The longing for a sense of "community" has become a major theme in recent writings about educational and social issues. An analysis of the potential for creating viable and meaningful community in schools is the focus of this book. Using sociological theory and social analysis, it examines how schools achieve community and explores how…

This edited work brings several generations of Professor David Tyack's students and colleagues together to explore the purpose and structure of schooling for the common good. For most of the last century, school reformers have attempted to employ schools to solve nearly every social ill. Reforms since the 1980s have, in the main, emphasized using…

Despite a long tradition of public support for public education, America today is experiencing the erosion of public commitment to public schools. Chapter 1 of this book describes the reasons for the disconnection between schools and communities and argues that fundamental change must start with the public and within the community in order to…

This book highlights the role of citizens in solving public problems. Part 1 presents the insights of several successful Americans to show why the rethinking of self-interest, power, and public life is the key to bringing new meaning into the lives of Americans. Part 2 describes changes occurring across the United States, which are conceptualized…

Community education once was an educational philosophy aimed at improving public schools and the communities they served. Today, community education may well offer a promise of salvation for American education. This book, containing six chapters, questions the present authoritarian, hierarchial American public school establishment. Beginning with…

The preamble to Montana's constitution, which expresses gratitude for Montana's landscape, reflects an understanding that the political culture of a place is not something apart from the place itself. By the same token, the strengthening of political culture must take place and must be studied in the context of very specific places and the people…

This book is a collection of 25 essays that explore what communities will look like in the future. They include: "Introduction: Civilizing the City" (Peter F. Drucker); (1) "The Paradox and Promise of Community" (Margaret J. Wheatley and Myron Kellner-Rogers); (2) "Economic Community and Social Investment" (Lester C. Thurow); (3) "The…

This book explores relationships among democracy, social capital, and community-based mediating structures, focusing on Appalachia because of the obvious failures of market capitalism there. It suggests that mediating structures protect communities from the savage side of market capitalism and promote the democratic prospect by increasing and…

A national study of social conditions on college campuses found that college officials were concerned about alcohol and drug abuse, crime, breakdown of civility, racial tensions, sex discrimination, and a diminishing commitment to teaching and learning. In response to those findings, this book proposes that both academic and civic standards be…

This monograph is the second in a series, whose purpose is to provide practitioners and researchers a forum for securing the most current knowledge pertinent to family, school, and community partnership issues. This publication focuses on emerging practices that link communities and schools, especially creating the school as the hub for…

In this book, the Consortium for Community College Development's Think Tank (Michigan) identifies four critical and enduring issues for change in community colleges: (1) attracting and recruiting students in an increasingly competitive market; (2) improving student success through innovative approaches to teaching and learning; (3) encouraging…

Community-based learning (CBL) is a structured approach to learning and teaching that connects meaningful community experience with intellectual development, personal growth, and active citizenship. Enthusiasm for CBL is emerging in Australia and elsewhere because it is seen as the following: strategy for whole-school reform, especially in…

The "Struggle for Identity in Today's Schools" examines cultural recognition and the struggle for identity in America's schools. In particular, the contributing authors focus on the recognition and misrecognition as antagonistic cultural forces that work to shape, and at times distort identity. What surfaces throughout the chapters are…

These 12 papers support the view that the current, general interest in widening participation in higher education in the United Kingdom may provide opportunities to radicalize policies and intervene strategically in institutional practices in ways that help to influence them. "Introduction" (Jane Thompson) precedes "Joining,…

Leaders of American schools are approaching a crossroads. They can continue to struggle with outdated assumptions and increasingly demoralizing workplaces, or they can step back and reexamine what students must take away from schools to fulfill their potential in life--and what teachers need to help them get it. This book makes the case that it is…