students bring to school. The more students experience familiar practices in instruction
and are allowed to think differently, the greater the feeling of inclusion and the higher the
probability of success. For example, in some communities, members work together in a supportive
manner to accomplish many tasks in their daily lives. Reflecting these home practices in
instructional approach, such as the use of cooperative learning increases the likelihood of success
for these students.
Educate students about the diversity of the world around them: As the village in which
students live becomes more global, they are challenged to interact with people from various
backgrounds. When students are ignorant about the differences of other groups, there is a greater
probability of conflicts. Particularly in the classroom where student diversity is increasing,
students need the skills to relate to each other positively, regardless of cultural and linguistic
differences. Teachers need to provide students with learning opportunities (e.g., have students
interview individuals from other cultures; link students to email pals from other communities and
cultures) so that they might become more culturally knowledgeable and competent when
encountering others who are different. Furthermore, students will develop an appreciation for
other groups when they learn of the contributions of different peoples to the advancement of the
human race. A word of caution, this requires active research and planning by teachers so that
cultural stereotypes are not inadvertently reinforced.
Promote equity and mutual respect among students: In a classroom of diverse cultures,
languages and abilities, it is imperative that all students feel fairly treated and respected. When
students are subjected to unfair discrimination because of their differences, the results can be
feelings of unworthiness, frustration or anger, often resulting in low achievement. Teachers need to
establish and maintain standards of behavior that require respectful treatment of all in the
classroom. Teachers can be role models, demonstrating fairness and reminding students that
difference is normal. Further, teachers need to monitor what types of behaviors and
communication styles are rewarded and praised. Oftentimes these behaviors and ways of
communicating are aligned with cultural practices. Care must be taken so as not to penalize a
students behavior just because of a cultural difference.
Assess students ability and achievement validly: The assessment of students abilities and
achievement must be as accurate and complete as possible if effective instructional programming
is to occur. This can only be accomplished when the assessment instruments and procedures are
valid for the population being assessed. In todays schools students possess differences in culture
and language that might predispose them to different communication practices and even different
test-taking skills. Hence, assessment instruments should be varied and suited to the population

being tested. When this does not occur, invalid judgments about students abilities or achievement
are likely to result. Further, tests that are not sensitive to students cultural and linguistic
background will often merely indicate what the students dont know (about the mainstream culture
and language) and very little about what they do. Thus, the opportunity to build on what students
do know is lost.
Foster a positive interrelationship among students, their families, the community and school:
When students come to school they bring knowledge shaped by their families and community;
they return home with new knowledge fostered by the school and its practitioners. Students
performance in school will likely be affected by the ability of the teacher to negotiate this home-
community-school relationship effectively. When teachers tap into the resources of the community
by inviting parents and other community members into the classroom as respected partners in the
teaching-learning process, this interrelationship is positively reinforced. To further strengthen their
bond with the students and their community, teachers might even participate in community events
where possible. Moreover, everyone benefits when there is evidence of mutual respect and value
for the contributions all can make to educate the whole student.
Motivate students to become active participants in their learning: Teachers must encourage
students to become active learners who regulate their own learning through reflection and
evaluation. Students who are actively engaged in their learning ask questions rather than accept
information uncritically. They self-regulate the development of their knowledge by setting goals,
evaluating their performance, utilizing feedback, and tailoring their strategies. For example, by
examining his/her learning patterns, a student may come to realize that reviewing materials with
visual aids enhances retention, or that studying with a partner helps to process the information
better. It is important, therefore, that teachers structure a classroom environment conducive to
inquiry-based learning, one that allows students to pose questions to themselves, to each other, and
to the teacher.
Encourage students to think critically: A major goal of teaching is to help students become
independent thinkers so that they might learn to make responsible decisions. Critical thinking
requires students to analyze (i.e., examine constituent parts or elements) and synthesize (i.e.,
collect and summarize) information, and to view situations from multiple perspectives. When
teachers provide opportunities for students to engage in this kind of reasoning, students learn how
to think outside the box. More important, these students learn to think for themselves. These
students are less likely to accept stereotypes and to formulate opinions based on ignorance. To
foster these skills, teachers might devise what if scenarios, requiring students to think about
specific situations from different viewpoints.
Challenge to strive for excellence as defined by their potential: All students have the potential to
learn, regardless of their cultural or linguistic background, ability or disability. Many students
often stop trying because of a history of failure. Others, disenchanted with a low-level or irrelevant
curriculum, work just enough to get by. Teachers have a responsibility to continually motivate all
students by reminding them that they are capable and by providing them with a challenging and
meaningful curriculum. Low teacher expectations will yield low student performance. It is
important to engage students in activities that demonstrate how much they can learn when
provided with appropriate assistance. As students progress, teachers need to continually raise the
bar, giving students just the right amount of assistance to take them one step higher, thereby
helping students to strive for their potential.
Assist students in becoming socially and politically conscious: Teachers must prepare students to
participate meaningfully and responsibly not only in the classroom but also in society. Meaningful
and responsible participation requires everyone to critically examine societal policies and
practices, and to work to correct injustices that exist. Students must be taught that if the world is to
be a better place where everyone is treated fairly, then they have to work to make it so. This is

their responsibility as citizens of their country and inhabitants of the earth. To foster this
consciousness, teachers might have students write group or individual letters to politicians and
newspaper editors voicing their concerns about specific social issues; or students might participate
in food or clothing drives to help people less fortunate.
To sum up this lesson, a reflective practitioner should instead examine these regularities and work
to make them transparent in order to determine whether they are adequately serving those intended
purposes, and even whether those intended purposes are appropriate. It is particularly essential to
examine their efficacy, and to consider the following types of questions: How do we know they are
effective? Are they the best way to support students? Are they effective for a particular student? If
not, why? Beyond reflecting on our own regularities, as we engage in assessment, intervention,
and consultation, we should always strive to identify the regularities of the specific setting (i.e.,
classroom, school, program, etc.) and determine their impact on the student(s) in question.
Consideration of the environments in which the students learn (both school and nonschool) should
be a standard practice in all assessment and intervention cases in view of their implications for
learning and behavior (Sullivan & AVant, 2009).
Put another way, being part of meaningful change will require acting as instructional consultants,
systems consultants, and childrens advocates to ensure that the schools in which we work are
transformed to be responsive to the needs of the diverse students we are here to serve. This will
necessitate working to ensure that various parts of the school system work together to foster
equitable outcomes via a shared vision of equity, effective leadership and teaching, involvement of
stakeholders at all levels, ongoing evaluation and reflection, and a commitment to continuous
improvement in order to create system capacity in which personnel, resources, and professional
effort are aligned with the shared purpose of fostering improved educational access, participation,
and outcomes for all. On the other hand, these inequalities in access, opportunity, and outcomes
suggest that our educational systems may not be organized to adequately support the learning of
an increasingly diverse student population. Given that all demographic indicators suggest that the
trend toward increasingly multicultural populations will only continue, the need to create systems
that are responsive to student diversity is imperative.
What Are the Implications of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy to us? Teachers have a
responsibility to all their students to ensure that all have an equal opportunity to achieve to the best
of their ability. If instruction reflects the cultural and linguistic practices and values of only one
group of students, then the other students are denied an equal opportunity to learn (Remember the
trends of our educational system in the Imperial and Dergue period). Instruction that is
culturally responsive addresses the needs of all learners. The educational system plans, the
curriculum for schools, and teachers as their institutional agents transfer the prescribed content
to their students. Although the curriculum may be dictated by the school system, teachers teach it.
Where the curriculum falls short in addressing the needs of all students, teachers must provide a
Case Study
bridge; where 2theMr.system
Chalachew
reflectsPractice
cultural inand
work Place insensitivity, teachers must demonstrate
linguistic
Mr. Chalachew, one of Ms. Almaz's colleagues has noticed drastic improvement in the general behavior and class
understanding and support. In short, teachers must be culturally responsive, utilizing materials and
conduct of Ms. Almaz's students since she's implemented a few culturally responsive pedagogical techniques into her
examples, engaging
lesson plans. in practices,
Mr. Chalachew is extremelyand demonstrating
impressed and pondersvalues that include
on the potential of such rather than
techniques exclude
to help improve
students frombehavior,
his students' differentbutbackgrounds. By so doing,
is reluctant implement teachersinto
such techniques fulfill their plan.
his lesson responsibility
What couldtobeall their
potentially
students (Richards
holding Mr. Chalachew& back
Others,
from2006).
implementing character techniques of his own into his current curriculum?
a. Doing so has the potential to interfere with and/or ruin a preexisting state exam preparation schedule.
b. That implementing such techniques will actually help improve his students' behavior.
c. That his colleagues will judge him for blending character education into his formal curriculum.
d. He feels that character education techniques are not as likely to work on his class of fifth graders as well as it did
for Ms. Almaz's class second graders.
Discuss with your peer and check the answer at the end of this unit.

Lesson Four
2.4. Diversity Management in Schools and Education
Activity 2.17. Questions for Reflection and Discussion (10 minutes)
Dear Learner! Consider each of the above various forms of diversity discussed in this unit.
What do think the benefits of diversity in education especially for democratic citizenship?
Or What is the purpose or goal of diversity management?
Recall some common celebrations that you have observed in early childhood settings,
either when you were a child or more recently. Identify some situations that were not
inclusive. What are some ideas that you have for making the celebrations more inclusive?
Reflect about how your actions or thoughts may be culturally based. Very Nice!
Dear Learner! This is the fourth lesson in this unit. Until know you have seen what diversity and
differences means and the cultural values and practices of the community. You have also studied
the purpose of accommodating diversity and what culturally responsive pedagogical practices
looks like. In this lesson, you will learn about how diversity management applied in schools and
education system as whole. Have a nice reading time!
Schools are established in many societies of the world so as to instill in the students those skills
which will afford them the opportunity of taking their rightful positions in the community; but this
function cannot be adequately accomplished without the assistance of the home because both the
home and the school perform complimentary functions in the moral and intellectual development
of the child. This means that the child cannot be educated in a vacuum or in isolation. Therefore,
for a child to be educated there must be interaction between him/her and his/her physical and
social environment. By this we mean that education is the development of personality. It is
something which goes on both inside and outside the home and in the school. In other words,
education is an activity of the whole community.
This means that education is used in the transmission of the cultural values. One important
implication of looking at education as the transmitter of cultural values is the fact that education
can be influenced by the culture of the community in which it takes place. For this reason, one
may infer that for a child to be educated, he/she must be influenced by his/her environment and, in
turn, be capable of influencing it. And it is only by the concept of the continuous interaction of the
individual and his/her community that the development of personality can be properly understood.
We have noted above that education is a means through which the cultural values of a particular
community are transmitted from one generation to another. Through this process, the community
is able to achieve basic social conformity and ensure that its traditional values, beliefs, attitudes
and aspirations are maintained and preserved.

For this purpose, reaching out to and connecting with families of different cultural backgrounds
requires that educators develop an understanding of cultural differences, demonstrate respect for
the differing values and behaviors of diverse families, and become aware of the unique
communication styles of the various cultural groups that are represented in their programs.
Moreover, educators working with culturally diverse families need to move beyond stereotypes
that may be grounded in their own limited frame of reference while they move beyond cultural
knowledge and develop an understanding of how each individual family expresses its culture
(Carter, 2003). To do this, we should have to envisage different mechanisms at national and
grassroots level.
Then, when we are looking at macro-level, top management should have to see different
mechanisms to enhance or accommodate diversity and cultural practices of the community.
Among this, policies may address the following:
adapting materials and activities to accommodate the needs of families of all
backgrounds, languages, and circumstances;
emphasizing family and community outreach;
involving families in school planning and decision-making processes;
training teachers to work effectively with families; and
Offering to help families build their own capacities to support their childrens
schooling (Boethel, 2003).
At the middle level, recommendations for building relationships among schools, communities, and
families include:
Adopt formal school- and district-level policies that promote family involvement,
including an explicit focus on engaging families who reflect the full diversity of the student
population;
Demonstrate active and ongoing support from the school principal;
Honor families hopes and concerns for their children;
Acknowledge both commonalities and differences among students and families;
Strengthen school staff capacity to work well with families;
Provide supports to help particularly minority families (if any) understand how schools
work and whats expected of both families and students;
Make outreach a priority; take the extra steps necessary to make it possible for families to
get involved at school, as well as at home;
Provide families with training and resources to support early literacy;
Help families use specific communication and monitoring strategies to support their
childrens learning; and
Encourage and support student involvement in a range of school- and community-
sponsored extracurricular and after-school activities (Boethel, 2003).
At the grassroots level, school principals can show their support by:
communicating often with families (in their native language) through school newsletters,
bulletins, and other written materials;
stress the importance of outreach and welcoming practices or important elements in any
outreach plan;
ensuring that families and school staffs can communicate in the language with which
family members are most comfortable;
post welcoming signs and other information in the languages spoken in the community;

making it as easy as possible for families to participate in school activities; for example,
schedule meetings to accommodate working parents; work with volunteers or community-
based organizations to help with child care and transportation;
participating in community activities, such as church and social or civic events, is another
way of getting to know, and becoming known by, the varied members of the schools
community;
parents partnerships through daily communication, building mutual trust, working to
understand parents preferences, and respecting cultural and family differences; and
Members of each childs family are encouraged to be involved in ways in which they feel
comfortable (Boethel, 2003).
Finally, at a school level, especially for teachers strengthen school staffs capacity to work well
with families has paramount outcomes. Among the strategies used at this level, the following are
important pointes to be considered:
Teachers need help to build both understanding and practical strategies for engaging
effectively with families, particularly when those families backgrounds and life
circumstances are quite different from their own;
The staff will respect cultural diversity;
The staff will include all children in all opportunities, speaking favorably about variations
in physical characteristics and cultural heritage;
The staff will respect the dignity of each family and its culture, customs, and beliefs; and
The staff will provide the community with high quality, culturally sensitive early childhood
programs and services (Boethel, 2003).
From the above statements, we can understand that acknowledge both commonalities and
differences among students and families is the main role of teachers and educational leaders found
at any level. Hence, differences do exist in families experiences, cultural values and practices, and
world views. However, seeking common ground while acknowledging and respecting differences
is a challenging but essential processfor everyone involved. People learn from the culture how
to act and often times what to feel and think (Boethel, 2003).
To conclude this lesson, the need to improve academic achievement among diverse student
populations is one of the most persistent and challenging issues that education faces. Some
studies suggest that, in seeking to close the achievement gap, it is necessary to address the
complex interactions among families, communities, and schools. Focusing on only one of these
factors is not enough. Here, leadership is both dynamic competence and a relational process,
which require specific skills and capabilities for envisioning, setting aspirations, and for
motivating others. Then, it has been suggested that leadership style must be adjusted according to
the situation to ensure organizational effectiveness. Similarly, we should have to consider also it is
logical to expect that the type education given in each community will change from time to time as
the community changes. Hence, the cultural assessment would enable the schools to analyze the
gap between the prevailing and desired culture. Identification of such gaps would help
organizations in developing interventions to realign the existing culture with the desired one.
Lesson Five
2.5. Schools Organization: Professional Roles and Relationship,
School Culture and Leadership

Dear Learner! How have these broader developments in society and in education been reflected
in the professional roles and development of school leaders?
Teaching and learning in the classroom do not take place in isolation from the functioning of
schools as organizations, nor from their social context. Hence, school is conceptualized as a
community of families and school personnel engaged in the educational process. The educational
process is dynamic and wide ranging and involves children, their families, and an institution called
school. School is no longer viewed as a building or a collection of classrooms in which teachers
and students work together. The school community, no longer simply bounded by geography,
comprises all those who engage in the educational process. As in any community, there are varied
concrete roles. People fit into these communities in very different ways. Parents and families have
membership through their children. Teachers and other school personnel are members with
accountability to parents, children, and the broader community. The success of the process
depends on the collective and individual involvement of everyone. The school is rapidly becoming
the place of organization of all services to children and families.
Therefore, role development is the product of the interactions between what the school social
worker brings to the situation, the perceptions of others, and the actual conditions of the school
community. Role definitions are the joint and continuing construction of school community,
education leaders and others. They become reference points for practice, for policy, and for theory
development, and they serve as a conceptual bridge between policy and practice. The leadership
envisioned here differs from that typically described in the literature on managementleaders, or
higher level managers, who exercise control over certain functions in the organization. There
are, to be sure, certain routine organizational functions that require controlfinancial issues,
accounting, etc. But the term control applied to school improvement is a dubious concept
because one does not control improvement processes so much as one guides them and provides
direction for them, since most of the knowledge required for improvement must inevitably reside
in the people who deliver instruction, not in the people who manage them (Elmore, 2000).
In any organized system, people typically specialize, or develop particular competencies, that are
related to their predispositions, interests, aptitudes, prior knowledge, skills, and specialized roles.
Furthermore, in any organized system, competency varies considerably among people in similar
roles; some principals and teachers, for example, are simply better at doing some things than
others, either as a function of their personal preferences, their experience, or their knowledge.
Organizing these diverse competencies into a coherent whole requires understanding how
individuals vary, how the particular knowledge and skill of one person can be made to
complement that of another, and how the competencies of some can be shared with others. In
addition, organizing diverse competencies requires understanding when the knowledge and skill
possessed by the people within the organization is not equal to the problem they are trying to
solve, searching outside the organization for new knowledge and skill, and bringing it into the
organization.
In a knowledge-intensive enterprise like teaching and learning, there is no way to perform these
complex tasks without widely distributing the responsibility for leadership (again, guidance and
direction) among roles in the organization, and without working hard at creating a common
culture, or set of values, symbols, and rituals. Distributed leadership, then, means multiple sources
of guidance and direction, following the contours of expertise in an organization, made coherent
through a common culture. It is the glue of a common task or goalimprovement of instruction

and a common frame of values for how to approach that taskculturethat keeps distributed
leadership from becoming another version of loose coupling. To be sure, performance-based
accountability in schools, and good management practice generally, require that certain people be
held responsible for the overall guidance and direction of the organization, and ultimately for its
performance. Distributed leadership does not mean that no one is responsible for the overall
performance of the organization. It means, rather, that the job of administrative leaders is primarily
about enhancing the skills and knowledge of people in the organization, creating a common
culture of expectations around the use of those skills and knowledge, holding the various pieces of
the organization together in a productive relationship with each other, and holding individuals
accountable for their contributions to the collective result (Elmore, 2000).
Rowan found in his review of research on school improvement that participation of teachers in
extended rolesthat is, roles that require them to acquire knowledge and solve problems in
groups and networks as opposed to individuallyfosters higher levels of commitment and
satisfaction (Rowan, 1990). He also observed, participation in collaborative work increases
commitment and satisfaction among teachers, but it is unlikely to result in changes in teachers
practice, skill, or knowledge in the absence of a clear organizational focus on those issues.
Dear Learner! What is educational leadership? Why should we care about it? How does it
work? What forms might it take? Which leadership practices are useful in almost all contexts?
Which are context-specific? What are the sources of successful leadership?
These questions are questions presently of concern to a growing number of people who are
convinced that one of the central keys to the success of our present efforts to improve student
learning is leadership. Leadership, for this purpose, may come from many sourcesschool and
woreda leaders, teachers, parents, school-board members, and state officials, for example.
Although leadership from these sources has a bearing on the improvement of student learning, the
leadership of school and district leaders, along with teachers, has demonstrably more influence
than leadership from other sources; it is the leadership of such people with which this lesson is
most concerned. Then, What Is Leadership?
At the core of most definitions of leadership are two functions generally considered indispensable
to its meaning: setting directions and exercising influence. Each of these functions can be carried
out in different ways, with such differences distinguishing the many models of leadership from
one another. As Yukl (1994) notes, leadership influences the interpretation of events for followers,
the choice of objectives for the group or organization, the organization of work activities to
accomplish objectives, the motivation of followers to achieve the objectives, the maintenance of
cooperative relationships and teamwork, and the enlistment of support and cooperation from
people outside the group or organization. But leadership is a highly complex concept; so it is
important to ask whether the value typically attributed to educational leadership is actually
warranted by the evidence or not. School leadership, from both formal and informal sources, helps
to shape the nature of such school conditions as goals, culture, structures, and classroom
conditions (e.g., the content of instruction, the size of classrooms, and the forms of instruction
used by teachers). School and classroom conditions, teachers roles as individuals and as part of a
professional community, along with students family background conditions, are directly
responsible for the learning of students (Elmore, 2000).

Here, we can raise one question with regard to What forms does successful leadership takes.
Well! While direction and influence capture the core functions of leadership, those functions can
be exercised in distinctly different ways in schoolsmore or less successfully. Such differences
depend on many factors, including personal preferences or style, demands of the organizational
setting, leaders internal processes (cognitive processes, attitudes, values, and beliefs), cultural
norms, and the expectations of leaders colleagues. Nevertheless, two models currently vie for
most of the attention among practicing educatorsinstructional and transformational models.
Each model has both an extensive history and a reasonably well-developed body of evidence about
its nature and effects.
Leaders should not be unduly preoccupied with the routine maintenance of their organizations,
which many believed was the primary focus of principals (and those who trained them). Simply
chiding educational leaders to be instructional leaders, of course, is no differentand no more
helpfulthan simply advocating that leaders of any type of organization focus on the goals of
their organization and the effectiveness of the processes used to accomplish those goals.
Three categories of practices are included in the instructional leadership model, each of which
encompasses a number of more specific practices:
defining the schools mission includes framing and then communicating the schools goals;
managing the instructional program includes supervising and evaluating instruction,
coordinating the curriculum, and monitoring student progress; and
promoting a positive school learning climate encompasses protecting instructional time,
promoting professional development, maintaining high visibility, providing incentives for
teachers, and providing incentives for learning (Elmore, 2000).
Similarly, Hallingers summary of the evidence for the effects of instructional leadership serves as
an appropriate introduction to transformational models of leadership, which are currently the main
contenders to instructional leadership for the attention of educators (Elmore, 2003). All
transformational approaches to leadership emphasize emotions and values and share in common
the fundamental aim of fostering capacity development and higher levels of personal commitment
to organizational goals on the part of leaders colleagues. Increased capacities and commitments
are assumed to result in extra effort and greater productivity. Recent evidence suggests that
practices associated with transformational leadership may be widely distributed throughout an
organization.
And the above justification leads us to ask at this point is Which leadership practices are useful
in almost all contexts? Evidence suggests that whether exercised by superintendents, principals,
teachers, or others, a set of common practices is used by successful leaders in most contexts.
These practices are not constantly required, and some will be much more important than others at
particular points in time. But there is enough evidence about their value across enough different
settings and circumstances to consider them basic to successful leadership. These basics also
should be considered necessary but not sufficient because successful leadership is very sensitive to
the unique demands of specific schools and districts.
Among the necessary skills, setting directions is critical one. A critical aspect of leadership is
helping a group to develop shared understandings about the organization and its activities and
goals that can undergird a sense of purpose or vision (Hallinger & Heck, 2002). The best
explanation for the importance of direction-setting practices on the part of leaders is to be found in
goal-based theories of human motivation. Similarly, unique features of national and state policies
require leadership practices beyond the basics if leaders are to be successful in their efforts to

improve student learning. Available evidence suggests that to be successful in such highly
accountable policy contexts, school and district leaders need to draw on practices that contribute to
several key goals of school leadership. Moreover, when schools are required to have school
improvement plans, as in most school districts now, school leaders need to master skills associated
with productive planning and the implementation of such plans. Here, we can add one critical
issue: What are the sources of successful leadership? Neither superintendents nor principals can
tackle the leadership task by themselves. Highly successful leaders develop and count on
leadership contributions from many others in their organizations. Principals typically count on key
teachers for such leadership, along with their local administrative colleagues. In site-based
management contexts, parent leaders are often crucial to the schools success. These holistic forms
of distributed leadership assume that the sum of leaders work adds up to more than the parts and
that there are high levels of interdependence among those providing leadership. Distributed
leadership also enhances opportunities for the organization to benefit from the capacities of more
of its members, permits members to capitalize on the range of their individual strengths, and
develops among organizational members a fuller appreciation of interdependence and how ones
behavior effects the organization as a whole.
Especially in the context of team work, distributed leadership may provide greater opportunities
for members to learn from one another. Through increased participation in decision-making,
greater commitment to organizational goals and strategies may develop. Distributed leadership has
the potential to increase on-the-job leadership development experiences, and the increased self-
determination arising from distributed leadership may improve members work experiences. Such
leadership allows members to better anticipate and respond to the demands of the organizations
environment.
To sum up this section, evidence continues to mount in favor of the notion that when schools,
families, and community groups work together to support learning, children tend to do better in
school, stay in school longer, and like school more. Though they cannot do it alone, school
principals are of course key players in making these connections. Professional development for
school leaders should provide lessons and tools concerning school, family, and community
relations and partnerships. Schools, families and communities can interact in numerous ways,
from parent-teacher conferences, to parents serving on local school councils, to after school
programming for children, youth, and adults. School leaders should strive to understand what
kinds of connections make what kinds of impact. They must also recognize that different players
students, parents, teachers, principals, business leaders, etc.have different goals, beliefs, and
conceptions of their roles in supporting student learning and community partnerships.
Cultural literature has focused on change, suggesting that an effective organization may be defined
as one which creates a culture that inspires its members to pursue continuous improvement
through change. This change has the capacity to make people proactive and creative problem-
solvers. Leaders must realize the power of culture within an organization. Organizational culture
has been identified as a critical element, vital to successfully improving the teaching and learning
in schools.
Dear Learner! What core competencies in partnership, leadership, and shared decision-making
are desirable for parents, teachers and school leaders?
Lesson Six
2.6. Expectation of the Community

Dear learner! Would you please once again remember what you discussed in the previous
lessons? Yes, you have learned the varieties and purposes of schooling, relationships between
social, political, and economic forces and educational goals, forms of education, relationship
between formal policy, informal practices, formal and hidden curriculum, diversity and
differences, cultural responsive pedagogy, diversity management as well as school's organization.
This is the last lesson of this unit. This lesson will help you to have understanding about the basic
expectations and demands of the community and the reaction of teachers as professionals and the
school community in general.
Activity 2.21. Brainstorming (4 minutes for each question)
Dear Learner! Before you proceed to the reading, try to mention some of the expectations and
demands of community from education.
What do you think is the advantage of developing community profile?
Everywhere there is pressure for children to learn more in school. Even where the school day and
school year have been lengthened, the amount of time children spend in school during the first
eighteen years of their lives is small (perhaps 13% of waking hours) compared to time spent with
the family and the broader community. Fortunately, research on the familys influence on school
learning has a substantial history, and we can settle upon basic premises with great confidence. In
other words, an alterable curriculum of the homeincluding the familys relationships, practices
and patterns of lifeis a more powerful predictor of academic learning than the familys status.
Schools can work with families to improve the curriculum of the home, regardless of the familys
economic situation. This, then, is a message of great hope.
In many literatures we can found that schools report greater success in engaging parents in a
partnership when they are responsive to the needs of parents and are friendly and welcoming to
parents. This shows us parental expectations play a significant role in childrens motivation to
achieve. As teacher, school principal, supervisor or educational leader What do you think Family
Expectations for Their Children? Numerous researchers have found that parent involvement was
a complex concept dependent on multiple factors, rather than a single cause and effect processes.
However, all parents, regardless of race, economic status, or culture, held high expectations for
their children. Multiple studies have found that all families have high academic expectations for
their children. The following studies, because of their diverse sources of data and focus, illustrate
the wide support for this finding (Ferguson, 2005).
Families with high expectations for their childrens school performance also provide consistent
guidance and support for schooling. They are aware of their childrens progress and interested in
the academic route their children are plotting. In fact, parents who experience diverse ethnic,
cultural, socioeconomic, linguistic, and educational backgrounds are involved in the lives of their
children, regardless of whether they are formally involved in their school life. Furthermore, many
families are involved in the education of their children, even though in ways that school personnel
may not consider because they see no concrete product. Especially, those we are considered as the
child-centered family understands the necessity of schooling to the economic betterment of their
children. These families often fear that the school is inadequately attentive to their children. They
are frustrated by what they perceive as negative social influences, and they may cast aspersions
upon other parents, whom they see as lax and uncaring (Redding, 2012).
On the other hand, these parents are willing to work for their childrens school, provide leadership
among parents, and serve as surrogate parents for neglected children. They are best engaged by
giving them constructive roles in the school and opportunities to work with other parents. The

challenge for the school is to channel the efforts of child-centered parents toward activities that
benefit the academic and personal development of their own children and of other children. Child-
centered parents make wonderful leaders for parent education programs (Redding, 2012). We can
found also other families as parent-centered families. Here we can found that busy professional
parents value schooling but are sometimes so absorbed by their careers and personal interests that
they are disengaged from close involvement in their childrens lives. In most of the cases, such
kind of parents must be re-engaged with their children by means of inquiry by the school
authorities.
Research from the field shows also strong parent, family, and community involvement doesnt just
happen and isnt limited to certain types of schools. People come into the school community with
a variety of prior experiences with schools, conflicting pressures, and expectations. Some may
have underlying issues of suspicion or other conflicts that can affect the relationships between
home, community, and school. When these expectations are found repeatedly in practice, some
schools and parents as well they set standards for professional performance. Peoples perceptions
of a role are tested and evaluated in relation to the needs, capabilities, and social networks of a
particular school and the outcomethe product that results and its influence on students
experience of education.
From the above discussions, most family expectations of their children fall on the following
assumptions:
Priority given to schoolwork and reading over television and recreation;
Expectation of punctuality;
Parental expectation that children do their best;
Concern for correct and effective use of language;
knowledge of childs progress in school and personal growth.
Parents set standards for their children, and these standards determine what children view
as important (Redding, 2012).
From the above statements we can grasp that parents are (and should be) concerned with their
childs individual progress and needs. And educators are (and should be) focused on the progress
and needs of the whole class or group. Here, we should have to consider also family characteristics
as important input for successful school-community engagement. And we should have to ask
ourselves that What characteristics of families influence its dynamics and parenting practices -
affect student achievement or smooth school-community relations? Studies find that both parents
and children are affected by the number of children in the family. Parents may also have increased
responsibility in the form of chores or caring for younger siblings. Parents in larger families,
especially those with limited living space and economic resources, tend to be more authoritarian,
tend to be more likely to use physical punishment, and tend to be less likely to explain their rules
than are the parents of smaller families. However, it has also been found that the effects of family
size on parenting style are mediated by parental education, occupation, social class, intactness of
the family, and ethnic orientation (Berns, 2010). Concomitantly, from educational practitioners,
there is a lack of attention to personal characteristics of a parent or family (who they are) and
what they do to support their children. As educational leaders, these issues require us to consider
the emphasis is on the family as a whole rather than the individuals within it.
The main thing that we consider here is how can we solve these problems to create smooth school-
community relations? Researchers find that a strong work ethic contributes to success in school.
Then, the following mechanisms might be important factors to create smooth school-community
relations. Especially, The involvement of more actors in diagnoses. Several mechanisms might be

used to enhance the participation of these partners in such an exercise. Some relate to the
collection of data whereas others are more concerned with data analysis and priority-setting:
(a) parent/teacher/student conferences: Prepare an agenda for parent/teacher/student
conferences that encourages the participation of all three parties. Let parents know the agenda in
advance of the conference. Include such questions as: How would the parents describe the childs
study habits at home? Does the child read at home?
(b) prepare report cards: Report cards are typically used by teachers to inform parents about the
childs progress in school. But report cards can become two-way by including the parents report
of the childs progress at home with such school-related topics as: willingness to do homework;
reading for pleasure and attitude toward learning. The cards might also encourage parents to note
specific concerns or request conferences.
(c) publish school newsletter: Many schools publish newsletters. To encourage two-way
communication, ask parents to write articles for the newsletter. What tips can parents give for
helping kids with homework? What family activities would parents like to share? Has the family
visited a museum, historical site or other place of educational value?
(d) open door parent/teacher conferences: Designate a certain time when teachers are available
for walking conferences. Some schools set aside thirty minutes before school each morning (or on
certain days of the week) when all teachers are available to parents.
(e) parent bulletin board: Place a bulletin board for parents, at the main entry to the school.
Parents can conveniently check the board for notes about parent meetings, suggestions for helping
children with homework, notices about family activities and calendars of important events.
(f) home links from the classroom: Parents like to know what their child is learning at school. A
weekly take-home that lists a few topics covered at school that week is helpful. The take-home
may also include examples of parent/child activities that would be related to what is being learned
at school.
(h) assignment notebooks: A notebook in which students record each days assignments (and
perhaps also keep track of the marks they earn) is helpful in keeping students on track. When
parents are asked to view, date and initial the notebook and the teacher routinely examines the
notebook, a good student/teacher/parent communication link is established (Redding, 2012).
Case Study 3 Observation in work Place
Educators often ask: How can schools get families to support their values and practices?
Coincidentally, families often ask: How can families get schools to be responsive to their needs and
aspirations for their children?
Less often educators and families ask: How can we work together to promote the educational
experiences and performance of students or this student?
What do you learn from the above statements? Reflect your own view. Very Nice!
The above inquiry has a great implication to us as educational expert. Parents sometimes need to
be reminded that children benefit from varied activities, including recreational and social
activities, and that schoolwork need not replace these activities. When it comes to schoolwork,
however, a good approach is to consider the childs study habits and attitude toward school rather
than focusing solely on the childs marks. This is not to say that marks are unimportant; but marks
can be deceptive. Research findings indicate that students do best when parents and teachers
understand each others expectations and stay in touch with one another regarding the childs
learning habits, attitudes toward school, social interactions and academic progress. The school,
through the leadership of its administration and the schools policies and programs, can create an
atmosphere conducive to communication and provide convenient opportunities for communication

(Redding, 2012). In this endeavor, teachers are most inclined to initiate communication with
parents when they perceive that leaders value such communication, their colleagues are supportive
of parental involvement, and the parents seem appreciative of the outreach. Communication
between the school and the home is most effective when it flows in both directions, and schools
should distinguish between efforts to inform parents and opportunities to communicate with
parents. Because families vary in their relationship to schools, schools must use different other
strategies to engage all families in the learning lives of their children.
To summarize this lesson, parents and educators desire collaborative relationships; however, many
barriers are present. Some school practices fail families; for example, responding only in a crisis
(Christenson, 2004). So, we should have to consider how the different perspectives held by parents
and educators influence their communication. In this situation of high expectations of each
countrys educational provision, those leading schools have an enormous responsibility. It is no
wonder that the school improvement movement of the past 20 years has put a great emphasis on
the role of leaders gone as far to conclude that, Effective school leaders are key to large-scale,
sustainable education reform.
Unit Summary
Dear Learner! What do you learn from the above unit? Yes, we have seen that two primary
opposing views exist regarding the purpose of schools. Some, such as the business Roundtable, an
organization created by governors and business leaders, believe that the primary purpose of
schools should be to create workers who have skills and personal styles to fill and perform
available jobs. For others, schools should seek to develop active citizens, helping children develop
their own capacity for personal achievement and contributing to society as an active citizen for
democracy. This unit tries to mention the aim of education varies across different philosophies of
education but generally the purpose of education is to educate individuals within society, to
prepare and qualify them for work in economy as well as to integrate people into society and teach
them values and morals of society as well as the definition of diversity includes a set of conscious
awareness in lived experiences. In this unit, we tried to look also the three forms of education:
formal, non-formal and informal education. This unit indicates in this contemporary society,
schooling is embedded in social, political and economic activity, because, society significantly
impacts on education and on the worlds of students, their families and their schools. Besides, we
have seen what curriculum, the major types of curriculum and the relationship between formal
policy, informal practices, formal and hidden curriculum. With regard to diversity, we have seen
that formal classroom activities and interactions with diverse peers in the informal school
environment must prompt students to think in pluralistic and complex ways, and to encourage
them to become committed to life-long civic action. For this purpose, multiculturalism must move
beyond basic knowledge and appreciation of diversity and cultural difference to embody
responsiveness to difference in order to facilitate real change. In this unit we have seen also a
culturally responsive perspective embraces the varying socio-cultural histories and experiences
that students come from and legitimizes their funds of knowledge and lived experiences. Here, we
have got important lessons with regard to school practitioners should think about how students and
families are involved in defining the norms and expectations within a school. In this unit there are
also some points with regard school culture as a broader term and encompasses not only how
students and adults feel about their school but also the values, traditions, assumptions, beliefs and
ways that give the school its identity and specify its standards for behavior. We have seen also

definitions throughout the literature agree that the people who exist within an organization develop
culture in time. Collaborative school culture, based on mutual support, joint work, and broad
agreement of educational values has been identified as a promising practice for students and
teachers to learn; all the above points are the potions of unit it covers. Finally, it was indicated that
students do best when parents and teachers understand each others expectations and stay in touch
with one another regarding the childs learning habits, attitudes toward school, social interactions
and academic progress.
Review Questions
____ 1. Most family expectations of their children fall on the following assumptions, which one?
a. Expectation of punctuality
b. Parental expectation that children do their best
c. Concern for correct and effective use of language
d. All
e. A and C
____ 2. When developing curriculum teachers need to know what curriculum means in order to:
a. Evaluate teaching and learning processes
b. Apply the most relevant teaching and learning methodologies
c. Relate content of knowledge to local setting
d. All
____ 3. Culturally diverse classroom should have to include the following:
a. Display articles that discuss diverse cultures
b. Use cooperative learning and activities
c. Build a classroom community where all are treated with respect
a. All
____ 4. Schools that are successful in addressing diversity and cultural environment are able to:
a. stress personal contact with families
b. foster communication with families
c. build on the cultural values of families
d. All except A
e. All
____ 5. Schools that are successful in addressing diversity and cultural environment are able to:
a. stress personal contact with families
b. foster communication with families
c. build on the cultural values of families
d. All except A
f. All
Part II: Write True if the statement is correct and False if the statement is incorrect.
____ 1. Some of the factors of diversity may be visible while others are less visible.
_____2. Every school should have to have a space open to the plurality of languages.
_____3. Parent involvement in education is a complex concept dependent on multiple factors.
_____4. All parents, regardless of race or culture, held high expectations for their children.
_____5. Getting a community involved in school life is not an easy matter.
1. Explain the rationale for why we celebrate diversity.

_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
2. Explain the family expectations of their children from school.
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
3. Discuss the difference between formal, informal and hidden curriculum.
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
Methods of Delivery
In teaching this unit, the course instructor may start by posing questions and brainstorming
followed by group discussions and reflections. Finally the instructor may give a brief lecture.
Students Activities
Students are expected reflect on issues that are related to social, political, economic factors that
have strong relation with the goal of education. They are also expected to reflect on the dual
relations and interactions between the school and their external environments. This can be done
through brain storming, group discussions and reflections. Therefore, students should be grouped
in to teams, discuss on issues and present their reflection.
Unit Assessment
Group presentations and term papers are more appropriate to assess students learning progress for
this unit.

Adler, M. J. (1988). In Van Doren G. (Ed.), Reforming education: The opening of the American
mind. New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing Company.
Boethel, M. 2003. Diversity School, Family and Community Connections. Texas: SEDL.
Commonwealth of Learning (COL). 2000. Curriculum Theory, Design and assessment. [n.p.]:
Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Elmore, R. 2000. Building a New Structure For School Leadership. Washington, DC: The Albert
Shanker Institute.
Jackson, P. (1968). Life in classrooms. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston
Richards, H.V.; Brown, F. & Forde, T.B. 2006. Addressing Diversity in Schools: Culturally
Responsive Pedagogy. Tempe, Arizona: NCCREST.
Schugurensky, D. 2000. THE FORMS OF INFORMAL LEARNING: TOWARDS A
CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE FIELD. Toronto: University of Toronto.
Sullivan, A.L. & A'Vant, E. 2009. Multicultural Affairs: On the Need for Cultural Responsiveness.
NASP Communiqu, Vol. 38, 3.
United Nations (UN). 1998. Participatory Curriculum Development: Training Manual. Rome:
FAQ.

The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology (2000). Retrieved 01 November 2005, from xreferplus.
http://www.xreferplus.com/entry/723883
Cimpean, C. 2008. John Dewey And Mortimer Adler On Curriculum, Teaching, And The Purpose
Of Schooling: How Their Views Can Be Incorporated Within A Christian Philosophy Of
Education. [Unpublished] A Dissertation Baylor University

Coombs, P.H. and Ahmed, M. (1974). Attacking Rural Poverty: how NFE can help. Baltimore:
John Hopkins University Press.
Harnett, P. (1991) History in the Primary School: the Contribution of Textbooks to Curriculum
Innovation and Reform. Leamington Spa, Scholastic.
Hoppers, W. (2006). Non-formal education and basic education reform: a conceptual review. Paris:
IIEP.
Horn, R.A. 2003. Developing a Critical Awareness of the Hidden Curriculum through Media
Literacy. The Clearing House v. 76 no. 6, p. 298-300.
Leclear, E. A. 2005. Relationships among Leadership Styles, School Culture, and Student
Achievement. University of Florida.
Macdonald, B.J. (ed.). 1978. Theory as a prayerful act: The collected essays of James B.
Macdonald. New York: Peter Lang.
MCEETYA. 2005. Contemporary Learning: learning in an online world. New Zealand:
MCEETYA.
MENON Network. 2004. QUALITY GUIDE TO THE NON-FORMAL AND INFORMAL
LEARNING PROCESSES. [n.p.]: MENON Network EEIG.
NACCCE. 1999. All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education. London: NACCCE.
Rogers, Alan. (2004). Non-Formal Education: Flexible Schooling or Participatory Education?
Hong Kong: Kluwer Academic Publisher.
Tanner, D., and Tanner, L. (1995). Curriculum Development: Theory into Practice (3rd ed.).
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Merrill.
University of Zimbabwe. (1995). Curriculum Implementation, Change and Innovation. (Module
EA3AD 303). Harare: Centre for Distance Education, University of Zimbabwe.
Urevbu, A. O. (1985). Curriculum Studies. Ikeja: Longman.

School and Society Unit 3: An Overview of
Participatory Societal Participation
UNIT THREE
AN OVERVIEW OF PARTICIPATORY SOCIETAL PARTICIPATION
UNIT INTRODUCTION
Dear Learner! Welcome to the unit entitled as An Overview of Participatory Societal
Participation. I hope that you remember what you discussed in Unit two regarding the diverse
nature of school and society. In this unit, you will discuss the essence of participatory approach
and regarding the concepts of decentralization, accountability and empowerment. At the same
time, this unit focuses on the major goals of school- society relations and major partners in school-
society relations. Well Stay!

Discuss participatory approaches to societal participation on education
Differentiate the different forms and levels of participation
Explain the differences between decentralization, accountability and empowerment
Discuss the main goals of school-society relations
Identify obstacles to school-society relations
Identify major partners to school-society relations.
Lesson One
3.1. The Essence of Participatory Approach (Societys
participation on development issues Including Education)
Activity 3.1. Take time home assignment and answer the following
Dear Learner, What are the key principles of facilitating participation for empowerment?
How is it described?
What are the outcomes of participation? What characteristics define meaningful
participation? How is participation measured? Good job!
Nice attempt! Now compare what you have reflected with what follows. Let us look in detail
what participation, ownership, collaboration and team work and an approach based on democratic
decisions provided by different scholars. In the 1970s and early 1980s, a desire by decision-
makers to more effectively incorporate the perspectives and priorities of the local people in
decision-making, policy development and project implementation led to the emergence of a
number of participatory approaches to development. This re-orientation towards greater
participation in development by individuals was motivated by the development communities
desire to move from an emphasis on top down, technocratic and economic interventions towards
greater attention to bottom-up, community-level interventions. Then, what is all about
participation?
To start with, it is useful to consider the origins, or etymology, of the word participation.
Participation originates from Latinderived from particeps meaning part-taking, and pars +
capere, meaning to take or to share in. Common English definitions include taking part in or
becoming involved in an activity; the state of sharing in common with others; and the act or state
of receiving or having part of something. Thus, the central concept in participation is involvement

or sharing, particularly in an activity. What is important to note about these definitions is the focus
on both the nature and the extent of involvement, with qualitative and quantitative implications.
Hence, a higher level of involvement - of 'participation', defined as "having a share in, having a
part in, being part of" - is achieved farther along the range, where parents take a more active part
in the activities of associations, perhaps help in the classroom, and assist in other work. In this
way, the focus of their relationship with the school widens from that of the parent concerned with
his/her child's education per se, to a more global concern with the school as a whole. People from
differing professional backgrounds may have different values and attach a range of meanings to
terms (Shaeffer, 1994).
This shows us, participation means many things to many people; open to varied interpretations and
the level or intensity of involvement by various groups of actors may also greatly vary. At the
same time, often the term participation is modified with adjectives, resulting in terms such as
community participation, citizen participation, peoples participation, public participation, and
popular participation. The definitions given to terms associated with 'participation' have often
remained vague, confusing, and even contradictory; especially, when we see the distinction
between 'participation' and 'involvement' is a case in point. Regarding the relationship between
parents and school, two aspects are being discerned in the literature, namely parental involvement
and parental participation (Deslandes, 2009). On the one hand, you can found that the term
'community involvement' has been given preference over 'community participation' because it is
not sufficient merely to participate, which may be simply a passive response; there should be
mechanisms and processes to enable people to become actively involved and to take responsibility
for some decisions and activities jointly with professionals. On the other hand, according to
Deslandes (2009), unfortunately, these notions are often not operationalzed unambiguously and
moreover it is not made clear what the exact differences are between them. The description of
parental involvement has been expanded from participation of parents at school to include
involvement of parents in the education of their children at home. Desforges in Deslandes (2009)
distinguishes two forms of parental involvement/participation, namely spontaneous versus
planned. Whereas the first is bottomup, the second is more topdown and typically concerns
interventions or programs aimed to solve the problem of insufficient or no parental involvement.
Further differentiation of parental involvement/participation takes the following form: (1) home
involvement: (a) home discussion of school activities; (b) home supervision or monitoring of the
child; (2) school involvement: (a) school communication or parentschool contact; (b)
participation of parents in school activities or organizational matters.
Here, we can ask such question: What is objectives of and variation in involvement and
participation? Following the distinction made above, two objectives underlying the
optimalization of the relations between parents and school can be identified (see Table 3.1 under).
Table 3.1 Objectives underlying the optimalization of the relations between parents and school
Objectives Nature of the partnership
Parental involvement
Pedagogical Attunement of approaches to student at home and at school.
Preparation Improved preparation of not only parents but also teachers with an eye to
strengthening parentschool relations and the school careers of students.
Parental participation
Organizational Parental contribution to course of things at school in the form of not only
undertaking activities but also jointly thinking about things.
Democratic Parents think and decide both formally and informally together with the
school; the school justifies its work to parents.

Source: Deslandes, R. 2009. ed. International Perspectives on Contexts, Communities and Evaluated Innovative
Practices: FamilySchool Community Partnerships. London: Routledge. p66.
Then, we can ask ourselves question like what is the effects of involvement and participation?
Well, despite the fact that the relevant research results were found to strongly diverge as a
consequence of conceptual differences, many of the results point to a positive relation between the
involvement of parents and the school development of their child. According to Desforges in
Deslandes (2009), the most important factor is good parenting at home with the following
characteristics: the provision of a safe and stable environment, intellectual stimulation, the conduct
of parentchild discussions, the functioning of parents as constructive role models who propagate
the value of education and provide signs of high expectations for their children. The following
elements are also of importance: the maintenance of contact with the school for the exchange of
information, participation in school activities and the conduct of activities at the school and within
the school administration.
As a result, several different degrees of participation in development can be described. A useful

modification of this 'ladder' would describe degrees of participation as follows:
1. the mere use of a service (such as a primary health care facility);
2. involvement through the contribution (or extraction) of resources, materials, and labor;
3. involvement through 'attendance' and the receipt of information (e.g., at parents' meetings at
school), implying passive acceptance of decisions made by others;
4. involvement through consultation (or feedback) on a particular issue;
5. participation in the delivery of a service, often as a partner with other actors;
6. participation as implementers of delegated powers; and
7. most completely, participation in real decision-making at every stage - identification of
problems, the study of feasibility, planning, implementation, and evaluation (Shaeffer, 1994).
Therefore, for purposes of the present discussion in this course, the concept of parental
involvement was defined as the role of the parents in the support of their own child, both at home
(e.g. reading out loud) and at school (e.g. discussion of marks with teacher). The concept of
parental participation was defined as active participation of parents in school activities. With
respect to the latter, a further distinction is made between non-institutionalized forms of parental
participation (e.g. lending a helping hand) and formal, institutionalized forms of parental
participation (e.g. parents council, advisory board or school administration membership).
Then, when we are looking the issues associated with participatory approaches to development are
not neutral and 'value-free'. Rather, they are based on a number of assumptions which need to be
taken into account while reading this lesson; namely that:
1. Participation has become a necessary aspect of development. Programs of development
are likely to be more relevant, more supported, more successful, and more sustainable to
the extent that they involve their 'targets' in their planning, implementation, and evaluation.
2. Participation and collaboration are not panaceas for educational under-development.
They cannot solve all problems, and they should not be used as a substitute for serious,
systematic public attempts to plan, manage, and finance basic education more efficiently
and with greater imagination. Above all, they should not be used as an excuse by
government to get out of the 'business' of basic education.
3. Participatory and collaborative approaches are dependent on, and affected by, social,
cultural, and political contexts. What works in one country may not work in another. These
approaches therefore cannot be treated as recipes able to be implemented in the same way
in all regions of the world. Rather, they should be seen as items on a menu of mechanisms,

procedures, and administrative actions which can lead to a higher degree of participation in
education, at both local and national levels depending on the context.
4. Such approaches have disadvantages as well as benefits, costs as well as savings. They are
often difficult to implement, can be risky as well as beneficial, and are not 'free'.
5. Based on considerable evidence of case studies, under the right conditions, and given the
right precautions, the greater participation of more actors can help improve the quality of,
and the demand for, particularly basic education (Shaeffer, 1994).
This lesson is therefore not meant to propose universal, standardized methods to promote
collaboration and strengthen partnerships. Rather, it will suggest steps that need to be taken by
central government officials and local authorities in order to facilitate the implementation of such
approaches both at their own level and at the local level. This recognition is quite explicit in the
Declaration of the Right to Development adopted by the United Nations in 1986, which says: The
right to development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all
peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to and enjoy economic, social, cultural and
political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized.
(UN 1986, Paragraph 1 of Article 1; italics added). It is evident from this statement that the right
to development is to be seen not simply as a right to enjoy the fruits of development, but also as
a right to participate in the process of realizing them (Shaeffer, 1994; UN, 2008). Hence, peoples
involvement could be realized in many ways and by different methods. This shows us that there
are different ways to conceptualize family involvement in education.
However, only some underscore active, ongoing engagement of parents and educators in ways that
connect directly with childrens learning. Consider three variations. First, do we view our goal as
enhancing parent involvement in education? If so, Christenson (2004) suggested parent
involvement is the dedication of resources by the parent to the child in terms of (a) behavior
(activities at home and school); (b) cognitive-intellectual (intellectually stimulating, enriching
home environment); and (c) personal (knowledge of childs progress and learning content). Or,
second, do we view our goal as enhancing the interface of home and school to promote students
learning competence? If so, schoolfamily partnerships are the mutual collaboration, support, and
participation of parents and school staff at home or at the school site in activities and efforts that
directly and positively affect the educational progress of children. Or, third, do we add the
essential nature of the partnership with parents to ensure optimal conditions for students learning?
If so, home, school and community are three major spheres of influence on children. Their
interactions may be either positive or negative, close or distant, growth promoting or growth
discouraging. They range from one-on-one interactions with the child to events occurring in the
society itself. All three major spheres of influence should be considered in efforts to promote
family involvement in education.
Then when we are looking the types and levels of parental involvement Epsteins (1995) in Davis
(2000) identifying six types of parent involvement tends to be cited in the literature more often
than any other. The six types of involvement identified by Epstein are:
Parenting: Helping families with parenting skills to establish home environments to
support children as learners;
Communicating: Assuring effective communication about school programs and students
progress - school-to-home- and home-to-school communications;
Volunteering: The recruitment and organization of the schools volunteer program;
Learning at Home: involving families in working with their children at home - with
homework and recognizing other learning at home opportunities;

Decision-making: Including parents, students, and community members in the school
decision-making process; and
Collaborating with the Community: The identification and integration of resources and
services from the community (coordinating resources and services).
The above framework is based on three key principles:
1. Different stakeholders are involved, each with different aims and capabilities.
2. Stakeholders participate at different levels, from passive involvement to active
empowerment.
3. The level of participation of each stakeholder may change at different phases of a
development process (analysis, planning, doing and reviewing).
However, development tends to work best when all stakeholders can participate to their desired
level throughout the development process. The most important and complicated issue bearing on
local level planning and development is community participation. Effective community
participation may lead to social and personal empowerment, economic development, and
sociopolitical transformation. Yet there are obstacles: the power of central bureaucracies, the lack
of local skills and organizational experience, social divisions, and the impact of national and
transnational structures. We can site also some barriers to participation, such as lack of time and
knowledge about how to become involved, cut across all cultures and peoples. Others barriers,
such as language differences and distrust of schools, may be particular to specific cultural groups.
Unfortunately, too often schools do not recognize and honor different ways families are involved
in their childrens learning. It is important for school leaders and staff to redefine their vision of
family involvement, and to recognize other forms of family involvement that go beyond those
commonly traditional way that One size does not fit all when developing school-family
partnerships. For these purpose, school leaders and staff need support/training to encourage family
involvement. And, eventually, we should have to consider as educational leader that Change
takes time, and building a successful partnership requires continued effort over time. For that
reason, as educational leader at any echelon, we should have to have a vision; based on this, we
should have to be long sited; these entails also to us to have a consolidated, shared,
comprehensive school-community relations plan or goal - which will be dealt underneath.
Lesson Two
3.2. Defining Decentralization, Accountability and
Empowerment
Dear Learner! In the previous lesson, we have seen the essence of participatory approach in
education. For successful community participation, however, collaborating structures and
organization is essential. This lesson is therefore intended to serve as a basis for delivering
sessions related to the major concepts entertained in participatory approaches that is
decentralization, accountability and empowerment.
Activity 3.2. Take time home assignment and answer the following
Dear Learner, to what degree has each new decentralization fostered greater local
autonomy? To what degree have these reforms represented the extension of the central state
further into everyday life?
A) Decentralization
Decentralization has quietly become a fashion of our time. One of the most critical perquisites to
translate decentralization from theory to practice is a clear understanding of the concept. To be

able to better envision what decentralization means, how best it can be planned and implemented,
what its intricacies are, and how its challenges can be overcome, development practitioners should
be equipped with appropriate tools which could provide an analytical knowledge of
decentralization from a conceptual viewpoint accompanied by real and field-tested examples of
the concept in practice (UNDP, 1999).
Accoarding to Shaeffer (1994), decentralization is a process often particularly crucial in any

attempt to facilitate the participation of a broader range of actors in development. However,
decentralization is not simply a unitary concept, but has different forms for different functions; it
is another concept fraught with multiple and often contradictory variations. The term covers a
wide range of policy measures which are undertaken by governments as part of a larger strategy to
restructure the socioeconomic sectors, in response to changing patterns in the international
economic order and external pressures from global monetary institutions. Today, decentralization
is a firm component of national policy debates, donor recommendations and public sector
management reforms.
In its literal sense the term decentralization implies moving away from the centre. But this
does not necessarily imply less central government control; it may only mean spreading central
control across sub-national levels, thereby, in fact, strengthening the reach-out, the power of the
central authorities. Another view is that decentralization necessarily implies the weakening of
central government and concomitant strengthening of local, sub-national government levels. This
links the term decentralization to the notion of participation and sharing of responsibility
through active involvement of the civil society; for instance citizen participation at community
level, and decision autonomy in the framework of school-based management, for instance. So,
let us look some of the definitions given for decentralization by different authors as follows.
Based on the definition of United Nations, decentralization, or decentralizing governance, refers to

the restructuring or reorganization of authority so that there is a system of co-responsibility
between institutions of governance at the central, regional and local levels according to the
principle of subsidiarity, thus increasing the overall quality and effectiveness of the system of
governance, while increasing the authority and capacities of sub-national levels. Decentralization
could also be expected to contribute to key elements of good governance, such as increasing
people's opportunities for participation in economic, social and political decisions; assisting in
developing people's capacities; and enhancing government responsiveness, transparency and
accountability (UNDP, 1999).
While decentralization or decentralizing governance should not be seen as an end in itself, it can
be a means for creating more open, responsive, and effective local government and for enhancing
representational systems of community-level decision making. By allowing local communities and
regional entities to manage their own affairs, and through facilitating closer contact between
central and local authorities, effective systems of local governance enable responses to people's
needs and priorities to be heard, thereby ensuring that government interventions meet a variety of
social needs. When we see other views and definitions of decentralization from the World Bank,
decentralization entails the transfer of political, fiscal, and administrative powers to sub-national
units of government. Or it may consist of expanding the resources and responsibilities of existing
sub-national governments (UNDP, 1999).
Hence, decentralization may be defined in terms of the form (functional activities) and level
(national to sub-national) as well as the nature or degree of power that is transferred.
Administrative, fiscal, market and political dimensions capture the form (functional activities) and

level (e.g. national to sub-national and local) of decentralization while devolution, de-
concentration, and delegation refer to the nature and degree of power being transferred (Dunne &
Others, 2002). In other words, it covers a range of concepts with different implementation
implications, especially in the degree of responsibility intended to be transferred to local actors.
But, decentralization does not mean a relinquishing of all forms of control from the central
government or administration to the local level (De Gauwe et al., 2005). As Kataoka (2006) points
out, even in contexts where devolution of roles and responsibilities are intended, central
governments have continued to exercise some control or oversight of many responsibilities
devolved to local government. The important questions in this regard are: (1) what central powers
are being decentralized (e.g., only data collection and not policy-making? Only resource
extraction and not allocation and expenditure?), (2) why such decentralization is occurring (e.g.,
for the reasons listed above or because an impoverished State can no longer finances its needed
social services?); and (3) to whom various levels in more decentralized systems are ultimately
accountable (Shaeffer, 1994).
From the above clarifications, we can understand that there are different types of decentralization
systems. Definitions of the different types of decentralization vary and the same terms are
sometimes used in inconsistent ways in the literature on the subject. So, let us look some of the
types of decentralization as cited by Ribot (2001) and Yuliani (2004) as follows.
Political decentralization: Groups at different levels of governmentcentral, meso and local
are empowered to make decisions related to what affects them.
Administrative decentralization: Different levels of government administer resources and
matters that have been delegated to them, generally through a constitution. In terms of
decentralization as a process of change, and according to the level of transfer of
responsibilities, it is useful to distinguish between deconcentration, delegation and
devolution.
Administrative decentralization, i.e. a transfer to lower-level central government authorities,
or to other local authorities who are upwardly accountable to the central government.
The transfer of administrative responsibility for specified functions to lower levels within the
central government bureaucracy, generally on some spatial basis.
One of administrative decentralization which redistributes decision-making authority and
financial and management responsibility among levels of the central government; there is no
real transfer of authority between levels of government. It may involve only a shift of
responsibilities from federal service officials of the capital city to those stationed in
provinces, districts, etc.
One form of administrative decentralization which transfers specific decision-making powers
from one level of government to another (which could be from lower level to higher level of
government, in the case of federations, or government transfers decision-making powers to
entities of the civil society. Regional or provincial governments, for example, become semi-
autonomous and administer resources according to their own priorities and within clear
geographical boundaries under their control. Most political decentralization is associated
with devolution.
Fiscal decentralization. In this case, previously concentrated powers to tax and generate
revenues are dispersed to other levels of government, e.g., local governments are given the
power to raise and retain financial resources to fulfill their responsibilities.
Fiscal decentralization, the decentralization of fiscal resources and revenue generating
powers, is also often identified by many analysts as a separate form of decentralization. But

while fiscal transfers are important, they constitute a cross-cutting element of both
deconcentration and political decentralization, rather than being separate category.
Market decentralization: Government privatizes or deregulates private functions.
As mentioned above, there are also other types of decentralization such as deconcentration,
devolution and delegation, presented here below as cited by Dunne and Others (2002), Ribot
(2002) and Yuliani (2004).
Deconcentration, sometimes called administrative decentralization, involves handing over
more routine authority and decision-making powers from a higher level of the central
government to lower levels (regional, district, cluster), still accountable to, and staffed by,
the central ministry. As deconcentration it aims to redistribute administrative responsibilities
within the central government whereas in what some describe as its purest form, as
devolution it seeks to create or strengthen autonomous action of local actors and institutions
outside central government control.
Deconcentration, is the term referring to the process by which the agents of central
government control are relocated and geographically dispersed.
Deconcentration or administrative decentralization involves the transfer of power to local
branches of the central state, such as prefects, leaders, or local technical line-ministry agents.
These upwardly accountable bodies are local administrative extensions of the central state.
They may have some downward accountability built into their functions, but their primary
responsibility is to central government. Deconcentration is a weak form of decentralization
because the downward accountability from which many benefits are expected are not as well
established as in democratic or political forms of decentralization.
Delegation transfers (or lends) certain specific management responsibilities for some
activities to other units, governmental or non-governmental, implying somewhat stronger
(but easily cancellable) local autonomy.
Delegation, refers to the transfer of managerial responsibility for specified functions to other
public organizations outside normal central government control, whether provincial or local
government or parastatal agencies. It is one form of administrative decentralization which
transfers responsibilities and authority to semi-autonomous entities that respond to the
central government but are not totally controlled by it.
Delegation is when public functions are transferred to lower levels of government, public
corporations or any other authorities outside of the regular political-administrative structure
to implement programs on behalf of a government agency.
Privatization is the divesting of functions to the private sector, to either voluntary or for-
profit organizations. Ferguson and Chandrasekharan include privatization as a particular
form of devolution to private ownership that has become prominent in recent times.
Privatization is the transfer of powers to any non-state entity, including individuals,
corporations, NGOs, etc. Although often carried out in the name of decentralization,
privatization is not a form of decentralization. It operates on an exclusive logic, rather than
on the inclusive public logic of decentralization.
Devolution (sometimes called political decentralization) strengthens sub-national units of
government and actually transfers considerable decision-making powers to local political
bodies relatively independent of the central government. Devolution could also refer to the
transfer of competencies from the central state to the distinct legal entities which could
include non-governmental and private organizations (Jutting et al., 2004). Another way of
viewing devolution is as a process of devolving administrative and fiscal responsibility to
lower levels of government.

It is in the actual devolution of power to local lower-level bodies of government (and even to
community associations and NGOs) that the greatest scope for participatory development can be
found. This strategy is meant to achieve various results: (1) to generate more resources and assure
their more equitable allocation and effective use within the decentralized administrative units; (2)
to improve the quality of decision-making and planning by making these processes more
responsive to indigenous cultures and to local conditions, needs, and practices; (3) to speed up the
decision-making process and free the centre to focus on its legitimate strategic concerns; (4) to
encourage initiative, innovation, and participation; (5) to increase local responsibility and
accountability over issues more readily understood by local management and (6) to stimulate
communication down and (especially) up the system of control (Shaeffer, 1994).
On the other hand, decentralization is a large area covering a wide range of aspects: conceptual,
institutional, organizational, and methodological. When we are looking decentralization in our
context education - what the literature also indicates is that in many contexts decentralization of
critical decision-making on school development has produced desirable outcomes, especially in
terms of local government and communities taking up responsibility for building classrooms,
hiring community or contract teachers, or raising funds for school infrastructure development.
What appear to have received scant attention are initiatives where local authorities, schools and
local communities have galvanized their efforts to address software issues such as improving
access to schooling (Dunne & Others, 2002).
Within the local community context, shared educational concerns, such as persistent dropout, high
student absenteeism, and utilization of school fees are expected to galvanize community and local
government action. Decentralization of education service delivery, it is also argued, can produce
greater community pressure for transparency and accountability in school management (Chapman,
2000). One of the purposes of decentralizing education services is to widen the participation of
non-education professionals at local community level in the running and management of schools.
Over the past two decades, many countries have been engaged in a shift of decision-making
authority to lower administrative levels, either to local or regional governments, or to schools.
This move towards decentralization is a global phenomenon, affecting developing as well as
industrialized countries, although the motives and incentives are diverse. The increased attention
for decentralization in education is perhaps best reflected by the numerous initiatives to stimulate
decision making by schools, such as site- or school-based management (SBM), the local
management of schools and the establishment of relatively autonomous schools like. However,
greater community participation in school governance serves no purpose in the absence of quality
teaching and learning. Therefore, the importance of quality education has placed a heightened
focus on accountability for teaching-learning performance. In other words, greater involvement of
the community in school governance is purely to support the delivery of quality teaching-learning.
It is for this reason that teaching and learning-based accountability is emphasized as one of the
pillars of todays school governance. In short, establishing reconciliation and peace through the
school governance mechanisms, practicing teaching and learning performance-based
accountability policies and the engagement of broader and inclusive participatory school
governance are the pillars to empowering the community and all the stakeholders.
B) Accountability
The second issue arising from more participatory development is accountability - another word
that continues to span a very wide variety of concepts and policies, making it an elusive concept to
grasp. Governments claim to be responsible to their people; people try to hold them to account.

Accountability is thus the measure of responsibility. The essence of accountability is
answerability; being accountable means having the obligation to answer questions regarding
decisions and/or actions. Derick Brinkerhoff in Ribot (2001) insist that citizens can only
legitimately authorize representatives and hold them accountable if there are many avenues and
institutions through which they engage with both each other and their representatives.
There is another very important consideration about the relation between accountability and
representation. Society is highly differentiated. More marginal groups within society will be less
able to take advantage of certain accountability mechanisms, thus skewing the accountability
toward more privileged groups. Because of this, there is always a need for multiple mechanisms
that privilege marginalized or disadvantaged groups if they are to be included in the political
process (Young, 2000 in Ribot, 2001).
Accountability can also be enabled by legal instruments. Judicial, criminal, civil, penal and police
codes uphold the above laws determining who has official jurisdiction over the management and
disposition of resources. They also clearly set the framework for channels of recourse and the
ability of citizens or local authorities to defend rights in general. Laws governing associations,
cooperatives, economic interest groups, and lobbying are critical for providing protections to
individuals and groups within society wishing to organize and act for social, cultural, economic or
political purposes.
Therefore, accountability relates to who is required to report to whom about - and therefore can
ultimately be held responsible for - the determination and implementation of policies and
procedures, the achievement of goals, the performance of institutions, and compliance with
standards and regulations. At the most general and ideal level, this relates to the accountability of
the "State and its agencies, institutions, and structures to civil society. More specifically and
realistically, in regard to participation and decentralization, it relates to the extent to which various
levels of the administrative hierarchy are responsible to other levels both above and below it and
to other 'partners'. In systems both decentralized and participatory, higher levels of the bureaucracy
are to some extent accountable to lower levels (rather than only the other way around), and local
government agents (e.g. the school and its staff) are to some extent accountable to their 'clients'
(e.g. children, parents, the community) as well as to the local government office and the
bureaucratic levels above. The question, answered differently according to the context, is how
such accountability is put in place (Shaeffer, 1994). Hence, accountability, defined as counter-
powerthat is, any power that balances or puts a check on the power of other power holders.
Accountability is constituted by the set of mechanisms and sanctions that can be used to assure
policy outcomes are as consistent with local needs, aspirations and the best public interest as
policymakers can make them. Accountability then is about power, authority, and ownershipand
defines the relationship between actors through identifying who can call whom to account, and
who owes a duty of explanation and rectification by defining the lines and directions of
accountability the distribution of power is also defined (Ribot, 2002).
Based on the above clarification, there are three main types of accountability mechanisms:
political, administrative and public. Political accountability of political parties and representatives
is increasingly through elections. Administrative accountability of government agencies is through
internal accountability mechanisms, both horizontal and vertical within and between agencies.
Public or social accountability mechanisms hold government agencies accountable to citizens.
Citizen action or social accountability can reinforce political and administrative accountability
mechanisms.

Similarly, societies where multi-directional accountability occurs guarantee some degree of
autonomy or 'self-government' to lower levels of the system. This includes both autonomy for
organizations to make and implement decisions regarding their own operations; and for
individuals, to make decisions regarding matters pertaining to their own concerns. Such autonomy,
within a context of accountability to other actors above and to clients below, can help to encourage
better management, higher professional competence, and more effective services. One important
premise of such a process of providing greater autonomy is that the various actors in the
autonomous institutions (e.g. a school) are professionals and able to make informed decision and
conscious of self-responsibility for consequences arising from the decisions - a premise which
may need to be realized by better training of these actors (Shaeffer, 1994).
C) Empowerment
One important outcome of more participatory processes will be empowerment. Greater
participation in a decentralized system, with multiple and more democratic processes of
accountability of more autonomous institutions, implies that people:
gain knowledge and awareness of their own social, economic, and political conditions;
take action - to make and act on choices and to construct their own futures through a
process of analysis and action; and, above all,
gain control over the goals and processes of development, and over regulatory institutions.
If it is accepted that participation should start at the stage of conception and still be in
evidence at the stage of supervision, then it is necessary to agree to share certain elements
of power (Shaeffer, 1994).
The concept of empowerment has become especially important in attempts to move the concept of
participatory development from rhetoric to concrete practice. This concept is perhaps best defined
as a group process where people who lack an equal share of valued resources gain greater access
to, and control over, those resources. As a result, poor communities come more explicitly to assert
rights and responsibilities in determining the direction of their own development. This power must
be real, formal, and legitimate, including both the ability to make use of formal structures and
regulations and control over decision-making processes, knowledge, and techniques. People who
are empowered have the power to find direct solutions to their problems - they propose solutions,
they do not beg for them (Shaeffer, 1994). Therefore, the term empowerment has different
meanings in different socio-cultural and political contexts, and does not translate easily into all
languages. An exploration of local terms associated with empowerment around the world always
leads to lively discussion. These terms include self-strength, control, self-power, self-reliance, own
choice, life of dignity in accordance with ones values, capable of fighting for ones rights,
independence, own decision-making, being free, awakening, and capabilityto mention only a
few. These definitions are embedded in local value and belief systems. Hence, empowerment is of
intrinsic value; it also has instrumental value. Empowerment is relevant at the individual and
collective level, and can be economic, social, or political. The term can be used to characterize
relations within households or between poor people and other actors at the global level.
There are thousands of examples of empowerment strategies that have been initiated by poor
people themselves and by governments, civil society, and the private sector. Successful efforts to
empower poor people, increasing their freedom of choice and action in different contexts, often
share four elements:
Access to information
Inclusion and participation
Accountability
Local organizational capacity (World Bank, 2001).

Lesson Three
3.3. Major Goals of School-Society Relations
Dear learner! How do you proceed? Participation, ownership and an approach based on
democratic decisions are key to the success of developing a health-promoting school. However,
collaboration and bringing teams together is often not as easy as it sounds; because the extent or
nature of participation by various actors may vary from place to place. Therefore, the level or
scope of the activity must be taken into consideration when defining objectives of school-
community relations. So, to make participatory approach meaningful for learners it is significant
to discuss some major goals considered for creating smooth school-community relations which are
included in this lesson.
Dear Learner, Why do we bother for close school-community relations?
Is close school-community an end or a means to any other ends?
Please mention few of the objectives of close school-community relations from your own
experiences and discuss them with your peer.
Dear learner! Why do we have school in the first place? Why should we send our children to
school? What is the purpose of schooling in general? Please try to reflect on this issue
individually. Really excellent, now let us examine different views of purpose of schooling
provided by different scholars and compare your answer with that of the scholars. When we ask
such questions, we are getting at the heart of the kind of community we want to live in and the
kind of community we want our children to live in.
First, when we look at the big picture - Society - we see schooling not as a neutral island separate
from, but as an integral part of, Society. This implies to us to see School-Community Context.
School is conceptualized as a community of families and school personnel engaged in the
educational process. The educational process is dynamic and wide ranging and involves children,
their families, and an institution called school. School is no longer viewed as a building or a
collection of classrooms in which teachers and students work together. The school community, no
longer simply bounded by geography, comprises all those who engage in the educational process.
Rather, education systems are investing in schools as learning communities with strong
partnerships between students, teachers, families and the wider community. Second, a society is a
number of people held together because they are working along common lines, in a common
spirit, and with reference to common aims. The common needs and aims demand a growing
interchange of thought and growing unity of sympathetic feeling. Based on this, society places a
heavy responsibility on schools and families. Schooling is not simply a process of teaching and
learning, but of preparing children for the future. Schools are the vehicle for aspirations, not only
for children who may conform easily to external expectations, but for every child. Therefore,
responsibilities are placed on the school, on the parent, and on the child to make the educational
process work so that each child who goes to school may fulfill his or her potential for growth.
For that reason, many of today's leaders in education, business and community development are
coming to realize schools alone cannot prepare our youth for productive adulthood. It is evident
schools and communities should work closely with each other to meet their mutual goals. Schools
can provide more support for students, families and staff when they are an integral part of the
community. Appropriate and effective collaboration and teaming are seen as key factors to
community development, learning and family self-sufficiency. Thus, school-community relations
are essential to securing public input and public support for educational programs. Community

awareness of public meetings of the PTA or School Board and an opportunity to be heard at such
meetings are necessary components of a positive school-community relations policy. At this
instance, we can confront with question: What is and could be the goals for school-community
relations? The School Board may set goals and standards for school-community relations and
may regularly evaluate its relationship with the public and its programs for maintaining open
channels of communication and good relations with parents, community organizations, the
business and industrial sector, and the community at large. Through its school-community
relations programs, the PTA or School Board will encourage the community to take an active
interest in the schools and participate in planning activities; to place a high priority on education
and make funds available for an educational system that supports learning for all children; and to
establish partnerships with the schools to enhance learning opportunities. Here, community
participation is an important component of community development and reflects a grassroots or
bottom-up approach to problem-solving. When we are looking from this perspective, one of the
major aims of community development is to encourage participation of the community as a whole.
Indeed, community development has been defined as a social process resulting from citizen
participation. Through citizen participation, a broad cross-section of the community is encouraged
to identify and articulate their own goals, design their own methods of change, and pool their
resources in the problem-solving process.
So, lets ask ourselves: What are major goals of school-community relations? First and foremost,
the education of children and young people in schools is one of the most important tasks of any
society a task that is about much more than obtaining academic qualifications. In particular,
schooling can help to counteract the negative views hate, bigotry and prejudice that exist in our
society, and promote the healing of community divisions. Not enough schools have addressed the
difficult issues that confront our society. Something more must be done to encourage greater
sharing and collaboration between communities and schools. If we are to help change our society
from the path it has travelled on for too long, we need to empower not only our teachers but also
our young people and our communities. We need to promote and encourage real, meaningful and
sustained contact with children and young people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.
Hence, the interest in greater participation in development derives from the belief that such
participation can achieve several goals, these include:
1. Ideological goals: to empower people in order to ensure their greater control over
development and their greater influence over decisions that affect them;
2. Economic goals: both to seek more resources from a wider range of actors and to share the
price of development by transferring some costs from the 'suppliers' to the 'consumers';
3. Political goals: from the government's side, to strengthen the legitimacy of the current
government and make people co-responsible for social problems; from the 'popular' side, to
gain greater share of power in policy-making and budget allocations;
4. Programmatic: to increase program or project demand, coverage, relevance, effectiveness,
efficiency, success, and sustainability; and
5. Capacity building: to develop new knowledge, skills, and attitudes and provide
beneficiaries a useful share in management tasks, monitoring, etc. (Shaeffer, 1994).
Hence, a more participatory approach to development begins with the assumption that sustainable
development ultimately depends on enhancing people's capacities as individuals and groups to
improve their own lives and to take greater control over their own destinies. This assumption may
seem self-evident, but, in fact, it is really quite radical in implication. A participatory approach to
development represents a considerable change in the process of governance, in social and political
relationships, and in who participates in, controls, and is empowered by the development process

(Shaeffer, 1994). However, the challenge of achieving the education goals is both central to and
strongly influenced by many factors such like the social, economic and other context (UNMP,
2005). And what is this integrity? Here we return to the question posed earlier about the reason for
sending children to school. Ultimately, school serves not the business world nor any political
agenda, but rather the child and young adult as he or she unfolds those capacities that make him or
her uniquely human. And what makes the human being unique? At some level it is comforting to
know that the current struggle to define a common purpose for schooling is not a new condition.
Centuries ago, Aristotle noted there was no consensus regarding what should be learned by the
young; he mentioned the possible purposes of study being usefulness in life, seeking goodness, or
advancing the bounds of knowledge. Any way we can agree that educational organizations are
social entities that have exceptional mission and orientation towards their goal fulfillment.
To sum up this lesson, therefore, the emergence of the concept of participatory development, that
is conceived not only as society-centered but also as democratic and people-centered, has also led
to the redefinition of the role of the state, the local authorities, educational leaders and above all
the community in addressing national development priorities. Especially, in developing a family
involvement program, educators need to consider the cultural, social, and economic factors that
are relevant to the unique needs of diverse children and families.
Lesson Four
3.4. Obstacles to School-Society Relations
Dear Learner! In the previous three lessons we have seen that the essence of participatory
approach, the concepts regarding decentralization, accountability and empowerment as well as
major goals of school-society relations. This is the fourth lesson of unit three. In this lesson, we
are going state the major obstacles for close school-community relations and discuss also the risks
and uncertainties of participation in general.
Activity 3.4. Investigative Group Activity (5 minutes for discussion, 5 minutes for
reflection)
Dear Learner, Assume your school and surrounding areas:
Mention some of the major factors hindering school-society participation.
What do you think are the risks of participation in development?
What do you think are the major challenges of community mobilization in your locality?
First and foremost, it wouldnt be fair to pose a framework for building family and community
involvement without acknowledging the difficulty and challenges of the work. Because, the
challenges come in many shapes and sizes, but perhaps can be illustrated in different ways,
contexts and circumstances. Read the following case study, what do you learn or deduce from the
statements given below, give your reflection.
Case Study 4 Observation in work Place
Almost any teacher could tell a discouraging tale of parents nights with few in attendance, or of bruising
conflicts with families over goals or decisions. Almost any parent or family member could tell a tale of an
unproductive meeting, a poorly planned event, or a conversation with a teacher or principal that felt
disrespectful or patronizing. It is difficult work to bridge the gap between our worlds, experiences, needs
even our schedules!
Encouraging participatory approaches to development is difficult to do for several reasons. This is

because there are often gaps in this relationship, within the school, within the family, and in their
relationships to each other and to the needs of students. There are gaps between aspirations and

realities, between manifest need and available programs. In the dynamic multicultural world of the
child today, there are gaps between particular cultures and what education may offer. However,
everywhere it is a top public priority that children develop well and that schools support that
development.
According to Shaeffer (1994), when we are examining the gap, first, many communities - perhaps
especially those most disadvantaged - are not at all homogeneous in nature. Social stratification,
divisions along caste, religious, and ethnic lines, personal rivalries and social factionalism, and the
incompatibility of interests are all factors which make it difficult to talk of 'community'
mobilization through participation. In such a context, participation may bring unresolved and
unresolvable conflicts out into the open, exacerbating rivalries of class, caste, and ethnicity by
making potential differences in goals and tactics explicit, rather than keeping them constrained and
hidden through the operation of traditional roles and responsibilities. Second, even where
community members may want to work together, a major obstacle may be the sheer lack of
experience and skill in participatory and collaborative activities. Participation by the community
in development and the collaboration of the community with other partners imply certain
knowledge and skills: setting goals and priorities, running meetings, planning budgets, accounting
for resources and so on. Third, potential participants, especially those economically and socially
weakest, may lack a sense of self-confidence and political efficacy - the feeling that individual
political action does have, and can have, an impact upon the policy process. They may also feel, or
may have been encouraged to feel, that, given the overriding authority of the government, they
have little political power, few obligations beyond receiving government services, and little ability
to affect government policy.
Fourth, marginal communities (and many governments) cannot bear the added expense of
participatory processes especially in terms of financial resources and of the time and energy
required of participating community organizations, government agencies, and individuals. Fifth,
participatory processes do not just happen by themselves or by fiat, but rather require new and
complex managerial and supervisory skills, attitudes, and behaviors. Principals able to share
authority within and across schools, teachers (especially those from another region, ethnic group,
or language group) able to carry out surveys of community needs, woreda officers able to work
with program staff of NOGs, central planners willing to issue the regulations mandating
community involvement in curriculum development - all of these are not easy to develop in
traditional bureaucracies and, once developed, to sustain.
Sixth, participation is often in conflict with a political culture where initiatives toward reform may
require clear sanction from above and where, for example, both parental participation in designing
(let alone questioning) school policies and flexible, non-standardized responses to a variety of
development contexts are difficult to imagine. Seventh, many institutions and individuals have a
profound inability or resistance to change. The inertia of inflexible systems, bureaucratic delays,
the lack of teamwork and co-coordinating mechanisms, the absence of clear rules as to who should
do what and when, poor technical support from those meant to provide it, and the fear of losing
control to other agencies, to lower levels of the system, or to outsiders - all make it difficult, at
least early in various reforms, to encourage new initiatives. Eighth, such problems are
compounded by more concrete administrative obstacles. Logistical problems and staff turnover
are notable in this regard; when staff trained in a more participatory approach and method are
transferred or resign, much time and effort are wasted. Administrative procedures may also
discourage collaboration. This can make any innovation, let alone that based on greater popular
participation, difficult to implement. Although, PTAs and SMCs are being set up in many
education systems in developing countries, there are tensions and contradictions in their roles and

responsibilities that undermine their effectiveness. Also, the composition of these bodies may not
necessarily be representative of parents. Another problem, for many parents, their own personal
school experiences create obstacles to involvement. Those who have dropped out of school do not
feel confident in school settings; explain how the diverse contexts of their lives create tensions that
interfere with positive home/school relations. Even, educators often don't take into account how a
parent's own school experience may influence school relationships. Listen in as one father
describes his son's school progress:
Case Study 5 Obscured Father
They expect me to go to school so they can tell me my kid is stupid or crazy. They' ve been telling me that for
three years, so why should I go and hear it again? They don' t do anything. They just tell me my kid is bad. See, I'
ve been there. I know. And it scares me. They called me a boy in trouble but I was a troubled boy. Nobody helped
me because they liked it when I didn't show up. If I was gone for the semester, fine with them. I dropped out nine
times. They wanted me gone.
Source: Finders, M. & Lewis, C. 2002. Why Some Parents Dont Come to School. Barrington, IL: EBSCO Publishing, p 51.
Reflection
This father's experiences created mistrust and prevented him from participating more fully in his
son's education. Yet, we cannot say that he doesn't care about his son. On the contrary, his message
is urgent. For many parents their own personal school experiences create obstacles to involvement.
On the other hand, school practitioners are less and less willing to give time to participation
schemes they see as inauthentic. School personnel may subtly display patronizing or negative
attitudes toward parents. Schools need to welcome parents whenever they visit the school by
conveying a positive attitude toward the first language of the students and families. However, just
as parents have challenges that impede their collaboration with schools, teachers have challenges
that impede their work with parents. Most literature report that the following barriers that impede
teachers when it comes to family and community involvement:
Negative attitudes toward parents: misconceptions and assumptions about parents;
Unfamiliar cultures: lack of understanding of the students cultures;
Language barriers: inability to understand the parents home languages;
Training: lack of training in working with parents; and
Increased responsibilities: lack of time to develop family involvement activities.
Similarly, because of the variety of students backgrounds, reaching out to families has become
increasingly complex for schools. Educators who define families in more narrow terms may have
assumptions that make it difficult for them to understand the families of many of their students.
Carter (2003) identified the following common assumptions held by educators that can either
hinder home-school collaboration.
Parents who dont attend school events dont care about their childrens success in school;
Parents who are illiterate or unemployed cant help their children with school;
Parents from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds dont understand how to help their
children with school;
Its up to parents to find out what is going on at school; and
Parent involvement is not worth educators effort.
For many years, the prevailing view of many educators was that families had a very limited role to
play at their childrens schools: parents should come to school only when invited, stay-at-home
mothers served as room mothers. Contrary to the assumption of many educators, research on
family connections with schools has revealed that parents are interested in their childrens

academic success regardless of ethnicity, culture, or economic status, although they may not know
how to help their children or may feel incapable of assisting them. Ferguson found that
Parent involvement encompasses a multitude of complex phenomena. Differences in the
family structure, culture, ethnic background, social class, age and gender represent only a
few of the factors affecting interpretations of or generalizations about the nature of parent
involvement (Scribner and Scribner in Ferguson, 2005: 1).
This statement reflects a few of the factors that complicate and sometimes inhibit family
involvement with schools, particularly for those families representing diverse populations. In his
reports, Ferguson (2005) also says that the way a family defines support and interest is through
their own perspective. Unfortunately, many times the schools perspective and definitions of the
family involvement in school are not the same as those of the families. These differing viewpoints
can create barriers to meaningful participation of families participation in schools.
Activity 3.5. Take time for five minutes and discuss these issues in class
Dear Learner, Assume your school and surrounding areas:
What kinds of opportunities can the school principal explore to collaborate with families?
How can family and parental involvement challenges be overcome?
Parents need to know how the school system works and how they can have access to it for the
betterment of their children. Conceptualizing barriers for each socializing system as well as the
relationship may serve to promote perspective taking and enhance the understanding of constraints
involved for all individuals. Educators must be sensitive to the status-oriented family issues such
as socioeconomic status, parental education, and the like. The stimulus for engaging parents in
education lies with educators; therefore, addressing barriers for educators is necessary. At the
school level, it appears that strong leadership and administrative support are essential to increasing
meaningful family involvement. The good news is that barriers, if identified, understood, and
thought of as opportunities, can lead to positive service delivery changes, such as school practices
for outreach to families or new responsibilities for families.
Therefore, identifying these assumptions is a first step toward changing them and determining
ways for educators to encourage family involvement in school. If educators view children simply
as students, they are likely to see the family as separate from the school. That is, the family is
expected to do its job and leave the education of children to the schools. If educators view students
as children, they are likely to see both the family and the community as partners with the school in
childrens education and development. Partners recognize their shared interests in and
responsibilities for children, and they work together to create better programs and opportunities for
students (Ferguson, 2005). Most of the time it is not lack of interest that prevents parents from
becoming involved in their childrens education but challenges such as poverty, single parenting,
language/literacy barriers, and cultural and socioeconomic isolation that hinder involvement. A
number of other barriers can prevent families from being involved in their childrens education.
These barriers may originate in the home environment or may be related to school policies and
practices. Schools can address these challenges by creating an environment (and explicit
structures) for sharing and learning about home cultures, values, talents, and experiences, as well
as for identifying and dealing productively with conflict. In many ways, building such an
environment is the crux of all family and community engagement.
Families know their children the best and should be respected for that knowledge.
Schools have a lot of knowledge about children, but they are not in the relationship for a
lifetime. When schools understand and respect what families bring to the table then
partnerships can grow (Carter, 2003: 20).

To summarize this section, school-community partnership development also takes time;
partnerships are built one relationship at a time and need continual nurturing. Collaboration also
often requires changes in traditional roles, responsibilities, expectations, and schedules, which can
prove difficult for partners. All of the subsequent structures and strategies can be viewed as
contributing to creating a welcoming environment, valuing and learning about home and
community, and negotiating differences and conflicts.
Lesson Four
3.5. Major Partners in School-Society Relations
Dear learner! The major partners are the fifth one you are going to learn as a strategy of
collaboration for two way communication in school-community relations. Partnership is important
concept that implies sharing of power, responsibility and ownership, though with each party
having different roles. This section provides an illustration on the: concept of partnership, why
partnership, identify potential partners, types or kinds of partnership and finally we are going to
see also the problems and solutions in partnership. You are advised to read each topic in detail and
relate with the existing partnership that you working at you school. Well Stay!
Dear Learner, What is partnership? More specifically, What are family-school partnerships?
What agencies and organizations within our community have a strong parent-provider
partnership model and approach, including shared leadership?
Do family, school and community connections make a difference?
What can be the role of the community to strengthen school-community relationship?
Well! I presume you have very well tried to scrutinize how and what type of partnership is
effective for educational institutions from other social organizations. Now, check your reactions
with what pursues. Education in the 21st century means much more than providing students with
academic knowledge and skills. Educators alone cannot help children develop intellectually,
personally, socially, and morally develop all the knowledge, attitudes, and skills they need to be
productive citizens and caring people as adults. Educating children to live in our rapidly changing
and increasingly complex society requires contributions and commitments from everyone in the
community (Carter, 2003). Here, the notion of partnership is important point. Then, let us deal
with such question: What is the essence of partnership? What are the major characteristics of
effective partnership?
Well, to partner: Implies a relationship, frequently between two people, in which each has equal
status and certain independence but also implicit or formal obligations to the other or others.
Partnerships are a collaborative relationship designed primarily to produce positive educational
and social effects on the child while being mutually beneficial to all other parties involved. Hence,
partnerships need to be underpinned by broad principles and strategies but remain specific to
school context, including family/community characteristics, school size, levels of schooling and
student needs. Thus, the central characteristics of effective family-school partnerships include:
sharing of power, responsibility and ownership, though with each party having
different roles;
a degree of mutuality, that begins with the process of listening to each other and that
incorporates responsive dialogue and give and take on both sides;
shared aims and goals based on a common understanding of the educational needs of
children; and
commitment to joint action, in which parents, students and teachers work together
(Carter, 2003).

Second question: Why we concern partnership? What is the necessity behind the curtail? Nice!
Case Study 6: The story The Enormous cassava
There was once a farmer who decided to plant a field of cassava. He noticed that one cassava grew bigger and faster than all the others
so he decided to leave it until the end of the harvesting season so that it could grow as much as possible. Later in the year, the farmer
decided that it was time to harvest the enormous cassava. He went down to the field and pulled and pulled and heaved and shoved, but
the cassava stayed firmly in the ground.
Greatly frustrated by this turn of events, the farmer called his wife to pull on his belt while he pulled the cassava. Still the cassava would
not move. So, the wife decided to call her dog and told it to pull her while she pulled her husband and the farmer pulled the cassava.
Still the cassava would not budge. A little while the dog thought about calling the cat to come and assist them. The cat pulled the dog,
while the dog pulled the farmers wife, and she pulled her husband, who pulled the giant cassava. Still the cassava would not come out
of the ground and soon they were all exhausted and angry with each other.
Eventually, and by this time everybody was very tired and short-tempered, the cat thought about calling the mouse to help. The farmer,
his wife and the dog all laughed at the cat and wondered how such a small creature as a mouse could possibly make a difference and
result in the cassava being pulled from the ground.
However, there seemed to be nothing else to do, so the cat went and called the mouse. The mouse pulled the cat, the cat pulled the dog,
the dog pulled the farmers wife, the farmers wife pulled the farmer and the farmer pulled the cassava. Suddenly, there was a very loud
plop sound and the cassava was pulled clear of the ground. Everybody was delighted that the great task had been accomplished!
Students Activity
Students pay attention to the story read by facilitators. (3 minutes)
In pairs, participants talk about what this story means to them. (2 minutes)
Still in pairs, participants now talk about what this story means to them in relation to development planning
and partnership specifically. (3 minutes)
In plenary, one pair shares their thoughts. Another pair who thinks they have something new to say makes a
contribution. This continues until four or five pairs have had a chance to speak and the story has been
unpacked. (6 minutes)
Someone will hopefully make the point that the contribution and the opinion of even the smallest counts, and
will make a big difference this may be the child, a school cleaner or even a new teacher. This is part of the
rationale for the term whole-school-partnership planning. If this point does not come out, the facilitator can ask:
Who is the farmer in the school?
Who is the wife? etc
And finally, who is the mouse? (6 minutes)
Reflection:
In today `s complex and dynamic world a single person or a couple of persons cannot manage
everything. No leader, institution or nation can exist or lead without the support or involvement of
others; the same applies to education as well. Management activities should not be placed in one
individual's hands, but rather the contrary - they should be shared both by teams and employees.
This means that any person in one way or other would act as a leader. School personnel
involvement in the management of educational institutions requires a management approach based
on trust, cooperation, communication and cultural development and improvement, which in turn
implies changes in the school strategy, culture, tasks and work organization. The above mentioned
points show the need to build a school environment that focuses on constructive debates,
differences of views, goal and task interactions. Already two or three decades practitioners found
that an educational institution will gain noticeable benefit only if it is supported by a structure
model which encourages maximum participation along with the appropriate cultural context which
promotes collaboration.
1 AcknowledgementThis story was written by the group of education management professionals in Nigeria and included in the whole School
Development Planning (WSDP) Program DFID (2006).

Partnerships offer different, but mutual benefits to schools, including staff and students, and to
everyone they work with. Effective partnerships can: raise school morale by bringing staff
together to work to shared goals, promoting collaboration in curriculum development and others;
promote and develop innovative working methods; strengthen the schools relationship with its
community through sharing skills, expertise and resources. There are benefits, too, for the
organizations and individuals who work with schools in these ways. These include: sharing skills
and expertise with young people and adults in a variety of new contexts. These and other studies
share several findings. First, all of them indicate that recurrent costs, not capital investments,
represent the bulk of required funds. Second, although the incremental costs needed to meet the
goals are large, countries should be able to finance a significant share from domestic resources and
other sources. Third, differences across countries and regions are extremely large in terms of the
affordability of reaching particularly universal primary enrollment. Currently, in Ethiopia,
Tanzania, and many other Sub-Saharan African countries, even with a doubling or tripling of
domestic primary spending, reaching the goals will require very large increases in local resources
as well as external aid. Even with new resources, the education goals are not reachable without
major changes in institutional arrangements and improvements in the efficiency of education
spending in developing countries particularly in Ethiopia (UNMP, 2005).
From the above, we can understand that partnerships between schools and outside organizations
and individuals are essential to the kinds of educational development we are advocating. They are
not additional luxuries. Such partnerships enrich and extend the experiences of young people and
support teaching and training. In both ways they can help directly to raise standards of
achievement. In this lesson, we are going to identify potential partners in education in general and
schools in particular for successful mutual development.
Partnerships should be considered as connections between schools and community resources. The
partnership may involve use of school or neighborhood facilities and equipment; sharing other
resources; collaborative fund raising and grant applications; volunteer assistance; mentoring and
training from professionals and others with special expertise; information sharing and
dissemination; networking; recognition and public relations; shared responsibility for planning,
implementation and evaluation of programs and services; expanding opportunities for internships,
jobs, recreation and building a sense of community. School-community partnerships can
interconnect together many resources and strategies to enhance communities that support all youth
and their families. They could improve schools, strengthen neighborhoods and lead to a noticeable
reduction in young people's problems. Building such partnerships requires visioning, strategic
planning, creative leadership and new multifaceted roles for professionals who work in schools
and communities.
When we are talking about partnerships in education, there are two approaches appear to have
dominated thinking about rural institutions, and both are unfortunately fallacious, these are:
Paternalistic and Populistic Approaches to society participation in education. According to
Shaeffer (1994: 32), the paternalistic approach assumes that rural people are passive and fatalistic,
uninterested in improving their lives, and incapable of initiative in making improvements.
Consequently, everything must be done for them (or to them) in a top-down, bureaucratic manner.
An opposing view is the populistic approach which assumes that rural people are vitally interested
in change and completely capable of transforming their communities if only the politicians and
bureaucrats would leave them alone. Both approaches derive from unreal stereotypes of rural
people, who are neither as inert and ignorant as the first assume, nor as virtuous and wise as
assumed in the second. On the whole, rural people are more capable and responsive than the

paternalistic model of social change suggests, but less able to change their lives autonomously
than the populistic model presumes.
The particular interest of this lesson is the development of more participatory approaches in
education. This includes the broader and more active partnerships both inside the system at the
central level and in the school and the greater collaboration of educational personnel and the
external community in planning, managing, and implementing educational programs. The
potential partners are many: students, teachers, school principals, and local educational officials;
parents and members and leaders of the local community; community associations and NGOs;
private enterprises and universities and so on. For the purposes of this analysis, we will focus on
five major partners: two 'internal' (the government and its officials, and the school) and three
external (parents and the larger community surrounding the school, NGOs and other stakeholders)
(Shaeffer, 1994; Carter, 2003).
3.5.1. The Government: Bureaucracies and Bureaucrats

What are the general characteristics of 'government' and its officials which affect their usual
reaction to more participatory approaches to development? To answer this question, we must
first differentiate between the political and the administrative sides of government. The political
side is critical for any discussion of participation. Depending on the government's philosophy,
legitimacy, and strength, it may either ignore, resist, or actively prohibit greater participation in
society - or permit, encourage, and actively facilitate it. Especially in large education systems, it
may realize the utility of moving at least some of the responsibility for the implementation of
policies and programs to lower levels of the bureaucracy.
On the other hand, the administrative side of government may also have their own responsibilities.
Commonly, the bureaucracies - in education ministries as well as in other sectors - may be
effective managers of top-down development projects and programs and may have a range of
human and material resources, an extensive infrastructure, and administrators and experts who
bring to their work considerable knowledge, skills, and experience that help to participatory
approaches. But even if the politics of a nation tend to encourage participation, they also may
possess several characteristics which work against more participatory approaches to
development. Some of the problems are: limited knowledge of, or sensitivity to, community
conditions and local experience; a top-down mentality; centralized, standardized, and routinized
governmental structures and procedures; limited financial and human resources; inflexible
procedures of planning, decision-making, implementation, evaluation, accountability, etc.
However, as education policy drivers - there are a number of key government policies and
strategies that facilitate the promotion of equal opportunity and good relations in education.
Especially, the creative and cultural development of young people is of concern to several
government departments. But local education authorities still have statutory duties to ensure that
schools in their area meet the terms and requirements of the National Curriculum and to improve
standards and quality in education. This level is necessarily a crucial actor in any kind of
educational change, especially given the variety of important roles it can play. These include:
providing professional assistance and technical support to schools and their personnel;
promoting the exchange of information across schools;
mediating and channeling communication between the top and the bottom and passing
information both up and down the system; and
participating in the selection, placement, and promotion of teachers and principals.
3.5.2. The School: Principal and Teachers

The school, as the major actor in educational development, is composed of both teachers and
managers. Both are included in this heading, though their roles in various contexts are often quite
different. In some systems, school principals are seen as the lowest end of the government
bureaucracy, trusted to carry out its administrative tasks and deliver its educational instructions to
teachers; they therefore tend to share many of the characteristics of the government administrators.
In other contexts, however, school principals are seen more as senior teachers - above all
responsible for pedagogical issues, with administrative tasks added on, but generally treated in the
same way as teachers by the bureaucracy. Some teachers have considerable knowledge of their
students, of the local environment and of what is feasible and useful in the context of the local
school. There are many so-called 'high involvement' teachers who equate professionalism with the
ability to maintain a dialogue between the in-and out-of-school lives of both their students and
themselves. Hence, teachers and schools are important, and they have also undergone significant
changes. These changes are related in part to changes in sociological perceptions: certain factors,
such as organizational and social composition factors or teachers work patterns and conditions
neglected before due to theoretical and methodological focus, have now come to the fore.
This is because, we should have to consider that Schools as Extended Family. When children
begin their educational careers, the school becomes an extension of the family: If learning is to
occur, the trust relationship developed between a parent and child during the first years of life
must be transferred to school staff. In order to build a trusting relationship, families need to
convey to children that teachers play a special role in their lives similar to that of extended
family members. In turn, teachers must earn this trust as extended family members in the
relationships they build with children and their families. In addition to offering emotional support,
teachers can also nurture resilience by helping students build networks of caring adults who will
serve as a positive force in their lives, encouraging activities that will help students develop caring
relationships with peers, and teaching students social skills.
All stakeholders should have to recognize the crucial role that schools have in contributing to the
reconciliation of our society. This is not a job solely for schools, but schools do play a critical role.
The roles of schools in partnerships are twofold. First, the ethos of the school itself can be
enormously enriched through the involvement of the wider community. Second, schools own
resources can be of tremendous benefit to the community at large. Schools have much to offer in
terms of the experience and expertise of staff and their own specialist facilities and resources,
including laboratories, sports halls and performing arts facilities. Creative schools can contribute
significantly to the social and economic development of the whole community. Significant sums of
public money are invested in schools. The return on this investment is less than it might be
because many schools are closed more than they are open. Creative partnerships between school,
business and the wider community are already taking place in many areas. We need to identify and
build on existing good practice to develop a national strategy of creative partnerships.
Reviews of research (Boethel, 2003; Henderson & Mapp, 2002) in Ferguson (2005) on addressing
the needs of the families of diverse populations suggests that if school leaders desire to increase
family-school connections, school staff should take the following steps:
Adopt formal school- and district-level policies that address issues related to the involvement
of families from diverse populations;
Engage principals in active support of these programs;
Help staff learn strategies for working with parents from all cultures;
Help all families navigate the educational system;
Practice outreach rather than traditional approaches to involvement;
Practice trust- and relationship-building strategies and recognize that it takes time;

Help families learn strategies to support students academic needs; and
Encourage the development of the total child as this greatly impacts academics.
To apply the above strategies in practice, principals and teachers are critical to successful family
and community involvement efforts. Therefore, principals need professional development and
adequate resources to implement and support these programs.
3.5.3. The Community: Parents and Local Organizations

There exists an enormous gap between the power and authority of the educational administration
at the national level and that of parents. The educational administration represents a wide and
stable organization. Its personnel have extensive experience in mobilizing resources and public
support for the execution of their decisions. Parents, in contrast, constitute an unorganized body
which lacks a common ideological stand. The natures of the 'community' and of the conditions
which determine its fate are perhaps even more varied than those of the 'school'. Communities can
be defined by law and geography, culture and language, class and caste, 'interest' and 'attachment'.
They can be heterogeneous or homogeneous, united or conflictive, poor or rich and so on. The
involvement of parents and the community in school is largely extractive in nature; that is,
community (especially parental) participation is limited to the provision of resources - money,
materials, labor. Other, more substantial involvement in terms of consultation or management or
control - in the diagnosis of needs, the development and implementation of school policies, the
design of educational content, or the delivery or evaluation of such content - is usually seriously
constrained. More involvement in education might therefore permit families and communities to
accept that: "their accountability in the education of children extends beyond the provision of
material requirements for schooling; that it includes the main responsibility of assisting, guiding,
and extending whatever help their children need to harness their potential; and that they equally
share the burden of education children with the teachers".
What are family-school partnerships after all? Family-school partnerships are collaborative
relationships and activities involving school staff, parents and other family members of students at
a school. Effective partnerships are based on mutual trust and respect, and shared responsibility for
the education of the children and young people at the school. Why are family-school partnerships
important? Families are the first educators of their children and they continue to influence their
childrens learning and development during the school years and long afterwards. Schools have an
important responsibility in helping to nurture and teach future generations and families trust
schools to provide educational foundations for their childrens future. At the same time, schools
need to recognize the primary role of the family in education. This is why it is important for
families and schools to work together in partnership. Research demonstrates that effective schools
have high levels of parental and community involvement. This involvement is strongly related to
improved student learning, attendance and behavior. Family involvement can have a major impact
on student learning, regardless of the social or cultural background of the family.
Family involvement in schools is therefore central to high quality education and is part of the core
business of schools. The aim of the Family-School Partnerships Framework is to encourage
sustainable and effective partnerships between all members of the school community, including
teachers, families, and students. These partnerships should:
view each partner as making equally valuable contributions, while respecting different
contributions;
respect student needs and preferences;

address barriers to involvement in schools by families, in particular indigenous families, and
actively help previously uninvolved families to become involved;
create better programs, opportunities and learning for students;
give families appropriate opportunities to contribute to school decision-making and
governance; and
contribute to professional satisfaction for principals and teachers.
Among the principles which underpin effective family-school partnerships, families are the first
and continuing educators of their children. Therefore, in order to achieve effective school, family
and community partnerships and successfully to improve student learning is to build effective
relationships. A school will not achieve equity and excellence for all of the students in its care if it
does not acknowledge, understand, and include the families and communities of all its students.
3.5.4. Non-government Organizations (NGOs)

NGOs, as a sector of society, are a diverse entity operating under different paradigms with a
diverse range of interests, activities, and perspectives on development issues. At the same time,
other types of umbrella organizations exist that represent groups of NGOs with common
development, ideological, religious, or other affiliations. In most of the cases, NGOs see
development not merely as an activity geared towards producing a certain output but as a process
of developing community motivation and awareness, of promoting people's abilities so that they
can help themselves and, in turn, create a self-reliant community and nation. As NGOs play an
increasingly large role in the collection and distribution of development assistance, their
involvement in the planning and delivery of development programs also mounts.
In most of the cases, NGOs have developed from agencies primarily concerned with relief,
welfare, and service delivery activities, to those encouraging small-scale, self-reliant local
development projects and processes, to those more directly involved with community
empowerment and social transformation. Another is the 'service provider' organization which sees
its role more in terms of supporting, protecting, linking, and developing the capacity of a myriad
of action-oriented. In ideal terms, NGOs are most often described as people-centered, flexible and
responsive, creative, democratic and non-hierarchical, cost-effective and pragmatic, and often
independent and non-aligned. From the above clarifications one can infer that NGOs encompass
many things and all differ from each other and from their equivalents in different countries.
Nevertheless, regardless of the difficulties, Hall (1986) and Moser (1993) list the following
characteristics of NGOs.
flexible and adaptable to environmental conditions;
close to grassroots than governmental agencies;
stress the participation of beneficiaries in planning, implementation and evaluation of
programs;
have simple administrative structures which require their personnel to be responsible for
multiple tasks in the organizations; and
subject to fewer rules and regulations.
Whatever their characteristics, NGOs generally seek to carry out several functions: providing
development services in those fields, activities, or regions either underserved by government or
parallel to those provided by the government, often with greater effectiveness and equity. More
and more frequently, they also work directly with governments (and sometimes with donors) in the
provision of services, often as an intermediary between government agencies and the poorest
levels of society especially in education.

Other stakeholders
When we say school community it is a group of people bound by a common interest in ensuring
a high-quality education for all students in a school or district. School community members
include, but are not limited to, students, teachers, school leaders, school counselors, school support
personnel, families, community agencies, businesses, residents, and other partners in the
educational process. Hence, there is a need for greater co-ordination between these departments in
order to promote a more coherent pattern of provision, and a more strategic use of existing
resources (NACCCE, 1999). This is because schools can not achieve the required standards on
their own, and need to work in partnership with a variety of agencies, organizations and
individuals. They have a key role as catalysts in establishing partnerships and encouraging
relationships between schools and outside organizations and individuals. Even though it is difficult
to mention all important partners in education, it is worthwhile to mention some major
stakeholders here under as stated in NACCCE (1999).
The Youth Service: In recent years, both the voluntary and statutory youth service sectors have
become increasingly active in promoting and supporting creative and cultural programs for young
people. These are important areas of development. The Youth Service reaches out to young people
beyond the formal education sector in a wide range of different contexts: through youth clubs,
community projects, festivals and visits. In many instances they do this in partnership with a
variety of funding and organizational partners. Young people themselves are often closely
involved in the planning and organization of events and initiatives.
Cultural Organizations: We noted earlier the extraordinary growth of interest in cultural
organizations over the past twenty years or so in developing work with education. In recent years,
national and regional funding policies in the arts have strongly encouraged this need. There is a
wide variety of models of organization and of types of practice. Especially, the arts are important
in education because they give young people access to the ideas, values and beliefs of others and
contribute to all aspects of a childs development. They have been shown to feed the creative
imagination and improve cognitive and academic skills.
Business and media, along with famous entertainers, often link with schools by advertising
products, such as sponsoring activities, reading contests.
Sports clubs and organizations: Sports clubs and organizations too have important roles in the
creative and cultural education of young people. The diversity and range of physical activity and
sport provides students with many opportunities to develop a variety of skills. Sport also provides
challenging opportunities for students to develop their problem-solving abilities, creative thinking,
social skills, and physical competence as part of their continued development within society. Sport
clubs and organizations can support schools in promoting these particular skills in children and
should be regarded as important allies in promoting the creative and cultural development of all
young people in schools.
Business and Industry: Business and industry are valuable resources to education in a variety of
ways. There is a wealth of experience and expertise within business. Industry must be encouraged
to share this through active engagement in education. This investment will be mutually beneficial.
Ways of involving business in education include: experts from business and industry should be

encouraged to visit schools and share their experience of the professional world with children and
teachers; work experience placements could be provided for students and teachers; business could
be encouraged to share equipment with schools or to donate old stock; cash donations could be
made to support specific creative projects of schools. The focus here is not only on big businesses,
but on medium and small businesses that could donate an hour a week to link with schools.
Successful partnerships exist between some schools and private ICT firms. The firms provide the
schools with up-to-date ICT equipment and training for teachers in return for the use of the
facilities out of school hours to provide adult courses. It is only through business partnerships that
education can keep up with the development of new technologies.
Visiting Professionals: Visiting professionals in all subject areas should be encouraged to visit
schools to share their experience of the world of work and about their chosen fields. There are
many examples of professional artists visiting schools. These are important but people from many
other areas of work have much to offer too. Students should be offered the opportunity for work
experience placements within the creative industries. It will be involved at least in three broad
activities: (a) helping talented individuals in the fields of science, technology and the arts to
achieve their full potential; (b) helping turn inventions and ideas into products and services which
can be effectively exploited; (c) contributing to public knowledge and awareness of science,
technology and the arts. This is particularly effective where students share the same first language.
Further and Higher Education Sector: There is a wealth of experience and expertise in further
and higher education in all disciplines. Successful links can be forged between schools and further
and higher education to support the work of the National Curriculum, to provide teacher training
and to enrich opportunities for creative and cultural education. Many good examples of such links
already exist.
Professional Associations: Many professional teacher and subject associations also play key roles
in supporting and enriching the school curriculum and teacher training across a range of subjects
and disciplines.
We can mention a lot of partners. However, we should have to take care from factors that affect
the quality of partnerships. For instance, while families may be more diverse than ever before,
they share the common trait that they are all busy. Similarly, teachers and school leaders are busy
people with multiple responsibilities. Family involvement may not be a priority among the many
issues that compete for their attention each day. Scarce school resources, in terms of time,
personnel, and funds, may make the adoption of any new initiatives seem unreasonable. Tight
budgets a reality in most schools may not support additional activities to encourage more
family involvement (Carter, 2003). However, for families as well as educators, family involvement
need not be a supplemental activity one more thing they have to do each day. Working together
with strong administrative support, families, schools, and communities can find effective ways to
integrate the most promising strategies into their daily routines so that they mesh with other school
improvement initiatives. In this way, family involvement can be viewed by both parents and
educators as a valuable and necessary part of what is done each day to help encourage all children
to learn.
To conclude this lesson, the interests of the various partners are mutual but not always identical.
Each partner has different contributions to make and each will gain differently in terms of skills,
understanding and experience. The success of partnerships lies as much in the quality of
preparation and follow-up work as in the event itself. Consequently, partnership projects must
include enough time for research, planning, evaluation and dissemination. Success in improving
education requires tremendous political leadership and commitment by citizens, civil society
leaders, bureaucrats, politicians, parents, and many others outside the education system (UNMP,
2005). Finally, schools need no longer be sole traders in education. We all have an interest in the

quality of education and many people can contribute from different fields of expertise. We see
these partnerships in education not as luxuries but as essential to the kind of education all young
people now need. They do not happen without planning, and they often have implications for
resources.
Activity 3.7. Summary Group Activity (Take home assignment, discuss on these issues)
Dear Learner! To what extent is partnership occurring in your locality?
Is there any evidence from your staff and parents on the performance of partnerships?
Unit Summary
Dear Learner! How do you get the content of unit three? Yes, I assume that you said we have got
a lot of lessons. To recapitulate, we have seen that good schools alone will never be good enough;
it can be seen that there are a multitude of levels and types of participation and each has a
necessary role and it is also dependent on the context within which participation is practiced.
Participation is the process through which stakeholders influence and share control over priority
setting, policy-making, resource allocations and access to public goods and services. We have seen
also the term decentralization in the context of public sector management has a variety of
meanings making it broadly synonymous with socio-economic restructuring in general. In this
case, decentralization refers to a range of reforms such as the devolution of decision-making
powers to lower levels of government or to the private sector; or deconcentration of tasks from the
centre to lower levels without moving decision-making powers. Privatization is emphasizing on
shifting responsibilities between the government and non-governmental actors. The term is
employed to describe measures to transfer responsibilities to the private sector, reallocating
responsibilities to the informal, commercial and not-for-profit (voluntary) sector. We have seen
also the barriers in the school-community relations come in many shapes and sizes, but perhaps
can be summarized in the following points: diversity, imbalance of power between educators and
families, negative experiences of parents with school, mistaken assumptions, time, resources, and
logistics. Besides, the lesson also shows the more the relationship between families and the school
is a real partnership, the more student achievement increases. From this unit we have got also that
there are a variety of activities in which schools can become involved to build/improve school-
community partnerships. School communities are encouraged to review their current supporting
structures, policies and procedures and develop new ones where necessary to accommodate all
partners in to goal fulfillment of schooling.
Review Questions
____ 1. The initial concept of participation defined as:
a. having a share in
b. being part of
c. having a part in
d. All
____ 2. Among the following which one is not considered as genuine participation process?
a. the mere use of a service
b. participation in real decision-making
c. involvement through attendance
d. All
e. A and C
____ 3. Parent involvement is the dedication of resources by the parent to the child in terms of:
a. cognitive-intellectual

b. behavior (activities at school)
c. personal (knowledge of learning content)
d. All
____ 4. What kind of mechanism used for creating a family-friendly school environment strategy?
a. create an open-door policy
b. father-friendly practices
c. maintain a welcoming bulletin board
d. All
e. All except B.
____ 5. Which one of the following are considered as major partners in education?
a. voluntary and statutory youth service
b. Sports clubs
c. Cultural Organizations
d. All except A
e. All
____ 6. Students achievement in school is the extent to which that students family is able to:
a. Become involved in their childrens education in the community
b. Create a home environment that encourages learning
c. Express high expectations for their childrens future careers
d. All
e. None
____ 7. All parents have the capacity to support their children's learning means
a. All parents can contribute to their childrens learning
b. All parents have funds of knowledge about their children
c. Parents capacity should be respected and tapped by school staff
d. All
e. A and B
space provided.
____ 1. Participation has become a necessary, if not sufficient, aspect of development.
_____2. Good schools alone will never be good enough.
_____3. Families are the first educators of their children.
_____4. Strong structures at the top level guaranteed collaborative approaches to education.
_____5. The challenge of achieving the education goals is strongly influenced by many factors.
1. Write down three major goals of school-community relations.
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
2. Explain the rationale for creating partnership in education.
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
Case
3. ListStudy
down7:threeVillage-based
obstacles toschools
effectiveinschool-society
Mali relations.
Save the Childrens primary education efforts began in Mali in 1992. At that time, the countrys primary enrolment rates were among
_______________________________________________________________________________
the worlds lowest under 20 percent in rural areas, and as low as 5 percent for girls. Some villages sent no children to primary
_______________________________________________________________________________
school. Save the Children has played a lead role in the development of village schools in Mali demonstrating: (1) community
ownership, (2) relevant curriculum, (3) absolute gender equity, and (4) teacher training. Each village school is the result of the efforts
of village committees, organized around their need to provide basic education for their children. To make the schooling relevant, the
following components are incorporated into initial planning and design: (a) the school year is brought into line with the agricultural
year; (b) the language of instruction is the indigenous language of the villagers; and (c) the village school offers a learning package
based on literacy and math to be attained over a three-year cycle. The program also includes school management training. This school
year, 782 village schools are operational with nearly 50,000 students enrolled, 41 percent of whom are girls. In addition, 14 percent of
the 1,330 teachers in these schools are women.
Source: Rose, P. 2004. Communities, gender and education: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa. Background paper for 2003 UNESCO
Global Monitoring Report. University of Sussex, Centre for International Education, p 8.
Write a summary of about a page on which interventions were most crucial by NGOs or other
partners to ensure community participation in schools. Did you notice an exemplary goals and
intervention strategies applied by different stakeholders? Can you draw any conclusions regarding
the interventions conducted from the above case study? Does the NGO shape the community, or
the initial planning and design helps to shape the community to improve teaching learning process
in their locality? Explain what type of intervention strategies and goals should have to be
considered in relation to family involvement and how parents and schools can encourage
childrens readiness to learn in your locality.
Methods of Delivery
these, questioning, discussion and lecture methods could be appropriate.
Students Activities
Students are expected to identify:
1. The specific form of educational decentralization process in Ethiopia from the different
forms of decentralization discussed in this unit.
Procedures:
Discuss in groups the different forms of decentralization
Identify the specific form of educational decentralization in Ethiopia
Justify why they considered that specific form of decentralization as educational
decentralization process in Ethiopia
Present the groups report to the whole class
2. Identify potential partners with whom certain school can work/participate in its locality.
Procedures:
Identify the different partners of the school with in that particular society
Discuss in groups how these partners could help the school to function effectively
Unit Assessment
this unit.

Boethel, M. 2003. Diversity School, Family, and Community Connections. Texas: SEDL.
Dunne, M. Akyeampong, K. & Humphreys, S. 2007. School Processes, Local Governance and
Community Participation: Understanding Access. Brighton: CREATE.
Hopkins, D. 2000. Powerful Learning, Powerful Teaching and Powerful Schools. Journal of
Educational Change 1: 135154, Kluwer Academic Publishers.
NACCCE (1999). All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education. London: NACCCE.
Ribot, J.C. 2001. LOCAL ACTORS, POWERS AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN AFRICAN
DECENTRALIZATIONS: A REVIEW OF ISSUES. Paper Prepared for International
Development Research Centre of Canada Assessment of Social Policy Reforms Initiative.
Shaeffer, S. 1994. Participation for educational change: a synthesis of experience. Paris:
UNESCO.
Yuliani, E.L. 2004. Decentralization, deconcentration and devolution: what do they mean? papers
presented at the Interlaken Workshop on Decentralization, 27-30 April 2004, Interlaken,
Switzerland.
Chance, P.L. & Segura, S.N. 2009. A rural high schools collaborative approach to school
improvement. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 24(5). Retrieved [date] from
http://jrre.psu.edu/articles/24-5.
Chapman, D.W. (2000) Trends in educational administration in developing Asia. Educational
Administration Quarterly, 36: 283-308.
Christenson, S.L. 2004. The FamilySchool Partnership: An Opportunity to Promote the Learning
Competence of All Students. School Psychology Review, Volume 33, No. 1, pp. 83-104.
Deslandes, R. 2009. ed. International Perspectives on Contexts, Communities and Evaluated
Innovative Practices: FamilySchool Community Partnerships. London: Routledge.
Davis, D. 2000. Supporting Parent, Family, and Community Involvement in Your School. Portland:
Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.
Elmore, R. 2002. Bridging the Gap Between Standards and Achievement: The Imperative for
Professional Development in Education. Washington, DC: The Albert Shanker Institute.
Ferguson, C. 2005. Reaching Out to Diverse Populations: What Can Schools Do to Foster
Family-School Connections? Austin, Texas: National Center for Family and Community
Connections with Schools.
Guskey, T. (1998). The age of our accountability. Journal of Staff Development, 19(4), 36-44.
Jones, L. 2009. The Importance of School Culture for Instructional Leadership. International
Journal of Educational Leadership, Volume 4, Number 4 (October _ December 2009).
Leadbeater, C. (2000). Living on thin air, The new economy. London: Penguin.
Leithwood, K., & Duke, D. (1999). A century's quest to understand school leadership. In J.
Murphy & K. Seashore-Louis (Eds.), Handbook of research on educational administration
(2nd ed.) (pp. 45-73). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Ribot, J.C. 2002. DEMOCRATIC DECENTRALIZATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES
Institutionalizing Popular Participation. Washington, DC: WORLD RESOURCES
INSTITUTE.
UNDP. 1999. DECENTRALIZATION: A SAMPLING OF DEFINITIONS. Working paper
prepared in connection with the Joint UNDP-Government of Germany evaluation of the
UNDP role in decentralization and local governance.
World Bank (2001) Effective Schooling in Rural Africa Report 3: Case Study Briefs on Rural
Schooling. Washington, DC: World Bank, Human Development Network.

School and Society Unit 4: School Improvement
Program and Societal Participation
UNIT FOUR
SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM AND
SOCIETAL PARTICIPATION (Time allotted 9 hrs.)
UNIT INTRODUCTION
Dear Learner! Welcome to the unit school improvement program and societal participation. I
hope that you remember what you discussed in Unit three regarding an overview of participatory
societal participation. In this unit, you will discuss the school improvement programs and the role
of society. At the same time, this unit focuses on the major domains of school improvement and
the role of different partners in school- society relations. Well Stay!

Distinguish the role of parents/community/society in implementing SIP.
Identify major components and domains of school improvement.
Lesson One
4.1. School Improvement Programs and the Role of Society
Dear learner! School improvement programs and the role of society is the first lesson of unit four
that you are going to learn in school-society relations. This section provides an illustration on the
concept of school improvement program and the major component in SIP. You are advised to read
each topic in detail and relate with the existing school improvement program that you working at
you school. Well Stay!
Dear Learner, What is school improvement?
More specifically, What are the domains of school improvement?
What can be the role of the parents, community and the larger society in implementing school
improvement programs (SIP)?
Well! I imagine you have very well tried to examine how and what type of school improvement
indicatives are effective for educational institutions, express the domain of SIP and the role of the
community in implementing SIP properly. Now, check your reactions with what pursues.
Nowadays, driven by the serious consequences of school accountability, School Improvement
Program (SIP) is the focal point in the community of professional educators. Numerous programs
and strategies for improving schools have been implemented over the years. While they differ in
many respects, one common theme is the importance of the school leaders. That is why the
emphasis on self-improvement has increased in the past decade as a consequence of the trend in
most countries of decentralizing the responsibility for the implementation of educational reform.
Alongside this increase in political pressure for institutional renewal, there has been a steady
realization that traditional strategies for educational change are not working. In recent years it has
become starkly apparent that as strategies for educational reform, neither centralization nor
decentralization work and that a better way must be found. Many of the educational initiatives that
have been recently spawned under the school improvement umbrella are unfortunately, however,
simply tinkering at the edges (Hopkins, 2000).
Well! School improvement is a strategy for educational change that focuses on student
achievement by modifying classroom practice and adapting the management arrangements within

the school to support teaching and learning that has a medium term and systemic orientation. It
is only through viewing school improvement holistically and by adopting a purposeful and
strategic response that the challenge of enhancing student achievement will be met (Hopkins,
2000). We can say this because it is becoming increasingly clear to us that most school
improvement efforts do not drive down to the learning level. Unless school improvement
strategies impact directly on learning and achievement then we are surely wasting our time
Dear Learner, What are the major components incorporated in school improvement?
What ingredients are important to bring about effective school improvement program?
The review of recent relevant research and literature revealed that there is not one singular act that
schools can engage in to become more successful. Rather, it takes years of hard work focused on
school improvement to achieve success. Above all, improvement occurs through organized social
learning, not through the idiosyncratic experimentation and discovery of variously talented
individuals (Elmore, 2000). With regard to this point, Leithwood and Duke (1999) say that the
major issue to consider in school improvement is Developing People because, people are the
organization. Organizational improvement comes from the improvement of the people who are
members of the organization. It is the duty of teachers, educational leaders, community and the
government at large to create and share knowledge so individuals in a school are developed. That
is why we said that developing people in the organization can have an overarching effect on the
culture of the school.
Therefore, the focus of educational reform in any SIP endeavor is to create powerful learning on
the part of students, where learning is constructive inquiry not passive reception, and where the
social climate is expansive instead of restrictive. Such classrooms exist in schools whose
organizational conditions and cultures are characterized by high expectations, collaboration and
innovation. We say this, because the more the organization of the school remains the same the less
likely will there be changes in classroom practice that directly and positively impact on student
learning. Then, powerful learning subsumes a range of cognitive and affective processes and
outcomes. By creating such powerful learning situations, competent teachers, educational leaders
and parents are instrumental in raising the levels of achievement of their students (Hopkins, 2000).
However, when we mention student achievement, the impact is not just on test scores and
examination results, but also on the students learning capability and, their self-esteem. Powerful
learning therefore refers to the ability of learners to respond successfully to the tasks that they are
set, as well as the tasks they set themselves in particular to:
integrate prior and new knowledge
acquire and use a range of learning skills
solve problems individually and in groups
think carefully about their successes and failures
evaluate conflicting evidence and to think critically
accept that learning involves uncertainty and difficulty (Hopkins, 2000: 139-140).
The development of such a range of learning strategies is commonly termed as effective SIP
achievement, which refers to the learners ability to take control over their own learning processes.
That is why school improvement efforts have focused on professional learning communities and
professional collaboration for the last two decades.

Activity 4.3. Analytical Individual Activity (6 minutes for discussion)

Dear Learner, What are the roles of teachers, educational leaders, families, communities,
society and the government at large in enhancing school improvement program?
To start with, redesigning institutions and improving educational practice are massively more
complex. As noted earlier, they involve changes of the most fundamental kind in the norms and
values that shape work in schools, in the way the resources of the system get used, in the skills and
knowledge that people bring to their work, and in how people relate to each other around the work
of the organization. Based on the above premise, then let us look the responsibilities and duties of
different stakeholders in brief (For more information and roles, please refer 3.6.2. on the role of
parents, communities and the larger society in implementing SIP which will be dealt
underneath).
First, it convinced that the teachers task is not simply to teach, but to create powerful contexts for
learning. It is the integration of content, process and social climate that puts the power into the
powerful learning experience. Outstanding teachers take individual and collective responsibility to
base their teaching on the best knowledge and practice available. Schools will not improve unless
teachers, individually and collectively, develop. While teachers can often develop their practice on
an individual basis, if the whole school is to develop then there needs to be many staff
development opportunities for teachers to learn together (Hopkins, 2000).
Shared values typically focused on improvement of student learning as the central goal.
Secondly, effective leadership in schools in this era is linked to the leader's ability to facilitate
school improvement. The obvious core of school improvement is the role of the leader as an
instructional leader; which is such a complex role. The teachers, staff members, students, and
pertinent stakeholders have to in buy in to the vision of the leader and to assist the leader in the
implementation of school improvement. A variable that is directly related to school improvement
and to the roles, skills, traits, and perspectives of the leader is the culture of the school (Jones,
2009). Third, successful schools seem to have ways of working that encourage feelings of
involvement from a number of stakeholder groups, especially students and their families. Schools
that are successful at development establish a clear vision for themselves and regard leadership as
a function to which many staff contributes rather than a set of responsibilities vested in a single
individual. Hence, the coordination of activities is an important way of keeping people involved,
particularly when changes of policy are being introduced. Here, communication within the school
is an important aspect of coordination, as are the information interactions that arise between
teachers (Hopkins, 2000). Similarly, principals, who meet the needs of their staff members socially
and emotionally, encourage them to take risks, and help them grow professionally, help change the
culture of their schools.

Fourth, Elmore (2002) views school improvement as something that goes together with strong
internal accountability. Hence, there should have to be school accountability. This is because an
alternative approach to school reform centers on the notion of accountability and systems to
support accountability. Fifth, as noted in the previous section, the success of these policies,
reforms and improvements will depend, in large part, on the willingness of policy makers to model
the kind of learning they are expecting from educatorsto scrutinize their own actions and
consequences and to modify policies based on their impact on practice and performance (Elmore,
2000).
So to summarize this phase of the discussion, much school improvement work assumes that in
practice all schools are the same that a strategy such as development planning will work as well
in one school as another. We can argue here that if policy is to positively affect practice the school
improvement strategy needs to reflect a blending of focus between management arrangements and
classroom level conditions. In addition, schools at different levels of effectiveness require different
school improvement strategies. Put simply, schools at different stages of development require
different strategies not only to enhance their capacity for development, but also to provide a more
effective education for their students. Strategies for school development need to fit the Growth
State or culture of the particular school (Hopkins, 2000).
It is experience and research such as this that provides the most positive critique of current
centralized policies. There is no doubt that most governments are committed to the aspirations of
school improvement. What is often lacking is a considered conceptual framework in which to
drive forward and deliver the educational agenda. Most national authorities identify targets for
achievement in key learning areas; having done this, they need also to address four further key
issues as cited by Hopkins (2000: 151). They are:
1. Government and other educational agencies should be developing and piloting curriculum
and instructional programs that directly address in implementable ways the targets that are
being set.
2. If this is achieved a range of policy options related to programs that really work then
schools could begin to select from among a range of options those strategies that address
the particular targets they have set, the learning needs of their students, and the particular
stage of development the school is in.
3. With a series of program options available schools are then in a position to address more
directly the crucial issues of staff development and consistency of implementation that are
so necessary for ensuring student achievement.
4. This would make it easier for governments and other agencies to target funding to those
schools in the greatest need in the far more secure knowledge that what they were going to
do would achieve the goals the system as a whole had set itself.
If we put improvement of practice and performance at the center of our theory of leadership, then
these other theories of leadership role must shift to theories about the possible skills and
knowledge that leaders would have to possess to operate as agents of large scale instructional
improvement. Eventually, leadership must create conditions that value learning as both an
individual and collective good. Leaders must create environments in which individuals expect to
have their personal ideas and practices subjected to the scrutiny of their colleagues, and in which
groups expect to have their shared conceptions of practice subjected to the scrutiny of individuals.
Privacy of practice produces isolation; isolation is the enemy of improvement (Elmore, 2000).
To sum up, school improvements time in the sun will be short lived unless it can persuade its new
found friends that it is not a quick fix response to educational change. Finally we can argue that

improvements and high standards require a coherent policy framework that emphasizes process as
well as substance (Hopkins, 2000).
Group work assignment

First, read the following government direction on General Education Quality Improvement
Package (GEQIP) and School Improvement Program (SIP) in ensuring community participation in
schools of Ethiopia. Having looking the government intention, please assess what it looks like the
efforts done in your locality and bring relevant data of your own school or choose any school and
share with your group and finally you are going to present your findings to the entire class.
Case Study 8: General Education Quality Improvement Package of Ethiopia

Despite rapid expansion of the education system, Ethiopias education sector faces the following key challenges:
access to education opportunities continues to be an obstacle, especially for females and other most vulnerable
children, poor students and pastoral areas; there are socio-cultural barriers to participation (especially for girls in
rural areas). In addition, achievements in access have not been accompanied by adequate improvements in quality.
The 2007 National Learning Assessment (NLA) in grades 4 and 8 show that student achievement is below the
required levels. Achievement in grade 4 shows a reduction from the 1999/2000 baseline learning assessment (47.9
percent to 40.9%) and achievement in grade 8 has also deteriorated (42.6 percent to 39.8%). Among key factors
identified in the 2007 NLA relating to low student learning outcomes include school organization and management;
school supplies and availability of curricular and instructional materials. Another problem, the rapid expansion of the
education system has left a considerable financing gap between available funds and the anticipated cost of investments
needed to improve and maintain quality.
The Governments current vision for education development is described in the PASDEP, with the ESDP IV serving as
the overarching framework, giving high priority to quality improvement at all levels. Within the framework of the
ESDPs, the MOE has developed a General Education Quality Improvement Package (GEQIP). The overall purpose of
the GEQIP is to improve the quality of general education throughout the country. Each component of GEQIP includes
a set of priority programs, is closely linked to the other components, and is implemented at different tiers of
government. As a result, each level of government may have some responsibility for the implementation of each
component to achieve the projects development objectives. To achieve the overall objectives, the project requires:
flexible approach in design so that effective coordination not only among components/subcomponents, but also among
different levels of government and implementing units. Among the component of GEQIP, in component 3 there is
School Improvement Program (SIP). The objectives of the SIP component are to: (i) improve the capacity of schools
to prioritize needs and develop a school improvement plan; (ii) enhance school and community participation in
resource utilization decisions and resource generation; (iii) improve the governments capacity to deliver specified
amounts of schools grants at the woreda level; and (iv) improve the learning environment by providing basic
operational resources to schools.
Similarly, under component 4, Management and Administration Program (MAP), there is subcomponent which
includes capacity development for school planning and management. The objective of this subcomponent is to
contribute towards strengthening participatory school planning, management and monitoring for the purpose of
greater effectiveness, efficiency and accountability in school performance, and improved teaching and learning. This
plan anticipating that through enhancing the resources that schools have at their disposal, building capacity in school
planning and creating mechanisms through which the communities decide how resources are utilized, the School
Improvement and School Grants Programs will be improved. The school improvement approach starts with schools
and their stakeholders undertaking a self-assessment to identify their goals, followed by development and
implementation of a School Improvement Plan. As part of the process each school is required to include all
stakeholders in the assessment of school performance (i.e., teachers, students, parents, and community). It is
emphasized that (a) the SIP is a critical process for the improvement of the teaching and learning environment, and (b)
the process will bring control of schools into the community. Through the process of developing a School
Improvement Plan, schools and their stakeholders will identify their needs and priorities (MoE, 2008).
Direction:
Therefore, the purpose of this assignment is to review where the status of the school is currently
applying the above government directions; to identify the local accountability with respect to how
resources are used in every school and the extent of community involvement in the education
sector was found to be substantial. In particular it is critical to investigate those members of PTAs
and the local communities are aware of the fact that their school is entitled to receive a grant based
upon its level of enrolment. Then, do you have any mechanism in your school to conduct a self-

assessment in identifying areas where improvements may be made. Second, the School
Improvement Committees (SICs) should have to create a School Improvement Plan (SIP) which
contains possible solutions and budgets to the problems identified in your school. Besides,
revision of the SIP will be made based upon suggestions provided by key stakeholders and once
consensus has been reached the SIC will begin implementation of the SIP. To do this, throughout
the school year, each school is expected to monitor the operation of its SIP. With this formative
data, the SIC, with assistance of other stakeholders, may revise the SIP as necessary. So, as part of
the school community, you should have to assess what it looks like the promotion of horizontal
relationships and collaboration within the school system, among students, between students and
teachers, among teachers and between the school, parents and other members of the community
with regard to the above government directions.
4.1.1. Domains of School Improvement

Dear Learner, The following activity can be used to facilitate conversations about school
effectiveness. Select a factor. Is it an important characteristic of an effective school? How
would this factor be demonstrated in practice? What evidence have you seen of this in your
school? What practices need to be further developed or targeted for action? Nice!
As we have seen in the previous lesson, a central part of the practice of school improvement
should be to make the connection between teaching practice and student learning more direct and
clear. The present generation of students deserves the best practice we can give them and their
learning should not be mortgaged against the probability that something good will happen for
future generations. Improvement should be focused directly on the classroom experience of
todays students (Elmore, 2002). For this purpose, effective schools have rigorous systems of
accountability, a focus on teaching and learning, and stimulating and secure learning environments
(DET, 2005).
Very importantly, an effective school has agreed expectations and coherence around the quality of
teaching required to impact on student performance. A constant focus on teaching and learning is
entrenched in the culture of an effective school. Supported by effective leadership, effective
schools provide ongoing learning opportunities for teachers to develop the skills, knowledge and
dispositions necessary to teach to higher professional standards. Hence, effective schools are
learning communities, the core element of which is a culture of collaboration and collective
responsibility for the development of effective teaching practices and improved student
achievement. Being part of a learning community means, therefore, contributing to the learning
and knowledge base of the school and the school community. It is not simply about the pursuit of
individual learning goals, but sharing knowledge for the benefit of the community and the
achievement of its goals and vision. A learning community values diversity and maintains a focus
on the continuous enhancement of teaching for all members of the community (DET, 2005).
In this endeavor, two general models of school reform are included in the professional literature
about effective school improvement program. One model advocates the exclusive use of research
based or scientifically proven methods to increase student achievement. This centralized decision
structure making about how to improve schools includes the use of specific curriculum, delivered
in specific formats to all students. In this organizational system, the state or district office
personnel become supervisors who make decisions about products and processes. According to
ONeill (2004), teachers become the worker bees in a factory model and students become the
products. The emphasis on this approach was a direct result of the push for standards based reform

and accountability measures generated by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. A second general
model looks at school improvement from the inside out and advocates the development of
professional learning teams who are charged with the responsibility to determine what needs to be
done at individual school sites in order to improve schooling for those students. The primary
mission of professional learning communities is to improve schools by reducing the privacy of
teaching practices, through teacher collaboration to solve problems and share teaching strategies
(Guskey, 1998).
When we are looking the commonalities and differences in two models of school reform, although
the two approaches to school improvement are distinct, and at times even polarized, they share
some common factors. Both concede in order to improve student learning, the focus must be on
what students do in the classroom. This entails to us that without changing the behaviors of
teachers, the outcomes for students will not change. Schmoker (2007) described basic elements of
effective instruction and they all related to what the adults do. Good teaching has the most impact
on student achievement, regardless of other reform factors. Another commonality is the goal of
school reform, and that is to improve systems rather than pockets of success within a school or
district. A systemic alignment of school improvement efforts is critical to whole school
improvement. Individual knowledge only realizes potential through use of the knowledge by the
entire organization, making it organizational knowledge (Leadbeater, 2000). Both models promote
the extensive use of data or evidence to measure success. The successes of schools are currently
measured and defined by the academic performance of students. Student learning is currently
measured by student performance on external assessment.
These differences are important as they direct the approach a school leader and school community
takes in promoting school improvement. An understanding of these differences can help a school
community comprehend current mandates and effects on decision-making, further clarifying the
initiatives.
On the other hand, Hopkins (2000) states that one way of understanding the relationship between
the conditions and the schools developmental priorities or, in the terms of this lesson, the link
between powerful teaching and powerful schools is to consider Joyces analysis of the
characteristics of effective large scale school improvement initiatives (Joyce, Wolf & Calhoun,
1993: 72). Typically, such initiatives:
focus on specific outcomes which can be related to student learning, rather than adopt
laudable but non-specific goals such as improve exam results;
draw on theory, research into practice and the teachers own experience in formulating
strategies, so that a rationale for the required changes is established in the minds of those
expected to bring them about;
target staff development, since it is unlikely that developments in student learning will
occur without developments in teachers practice;
monitor the impact of policy on practice early and regularly, rather than rely on post-hoc
evaluation.
To summarize, as Chance and Segura (2009) suggest that both organizational practices and
instructional leadership behaviors contributed to developing successful collaborative efforts that,
in turn, led to improved student achievement. Three essential elements identified for successful
collaboration are (a) scheduled time for teacher collaboration; (b) structured and focused
collaboration time devoted to improving instruction and student achievement, and; (c) leadership
behaviors that focused on student-centered planning and accountability.

Therefore, while providing physical inputs such as teachers, textbooks and other services are
necessary if the quality of education is to be improved, creating incentives that lead to better
instruction and learning are also vital. Hanushek and Woessmann (2007) identify three key factors
that enhance the quality of education. These are choice and competition between schools, school
autonomy and school accountability.
Based on the above premises, the government of Ethiopia initiates General Education Quality
Improvement Package (GEQIP) in 2008; which School Improvement Program (SIP) is becomes
one major component of this initiative. So, let us examine this initiative in brief below. The school
improvement approach starts with schools and their stakeholders undertaking a self-assessment to
identify their goals, followed by development and implementation of a School Improvement Plan.
The schools are also required to maintain information/data on the effectiveness of their plans.
Throughout 2006-2007 the MoE developed a School Self-Assessment Form (SAF) with assistance
from REBs and teacher education institutions. The purpose of the SAF is to a) review where the
school is currently and b) to identify the areas most in need of development.
The SAF identifies four domains as the most significant areas in need of school improvement:
Learning and Teaching
Student Environment
Leadership and Management
Community Involvement
Within each domain, focus areas are highlighted and standards of performance indicated.
Indicators of practice are provided for the school to evaluate its performance in relation to each
standard. The school is encouraged to identify evidence or data that supports their assessment of
how well they are meeting each standard. As part of the process each school is required to include
all stakeholders in the assessment (i.e., teachers, students, parents, and community). The school
assesses its strengths and weaknesses for each standard. Simultaneously, universities and colleges
involved in teacher training were instructed in the use of the school improvement materials, the
principles of school improvement and the MOE plan for school improvement in Ethiopia. Based
on this, during 2007-2008 these institutions were reviewed and revised their curricula to
incorporate the principles of school improvement in their teacher training programs. According to
the MOE Blue Books recommendation schools should receive 10 Birr per year for every Grade 1-
4 child that is enrolled in school, 15 Birr per year for every Grade 5-8 child that is enrolled, 20
Birr per year for every child that is enrolled in Grade 9-10 and 50 Birr per year for every child that
is enrolled in Grade 11-12. The purpose of this grant is to cover schools operating costs and
augment non-salary expenditures. This amount will be reviewed annually, with inflation taken into
account. Regions and woredas are expected to top up the support from the Government budget. All
government schools will receive the school grant and the money can be spent on whatever is
identified to be needed by the school, provided that it does not include teachers salaries.
When we looking the approach and technical rationale, the School Improvement Program (SIP)
component of GEQIP will be implemented through the following two mutually reinforcing
priority programs:
School Improvement Program This program is designed to assist schools to: identify priority
needs through a process of self-assessment; develop an effective and practical School
Improvement Plan to address those needs; and then monitor and assess implementation.

School Grants Program This program entails the provision of additional resources to schools
and ABE Centers to support implementation of the SIP, as well as realize measurable
improvements in the quality of education service provision.
Many studies of the school improvement process suggest that the involvement of teachers,
students, and communities are vital for effective school improvement. Recognizing this, the SIP
process in Ethiopia intends to promote school improvement at the school level through relying on
local knowledge and resources within the community (e.g. involvement of stakeholders and their
expertise). It is emphasized that a) the SIP is a critical process for the improvement of the teaching
and learning environment, and b) the process will bring control of schools into the community.
Hence, through the process of developing a School Improvement Plan, schools and their
stakeholders will identify their needs and priorities. The grants that schools receive will thus
enable the schools to effectively implement the plans that they develop.
In order to assess the current status of the implementation and management of the school grants,
and how school improvement processes relate to the planning and utilization of school resources,
field visits were undertaken in different regions. In the regions visited, it was discovered that there
is an effective system for the distribution and utilization of school grants already in place. In all of
the regions that were visited the PTAs were found to be strongly involved in the decision-making
process regarding how the resources that the schools have at their disposal are to be spent. This
includes school grants, community contributions and any revenue that the school may generate. In
general community contributions were found to be higher than the level of resources that schools
received through the block grant. Schools are thus at present effectively managing a level of
funding higher than that would be realized through the full implementation of the block grant.
Local accountability with respect to how resources are used is enhanced through PTA days, which
typically takes place between 2 and 4 times a year in every school. All parents are invited to these
events at which they are entitled to ask questions about any aspect of the school life from school
discipline through to what the school has spent its money on. The extent of community
involvement in the education sector was found to be substantial. In one rural school it was
discovered that every household in the Kebele had contributed to the school irrespective of
whether they had a child enrolled in the school or not.
Eventually, the school grants component of GEQIP will therefore improve the quality of education
by facilitating an increase in non-salary expenditure and empowering schools and local
communities to address the needs of their school. The MoE, REBs and woredas will organize
opportunities for schools to share their experiences and continue to formulate revisions to
materials based on feedback from REBs and woredas and data provided by schools.
Dear Learner, What do you learn from the lesson above regarding SIP?
What serious domains does the GEQUIP raise regarding the school
improvement? What serious omissions are left out in our countrys SIP
endeavor?
To what extent is SIP occurring in your locality? Be specific. Have you tried?
Very Nice!
4.1.2. The Role Parents/Community and the Larger Society in Implementing SIP
Dear Learner, The following activity can be used to facilitate conversations about school

effectiveness. Select a factor. Is it an important characteristic of an effective school? How

would this factor be demonstrated in practice? What evidence have you seen of this in your
school? What practices need to be further developed or targeted for action? Nice!
Dear Learner! This is the last lesson for this unit. This section provides an illustration on the role
of parents, community and the larger society in implementing SIP in particular and in facilitating
student learning in general. You are advised to read each topic in detail and relate with the parents
or communities that you are working at your surrounding school. In the previous section, we have
seen that school improvement efforts have focused on professional learning communities and
professional collaboration for the last two decades. The literature describes professional learning
communities in many forms, which cover a wide spectrum of practices. Let me ask you some
questions with regard to parents and community in relation to their contribution to the education
system in general.
Dear Learner! In what ways do you consider parents as major partner to schooling?
What are the major areas that families/communities participated in our educational system?
To start with, as more people compete for available resources, more people need supportive
services to survivejob assistance, housing assistance, financial support and medical care.
Besides, the increasing urbanization of communities is also important issue to mention here.
People living in cities must turn to the community for various kinds of services. All the above
points indicate that educators cannot do every thing without the support of major partners.
Above all, understanding the families and communities in which students live can help
educators develop student potential. Families and communities can also support student
learning. However, to do this means those students families and communities must be
considered resources to be tapped. As educational leader, then, the first task will be -
overcoming challenges to involving families and communities if there is any gap at actual
place is unavoidable function. Families and communities can be valuable resources for schools
and tapping these resources requires changing how schools perceive the parents and
communities, values and beliefs.
In system-wide improvement, schools dont get to choose whether they participate or not.
Participation is condition of being in the system. Different schools might get to choose how they
will participate. Some systems have allowed schools to enter various phases of an improvement
process at different times. Some systems allow schools to choose among an array of
instructional approaches as the focus for improvement. There are a variety of ways of
introducing choice at the front end of an improvement process. However, change, as it has been
conceived and carried out in the past, is not an option in responding to these problems. Large
scale, sustained, and continuous improvement is the path out of these problems. Improvement
requires fundamental changes in the way public schools and school systems are designed and in
the ways they are led. It will require changes in the values and norms that shape how teachers
and principals think about the purposes of their work, changes in how we think about who
leaders are, where they are, and what they do, and changes in the knowledge and skill
requirements of work in schools. In short, we must fundamentally re-design schools as places
where both adults and young people learn (Elmore, 2000). As we shall see shortly, large scale
improvement requires a relatively complex kind of cooperation among people in diverse roles
performing diverse functions. This kind of cooperation requires understanding that learning
grows out of differences in expertise rather than differences in formal authority. Based on the
above premise, as schools are both reflections of the wider society and potential centers for
change then What is the role of parents? What is the role of the community? What are the

roles of teachers, educational leaders, and the government at large in enhancing SIP?
Together What are the contributions of parents, communities, societies and other partners
in facilitating student learning? All these questions are important issues to be raised here.
Then, let us examine one by one in detail.
First, let us look parent involvement and their leadership roles. Engaging parents as leaders,
advisors, advocates and decision-makers related to young children and school readiness must
begin with a review of the concepts of parents as primary partners and a family-centered
approach. Family-centered care represents a reciprocal relationship between providers and
families. It is based on the philosophy that recognizes the pivotal role of the family in the lives
of their children. This approach ensures that families are supported in the natural care giving
and decision-making roles for their children by building on their unique strengths (Hepburn,
2004). The concept of family-centered partnership or family-centered care grew out of the
health, mental health and special needs communities. Families challenged with meeting the
needs of their children, working closely with specialty service providers and supporting or
providing intervention services, pushed for an equal voice and shared decision-making in the
interest of appropriate care, education and intervention for their child. Eventually, vigilance and
advocacy efforts were supported by legislation and continuing efforts have impacted many
child-serving systems. Over time, experience, and the passionate work of many, various human
services and education systems have moved along a developmental continuum to expand the
perception and role of parents as primary partners and truly establish family-centered
partnerships, family-centered care and family-centered schools (Hepburn, 2004).
Hence, developing such strong parent-professional alliances is a critical first step in improving the
quality and cultural and gender responsiveness of services to young children and their families. In
addition, it is the first step to expanding family involvement to include families in advisory,
advocacy, and leadership roles. Then, What are family involvement and leadership roles? Parent
involvement in leadership in early care, education, and other services to young children and
families encompasses many roles and activities. So, let us see some of the roles of parents in detail
here below as stated by Hepburn (2004):
Parents as advisors: Share their perspective and experience in any part they play, whether it is
time limited, ongoing, formal or informal. The term advisory describes any role that enables
family members to have direct input and influence on policies, programs, and practices that impact
on the care and services children and families receive.
Parents as advocates: Engage in any activity that attempts to influence someone on behalf of
another. For parents this may be for themselves or their child, but can move beyond to advocacy
for children, programs or policy. Parents may take on a formal role and responsibilities within a
program or organization or join a parent advocacy group or organization.
Parents as leaders: May have formal positions, roles, and responsibilities in collaborative efforts
toward service or system implementation, improvement, or change. Leadership is a combination
of values, skills, and observable behaviors that can be learned, improved and expanded; can be
adapted to address various situations in a changing environment; and will result in mobilizing
people to expand their capacity to learn together and create the vision they share.
In the context of early care and education, the role of parent as a decision-maker or leader goes
beyond active involvement in their childs learning to include decision-making in leadership roles.
For example, parents may serve on the child care center board, on site-based management teams,
or on advisory councils. They have the power to affect the offerings and climate of early care and
education programs and the school. The trend towards site-based management and collaborative
decision-making in early care settings and some schools illustrates these opportunities for parents

to make a difference. When families participate as decision-makers at all levels, they influence
policies, programs, and practices (Hepburn, 2004). Families as advisors, advocates and leaders
may also take on the role of change agents.
In a recent study, Dr. Gerardo Lopez and fellow researchers (2001) observed different migrant
families living in Texas to understand the roles the families played in supporting their childrens
educational development. Due to living conditions, poverty and other issues related to migrant
work, many students of migrant families struggle in school. However, the children in these
families were considered successful in school, in both academic and non-academic ways, and the
researchers wanted to understand how these families were positively influencing how well their
children did in school (LOWA, 2007). This research study found that although parents of
successful migrant students did not regularly attend school functions, they strongly perceived
themselves as being highly involved in their children's educational lives. These families appeared
to be quite strategic in their choice of involvement; they saw the transmission of a work ethic as
their way of being involved in their child's education. Parents participating in the case study
recognized traditional forms of involvement (attending PTA meetings, parent-teacher contact,
volunteering at school functions) as noteworthy, but did not necessarily see them as important
forms of involvement that would make an impact on their children's academic development.
From the above case study we can understand that the academic level of the parents, their
socioeconomic level, and their ethnic or racial origin were not determining factors for academic
success. In addition, these studies reveal a relationship between parental involvement and
enhanced student self-esteem, improved student behaviour and better student attendance. For most
schools, building partnerships entailed a transformation of the schools relationship with families,
and required that the school take steps to create a more welcoming, inclusive environment (Rugen,
1995).
Overall finding - home-school partnerships show that there is a positive and convincing
relationship between family involvement and benefits for students, including improved academic
achievement. This relationship holds across families of all economic, racial/ethnic and educational
backgrounds and for students at all ages (LOWA, 2007).
What does the research say about family and community engagement? LOWA (2007) and
Rugen (1995) say the following:
Students whose families are involved in their learning earn better grades, enroll in higher-
level programs, have higher graduation rates and are more likely to enroll in postsecondary
education;
When families take an active interest in what theyre learning, students display more
positive attitudes toward school and behave better in and out of school;
Children do best if parents can play a variety of roles in their learning; helping at home,
volunteering at school, planning their childrens future and taking part in key decisions
about the school program; and
Middle and high school students whose families remain involved in these ways make
better transitions, maintain the quality of their work, develop realistic plans for the future
and are less likely to drop out.
From the above cases, we can grasp that fundraising campaigns and efforts to promote
volunteerism may increase resources and improve classroom support, but these efforts will have
little if any impact on improving student learning. Carter (2003) and LOWA (2007) state: the
evidence is now beyond dispute; when schools work together with families to support learning,

children tend to succeed not just in school, but throughout life. Hence, family involvement
significantly contributes to improved student outcomes. Accordingly, leadership roles for parents
are varied, and can include, as well as be expanded beyond, those traditionally associated with
governance and formal support systems. The following list is intended to expand the thinking of
leadership roles for parents in initiatives focused on school readiness as cited by Hepburn (2004):
Advisory Board Member Quality Improvement Reviewer
Task Force Member Speaker or Presenter
Program Evaluator Mentor and Guide
Trainer or Co-trainer Peer Support
Focus Group Member Community Guide
Translator/Interpreter Panel Member
Materials Reviewer Interviewer
Materials Developer/Contributor Key informant
Group Facilitator Paid staff
Recruiter Fundraiser
Ambassador or Spokesperson Representative
Advocate Consultant
Hiring Committee Member Networker
From the above clarification, we can conclude that whether parents act as an advisory or advocacy,
the family coordinator or liaison plays a vital role in coordinating family involvement activities for
the school.
The direction in which education starts at home a child will determine her/his future life.
Therefore, as educational leader the starting point to work with community is - recognition of
family strengths. This is because parents are a childs first and most influential teachers and
often their strongest advocates. Parents teach, model and guide their children. They are the big
picture team members in their childs education. Many parents spend 365 days a year with their
children and are the most knowledgeable about their history, interests, and abilities (Carter, 2003).
Hence, we should have to consider that families as primary partners in their childs development
and school readiness in other words we consider parents as leaders.
Hence, with this base of respect and understanding, schools, families and communities can create
productive partnerships in large and small ways. So, lets wind up this lesson by giving - ten
truths of parent involvement as forwarded by Carter (2003) the following tips:
1. All parents have hopes and goals for their children. They differ in how they support their
childrens efforts to achieve those goals;
2. The home is one of several spheres that simultaneously influence a child. The school must
work with other spheres for the childs benefit, not push them apart;
3. The parent is the central contributor to a childs education. Schools can either co-opt that
role or recognize the potential of the parent;
4. Parent involvement must be a legitimate element of education. It deserves equal emphasis
with elements such as program improvement and evaluation;
5. Parent involvement is a process, not a program of activities. It requires ongoing energy and
effort;

6. Parent involvement requires a vision, policy, and framework. A consensus of understanding
is important;
7. Parents interaction with their own children is the cornerstone of parent involvement. A
program must recognize the value, diversity, and difficulty of this role;
8. Most barriers to parent involvement are found within school practices. They are not found
within parents;
9. Any parent can be hard to reach. Parents must be identified and approached individually;
they are not defined by gender, ethnicity, family situation, education, or income; and
10. Successful parent involvement nurtures relationship and partnerships. It strengthens bonds
between home and school, parent and educator, parent and school, school and community.
However, while research findings show school, family and community partnerships can result in
improved student learning, many efforts designed to build these linkages often fail to improve
student achievement. Why? Too often, collective energies are focused on well-meaning but more
general forms of involvement such as volunteerism or fundraising. While these efforts are
helpful and even important, studies demonstrate these critical findings:
School, family and community connections linked to student learning are most effective
at improving student achievement; and
The most effective programs and interventions are those that engage families in
supporting their childrens learning at home (LOWA, 2007).
Strong families provide for the health and safety of children, and maintain a home environment
that encourages learning and positive participation in school community life.
Therefore, the strongest support for learning occurs at home through positive parenting styles,
nightly reading, homework policies, and high expectations. Schools that measure their success in
reaching out to parents by the number of volunteers and attendance at workshops and meetings
could be missing valuable opportunities to connect with families who cant be there or who are not
comfortable coming to school.
Dear Learner! Before you proceed to the reading, try to mention some of the roles of
community participation in education?
Can you give some examples of community participation inside and outside schools in
Ethiopia?
Which one of the potential areas of participation do you think is very difficult to create and
maintain for schools?
Besides to parents or families, the Policy for School Improvement is also very clear that a school
should be connected to its local community. Because, schools operate in very distinct and
different communities, they embody very different problems of practice, they include very
different student populations, and they are at very different places in their effort to school
improvement. Similarly, the community school board, which is quite diverse and represents many

segments of a very diverse community, has been relatively stable and has served as a stable source
of guidance and support for administrative leadership (Elmore, 2000).
Hence, we should have to consider also the community as a support system. How can the
community service families? What does it mean when we say community as a support system?
Well, the community can provide informal support to families, as when neighbors watch each
others children or share resources, or it can provide formal support through its publicly or
privately funded community services. Community services are necessary for several reasons.
Though the child remains central, engaging families and community in education will not only
help the children but help the family, school, and community as well. Therefore, when families
and communities work collaboratively with the school, everyones role becomes less stressful,
more productive, and more rewarding. There will be fewer conflicts and problems. Because,
providing opportunities for parents to share information about their children can help families and
educators avoid conflict and develop collaborative relationships that encourage the best
educational opportunities for students (Carter, 2003).
From the above we can understand that schools must look for practical ways to build meaningful
partnerships with families and communities. You can ask may be why is focusing on family and
community important as a big issue? Well, it is hard to imagine an aspect of school reform that is
more important yet more neglected than strengthening the involvement of families and
communities in the life of their school. It is impossible to imagine an excellent school that does
not engage families and community members in meaningful, productive ways (Rugan, 1995).
Above all, the community is a setting that provides much potential for learning. Libraries,
museums, zoos, farms, businesses, peoples experiences, and collectibles (family heirlooms,
antiques, photographs, and so on) are all rich sources for involving children. To illustrate the
communitys potential for learning; an experiment was initiated in Philadelphia to try a school
without walls. In sum, the community becomes a place and a resource for learning when citizens
(parents, educators, businesspeople, religious groups, service providers, legislators) are committed
to mutually beneficial goals that focus on the positive growth and development of children (Berns,
2010). Studies also show that communities, too, can have a positive impact on school
Case Study effectiveness.
9: CommunityAlthough
participationlessinabundant,
governmentresearch on community
primary schools in Senegal:engagement has foundInvolvement
Boosting Community that whenin
communities mobilize around school improvement efforts many positive outcomes can be
Primary Schools
Gouye Gui (meaning 'Baobab tree' in the local language) is a rural community located 40 miles from the regional capital of Diourbel and 120
achieved, including improved student achievement (LOWA, 2007).
miles from Dakar. This region has some of the lowest enrollment rates in Senegal. Severe poverty is a deterrent for schooling as illiterate
communitiesDear Learner!
can afford Let
neither us look
health real change
nor education that
services. draw
Girls lessons
are further from Africa
hampered fromcultural
by conservative one ofandsevere poverty,
religious traditions,
conservative cultural and religious traditions affected region in Senegal.
including early marriage for girls (by their mid-teens). In 2000-2001, the village primary school had 150 students with just 12 girls in first grade.
Low attendance in school, combined with a lack of basic supplies and an unhealthy school environment made schooling a low priority for poor
families. In April 2001, the Education for Development and Democracy Initiative (EDDI) in Senegal launched a community sensitization
campaign focusing on girls' education as well as training in overall human rights, literacy, and life skills. Two months later a School Management
Committee (SMC) was elected with more than 50% women members. The SMC received training in leadership, budgeting, and management,
and the skills thus developed have enabled them to first maintain an inventory of school supplies and successfully manage and complete a school
renovation project. The renovations have included the construction of two sets of latrines (one for boys and one for girls), rehabilitation of the
three classrooms, as well as construction of a protective wall surrounding the school. Finally, in December 2001, teachers received training in
gender awareness pedagogy. The effects of this integrated system of interventions for the academic year 2001-2002 have been many. 27 girls are
now enrolled in first grade (an increase of 125%), and the total of 150 students is now divided evenly between boys and girls. Several teachers
interviewed stressed the importance of subsidized school supplies to increase the likelihood of the most vulnerable students (including girls and
the very poor) to attend school, as well as in improving daily attendance rates of those already in school. Protective walls, renovated classrooms,
latrines and water points have improved the security and hygiene of the school environment, attracting interest from the community and
providing opportunities to apply the lessons learned on environment, health and resource management. Teachers also proudly point out their new
class duty rosters, on which chores are now evenly distributed between boys and girls - a significant break from the tradition of having girls
sweep and clean while boys play! The SMC has even played a role in arbitrating a long-running dispute within the village regarding a grain mill,
the result being that the village cooperative now has an income-generating project and the workload of women is reduced. The Gouye Gui school
community, through the SMC, recently made an independent request for adult literacy classes, showing that their new skills are enabling them to
initiate and organize their own development activities.
Source: Rose, P. 2004. Communities, gender and education: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa. Background paper for 2003 UNESCO Global
Monitoring Report. University of Sussex, Centre for International Education, p 10.

Dear Learner! What do you deduce from the case study stated above with a more active role of
community in schools in this regard in Senegal? Yes, attempts to promote overall enrolment and
girls enrolment in particular through community initiatives can result in success for access, the
success of this example can be partly attributed to a holistic approach being undertaken to address
the range of identified problems. Hence, communities may be asked to take on unfamiliar roles as
part of their support for education initiatives. These roles need to be fully explained to ensure
active and appropriate participation and to assist the functioning of community liaison points and
governance mechanisms such as PTAs. The community at large has a significant role in terms of
acting as a countervailing force in areas where the traditional bureaucratic controls on educational
services fail or become less effective (Shaeffer, 1994). Quite simply, families and communities are
at the heart of students identities and experiences. A school will not achieve equity and excellence
for all of the students in its care if it does not acknowledge, understand, and include the families
and communities of all its students.
Effective student learning seeks Individual and collective responsibility and ongoing collaborative support.
Dear Learner! We have seen above the roles of parents/community in implementing SIP. What
about the contribution of the larger society? Lets star with words of UN Millennium Project,
UNMP (2005), who comprises more than 250 experts from around the world, including scientists,
development practitioners, parliamentarians, policymakers, representatives from civil society and
UN agencies ideas. When they are looking the relationship between education and society: they
try to mention multiple benefits and considered as unrealized potential. Because, education is
societys main instrument for reproducing itself and can be a key ingredient for social change.
Education is about much more than children sitting in schools, acquiring skills that can be
objectively tested. Both the inputs to and the outputs from education are far more complex than
much of the usual international discourse suggests. This means that the concept of providing every
child with a good-quality education is not simply a function of having enough schools, textbooks,
and teachers. It is very much a result of a social context in which education is seen as a right for all
and in which all people have the opportunity to improve their economic and social welfare and
participate in public life (UNMP, 2005).

It is necessary to adopt a long-term approach to societal participation. This often requires a shift in roles for the
society from the operational aspects of education towards governance and school improvement.
Hence, a decision affecting what is taught, who is taught and how people are taught are parts of
the process of social reproduction. With respect to what is taught, the leading figures within one
generation transmit to the next generation their understanding of history and the essential skills,
knowledge and beliefs for the perpetuation of the society. At the technical level, this translates into
the content of the curriculum, the standards for progression to the next grade, and so forth, but it is
never completely removed from the much broader (and often highly politicized) context. With
respect to who is taught, policies and practices related to resource allocation, placement of
schools, the scope for private sector involvement and overt or invisible barriers to access lead to
outcomes that can either reduce or reinforce social stratification. With respect to how people are
taught, the methods and practices in education are also means of communicating the ways in
which societies are structured and should be structured in the future (UNMP, 2005). Greatly
increasing access to good education, which almost always means making societies more inclusive
and egalitarian, is not necessarily the result desired by those with the power to make decisions. But
rather, community citizens have bona fide interest in the local school. They have invested their
money, time and effort in the building of the school. Besides, their children attend the local school.
They deserve to know what is taught at the school and also should take part in the building of the
curriculum. They should be directly or indirectly involved in the teaching and learning process as
resource persons (Shaeffer, 1994).
Having looking the roles of parents, communities and societies, then the next questions are: What
providers can do? and What is the role of educational leadership in these endeavors? and so on,
might be valuable issues. Educational leaders must provide positive leadership to develop
partnerships with families and communities and be able to translate talk into implementation,
commitment and resource allocation. Improving family involvement may require changes in
resource allocations, time commitments and priorities. Administrators leading these efforts will
need to monitor and nurture the effort continuously (Carter, 2003). Then, what providers can do:
first understand and value parents as primary decision-makers for their child; and support families
in taking on leadership roles (Hepburn, 2004).
Hence, as regions and countries stabilize, it is necessary to adopt a long-term approach to

community participation. This often requires a shift in roles for the community from focusing on
the operational aspects of education (contributing resources, etc.) towards the management and
governance of education. Creating a shared sense of ownership around education needs to be
emphasized from the start and retain a focus on activities and interventions to encourage locally-
generated participation and avoid participation fatigue. These changes in roles need to take place
incrementally, supported by training and guidance so that community members feel empowered
and confident in these roles (UNESCO, 2009). However, while family involvement is crucial, it is
not easy to achieve. The key ingredient of success is commitment. The problem, then, is how to
construct relatively orderly ways for people to engage in activities that have as their consequence

the learning of new ways to think about and do their jobs, and how to put these activities in the
context of reward structures that stimulate them to do more of what leads to large scale
improvement and less of what reinforces the pathologies of the existing structure. Above all,
investing in professional learning is the key to ensuring that schools become learning communities
where teachers work together, learn from each other and share best practice on effective teaching
and learning. It is only through the collective work of teachers and by creating a shared
professional knowledge that sustained school improvement will be secured (DET, 2005). Schools
in the midst of reform must be able to solve problems. Intellectually stimulating organizational
members to look at old problems in new ways is a way of facilitating the solving of complex
issues which arise during school reform initiatives. Clearly, family and community are resources
that educators need to draw upon.
Parents are more likely to be involved if teachers and administrators engage in status equalizing
activities that signal to parents that their contribution is valued. Our third dimension of teacher
commitment relates to willingness to exert effort for the organization, one of the dimensions
identified by Ross and Gray (2006), for example, willingness to work collaboratively on school
tasks. High levels of individual teacher efficacy are associated with a commitment to a
collaborative school culture. Then, the solution is reaching a shared understanding of what
constitutes appropriate parent involvement has been found to be fruitful. Especially important is
two-way communication that builds a shared vision of the goals of education, rather than one-way
transmission of information to parents. Through joint work, teachers developed new teaching
strategies, which enhanced their effectiveness, thereby increasing perceptions of their current
success and expectations for the future. A commitment to collaboration is more likely to be linked
to teacher efficacy when teachers have control of classroom decision-making, and participate in
school-wide decisions (Ross & Gray, 2006).
The last but not the least question is What will be the role of the government at large in
improving student performance and schools in general? Well policy makers (state and local
board members and state legislators, for example) should, as elected officials, have a comparative
advantage in adjudicating conflicts among competing interests, winnowing these interests down
into goals and standards on what should be taught, setting the legal mandate within which rewards
and sanctions are administered, and translating the feedback from various quarters into new
guidance. Policy makers do not have a comparative advantage on issues relating to the specific
content of standards or of practices that lead to student performance of a certain kind, rather they
should have to focus on more general issues, benchmarks, drawing policies and strategies on how
to apply school improvement programs (Elmore, 2000).
Dear Learner! How do you get the roles of parents, communities, society, educational leaders
and the government at large? What issues should be considered here to work collaboratively?
Do you have any unique mechanism or principles that govern all these partners in to oneness?
Very Nice! Look your reaction with what it follows. Based on existing work, it is very difficult if
not impossible to state general guiding principles that can be used to design institutional structures
and to stimulate practices that result in large scale improvement for all these stakeholders.
However, at all levels of the system, isolation is seen as the enemy of improvement, so most
management and professional development activities are specifically designed to connect teachers,
principals, professional developers, and district administrators with each other and with outside
experts around specific problems of practice (Elmore, 2000). They tended to rely more on a
common culture of values to shape collective action than on bureaucratic rules and controls. The
shared values typically focused on improvement of student learning as the central goal, evidence
of steady, sustained improvement, a positive approach to problem-solving in the face of

unforeseen difficulties, a view of structures, processes, and data as instruments for improvement
rather than as ends in themselves, and a heavy internal focus by educational leaders on the
demands of instruction, rather than a focus on events in the external environment.
But the major issue or a major design principle to be considered here is to organize everyones
actions, at all levels of the system, around an instructional focus that is stable over time; it is not
just to improve practice and performance as such but to teach people in the organization how to
think and act around learning for continuous improvement. Focus also has to be accompanied by
stabilityin leadership, in the language that high-level administrators and board members use to
describe the goals and purposes of the organization, and in the commitment to monitoring and
redesigning policies and structures that are supposed to enable improvement. Such systems also
create multiple avenues of interaction among classrooms and schools, as well as between schools
and their broader environment, always focusing on the acquisition of new skills and knowledge.
They adjust and adapt the routines of the workplacewith the primary purpose of creating
settings where teachers, administrators, and outside experts can interact around common problems
of practice. For this purpose, first, this shift requires a redefinition of leadership, away from role-
based conceptions and toward distributive views; second, a clearer set of design principles to
guide the practice of large scale improvement and a mutual respect that stems from an
appreciation of the knowledge and skill requirements of different roles.
According to Elmore (2000), creating a new model of distributed leadership consists of two main
tasks: 1) describing the ground rules which leaders of various kinds would have to follow in order
to engage in large scale improvement; and 2) describing how leaders of various kinds in various
roles and positions would share responsibility in a system of large scale improvement. It should go
without saying that this model is necessarily provisional and tentative since it is a considerable
departure from the status quo and its basic premise is that improvement involves both learning the
ground rules and sharing responsibility for implementing them over time. At same time, an
alternative approach to school reform centers on the notion of accountability and systems to
support accountability. Elmore views school improvement as something that goes together with
strong internal accountability. Hence, the major design principle has to do with the development
and conduct of accountability relationships in schools and school systems. It appears from early
research that school systems that improve are those that have succeeded in getting people to
internalize the expectations of standards-based accountability systems, and that they have
managed this internalization largely through modeling commitment and focus using face to face
relationships, not bureaucratic controls. The success of such a framework depends as much on the
transactions across rolesthe creation of mutual dependency and reciprocityas it does on
defining the core responsibilities of the roles themselves. This requires in turn pressing hard for
more concrete knowledge about how large-scale improvement processes work.
Genuine partnerships are based on an understanding that not all parties bring the same resources.
Developing a school system and culture that expects takes time but is well-worth the investment.
Hence, at present, our best estimate of those conditions that underpin school improvement efforts,
and so therefore represent the key management arrangements, can be broadly stated as:

a commitment to staff development
practical efforts to ensure the involvement of staff, students and the community in school
policies and decisions
transformational leadership approaches
effective coordination strategies
proper attention to the potential benefits of enquiry and reflection
a commitment to collaborative planning activity (Hopkins, 2000: 145).
However, there is a pressing problem we should have to consider here. Harris and Muijs in
Mulford (2003) argue that the real challenge facing most schools is no longer how to improve but
more importantly, how to sustain improvement? Further, sustainability will depend upon the
schools internal capacity to maintain and support developmental work and that sustaining
improvement requires the leadership capability of the many rather than the few and that
improvements in learning are more likely to be achieved when leadership is instructionally
focused and located closest to the classroom. Effective leadership in schools in this era is linked to
the leader's ability to facilitate school improvement. The obvious core of school improvement is
the role of the leader as an instructional leader; which is such a complex role. Though they cannot
do it alone, school principals are of course key players in making these connections. Professional
development for school leaders should provide lessons and tools concerning school, family, and
community relations and partnerships.
To summarize this lesson, changing those systems requires political leadership and institutional
reform, as well as additional investments and inputs. Given the intangible function of education in
social reproduction, solutions to shortcomings in the education system cannot be mechanistic,
nor can they easily be transferred from place to place (UNMP, 2005). Most educational leaders
and staff understand the importance of engaging families and communities to support school
improvement efforts. Before we can build strong and effective partnerships with families, we have
to believe not only that its important but also that it can be done and that we can do it. That
means its necessary for school staff to hold a set of positive beliefs about family engagement
(LOWA, 2007). To guarantee genuine participation requires a considerable change in the way
education is planned and managed, the conscious enhancement of those factors and conditions
which encourage participation, and the development of concrete mechanisms and procedures to
guide planners and managers in developing such participatory activities. These will be examined
in greater detail in the next two successive units.
Unit Summary
Dear Learner! How do you get the content of unit four? To summarize, we have seen the SIP
vision is of students engaged in compelling learning situations, created by skillful teachers in
school settings designed to promote learning for both groups of people. The learning and teaching
engagements in SIP as described in this lesson are commonplace in schools that have a culture
characterized by high expectations, collaboration and innovation. We have seen from different
sources and research confirms that family involvement is a powerful influence on childrens
achievement in school. Finally, the unit stresses that if the purpose of leadership is the
improvement of teaching practice and performance, then the skills and knowledge that matter are
those that bear on the creation of settings for learning focused on clear expectations for instruction.
As we shall see shortly, large scale improvement requires a relatively complex kind of cooperation
among people in diverse roles performing diverse functions.
Review Questions

____ 1. The concept of school improvement defined as:
a. modifying classroom practice
b. a strategy for educational change that focuses on student achievement
c. support teaching and learning
d. All
e. A and B
____ 2. Which on of the following the most significant areas in school improvement in Ethiopia?
a. Student Environment
b. Leadership and Management
c. Community Involvement
d. All
e. None
_____3. Among the following which one is incorrect regarding leadership roles for parents?
a. Materials Developer
b. Key informant
c. Spokesperson
d. All
e. None
____ 4. Which one of the following is considered as characteristics of effective large scale school
improvement initiatives?
a. target staff development
b. monitor the impact of policy on practice
c. focus on specific outcomes which can be related to student learning
d. All
e. None
space provided.
____ 1. Developing a school culture that expects takes time but is well-worth the investment.
_____2. Communities are at the heart of students identities and experiences.
_____3. Communities may take on unfamiliar roles as support for education initiatives.
_____4. Parent involvement is a process, not a program of activities.
_____5. Developing strong parent-professional alliances is a critical first step in SIP.
1. Write down five leadership roles of parents in schools.
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
2. List three roles of educational administrators in facilitating community participation.
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
3. Explain the purpose of parental involvement in SIP.
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

Case Analyses
Case Study 10: Village-based schools in Mali
Save the Childrens primary education efforts began in Mali in 1992. At that time, the countrys primary enrolment rates
were among the worlds lowest under 20 percent in rural areas, and as low as 5 percent for girls. Some villages sent no
children to primary school. Save the Children has played a lead role in the development of village schools in Mali
demonstrating: (1) community ownership, (2) relevant curriculum, (3) absolute gender equity, and (4) teacher training.
Each village school is the result of the efforts of village committees, organized around their need to provide basic
education for their children. To make the schooling relevant, the following components are incorporated into initial
planning and design: (a) the school year is brought into line with the agricultural year; (b) the language of instruction is
the indigenous language of the villagers; and (c) the village school offers a learning package based on literacy and math
to be attained over a three-year cycle. The program also includes school management training. This school year, 782
village schools are operational with nearly 50,000 students enrolled, 41 percent of whom are girls. In addition, 14
percent of the 1,330 teachers in these schools are women.
Source: Rose, P. 2004. Communities, gender and education: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa. Background paper for
2003 UNESCO Global Monitoring Report. University of Sussex, Centre for International Education, p 8.
Write a summary of about a page on which interventions were most crucial by NGOs or other
partners to ensure community participation in schools. Did you notice an exemplary goals and
intervention strategies applied by different stakeholders? Can you draw any conclusions regarding
the interventions conducted from the above case study? Does the NGO shape the community, or
the initial planning and design helps to shape the community to improve teaching learning process
in their locality? Explain what type of intervention strategies and goals should have to be
considered in relation to family involvement and how parents and schools can encourage
childrens readiness to learn in your locality.
Methods of Delivery
Students Activities
3. The specific form of educational decentralization process in Ethiopia from the different
forms of decentralization discussed in this unit.
Procedures:
Discuss in groups the different forms of decentralization
Identify the specific form of educational decentralization in Ethiopia
Justify why they considered that specific form of decentralization as educational
decentralization process in Ethiopia
Present the groups report to the whole class
4. Identify potential partners with whom certain school can work/participate in its locality.
Procedures:
Identify the different partners of the school with in that particular society
Discuss in groups how these partners could help the school to function effectively
Unit Assessment

this unit.

Carter, S. 2003. Educating our Children Together: A Sourcebook for Effective Family- School-
Community Partnerships. New York: CADRE.
Elmore, R. 2000. Building a New Structure For School Leadership. Washington, DC: The Albert
Shanker Institute.
Hepburn, K.S. 2004. Families as Primary Partners in their Childs Development School
Readiness. Baltimore: The Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Hopkins, D. 2000. Powerful Learning, Powerful Teaching and Powerful Schools. Journal of
Educational Change 1: 135154, Kluwer Academic Publishers.
LOWA (LOWA - School Boards Foundation). 2007. Family, School and Community Connections:
Improving Student Learning. Information Briefing, Vol. 1., No.6.
MoE (Ministry of Education). 2008. General Education Quality Improvement Package (GEQIP).
Addis Ababa: MoE.
UNESCO.
UNMP (UN Millennium Project). 2005. Toward Universal Primary Education: Investments,
Incentives, and Institutions. London: Task Force on Education and Gender Equality.
Berns, R.M. 2010. Child, Family, School, Community: Socialization and Support (8th ed.).
Belmont: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Chance, P.L. & Segura, S.N. 2009. A rural high schools collaborative approach to school
improvement. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 24(5). Retrieved [date] from
http://jrre.psu.edu/articles/24-5.
Department of Education and Training (DET). 2005. Professional Learning in Effective Schools
The Seven Principles of Highly Effective Professional Learning. Melbourne: State of
Victoria.
Elmore, R. 2002. Bridging the Gap Between Standards and Achievement: The Imperative for
Professional Development in Education. Washington, DC: The Albert Shanker Institute.
Guskey, T. (1998). The age of our accountability. Journal of Staff Development, 19(4), 36-44.
Jones, L. 2009. The Importance of School Culture for Instructional Leadership. International
Journal of Educational Leadership, Volume 4, Number 4 (October _ December 2009).
Leadbeater, C. (2000). Living on thin air, The new economy. London: Penguin.
Leithwood, K., & Duke, D. (1999). A century's quest to understand school leadership. In J.
Murphy & K. Seashore-Louis (Eds.), Handbook of research on educational administration
(2nd ed.) (pp. 45-73). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Mulford, B. 2003. School Leaders: Challenging Roles and Impact on Teacher and School
Effectiveness. [n.p.]: OECD.
ONeill, L. (2004) Methods web: Gadamers corrective and educational policy. Philosophy of
Education Yearbook, 142(9), 142-149.
Schmoker, M. (2007). A chance for change: Key levers for improving teaching and learning,
American School Board Journal, 194(4), 45-46.

School and Society Unit 5: Areas
of Societal Participation in Education
UNIT FIVE
AREAS OF SOCIETAL PARTCIPATION IN EDUCATION
UNIT INTRODUCTION
Dear Learner! Would you please once again remember what you discussed in the previous units?
Yes, you have learned the basic concepts, characteristics of school-society relations, nature of
educational organizations and schools as well as the rationale for the school-society relations in
unit one. We have seen that diverse nature of the school and society in unit two. At the same time,
we have seen also the essence of participatory approach, major goals, obstacles and major partners
in school-society relations in unit three. In unit four we have seen that school improvement and
societal participation. This unit will help you to have understanding about the areas of societal
participation in education. For these purpose, the whole unit is divided into four sections. The first
part of this unit begins with the diagnosis of educational conditions, needs, priorities and
resources. At the same time, it gives insights with regard to policy making and governance and the
instructional programs. Finally, this unit attempts to provide the benefits of societal participation
in education.


Identify the educational conditions, needs priorities and available resources of their own
particular society
Explain the different benefits of societal participation in education.
Lesson One
5.1. The Diagnosis of Educational Conditions, Needs,
Priorities and Resources
Dear Learner, What is the best way to improve parent, family, and community
involvement in education?
Do you see any importance of involving the community in diagnosis of educational
needs, priorities and resources? Very Good!
Dear Learner! Have you imagined what type of areas of potential collaboration in education in
your surrounding areas? Yes, as it has been explained else where in this module there is an egg-
chicken relationship between education and society. One is the result of the other. Hence, in this
lesson you will study the importance of societal participation especially in the diagnosis of
educational conditions, needs, priorities and resources in facilitating student learning. At the end,
you will understand what efforts should be exerted so that education and community complement
each other for the well being of the country.
To star with, the educational system should not be regarded as a branch of the bureaucracy.
Instead, it should be a subsystem highly interactive with all other parts of the social whole. The
point is to give students, parents and teachers responsibility over their own affairs, to the point of
enabling them to administer the educational system on their own within the context of natural or

contractual communities. Participation in education can be analyzed in terms both of the degree of
participation and the areas of education in which greater participation can occur.
Hence, the degree of participation able to be achieved in any given society at any given time will
vary considerably based on its political, social, cultural, and economic context. Given this fact,
achieving the greater participation of more partners is clearly an evolutionary process and will
proceed at varying speeds depending on a number of factors and conditions: institutional and
individual commitment, resources, appropriate mechanisms, personal expertise and others. This
possible range of collaboration with outside actors, as well as the more active participation of
teachers within and across schools, can also be analyzed in relation to participation in several
different areas of education, among these:
1. the diagnosis of educational conditions, needs, priorities, and resources;
2. policy-making and governance (the setting of goals, planning of programs, and managing of
personnel and budgets); and
3. the instructional program, both the determination of educational content (the curriculum and
teaching materials) and teaching and training (the pedagogy and teaching methods) have
paramount importance (Shaeffer, 1994).
Activity 5.2. Brainstorming (5 minutes for reflection)

Dear Learner! In what ways do you consider parents as valuable resources to schooling?
Why we need to understand the families and communities as a resource? or
Why is focusing on family and community important?
When we are looking the first area mentioned above, a higher level of involvement of
participation, defined as having a share in, having a part in, being part of - is achieved farther
along the range, where parents take a more active part in the activities of associations, perhaps
help in the classroom, and assist in other work. In this way, the focus of their relationship with the
school widens from that of the parent concerned with his/her child's education per se, to a more
global concern with the school as a whole. For teachers, as well, such expanded participation can
widen the focus of concern from his/her classroom and students to a broader interest in the quality
of the entire school and of its relationship to the surrounding community.
The first- the diagnosis of educational conditions, needs, priorities, and resources - is of particular
importance here. Depending on the extent of autonomy available to communities, schools, local
government, and local education officers, it can serve as the basis for more relevant educational
planning, programming, content, and methods. Just as importantly, it can begin the process of
getting potential partners - parents, community members, even teachers - more deeply involved in
local education, caring more about it and feeling more 'ownership' of it.
According to Shaeffer (1994), a more participatory process of diagnosis entails two things: (1) the
creation of a data-based development 'profile' of the community (of perhaps of the sub-district or
district), especially in the sector of education, and (2) the development of mechanisms to
encourage the involvement of members of the community in the process. The first can help clarify
the development problems of a community and the potential role of education in resolving these
problems. It requires the surveying of a variety of different issues as illustrated below. These
include:
(i) The creation of a community profile

The first requires the surveying of a variety of different issues. These include:

(a) indicators and needs of general development: population dynamics and health status; economic
development, income levels, and employment patterns; housing and transportation and the
existence of disadvantaged areas or groups.
(b) indicators and needs of educational development such as: absolute totals and rates of
enrolment, graduation, and literacy; student-teacher ratios; the magnitude and causes of non-
participation, of both students and teachers (absenteeism and drop-out); gender imbalances in
education; the absence of education opportunities for particular groups (pre-school children,
illiterate adults, unemployed youth, ethnic minorities) and the status of mother-tongue education
and of traditional knowledge in school.
(c) available local resources, that means: available educational programs and facilities, in and out
of school; financial and human resources and local organizations and other sectors involved in
education.
(d) educational processes: patterns of school management and teaching-learning processes.
(e) the nature of participation in education such as: the motivation and activities of teachers as well
as the extent to which parents and community organizations are involved in education.
(f) educational needs and priorities like what is more important: greater quantity (more places) or
higher quality (better teaching, more relevant content)? where should new schools be located
(school mapping)? what are priorities by level, type and student gender?
Mechanisms and procedures to gather data on these issues (especially those relating to educational
processes, priorities, and existing resources) may not exist at all in a given area. If they do, they
may be the exclusive domain of local government, of officials of another sector such as health or
agriculture, or of the local education office and may produce data not made available to other
sectors. District health offices, for example, may gather periodic data concerning population
changes, but this information may not be shared with the education office responsible for locating
new primary schools. Local education officials may gather data from school questionnaires for
regular transmission to higher levels of the bureaucracy, but the data might not be available or
used for determining local needs and priorities; e.g., whether imbalances exist in enrolment and
drop-out rates among villages or between boys and girls. And officials of public and private school
systems (or formal and non-formal education programs) in the same area may not be aware of the
needs or the available resources in each other's system.
(ii) The involvement of more actors in diagnoses

The second part of this process of diagnosis relates to the roles and responsibilities (if any) of
teachers, parents, and members of the community at large in any assessment which is carried out.
Such involvement may not exist at all, may be limited to responding to occasional questionnaires,
or be restricted to only certain (perhaps elite) groups within the community. But a more sensitive
and accurate profile of a community's conditions and needs and the setting of more relevant
educational priorities will likely only be achieved to the extent that those who actually do the
teaching (teachers) and the learning (students), those who indirectly or directly finance much of
the schooling and gain quite direct benefit from it (the parents), and those who are meant to benefit
more generally from the education provided (the community) are involved in the process of
diagnosis. Hence, several mechanisms might be used to enhance the participation of these partners
in such an exercise. Some relate to the collection of data whereas others are more concerned with
data analysis and priority-setting. Among these, Shaeffer (1994) stated the following:
(a) more consistent, systematic, and integrated data collection. On the assumption that in many
countries considerable data related to the issues discussed above is already gathered at the local
level by many different agencies and sectors (local government, health clinics, agricultural
extension agents, education offices), ways can be found to ensure that the data are gathered in a

more consistent, systematic, and integrated fashion. At a minimum, data gathered through separate
mechanisms and therefore likely available only in dispersed locations (village offices, health
clinics, education offices), should be consolidated in one place. Even more useful would be joint
data collection exercises among the various agencies and services present in the community. This
could be done via regular joint household censuses or more specific, ad hoc surveys and
questionnaires. This is especially important for education in regard to data on health status,
population changes, enrolment and drop-out rates (by gender), and the existence and problems of
particularly disadvantaged areas or groups.
(b) the seeking of parent and community opinion. In addition to the often regular diagnosis of
development needs, special emphasis could be placed on collecting the opinions and aspirations of
parents and other community members concerned about education - both in general and also on
more specific issues (such as the location of new schools or the kinds of skills children require
from schools). In-depth interviews and focus group discussions (group interviews) may help in
this regard.
(c) the involvement of other actors in diagnoses. As a kind of 'extension agent' of the Ministry
of Education and, in many communities, still among the most educated and respected of its
members, teachers may not only have something useful to say about education; they may also be
particularly able to gather and synthesize the needs and priorities of the community. Officers of
whatever school/parent/community association exists may also help in this regard. Such processes
will be encouraged to the extent that there is a viable, continuing, and active dialogue among the
various actors at the community level.
(d) for a synthesis of data and the setting of priorities. A variety of informal or more formal
mechanisms (e.g., the school/parent/community association) may be developed as for a for the
analysis of the data collected, the synthesis of the data into felt needs, and the determination of
priorities among the needs identified.
Lesson Two
5.2 Policy Making and School Governance
Dear learner! Would you please once again remember what you discussed in the previous
sections? Yes, you have learned the first areas of societal participation in education that is the
diagnosis of educational conditions, needs, priorities and resources. This lesson will help you to
have understanding about the second area societal participation in policy making and school
governance. Let us look together.
Activity 5.3. Take time as home assignment and discuss the issue
Dear Learner! What do you understand by the term Governance in education? And
Why it is so important? What is the difference between policy making and governance?
The second area where greater participation is possible involves policy-making and governance
according to Shaeffer (1994), this area incorporates the setting of school goals and targets, the
planning of school policies and programs, and the managing of school budgets and personnel. In
this regard, both teachers and parents can play a more important role. For that reason, one of the
core principles of good governance is to facilitate public participation in the decision-making
process. Above all, public participation increases the likelihood that actions taken or services
provided by public agencies more adequately reflect the needs of people and that the benefits of

development are more equitably shared. Here, a purely descriptive definition of governance refers
to the exercise of economic, political and administrative authority to manage a nations affairs. It
is the complex mechanisms, processes, relationships and institutions through which citizens and
groups articulate their interests, exercise their rights and obligations and mediate their differences
(UN, 2008). Then, What is local governance? Local governance comprises a set of institutions,
mechanisms and processes through which citizens and their groups can articulate their interests
and needs, mediate their differences, and exercise their rights and obligations at the local level.
The building blocks of good local governance are many: citizen participation, partnerships among
key actors at the local level, capacity of local actors across all sectors, multiple flows of
information, institutions of accountability and a propoor orientation.
Therefore, a more decentralized governance structure is needed so that schools, as unique

educational entities, can offer their local communities the services, programs, and activities which
they desire. If adults are going to develop this ownership and commitment to their local schools,
the governance of education must be decentralized so they can participate in decision-making
activities, at the local school level, which directly influence the quality and quantity of education
offered to children. The school committees, school councils or parent-teacher groups established
to facilitate participatory decision-making must be based on a collaborative management
philosophy of governance.
The term 'governance' can cover a wide range of activities. For our educational purposes (Shaeffer,
1994) includes the following:
1. The establishment, modification, and implementation of schools' goals and objectives. This
type of involvement would allow parents and teachers to shape the tone of their school, have
it conform to their value systems, and truly address their perception of the type of schooling
their child receives. This process might be done only occasionally or more regularly, perhaps
annually.
2. The selection of specific targets related to areas such as: enrolment, attendance, and retention
rates and academic results.
3. The development of school policies in regard to: student enrolment, attendance, absenteeism,
and promotion student discipline; staff (especially teacher) management such as the setting
of required qualifications, recruitment, training, monitoring, disciplining, and remuneration;
school calendars and class timetables as well as class size and allocation.
4. The planning of school programs designed for: improving school quality (reducing class
size, organizing in service training for teachers, buying additional textbooks); providing
remedial/special education for disadvantaged groups and encouraging productive work.
5. The determining of a school's annual financial requirements and budget, including costs of:
construction and maintenance; materials and textbooks; staff development programs and
funding special programs (see number 4 above).
6. The collecting of funds from sources such as: the central Ministry; local government; parents
and community groups; private enterprises; NGOs and productive activities of the school.
7. The managing and accounting for school finances.
One author has described three models of educational governance. The administrative model
leaves educational governance to the central office or other offices down the hierarchy where
power has been delegated. The professional model leaves governance to the professionals at the
school site on the grounds that they are the best to determine the needs of learners and best capable
of developing structures to satisfy such ends. The participatory model is one which aims at
involving 'lay' people or communities and parents (Chimwenje, 1992). The last two models imply
some kind of devolution of authority from the centre to the regional, district, and, above all, school

levels. It is such devolution which leads ultimately to greater school based-management and
reform - bringing the authority to create better learning conditions closer to the spot where
teaching and learning occur. The most effective policies are those that either have originated on
site or use the input from and participation by teachers, leaders, and the community to support
teachers and the school. Policies implemented or adapted by the school community to respond to
teachers' needs (and their students') in context have proven more effective in the long run than
those implemented by other entities. The participation of teachers and school staff in their own
process of change has been proven to have a positive effect on the development and
implementation of policies directed at teachers (Tatto in Shaeffer, 1994).
Such a process involves several principal ideas:
1. the school, operating on a relatively autonomous basis, becomes the principal entity of any
change in the educational system;
2. co-operation and the sharing of responsibilities of all of the different actors are required in
order to solve local problems;
3. new structures of participation (forums, councils) and information exchange need to be
established as centers of interchange and decision-making;
4. any reform needs to be considered globally, involving the institution as a whole and
considering all of its objectives and functions; and
5. self-monitoring and school-based evaluation by and for the major actors are essential, based
on a set of goals or a mission statement, objectives, tasks, a calendar of activities and action
plans, etc. (Hallak in Shaeffer, 1994).
Mechanisms to permit such school-based management- allowing the individual school to set its
own goals, 'tone', and targets; to design policies and programs in response to site-specific needs;
and to plan, collect, and manage school resources - may not be given a very high priority in a
given education system. In many countries, the goals and curricular objectives - are set by the
State or, in private systems, by the sponsoring agency and are assumed to be standard for all
schools. Enrolment targets, school calendars, or policies in regard to student promotion may be the
same for the entire system, for example, and there may be little scope for their amendment or
adaptation.
Even if mechanisms for more autonomous school governance do exist, they may be centered
largely in the hands of head teachers, local education officers, a small group of senior teachers, or
a hand-picked executive committee of the local PTA. Teachers, parents, and the community
surrounding the school may have little role to play in these processes. But because greater
participation in school management by a variety of interested partners can increase the demand
for, and 'ownership' of, the education which occurs in the school, governments should move
towards a policy of strengthening school-based partnerships. This is especially important in the
area of school improvement activities. Educational innovations - Especially those which depend
on teacher support and participation - are difficult to implement in any event. Greater teacher
involvement in their design and management may help to ensure their implementation. By the
same token, greater involvement by parents and community members in school governance can
increase their demand and support for education school. And teachers, parent groups, and school
committees can play a more active role in school governance. A variety of mechanisms exists
which can be used to enhance their participation (for more detail see Unit 3 and 5). Some of these
are restricted to actors within the school - i.e., the greater involvement of teachers - while others
include the participation of partners from outside the school: parents, community organizations,
NGOs, private enterprise, and other local actors.

Such associations and committees can do a number of things. This can include first the
establishment and implementation of school targets and work plans. Teachers, parent groups, and
even multi-sectoral school committees can also play a more collegial role in setting policies
related to staff development, school-community relations, and specific school improvement
activities. Students, too, can play a role in school governance. The above cases show that various
management mechanisms inside or outside of school exist or can be established and strengthened
in order to promote more participatory approaches to school governance. But the choice about
what kind of mechanisms to establish and what powers to invest it with is not necessarily an easy
one. A variety of issues must be explored and decisions made before these mechanisms have any
real impact on how schools are run and financed. As is the case for changes in parental strategies,
many of the changes in teacher and school practices can be traced back to changes in education
policy. It is of course not possible to explore here all policies that have an impact on efficiency.
To summarize this portion, greater involvement of the community in school governance is purely
to support the delivery of quality teaching-learning. It is for this reason that teaching and learning-
based accountability is emphasized as one of the pillars of todays school governance. For this
purpose, it can establish multiple forms of governance and control, each with its own part in the
system. While decentralization or decentralizing governance should not be seen as an end in itself,
it can be a means for creating more open, responsive, and effective local government and for
enhancing representational systems of community-level decision-making. Therefore, it is
necessary to work with governance principles at local levels to strengthen local governance
processes. And teachers, parent groups, and school committees can play a more active role in
school governance. A variety of mechanisms exists which can be used to enhance their
participation (for more detail see Unit Three and Five).

Dear Learner! Assume your school and surrounding areas:
What degree of participation in governance are other partners allowed to attain?
Are teachers within a school or a cluster, or individuals within parent associations or
village education committees, permitted merely to hear about, and approve of, goals,
targets, policies, programs, and budgets established and designed by others, whether at
the centre or at the local level?
Does this participation focus mainly on the seeking (or extracting) of 'contributions' from
partners? Are they actually asked to participate actively in the shaping of the school's
long-term plans?
Lesson Three
5.3. The Instructional Program
Dear Learner! This is the third lesson of this unit. In this lesson, we are going to see what type of
organization and arrangement are important so as to restore and apply participatory approach with
different stakeholders especially in instructional program.
Activity 5.5. Analytical Group Discussion (for 5 minutes)
Dear Learner! Do you think it is important or possible to involve local people in an
instructional process? Why?
What those factors that can affect the participation of community in the instructional
process? Can you list some of them?

Well! When we are looking the very definition of community a group of citizens bound up in a
social system with common identity for survival suggests community participation in managing
the structures of education, i.e., governance, work culture, and, in instructional organization, most
particularly, the curriculum. Some school leaders and even teachers believe that the local people
are not knowledgeable enough to take part in curriculum building at the local level. This is an
erroneous impression. Community citizens have bona fide interest in the local school. They have
invested their money, time, and effort in the building of the school. Besides, their children attend
the local school. They deserve to know what is taught at the school and also should take part in the
building of the curriculum. They should be directly or indirectly involved in the teaching and
learning process as resource persons. Hence, the third area of potential participation is
involvement in the instructional process; it is in this area - the determination of what should be
taught, using what materials, and in what ways where greatest collaboration can often occurs. First
of all, the phrase 'instructional process' covers a wide range of activities. For our purposes it is
better to see the following activities as cited by Shaeffer (1994):
1. determining the content (curricula, syllabi) of what is taught in schools,
2. developing appropriate teaching materials (the selection, design, and writing of textbooks
and other materials)
3. delivering the required content (developing and implementing teaching-learning methods)
4. training and upgrading the teachers who deliver it
5. monitoring and evaluating school quality, including:
(a) inputs such as: student enrolment, attendance and behavior; teacher attendance and
behavior; the availability and quality of educational facilities and the availability and
quality (relevance, adequacy) of curricula, materials, and texts;
(b) Processes such like: the quality of teaching and learning and general school improvement
programs;
(c) Outcomes, for instance: the achievement of the school's goals and targets; student
academic achievement (daily learning for promotion or graduation) and student
socialization (to community and/or to national norms and values).
In comparison to other areas of education inside and outside the school already examined, the
participation of other actors in the instructional process is potentially more difficult to promote.
This is so because its deals with three intensely political issues: (1) what children learn (e.g.,
political philosophy, community values, economic knowledge and skills); (2) how well they learn
(and, therefore - according to popular wisdom where they end up in the world) and (3)
'pedagogy', traditionally the exclusive prerogative of the teaching profession and, in some
societies, of the individual teacher- usually formally certified and not always willing to open
his/her classroom and reveal his/her performance to the comment of peers or outsiders. Parental
and community 'gazing' at such pedagogy, let along intervening in it, is seldom welcomed
(Shaeffer, 1994). But given what is often a general lack of understanding about the culture,
experiences, and motivations of its children, there is a need to encourage greater cultural
articulation between the school and the community, to give recognition to the children's
experiences at home and in the community by integrating these into the content and learning
activities in school, and to promote some kind of broader partnership in teaching and learning.
Such a partnership can also ultimately produce education more relevant to the needs of the
community and of their children and greater demand and support for education. Also, unlike the
area of school governance, where centralized systems may severely limit the autonomy of schools
in setting individually their goals, planning new programs, and even managing budgets, many
schools may have considerable freedom to alter and adapt the nature of their instructional
processes.

One issue in looking at the current nature of participation in the instructional process is the extent
to which individual schools or groups of schools can, through the greater involvement of their own
personnel, try to improve the quality of this process. Another, of course, is the extent to which
others outside of the school - especially parents but also other community members, agents of
other development sectors (e.g., health and agriculture), private enterprises, NGOs, etc. -
participate in this process. There is a variety of mechanisms available to make greater
collaboration in various aspects of the instructional process possible. Some of these (school
clusters, teacher clubs) are limited to members of the school community; others involve
individuals or groups from among parents or from the larger community. Some involve the
'partners' as observers and listeners; others as more active consultants, managers, and even
teachers.
According to Shaeffer (1994), these mechanisms can be of use in the following parts of the
process:
(i) Determining the content of what is taught in school and developing teaching material
appropriate to students: There are a number of reasons why teachers and the community should
be more involved in areas related to the curriculum and material development. In general,
(a) The involvement of teachers in developing teaching materials and especially in filling in
national curricula and syllabi with content more relevant to local conditions and needs can help
ensure the presentation of material of direct use to their students. It can also make teachers feel
greater 'ownership' of the school and of what they teach in it;
(b) The involvement of students, parents, and community leaders in the collecting, processing,
analysis, and interpretation of local information may help to ensure the use of local content, the
greater articulation between school and community and the inclusion of family and community
culture in the school, the marriage of traditional and modern knowledge, coverage of local culture
and history, and the inclusion of economically-relevant practical subjects;
(c) Because participation calls for actual hands-on experiences by resource persons in the local
community, their involvement in curriculum design informs them better as to their possible
instructional role; and
(d) Involvement in such an activity helps convince both teachers and the community that they
have some 'ownership' of what goes on in the school. Such involvement can be encouraged in two
ways:
Surveys or studies of knowledge and skills useful for children of the community. This
includes knowledge in regard to cultural beliefs and events, health and nutrition, the local
economy and environment; and
The development of syllabi and teaching materials (lesson plans, exercises, examinations)
through teacher, parent, and/or community curriculum panels.
(ii) Delivering the required content: Parents and other members of the community can be
encouraged and even tutored and trained to participate more actively in the teaching learning
process. This may be limited to motivating or helping their children at home and include:
encouraging children to do school work at home
helping to organize a study timetable
establishing a time and a quiet, well-lighted place for regular study at home
listening to children tell about their day at school
monitoring their progress in school
reinforcing positive attitudes about school and learning
reading to children (if the parents are literate) and listening to them read
encouraging enrolment, retention, and attendance.

Other partners may also get involved in activities in the school itself through the involvement of
parents and community members in teaching, as tutors and assistants to the teacher or for
specialized subjects (local culture, craftwork). They may also help in the library or canteen; collect
materials for projects, craft and other skills; repair furniture; gather information on community
resources; and help slow learners. Parents and other community members may also teach
specialized subjects, such as local crafts and trades, customs, and history, principles of sex
education, and health and agricultural practices, for instance.
(iii) Training and upgrading teachers: Both teachers themselves and the community can also be
more active in the actual training of (other) teachers. This can be done through:
(a) in-school or in-cluster upgrading, including the assessment by teachers of their own training
needs and subsequent peer training, and
(b) participation of parents and community members in professional development programs.
First, teachers can work together to evaluate each other's teaching, assess training needs, design
and test upgrading activities, and therefore develop among themselves greater personal and
professional capacity. Again, the school clusters present a good example of such a process. Other
examples are more experiential in nature. Teachers, for example, are trained in how to prepare a
map, an agricultural calendar, and a monograph of the local community with students and parents.
The community can also be involved in some kinds of teacher training. Such involvement is
particularly useful in training teachers about local language and cultural requirements of students
and in introducing new teachers to the tradition, habits, and facilities available in the community
where they will teach.
(iv) Monitoring and evaluating school quality, achievement and results: Parents and community
groups, though usually kept clearly away from what are considered 'professional' matters of
teaching processes, may also have a role to play in monitoring and supervising classroom
performance and teacher absenteeism. This includes:
(a) the regular opening of the school and its 'products' to parents and the community (e.g.,
observation of classes, open days, school fairs). They may also serve as an 'audience' for
demonstrations of student achievement, such as student writing;
(b) regular status/progress reports from the head teacher on school conditions and results;
(c) the involvement of school-community organizations in monitoring school quality (e.g., in
areas such as the adequacy of facilities, the attendance and behavior of students and
teachers, and the achievement of school targets); and
(d) helping to identify indicators of success, participate in data collection and analysis, and
then use the results for subsequent program planning.
The fact that such mechanisms and processes of greater participation in the instructional process
exist and work in at least some contexts does not mean that they are necessarily easy to put in
place. There are a number of specific issues which will inevitably affect their implementation.
In summary, there are major roles which teachers within schools and parents, community
associations, and NGOs from outside of schools - can play in attempts to improve educational
quality. The conditions necessary to introduce some kinds of collaboration (the establishment of
school committees or PTAs, for example) may appear quite simple to put in place. But to
guarantee genuine participation as we have defined it to empower teachers and the community to
gain the necessary knowledge and skills to participate in education and the necessary power to
take action requires a considerable change in the way education is planned and managed, the
conscious enhancement of those factors and conditions which encourage participation, and the

development of concrete mechanisms and procedures to guide planners and managers in
developing such participatory activities.
Lesson Four
5.4. Benefits of Societal Participation in Education
Dear learner, in the previous section we have seen that the general areas of societal participation in
education. These topics are basic issues and will help you to comprehend the subsequent topics.
This is the last lesson of unit five. In this section, we are going to see the benefits of societal
participation in school affairs.
Activity 5.6. Individual Home Take assignment (Take 25 minutes)
Dear Learner! What is the best way to improve parent, family, and community
involvement?
What are the outcomes of participation?
What characteristics define meaningful participation?
Very good! Now read the information below and compare your answer with the information
provided. Participation means many things to many people. It carries potential benefits, but only if
all those involved have a common understanding and set of expectations. Many are convinced that
participation is necessary, but there is little information available to them on how to facilitate it.
The sorts of questions they are faced with include: What level of participation is appropriate?
What is the best way of facilitating participation? What tools can we use to encourage
participation? At what point can we say a meaningful level of participation has been achieved?
From the above questions we can understand that participation is a rich concept that varies with its
application and definition. The way participation is defined also depends on the context in which it
occurs. For some, it is a matter of principle; for others, practice; for still others, an end in itself.
Indeed, there is merit in all these interpretations. First of all participation is a 'good' in itself.
Participation is the process through which stakeholders influence and share control over priority
setting, policy-making, resource allocations and access to public goods and services. The process
of making decisions about one's own life and then acting on those decisions - of having some
influence on the forces and pressures surrounding one's environment - brings benefits to
individuals, communities, and society at large.
Participation is valued for both intrinsic and instrumental reasons. The intrinsic value refers to the
idea that the act of participation is valuable in itself, quite apart from any value it may have in
helping to achieve other good things. Its a welcome bonus that in addition to being intrinsically
valuable, participation can also be a powerful instrument for achieving a range of valuable
outcomes. In particular, participation has the potential to achieve more efficient and equitable
outcomes in many different contexts of decision-making, such as allocation of budgetary resources
among alternative uses, management of common property resources, delivery of community
services, and so on (UN, 2008).
When people are able to exercise their voice in the conduct of public affairs, they will have an
opportunity to reveal their true preferences. Only participation can allow this exercise of voice
(UN, 2008). Participation in the everyday occupations of life is a vital part of human development
and lived experience. Through participation, we acquire skills and competencies; connect with
others and our communities, and find purpose and meaning in life. Especially, the community
development approach emphasizes self- help, the democratic process, and local leadership in
community revitalization. Thus, community participation is an important component of

community development and reflects a grassroots or bottom- up approach to problem-solving.
Effective community participation may lead to social and personal empowerment, economic
development, and sociopolitical transformation. Hence, the greater the community involvement in
the process, the greater the input of different groups within the community, then the more likely
that what is generated will be an accurate reflection of that community. Thus, by actively
involving children and adults in decisions about education about issues that concern them, and
aspects of community development, appropriate decisions could be made about problems within
the community.
Dear Learner! Based on the above argument, explain the importance of participation in
schools and their functions to the community.
Well, so let us look the general importance of community participation in education in general and
in schools in particular. First, brought parents and community members closer to schools, leading
to long-term gains such as: (i) minimization of discontinuities between schools and communities,
and between schools and families; (ii) minimization of conflicts between schools and
communities, schools and families, teachers and parents, and what is taught in school and what is
taught at home; (iii) easy transition of students going from home to school; (iv) good preparation
of students to engage in learning experiences; and (v) minimized 'cultural shock' of new entrants to
schooling (Shaeffer, 1994).
Second, more resources have also been gathered and, often, have been more efficiently used.
Government resources, as well, have been increased in some cases, and more local resources also
gathered. For example: More importantly, perhaps, more of these local resources have gone
directly to local communities rather than being expended on central programs. Third, the quantity
of services provided has also increased. Greater involvement in education and other social services
by more actors can lead to the greater demand for, supply of, and use of, these services. Fourth, the
quality and relevance of the services provided have also increased. As people become more active
in development programs, they have a larger interest in ensuring their quality and relevance and
therefore can begin to both contribute directly to this process and oversee the work of other
development agents.
The involvement of family and community in education can also have effects on the learning
environment for children. In the Philippines, it was found that one program called Parent Learning
Support System (PLSS) program: transforms schools into friendly, non-alienating, familiar places
for children where they can work, play, and study without fear. The learning opportunities being
generated and planned collaboratively by parents, community members, and school personnel,
such as field trips, parent- teacher- student conferences, summer camps, etc., have greatly enriched
the learning resources available to students.
Fifth, effects on the output of schooling can also be shown. These include changes in academic
achievement and in student attitudes and behaviors. Results from the experimental implementation
of the Parent Learning Support System in the Philippines showed significant change in the
scholastic performance and attitudes of students whose parents had been involved in PLSS
activities and had been trained to assist and guide their children in their school work. When we are
looking the benefits from the major stakeholders perspective, the first beneficiaries are students.
Good community participation in schools might have the following advantages for students:
More positive attitudes toward school
Higher achievement, better attendance, and more homework completed consistently

Higher graduation rates and enrollment rates in postsecondary education
Better schools to attend.
Families that have the chance to understand the school system better can participate more fully in
their childrens education. They too will benefit from their engagement with their childrens school
discovering resources they can access, building new skills, and developing a deeper connection
with their children. In schools with strong family partnerships, teachers understand students who
come from other cultures more easily, and in fact, the school can become the natural extension of
home, aiding in the preservation of families cultures and values. So participation of parents has
profound advantage for parents themselves with regard to:
Greater knowledge of education programs and how schools work
Knowledge of how to be more supportive of children
Greater confidence about ways to help children learn
More positive views of teachers
Greater empowerment (Carter, 2003).
In general terms, a great part of the impact of participation and empowerment is said to lie at the
level of the individual, in the process of "human resource development. Some of this impact is
cognitive. Through greater involvement in a variety of development activities, people can gain
more knowledge, learn better practice, and end with a greater awareness of the development
problems that exist, the causes behind these problems (which may or may not be amenable to local
control), and, in some cases, their possible solutions. Some of the impact is also psychological;
people feel greater self-confidence and self-reliance, less dependence on external inputs and
'wisdom', greater pride in the significance and validity of local knowledge and experience, a
greater sense of accountability and responsibility for their own actions, less of a feeling of
marginalization and powerlessness. The combination of such impacts can lead to greater demand
on the political and social system: people gain a better idea of the kind of life they want to lead, a
greater understanding of what prevents them from achieving such a life, and a greater willingness
to make their needs known and, when necessary, to play a larger role in fulfilling these needs
themselves.
Much of the same kind of impact occurs at the community level as well. Communities can become
less marginal and powerless, more self-reliant and independent, more accountable and responsible.
Such communities can:
1. Gain greater control over information and local technologies;
2. Form alliances and networks within their own area or across to others;
3. Work toward the more efficient and effective management of local resources and, in the
longer term, greater ecological sustainability;
4. Develop skills (in management and resource mobilization), organizations (income-
generating schemes, women's clubs), and a "corporate identity" which can serve them well,
both in community development and as the basis for negotiating, from greater strength,
with outside institutions and bureaucracies; and
5. Attitudes and behaviors: Parents and community members can also gain new ways of
thinking and acting and new attitudes about development, particularly about their role in
education (Shaeffer, 1994).
In the best of circumstances, such achievements at the community level also benefit the society at
large. Greater participation within a society can lower development costs (e.g., through more
volunteer labor and the use of more local expertise and resources), make development programs

more cost-effective, and ensure greater equity of the benefits of development within and across
communities. It can also increase the impact and sustainability of development programs by
encouraging more of a "hand-crafted approach to development". With such an approach,
utilization rates, continuity, and maintenance of development programs can be improved. Without
such participation, the opposite may occur; thus, for example, "if the educational planners fail to
consult the teachers before introducing reforms, they cannot but expect half-hearted support on the
part of those concerned with their implementation". In short, there are a number of benefits of
public participation that include:
1) Improved governance;
2) Increased quality of the functions performed and services provided by public agencies;
3) Revitalization of democratic practice in general;
4) Maintaining the stability of society. When people are directly involved in the decision-
making process, they become more aware of the possible problems and are more willing to
live with the consequences than they are when decisions are imposed from outside. They
become more aware of problems and tend to be less towards explosive conflicts;
5) Guarding the public interest. To make public agencies more responsive to the needs of
public and disadvantaged groups in society. Citizens can work as watchdogs of society;
6) Increased community cohesion and unity and capacity to reduce alienation of the
individual. A feeling of political helplessness combined with a general distrust of power, is
the personal situation known as alienation. This may be particularly important for the
weaker sections and marginal groups in society.
Community participation in schools also has an advantage for teachers and leaders on:
Greater teaching effectiveness;
Higher expectations of students;
Increased ability to understand family views and cultures;
Greater appreciation of parent volunteers;
Improved morale; and
Greater sense of community (Carter, 2003).
To sum up this portion, assuming that more participatory approaches to educational development
can lead to many of the changes described above - and that the extent of such changes will relate
very much to the nature of the approaches used and the context in which they attempt to work - an
important question remains: how to facilitate the participation and collaboration which may
produce such change? This question is the focus of the following section. What type of school
culture should be in place to promote community participation in education?
Activity 5.8. Investigating Home Take Activity (Take 15 minutes)

Dear Learner! What do you conclude about the importance of family and community
involvement in schools?
As a school teacher how do you describe the level of parental involvement in school affairs in
your locality?
What type of benefits can you mention in your surrounding areas?
Unit Summary
Dear Learner! How do you get the lessons incorporated in unit five? Yes, we have seen from
different sources and research confirms that family involvement is a powerful influence on
childrens achievement in school. It was indicated in this unit that the involvement of schools,
parents, and community leaders in the collecting, processing, analysis, and interpretation of local

information may help to ensure the use of local content and community culture in the school and
coverage of local culture and history. The evidence is clear: When parents are actively involved in
their childrens education, their children do better in school. Such a partnership can also ultimately
produce education more relevant to the needs of the community and of their children and greater
demand and support for education. Within the school, different people will play different roles.
The main emphasis in this unit was making sure that parents, school staff, and community
members understand that the responsibility for childrens educational development is a
collaborative enterprise. Partnership means sharing power with families and community members.
With regard to benefits of community participation we have seen that teaching and learning in the
classroom do not take place in isolation from the functioning of schools as organizations, nor from
their social context. Clearly, many innovations related to increased collaboration in education have
been successful because individual schools, clusters, and woreda offices wanted to provide better
education and were willing to work collaboratively to achieve it. Finally, the unit stresses that
large scale improvement requires a relatively complex kind of cooperation among people in
diverse roles performing diverse functions. In both instances the value of direction, guidance, and
cooperation stems from acknowledging and making use of differences in expertise. For most
schools, building partnerships entailed a transformation of the schools relationship with families,
and required that the school take steps to create a more welcoming, inclusive environment. Overall
message of this unit reveal that developing powerful and effective connections between schools,
families and communities is hard work. Yet, time and time again, studies demonstrate schools
across world are able to reach beyond their boundaries to successfully link with families and
community groups to better the educational outcomes of all children.
Review Questions
____ 1. Genuine parent involvement entails:
a. Parent involvement is a process
b. Any parent can be hard to reach
c. Most barriers to parent involvement are found within school practices
d. All
e. All except C
____ 2. Community participation in schools has an advantage for teachers and leaders on:
a. Increased ability to understand family views and cultures
b. Greater teaching effectiveness
c. Improved morale
d. All
e. None
____ 3. Participation of parents has profound advantage for parents themselves with regard to:
a. More positive views of teachers
b. Greater knowledge of education programs and how schools work
c. Knowledge of how to be more supportive of children
d. All
e. A and B
____ 4. Hold community members closer to schools, leading to long-term gains such as:
a. minimization of conflicts between schools and communities
b. minimized 'cultural shock' of new entrants to schooling
c. easy transition of students going from home to school
d. All
e. A and B

space provided.
____1. A great part of the impact of participation is said to lie at the level of the individual.
____ 2. The way participation is defined depends on the context in which it occurs.
____ 3. Community citizens have bona fide interest in the local school.
1. Write down five activities incorporated in instructional process.
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
2. Explain the rationale for why parents involved in their students education.
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
3. List down three areas of societal participation in education.
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
Methods of Delivery
Students Activities
Students will be required to identify the existing educational conditions, educational demands,
educational priorities and available resources of their own society of interest in groups.
Procedures
Students will be grouped in to sub-groups as usual
Take one society of their own interest
Identify the existing educational conditions, educational demands, educational
priorities and available resources of that particular society.
Organize group reports
.
Unit Assessment
this unit.

UNESCO.
UN (United Nations). 2008. Participatory Governance and the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs). New York: United Nations publication.

Berns, R.M. 2010. Child, Family, School, Community: Socialization and Support (8th ed.).
Belmont: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Ross, J.A. & Gray, P. 2006. Transformational Leadership and Teacher Commitment to
Organizational Values: The mediating effects of collective teacher efficacy. School
Effectiveness and School Improvement, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 179 199.
UNESCO. 2009. Promoting participation: Community contributions to education in conflict
situations. Paris: UNESCO.

School and Society Unit 6: Methods to Promote
Societal Participation in Education
UNIT SIX
METHODS TO PROMOTE SOCIETAL PARTICIPATION
IN EDUCATION (Time allotted 9 hrs.)
UNIT INTRODUCTION
Dear Learner! This is the final unit of the module and it is consisting of two sections. Lesson one
deal with social, political, cultural and organizational norms. In this lesson we are going to see the
institutional and individual openness, commitment to participation and autonomy and
empowerment. Lesson two devotes itself in giving you a concert perception with regard to
collaborative structures and organization. In this lesson, we are going to see the strategies
considered at macro and micro level of the education system in order to improve school-society
relations.

Identify the social, political, cultural and organizational norms to promote school-society
relations.
Discuss the different methods to promote societal participation in education.
Lesson One
6.1. Social, political, Cultural and Organizational Norms
Dear Learner, What is culture and norm to you?
Does a school culture have an impact on promoting good community participation in your
area? How?
Nice attempt! Now compare what you said with the following arguments. Obviously, community
participation cannot be looked at in isolation from the macro-system; the structure of the state and
its level of tolerance set the agenda for participation and produce a culture of politics which
reaches down and affects what happens at the local level whether in villages or urban
neighborhoods. Participation has to be understood within this context of political culture, because
the latter defines the extent to which participation is imposed, a token, or a genuine mechanism for
change. Greater collaboration and greater participation by the underrepresented do not occur
because they are willed or legislated. Success requires major transformations in the way an agency
performs its task, in the way the community relates to the agency, and in the way the society views
the poor and their rights. These transformations have been called "micro-policy reforms" which
depend on the accomplishment of highly complex and difficult institutional changes commonly
involving the development of significant new capacities and norms and a redefinition of
institutional roles.
Such transformations are neither easy to achieve nor amenable to the dictates of universal
implementation. What they look like and how they can best be put in place will be different in
different contexts. And, if implemented at all, they will likely be the result of evolutionary
processes, as societies proceed up the ladder of greater participation, at different speeds and with
different results at various levels of governance. The transformations required for greater
participation and collaboration in development can be facilitated by the encouragement of new
norms (a different 'political culture'), the creation of new mechanisms and strategies, and the

inculcation of new knowledge, skills, and attitudes among the various actors in development.
Hence, the relationship between the school and the community will depend very much on the type
of social relationships prevailing in the country concerned. In a closed and hierarchically
segmented society, it will be very difficult to establish participatory relationships between the
school and the community. Therefore, in order to change, institutions must want to change.
Clearly, many innovations related to increased collaboration in education have been successful
because individual schools, clusters, and woreda offices wanted to provide better education and
were willing to work collaboratively to achieve it. More particularly, the following norms and the
resulting bureaucratic 'climate' seem to be critical in the development of more participatory
approaches to education as cited by Shaeffer (1994).
6.1.1. Institutional and Individual Openness

The first norm is openness to the outside world, to new ideas and new ways of doing things, and to
change. Such openness should characterize individual schools and their staff, the education system
and the bureaucracy which supports it, and ultimately the national political and cultural
environment.
(a) The national political and cultural environment: Nations differ in the extent to which a
dominant culture (or cultures) and the existing political and social system permit or welcome
pluralism, involvement with the world outside of their borders, unfettered research and the free
exchange of ideas and information within and across society, and experimentation with innovative
approaches to the solution of traditional problems. They differ particularly in regard to the kind of
structural openness permitted; e.g., laws and practice related to the existence and nature of
political parties, non-government organizations, and civic associations.
The process of encouraging participation will be enhanced to the degree that the national
environment is an open one. Many would argue that genuine participation is feasible only in a
political system in which efforts are undertaken to remedy economic and social injustice - where
there is some 'space' provided for communities and local organizations to act and explore and
where greater participation in development is encouraged in all social sectors. But even in less
open societies there may be certain geographic regions, certain administrative levels of the nation,
or certain historic moments in the life of a nation where democratic spaces open up. Seizing these
where available, and attempting to extend their reach, become important tasks in the
encouragement of more participatory approaches to development.
Therefore, it is important to make clear that any description of the relative openness of a system
should not be done judgmentally. Different cultures and political systems, at different periods in
their evolution, are characterized by different degrees of complexity and stability. They therefore
have, and require, different degrees of openness, transparency, permeability, and flexibility. These
differences are reflected in a variety of political and bureaucratic systems. The important thing for
policy-makers and planners wishing to facilitate more participatory approaches to educational
development is to recognize the nature of the systems in which they work, to be able to analyze
the current 'openness' of these systems as characterized above, and to see where and when 'space'
exists for an expansion of participation and collaboration in education.
(b) The education system: Within a given society, individual systems and sectors both reflect the
nature of the macro-political and cultural system and may differ within it. Bureaucracies and
institutions carry their own socio-cultural norms and reflect different levels of openness,
transparency, permeability, flexibility, and 'readiness' for change. They have different capacities to
adapt and adopt new forms of work behavior, new skills, and new ways of relating to others, and

different abilities in gathering, listening to, and being influenced by new ideas and actors inside
and outside their particular system.
Especially important in the analysis of the openness of the education system are four things:
the extent of openness to input from, and collaboration with, other sectors of development,
such as health and agriculture;
the extent of openness to ideas and actors at lower levels of the system (at the district office,
clusters, and schools) where genuine change needs to take place;
the extent of the system's adaptability to the local context in which education takes place -
to working towards a match between delivery/content of schooling and local values and
needs, economic constraints and cultures; in other words, a willingness on the part of the
system's managers to modify their conceptions of what a school must be like; and
the extent of openness to change and innovation. In this regard, a system can more actively
publicize the need for innovations, loosen regulations that prevent them, actively hunt for
innovations, stress the need for innovation in training programs, provide incentives for
innovations in the system's career track, and make available small grants to start innovations
and facilitate expansion of small-scale projects.
(c) Schools: Schools, in the pursuit of excellence and relevance, should be encouraged to develop
a more complex picture of their community. On the one hand are the parents who supply children.
On the other hand are firms and government services which will employ the graduates of the
school system. Both parties should be invited into the schooling process as supporters and
decision- makers. Individual schools, too, can reflect, and also differ from, the dominant political
and bureaucratic behavior of a given society. The extent of this reflection or difference can depend
both upon the particular a region or area in which they exist, and also, very much, on the particular
personalities of the school personnel.
There are several important issues in this regard, including the extent to which schools:
are 'welcoming' to parents and the community and seek to have a dialogue with them in
order to understand each other's conditions and needs, or rather 'disqualify' community
experience and so are seen as places to which parents 'surrender' their children at the age of
school entrance;
are open to the "gaze, support, and appropriate intervention" of parents and the community;
are 'permeable' - listen to, accept, adapt, and experiment with ideas coming from other
sources, especially those which may be more non-formal or non-traditional in approach; and
get involved with the community, other educational programs, and other development
sectors.
This includes opening of the school to collaboration with other educational programs and
processes (pre-school education programs, adult literacy); to more non-formal approaches to
education (e.g., less age- and grade-bound); and to the opinions and needs of the surrounding
community. One potential benefit of opening the school to the community is to establish more
clearly and directly the link between good education and greater parental and community demand
and support for education. In other words, both the more visible ways of making the school and its
achievements 'open to the gaze' of the community (e.g., PTAs, parents' days, the observation of
classes by parents) and the less concrete (e.g., policy and practice that make parents feel welcome
in the school) may increase parental interest in, and support for, the school.
Teachers must share this norm. They need to reach a point where openness to change and
development is seen as a regular and continuing feature of their professional lives. Continuous
improvement reflects an expectation that improvements in teaching are continuous and life-long

(rather than limited only to beginning teachers). Schools where such norms are present and salient
are characterized by frequent talk among teachers about the practice of teaching; frequent
observations by teachers; and teachers working together to plan, design, research, and prepare
materials for teaching.
For this purpose, open communication channels between managers and their subordinates enhance
employee satisfaction, commitment and performance. Such communication channels are
paramount during the change process to ensure participation and involvement. Establishing
effective open lines of communication between all levels will ensure ownership and commitment
to the organizations goals. Employees need to be inculcated a sense of faith and belief in the
organization and its leaders.
6.1.2. Commitment to Participation

The second norm is a consistent, system-wide commitment and support to collaboration,
participation, and partnerships, across and among various actors in schools and communities and
within the central government. This should include a commitment to removing obstacles to
participation - ideological, structural, and administrative, especially to the participation of parents
and the community in the life of the school. Such a commitment needs to be reflected in both
'administrative will' and 'political will' - a co-incidence of support from both senior system
administrators and their political masters.
Even lower down in the system, there must be continuous commitment to collaboration, from the
woreda office and from school and cluster officials, especially the head teacher. This implies
comprehension of, and commitment to, the principle of greater participation throughout the
system. This implies also the commitment to encouraging among the various actors in education a
common sense of ownership of the system and a common accountability for its quality. The idea
of joint activities, at all stages of the development process and all levels of the system, is very
important in this regard. Collegiality and partnerships at the school level - the notion that the work
of teachers is shared, not to be done exclusively in the isolation of a classroom are also very
important.
This norm is generally premised on the belief that the 'community' has something useful to say in
regard to education and development. It must be understood, in other words, that people from
quite different traditions, disciplines, levels, and sectors can exchange perspectives, share
experiences, and learn from each other. This implies also the willingness to build upon traditional
participatory processes. The role of 'harambee' in East Africa, for example, especially as
developed in Kenya, is a case in point. Although now often used merely to extract further
resources from rich and poor alike, harambee was originally (and is still occasionally) a method of
genuine collaboration and therefore may be useful in facilitating partnerships
What is necessary, in other words, especially in strongly centralized and hierarchical systems, is
commitment to the principle that good school management and good teaching, by definition, must
be more collaborative and participatory in nature. Thus, teacher training colleges and principal
training courses must train personnel in how to mobilize and work with the community;
curriculum development centers must develop guidelines for how to involve communities in the
development of local curricula; and national staff colleges must teach the same message - to be
sensitive to community collaboration and participation - to officials at all echelons of the system.
Above all, building a strong, caring community takes time and commitment. Everyone must be
included, valued, and respected even when people disagree. Yet bound by a common purpose

the creation of a community home for all children people working together can make a
difference. Schools vary considerably in their commitment to family-school partnerships and the
energy and skills they apply to them.
Hence, moving towards partnerships requires a significant change in attitudes by some schools and
families in order to create relationships where they see one another as allies in education. More
than any thing, teacher commitment to community partnerships matters because parent
involvement in their childrens education is linked to higher student achievement in a pattern of
reciprocal causation. Parents are more likely to be involved if teachers and leaders engage in status
equalizing activities that signal to parents that their contribution is valued.
6.1.3. Autonomy and Empowerment

In a development organization that seeks to be responsive, the dominant goal must be to facilitate
self- determination among its clients or within the community with which it is dealing. The role of
a government agency in this case is to provide support for community initiatives and to make
available modest amounts of unrestricted resources. Beneficiaries are seen as independent
initiators of activities.
Hence, the third norm is greater professional and social autonomy and empowerment both down
to lower levels of the system, especially at the school level, and out to other actors, at the
community level. Nations, political systems, education bureaucracies, even schools, may be 'open'
institutions, permitting outsiders to look in; allowing the free flow of information down, across,
and even up the system; encouraging change; even facilitating the passive involvement of other
partners in education. But they may still be strongly centralized entities, retaining ultimate control
of, and responsibility for, education; restricting the extent of autonomy and local governance; and
discouraging the genuine participation of other potential partners in education.
Thus, any attempt to encourage greater participation in development must begin from an analysis
of:
(a) the nature of the distribution of power over education
down the system,
out to other actors,
to the unit of the school, and
(b) the role of the centre in regard to controlling, enabling, and/or empowering its potential
partners.
A commitment to greater autonomy implies the willingness of central government agencies to

surrender some control to other partners, other sectors, and lower levels of the system; to feel
somehow accountable to both national and local levels of the system; to treat the community as
responsible for education and as a capable partner in helping to provide it - and to actually do this
rather than merely preach it. This can include various kinds of financial autonomy (e.g., for
everyday expenses, material and equipment, school improvement activities), autonomy in regard
to personnel management (e.g., teacher benefits and workload), and, more recently, autonomy in
searching for their own ways to solve their problems and prepare their individual work plan. The
centre's role in such a process is played out through a variety of instruments. Some are legal and
legislative, defining the nature of centralization/decentralization and of government/civic society.
Some are related to ministerial policies defining the roles of various groups of actors - teachers,
head teachers, supervisors, professional and parent associations, NGOs. And others are reflected in
more specific guidelines for whether and how different actors get involved in education and in the
school. Whatever the nature of these instruments, they give to the centre a certain relationship in
regard to the other actors.

This relationship can be:

(a) controlling - where the actions of lower levels of the system and of other actors are prohibited,
restricted, carefully monitored, and/or controlled by the centre
(b) enabling - where the centre actively attempts to provide the political, administrative, and
policy framework within which communities and non-governmental agencies can implement
activities. This would include permitting greater participation in education by trying to remove
ideological, structural, and administrative obstacles to participation and -to providing a policy
framework and program guidelines which both provide leadership in the process of school
improvement but also limit the role of the state sector in this process so that communities and non-
governmental agencies can implement their own activities.
(c) empowering - where the centre actually surrenders considerable control to other partners, other
sectors, and lower levels of the system, to give them a greater opportunity to play a larger role in
development activities and gain some 'ownership' over education. These more participatory
approaches to development - those which 'enable' and 'empower' - imply that the role of
government is not to control all aspects of development but rather to develop a new balance or
hybrid of powers among the various levels and actors and so to facilitate the devolution of some
authority and responsibility for education down and beyond the system.
Getting this fact accepted often requires the sensitization and training of government staff in the
ability to work with, and permit some autonomy to, community groups - even, in some contexts,
willingness, at least among some levels of the government, to trust and support NGO activities.
This commitment to autonomy may imply the need for legal or quasi-legal frameworks to make
the school relatively free of unnecessary administrative rigidities and to limit the role of the state
sector and give more opportunity to the community sector to take a larger role in development
activities. This leads then to new bureaucratic norms and a new political culture; to greater
tolerance of political competition, both national and local; greater trust and delegation of authority
to lower levels of the bureaucracy; and greater value placed upon group expression and group
demands.
Dear Learner, What sustainability efforts or strategies are most vital to collaborative
leadership in our community?
What experiential opportunities and continuous learning strategies might support parent and
community leadership development in our country?
Lesson Two
6.2. Collaborative Strategies and Organizations
Dear learner! This is the final lesson of the module and it is consisting of two sections. This
lesson will introduce you with the general strategies of collaboration structures and organizations
in school-society relations. To be able to do this, you will identify the general strategy used in
school-community relations. Next, you will learn about the strategies at the macro-level of the
education system as well as strategies at the micro-level of the school and the community. At the
end, you will understand what efforts should be exerted so that education and society complement
each other for the well being of the country.
Activity 6.3. Take time as home assignment and address these issues
Dear Learner, What kind of general strategies are installed to strengthen school-society

relations?
What do you expect from the top authorities i.e., from the MoE, REB to strengthen such
relationship?
What can be the role of the Woreda Education Office to strengthen school-society
relationship?
To star with, because basic learning needs are complex and diverse, meeting them requires multi-
sectoral strategies and actions which are integral to overall development efforts. Many partners
must join with the education authorities, teachers, and other educational personnel in developing
basic education if it is to be seen, once again, as the responsibility of the entire society. This
implies the active involvement of a wide range of partners - families, teachers, communities,
private enterprises, government and non-government organizations, institutions, etc. - in planning,
managing and evaluating the many forms of strategies to strengthen school-community relations.
Hence, every educational leader must come to understand its own local context and community
and create a realistic plan or strategy for strengthening family and community engagement. There
is no specific formula or set approach. The purpose of this lesson is to illuminate the range of
possibilities, help schools find a direction, and point to other resources. We ask every educational
leader or school to look through the lenses of equity and excellence. How will this plan, strategy,
or activity make us a more equitable school? How will it bring us closer to meeting our learning
goals for every student?
Before we are looking strategies at macro and micro level, let us see some general strategies or
guidelines that are important to strengthening school-community relations at any echelon of the
education system. First, the starting point should be promote the use of existing positive
community structures that means non-discriminatory approaches for community engagement
should be reinforced in national policy, agency guidelines and any interventions. Government
inclusion policies should be supported with transparent mechanisms for engaging with
communities. These should promote open communication between community members and other
stakeholders to rebuild trust and provide opportunities for restoring relationships. Second, conduct
ongoing collaborative reviews of roles, responsibilities, and resources to support student learning
and positive development for all students. Identify specific roles in building family and
community engagement for different members of the facultyprincipal, teachers, leadership
team, other administrators. Tackling family and community involvement cannot be seen as solely
the role of individual teachers or teacher teams. Thirdly, these processes, actions, activities, and
strategies adapted from a variety of sources should have to keep and stay flexible and consider
multiple approaches, times, and locations for involving families and communities.
As Christenson (2004) cited, we should have to consider actions or strategies for building shared
responsibility. Regarding this, the author has described in detail seven broad actions to enhance
familyschool connections for students learning: (a) garnering administrative support, (b) acting
as a systems advocate, (c) implementing familyschool teams, (d) increasing problem-solving
across home and school, (e) identifying and managing conflict, (f) supporting families, and (g)
helping teachers improve communication and relationships with families. Fourth and most
important consideration is putting the research into practice - Much more research remains to be
done in this field. Nevertheless, results from the studies described here offer some guidance to
educational authorities, local school, community, and family leaders (Boethel, 2003). Now, let us
see in detail important strategies necessary to build effective school-community relations both at
macro and micro-level of the education system.

6.2.1. Strategies at the Macro-level of the Education System
Achieving more education and better education will require efforts in a number of domains within
the education sector, as well as within the broader social and economic context. At this instance,
the most critical strategy considered in creating effective school-community relations and
challenging point is strengthening the national commitment. Successful education requires a
strong national commitment, expressed in the legal and institutional framework as well as in
budgetary outlays to the sector (UNMP, 2005).
So, when we are looking at macro-level, we should have to consider both - at the national-levels
and regional-level of the education system. Then, at the top levels of the bureaucracy, planners,
managers, administrators, and policy-makers can be encouraged to implement two kinds of
mechanisms and strategies related to the facilitation of greater collaboration for educational
change: (1) those structures and procedures needed to make possible such collaboration at their
own levels, and (2) those needed to encourage it at the school level (Shaeffer, 1994). Before
looking at what might be done to encourage greater collaboration at the central level, we need to
understand more clearly current policies and practices in regard to such collaboration especially in
our country. These include the following areas of potential partnerships:
(a) Across departments and units of the Ministry. Collaboration among different departments of
a MoE is often required (and often not easy to promote); e.g., between the Ministry's Teacher
and Educational Leaders Development Directorate and Licensing and Relicensing
Directorate, and the line directorates (e.g., for primary education and so on).
(b) With other development sectors and ministries. There is often even less cooperation with
other social sectors. Thus, for example, the MoE may develop an extensive school health
program (or agricultural activities) without using the medical expertise of the Ministry of
Health (or the experience of the Ministry of Agriculture). Or the opposite may occur.
(c) With non-government organizations and professional associations. Collaboration between
government and NGOs as well as associations (such like Ethiopian teachers association)
may be the most difficult to encourage. Systems of public and private education may run in
parallel, duplicating services and competing for scarce community resources. But there are
mechanisms that might be tried by the Ministry in order to encourage more practical, daily
cooperation within and across the government and with agencies outside of the government.
Then, having looking the above critical and challenged potential partnership, at the central level,
strong administrative structures are often needed to implement more collaborative approaches to
education. At this level, it may first be necessary to ensure strong vertical administrative structures
(between various levels of the bureaucracy). These should be designed not to impose centralized,
standard decisions from above but rather to clarify national policies, standards, and basic content;
guarantee the implementation of the procedures by which local actors can adapt and implement
such patterns; and serve as a conduit for information up the system as well as down. Equally
strong horizontal structures and networks are also required, of public, private, and NGOs, at both
national and regional levels. These include:
(a) Intra-ministerial task forces, between units of the Ministry, to ensure coordination in the
planning, development, and implementation of projects and programs;
(b) Inter-ministerial committees, etc. (e.g. Education For All committees), to encourage
cooperation across ministries in achieving shared goals and coordinating joint projects;
(c) NGO coalitions, as have recently been established in several African countries following on the
World Conference on EFA, to encourage collaboration among NGOs, help them establish a
common position in regard to the government, and aid in the division of labor among them;
(d) Provincial or national parent groups established to provide support to local PTAs and education
committees;

(f) The use of the mass media (print, radio, television) both to disseminate information about
successful partnerships and to mobilize governmental and community participation; and
(g.) Joint planning, implementing, training, and monitoring activities, across and among various
actors to ensure that collaboration goes beyond rhetoric into actual practice (Shaeffer, 1994).
Similar to Shaeffer (1994), Hepburn (2004) and UNMP (2005) the following are important points
when we are considering what educational leaders can do:
Adopt service or program-wide guiding values and principles that support parents as
primary partners, in both delivery of family-centered care and engaging parents in
leadership roles;
Seek and support parents for leadership roles and partner with family or advocacy
organizations and provide better incentives;
increase transparency - ensure transparency in the dissemination of this information, at
both the national and local levels; improving the quality and availability of the information
base;
improving accountability through local control - promote mechanisms for local control of
education, in which parents and other citizens are given an explicit role in holding schools
and teachers accountable for delivering results;
Strengthen the role of civil society organizations - These organizations engage in advocacy,
service delivery, and sometimes both. They are particularly effective in the areas of
community participation, empowerment, literacy, community schools and development
centers; and
Create an environment in which civil society organizations are recognized as legitimate
participants in debates about the direction of the education system.
Having considered the above points, the next step should be putting the mechanisms in place.
Hence, the planner and decision-maker have a considerable task in the selection of an appropriate
mechanism (or mechanisms) for encouraging greater school-community collaboration. In the
analysis of the various models of school/parent/community partnerships from which a choice can
be made, several basic issues become important to consider here:
The extent of formality and institutionalization in the organizations;
The degree of actual participation (or intervention) in school activities;
The nature of the organization's accountability;
The extent to which communities, almost as pressure groups, should be able to provide
rewards for 'successful' schools and teachers and apply sanctions, formal or informal, on
'defaulting' schools and teachers; and
The role of the intermediate level of responsibility (sub-district and district) in the system.
This level plays a crucial role especially in our country in any attempt to facilitate stronger
partnerships. Given the range and number of schools this level has responsibility for; it
must be able to help exchange information about collaborative activities across schools.
Given its links to a wider community beyond that of a particular school, it must be able as
well to identify a wider range of partners for schools and identify and lobby for a wider
range of resources. Its involvement is especially critical in the development of village (or
Tibia or sub-woreda or cluster, or woreda) education committees, councils, to encourage
both the schools and communities to work more closely together (Shaeffer, 1994).
Once these issues are decided, the planner and decision-maker can try to select the most
appropriate and feasible model(s) of collaboration, whether they relate merely to the
encouragement of school-community activities, more formal teacher or parent-teacher

associations, or broader village education committees. They will then need to define the desired
structure and operations of the selected model(s), including:
membership and the method of selecting members;
the frequency and structure of meetings (e.g., who runs them and how parental
participation can be encouraged);
the statutory nature of the organizations;
methods to ensure open dialogue, frank feedback, and clear channels of communication
among the partners;
the organization's desired reporting and accountability procedures (e.g., from the school
principals to the organization, from the organization to the local education office); and
the tasks and functions, rights and responsibilities, and limitations of the organization
(Shaeffer, 1994).
Eventually, once these basic decisions are taken, other conditions and requirements for the
establishment or strengthening of these organizations, and thus of school-community
collaboration, will need to be made in terms of needed legislation; policies, procedures, and
guidelines; resources; and training.
6.2.2. Strategies at the Micro-level of the School and the Community

Sustained improvements in education are impossible to achieve without improving both parental
involvement in decisions affecting their childrens education and the way key institutions in the
sector function. These institutions include the schools and local authorities that have influence
over funding and school management and above all the overall community. So, emphasis should
have to be given to the grassroots institutions - At the micro-level of the school and the community.
Therefore, in addition to the structures and mechanisms which can be established to encourage
greater participation at the central level, others can be established or strengthened at the level of
the school and the community. In many, if not most, countries of the world, various kinds of
organizations exist which are meant at least to bring together parents of children in the same
school. These organizations also often include teachers and sometimes representatives from the
wider community surrounding the school as well. Such organizations differ greatly in terms of
membership, mandate, and level of activity. Research evidence over the past three decades is cited
that demonstrates family involvement significantly contributes to improved outcomes. To be most
effective, school leaders and teachers, in consultation with parents and community representatives,
need to select and/or adapt strategies based upon individual schools needs, priorities, resources,
student population, and community support.
According to Carter (2003), the following interrelated eight cluster strategies are used for
guiding principles for family-school-community involvement:
Strategy 1: Creating a family-friendly school environment
This strategy describes promising practices for creating a family-friendly school environment. The
importance of assessing the diversity of families represented in the school is emphasized as is the
inclusion of family members in planning and guiding the process. Guidance is providing on
creating a family-friendly policy or mission for the school and developing a school environment
that is welcoming to all families. So, among the mechanisms used for this strategy are: host
family-friendly social events; develop a family-school-community partnership policy; create an
open-door policy and a responsive climate for parents; maintain and post welcome signs in all
languages spoken in the school; adopt family-friendly practices and so on.
Strategy 2: Building a support infrastructure

Encouraging family involvement in schools requires the creation of an infrastructure to support
these efforts. This strategy provides information and describes best practices for developing a
family center in the school, hiring a family coordinator, and insuring ongoing resource
commitments to maintain and/or expand family involvement activities.
Strategy 3: Encouraging family involvement
Involving parents who represent the diversity of the school population in all aspects of planning,
implementing, and evaluating volunteer activities is essential to developing an active family
involvement program. This strategy describes a variety of practices utilized by schools to include
families in educational activities at all levels of involvement and to recognize and value the many
ways that families can contribute volunteer efforts, both at home and at school. Although these
efforts are most effectively coordinated by a full-time family coordinator, this responsibility may
be shared among various school personnel.
Strategy 4: Developing family-friendly communication
Family-school communication is essential to developing and maintaining an effective family
involvement program. This strategy describes a variety of practices utilized by schools to convey
both positive and negative news with families. Some of these practices take school personnel to
families in their home communities with neighborhood walks, family focus group meetings, and
home visits. Other practices utilize various technology tools to communicate to families in
multiple ways, among these: host informal principal meetings; make positive warm telephone
calls; host conferences; communicate via newsletters; use a variety of technology tools; develop a
process for resolving family concerns. Regarding this point, Shaeffer (1994) adds that whatever
the structure or mechanism chosen (preferably already existing ones), what is important is to have
some regular, structured communication - a public forum which serves as a clearing house for all
collaborators to either air their views or contribute to the debate regarding their collaborative
activities.
Strategy 5: Support family involvement on the home front
One of the keys to supporting home front family involvement is beginning early in childrens
education to involve families in meaningful ways. Many families will benefit from guidance on
developmentally appropriate practices for children and how learning progresses at each stage of
development. Families can be involved in their childrens education a number of ways beyond
traditional homework assignments. Among these, provide guidance on developmentally
appropriate practices; provide guidance on student learning; involve parents in action research
projects and involve parents in behavioral assessments are very important mechanism for this
strategy.
Strategy 6: Supporting educational opportunities for families
Schools that develop effective family interaction programs recognize that education is a lifelong
process and offer opportunities for both children and their families to continue to learn, often
together. This strategy emphasizes the importance ongoing assessments to determine educational
needs of the schools families and diverse participation of families in planning educational
opportunities to meet those needs. Ways to reach out to families who are not typically involved in
school activities are especially important. For this purpose involve diverse parent and community
members in planning; make home visits; offer parent workshops; offer opportunities for parents to
develop leadership skills; organize family support groups and develop teen parenting programs.
Strategy 7: Creating family-school-community partnership
Educators alone cannot prepare our children for 21st century challenges. Educating children to live
in our rapidly changing and increasingly complex society requires contributions and
commitments from everyone in the community. Thus, families, schools, and community
organizations must overcome traditional barriers and come together in a collaborative effort to
meet the comprehensive needs of children, families, and the community such like: building
school-business partnerships, creating full-service schools, opening schools beyond traditional

hours and uses as community learning centers, and developing comprehensive, wraparound
services for families and cultivate school-business partnerships.
Strategy 8: Preparing educators to work with families
We cannot assume that educators know how to work effectively with families, especially during an
era of rapid change. Pre-service teachers need experiences in working with families to encourage
involvement, and practicing teachers need ongoing professional development addressing ways to
create family-friendly schools, build positive school-family relationships, and involve families in
the education of their children. This strategy includes practices to better prepare educators to work
with families in their shared mission of educating children together.
Similar to the above trends, Hepburn (2004) also recommends the following useful strategies for
creating smooth school-community relationships:
Adopt the values and principles of family-centered care and the shared power in
collaborative leadership;
Build on existing relationships and make a personal connection and invitation;
Post public announcements, advertisements and/or open invitations about specific
opportunities;
Target invitations through community organizations that serve young children and their
families;
Create a family liaison role at the school, and ensure that the work of the liaison
addresses family, school, and community concerns and needs;
Hold community forums or neighborhood meetings;
Ask community organizations, such as churches, civic groups, or social clubs to post
notices or nominate families;
Reach out through groups where parents are already organized to find interested parents
(e.g., churches, community groups, neighborhood associations);
Connect to grassroots organizations that promote citizen and parent involvement; and
Inquire across-systems for additional successful strategies for engaging families as
leaders.
Ferguson (2005) also recommends that schools engage in the following types of strategies that are
common in programs that address student and family needs related to diversity.
Remember once is not enough: Once first contact is made, school staff needs to continue to
contact parents on a regular schedule. Then, strategies to promote a continuous cycle of
interactions might include the following:
Let families know communication is not a one-time action. Give them a timeline of when to
expect periodic documents or actions.
Repeat key actions on a weekly or monthly basis. For example, if families know to expect
communications every Friday, they will look for this information. These communications
can be about the next weeks assignments, upcoming events, or suggested learning
strategies to use at home.
Make use of all communication channels: Though sending notes home is an easy strategy, many
times these notes are not very effective. Strategies to promote increased communication might
include the following: Reinforce letters by placing additional announcements on local radio,
community bulletin boards (paper and electronic), and other news sources. When using letters or
other announcements, ensure they are translated into the home languages of the students. Schools
can tap into local organizations, businesses, universities, or churches with translators who can
provide theses services at no cost.

At this point, improve the information base, especially for parents and communities are very
crucial at the local level. Information is an essential element in local control and accountability.
Parents and school leaders need information about the effectiveness of their local schools. Simple
indicators of relative performanceeducational outcomes compared with other schoolsare
essential. Such information is generally unavailable to parents, particularly parents who are most
likely to face failing primary schools. More specifically, the role of the school principal here is
inescapable. With regard to this point, Boethel (2003) says the following:
Demonstrate active and ongoing support from the school principal. Echoing the broader
research on school effectiveness and leadership, two studies noted that support from
principals made a difference in helping diverse families become more engaged with their
childrens school principals can show their support by:
holding informal meetings with families to seek their perspectives and to keep them
updated on school policies and practices;
maintaining a strong presence at parent-teacher meetings and at other school-
sponsored events for families;
making the implementation of family-involvement policies a priority; and
emphasizing that commitment with both families and school staffs.
Honor families hopes and concerns for their children. Most families, regardless of race,
ethnicity, culture, or income, care about their childrens future and do what they can to
support them.
Find ways to let families know that you recognize and value their efforts. Let them know,
too, that you appreciate the fact that their concern is for their childrens general well-being.
In orienting school staffs and community organizations to family-involvement strategies,
include information on the varied ways in which families support their childrens learning, as
well as the varied perspectives as to what family involvement should address.
Recognize that it takes time to build trust. As several studies described, many minority and
low-income families have had frustrating experiences with schools and other public
institutions. Until real commitment is shown, they may be unwilling to risk much in the way
of time and energy or to speak their minds. Start with small steps. School- or community-
sponsored services and activities that are relevant to families needs, such as adult literacy
classes, can serve as a gateway to other forms of family involvement.
When we are applying the above stated strategies and others, many of the countries that are
performing poorly suffer from institutional weaknesses, including low management capacity,
nontransparent resource allocation and accounting practices (UNMP, 2005). So, in this endeavor,
improve accountability through local control is very mandatory. One part of the solution to
institutional problems is parental and community involvement in education, which anchors
education in the social fabric of the community, fosters demand, and ensures that schooling
provides social benefits and economic returns that reflect local priorities and values.
To conclude this lesson, not all the strategies included will work for every school. To be most
effective, school leaders and teachers, in consultation with parents and community representatives,
should select strategies based upon each individual schools needs, priorities, resources, student
population, and community support. Many of the strategies can also be adapted to fit local
school/district needs. While some of the strategies included here require significant resources,
others may be adopted with a minimal outlay of resources. What works in one district may not
work in another; all schools, with the input of families and community members, must decide
which practices to adopt or adapt to meet their particular needs (Carter, 2003).

Hence, the different strategies are designed to build on each other with none of them being a cure-
all by itself. They are not intended to be exhaustive but are examples of good practice to help
school communities build partnerships. Strategies can be added or modified for each key
dimension and will also overlap across key dimensions. Here, skills-building for families, school
leaders and teachers is a crucial strategy for each key dimension. At the same time, laws and
regulations about such organizations may be up-to-date and reflect the current context of
development, or they may be out-of-date and appropriate to conditions of many years ago. They
may be quite specific in their definition of what the organization can or cannot do, or they may be
very general in nature, allowing for considerable flexibility in their application. For this reason, a
variety of self-assessment instruments are available that can be used to evaluate a schools current
family involvement practices and help guide the planning of strategies to build on the program.
Finally, educators, family members, and community representatives should also consider how any
proposed family involvement strategies relate with other ongoing school initiatives to ensure that
these initiatives complement one another (Carter, 2003).
Unit Summary
Dear Learner! How do you get the content of unit six? Yes, I assume that you said we have got a
lot of lessons. To recapitulate, we have seen that good schools alone will never be good enough; it
can be seen that there are a multitude of levels and types of participation and each has a necessary
role and it is also dependent on the context within which participation is practiced. Participation is
the process through which stakeholders influence and share control over priority setting, policy-
making, resource allocations and access to public goods and services. We have seen also without
the appropriate institutional forms and strategies, decentralizations will not deliver the
theoretically expected benefits such as efficiency, equity, service provision and development. Even
though, we have tried to mention some strategies at macro and micro-level, we should have
consider that no intervention is guaranteed to work, and the appropriateness and cost effectiveness
of each must be assessed given the particulars of the supply of and demand for education in a
country, and the resource constraints it faces. However, outlined above are suggested strategies to
develop partnerships based on each of the key dimensions. These strategies provide practical
guidance for schools about how to initiate partnerships, how to help families to initiate
partnerships, and how to have families perspectives on issues represented in partnerships overall.
Schools or teachers may want to use these strategies one at a time, as a series, or as an idea bank
for planning activities that are more contextualized to a specific location. From this unit we have
got also that there are a variety of activities in which schools can become involved to
build/improve school-community partnerships. School communities are encouraged to review
their current supporting structures, policies and procedures and develop new ones where
necessary. This may include establishing a dedicated family-school action team of school leaders,
teachers and parents or using an existing working group that includes parents to develop and
coordinate partnership plans and activities.
Review Questions
____ 1. The role of the school principal in societal participation includes among others:
(a) Honor families hopes and concerns for their children
(b) Recognize that it takes time to build trust
(c) Demonstrate active and ongoing support
(d) All
____ 2. Among the following which one is not considered as strategies used for guiding principles
for family-school-community involvement?

(a) Support family involvement on the home front
(b) Building a support infrastructure
(c) Creating a family-friendly school environment
(d) All
(e) A and B
____ 3. What kind of actions used as general strategies for building shared responsibility?
(a) identifying and managing conflict
(b) garnering administrative support
(c) acting as a systems advocate
(d) All
(e) All except C.
space provided.
____ 1. Participation is the process through which partners influence over priority setting.
_____2. Strong administrative structure is designed to impose standard decisions from above.
_____3. Tackling community involvement cannot be seen as solely the role of individual teachers.
1. Write down three social, political, cultural and organizational norms.
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
2. Explain the rationale for creating partnership in education.
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
3. List down three strategies that are applicable at macro level of education system.
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
Methods of Delivery
Students Activities
The specific social, political, cultural and organizational norms with in particular a society of their
own interest and discuss how these norms could facilitate or hinder the relations between the
school and society in that particular locality.
Procedures:
Discuss in groups the different social, political, cultural and organizational norms
Identify how these norms could facilitate or hinder the relations between the school and
society in that particular locality
Unit Assessment
Continuous assessment, which based on the evaluation of group presentations and term papers are
more appropriate to assess students learning progress for this unit.


Boethel, M. 2003. Diversity School, Family, and Community Connections. Texas: SEDL.
UNESCO.

Christenson, S.L. 2004. The FamilySchool Partnership: An Opportunity to Promote the Learning
Competence of All Students. School Psychology Review, Volume 33, No. 1, pp. 83-104.

School &amp; Society SecondaryModule

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

School &amp; Society SecondaryModule

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Ministry of Education

Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching (PGDT)

MODULE TITLE: SCHOOL AND SOCIETY

COURSE CODE EdPM _____

Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching (PGDT)

MODULE TITLE: SCHOOL AND SOCIETY

COURSE CODE EdPM _____

Module Writer: Tarekegn Haileselassie (Lecturer)

Technical Advisor: Dr. Tilaye kassahun (Assoc. Prof.)

Address of the Writer

Address of the Technical Advisor

UNDERSTANDING THE SCHOOLS ENVIRONMENTAL COMPONENTS.............................................................

Learning Outcomes of the Course

This tells you there is a self-test for you to do

This tells you there is a learning outcome

Unit Learning Outcomes

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 1

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 2

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 3

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 4

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 5

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 6

11. It is a self-sufficient social system.

1.3.1 The Purpose of Schooling: Contemporary Goals of Education

Activity 1.6. Individual Home Take assignment (Take 25 minutes)

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 7

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 8

1. Purposes for schooling focused on economic issues

2. Purpose of Schooling focused on active citizens

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 9

1.3.2 The Peculiar Nature of Educational Institutions /Schools/

Activity 1.8. Investigating Home Take Activity (Take 15 minutes)

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 10

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 11

appraise or measure the degree of performance even if special measuring instruments or

Activity 1.9. Analytical Activity (Take 15 minutes)

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 12

In every society, whether developing or developed, complex or primitive, there is always an

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 13

Activity 1.11. Brainstorming (5 minutes for discussion)

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 14

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 15

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 16

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 17

Instructional Facility Required

Mandatory Reading Materials for the Unit

Supplementary reading materials for the Unit

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 18

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 19

Unit Learning Outcomes

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 20

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 21

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 22

Activity 2.4. Summary Activity (Reflection individually for 5 minutes)

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 23

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 24

However, this transformation is not something to appear suddenly, to be executed in a day by

Activity 2.5. Brainstorming (Take time for 5 minutes for discussion)

2.1.2. Forms of Education

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 25

In short, this system has the following features:

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 26

Activity 2.6. Brainstorming (Take time for 5 minutes for discussion)

Prepared by Tarekegn Haile selassie (Mekelle University) Page 27

School & Society SecondaryModule

School & Society SecondaryModule