Community participation in urban schooling: A critical assessment

Abstract

The notion of community participation in urban education is analyzed. The author examines the “social reproduction” thesis in which community participation can be seen as merely a symbolic vehicle of legitimation whose ultimate function is to obtain quiescence and promote social adjustment. The view that community participation in schooling is a major strategy in urban educational and social reorganization is then analyzed from a theoretical perspective provided by the phenomenological, “interpretative” framework. Finally, the author argues that in order to appreciate community participation in education as an emancipatory democratic activity, one must adopt a synthetic view incorporating the phenomenological aspects of the interpretative approach within the framework of an analysis of educational hegemony.