Methods of measuring interpersonal relationships

Abstract

Community school programmes in Latin America have received relatively little consideration when compared to the amount of research conducted on popular education in the region. This paper revises the literature on community school programmes in the context of the theory of dialogic action and the capability approach. First, the roots of inequality in Latin America are discussed. This is followed by a summary of the literature on community school programmes in Latin America, analysing their differences and commonalities and exploring two different community school programmes operating in the region. A conceptual framework is next presented to explore the role of the progressive educator and individuals’ agency, drawing parallels between the ideas of Paulo Freire and those of M S Archer and Amartya Sen in relation to agency and freedom. The paper concludes by questioning whether, by developing pupils’ agency, community school programmes such as those analysed in this paper, could help to tackle educational inequalities in the long term, with a discussion of the implications for further research.