Building School Communities

When Schools are transformed to communities

they become places where students acquire and develop basic citizenship values and skills. To be a member of a community is one of the basic building blocks of Education for Democratic Citizenship (EDC); is part of one’s identity. All students are members of their school. However, not many schools –teachers and principal- are open to practice democratic values and adopt a democratic school community.

To belong to a democratic school community widely means to be empowered...

to take an active part in school operational life (i.e. participating in rule-setting, defining rights and responsibilities), to be given the opportunity to express personal views, to be heard and respected. The experience of participating in school life can help young people to develop democratic values and competences.
There are different instructional approaches of enabling students to experience different levels of participating and decision making. There is a growing body of literature supportive of the argument that teaching approaches based on modeling good practice and practicing on good models are proved to be more effective than direct instruction.
One of the most influential works on the field was Sergovianni's (1994) Building Communities in Schools. San Fransisco: Jossey Bass.

For resources and activities related to the subject see:
http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/pestalozzi/Activities/modules_en.asp

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/mar03/vol60/num06/Creating_a_School_Community.aspx