Education is an ongoing process. Its objectives are regularly reviewed to meet global and national issues (European Commission, 2017). Nowadays, the diversification of society provides an increased focus on the main tasks of education (Incheon Declaration, 2015) which are related to the human rights-based approach (UN, 2006; Child Rights Manifesto, 2014), children needs-based development (Education for all 2000-2015: achievements and challenges, 2015), ecosystem approach, equality, inclusion and culture pluralism / culture diversity approach (Schachner, 2017), and sustainable development approach (UNESCO, 2017).

Only education that is based on the above-referred approaches can deliver a significant value added: to promote social cohesion, integration and stability, contribute to positive social transformation, produce better outcomes for economic development focusing on capacity and empowerment, and also be more cost-effective and sustainable (UNICEF, 2007), create Visible learning-based (Hattie, 2015) or Listening-based schools (Burke, Grosvernon, 2015).

Since education does not exist in a vacuum, it is very important to involve different agents of our society in the process of education. Only effective public, private and non-governmental partnership can fulfil, respect and protect the rights of education and create the child-friendly school. Collaboration is essential in order to solve different issues of education specific to local / school level. It provides extra spaces for learning, involves new actors in the process of learning, and creates a smart educational interaction that replaces the traditional pedagogical interaction and is based on the Redistribution of Power theory (Petruskeviciute, 2015).

The community school design may become one of the models based on effective partnership targeted at stronger social inclusion (EUNEC, 2013; Melaville, Jacobson, Blank, 2011).

Community-based schools can be described as “a strategy for organizing the resources of the community around student success” and they are the products of explicit partnerships between the school and other community resources (National Centre of Community schools, 2011). The community school design is based on the configuration of five core components: health services, social services, strategies for the engagement of parents and families, positive youth development priorities and out-of-school time learning (Lawson, Veen, 2016). It is particularly expedient for education of the socially sensitive young people who are growing up in “social toxic environment” (Lawson, Veen, 2016: 34) and are at risk of social exclusion.

The community-based educational model can beconsidered in terms of PL implemented in different countries: USA, Germany, Finland, Lithuania (, City-as-School, 2010; IPLE, 2009, 2011)

The EC recommended PL as a verified effective instrument for reducing early school leaving (European Commission, 2013; Early School Leaving and Lifelong Guidance, 2014).

The research problem is defined as follows: why the community-based school design is suitable for solving the issues of inequality and exclusion?

The research problem is explored by posing the following questions:

What is characteristic of the community-based school approach?

What changes are determined by the community-based educational models in improvement of educational practice?

What governing factors condition successful implementation of the community-based school model in a particular social-educational context?

The object of the research is the model of Productive Learning, which is based on the community school approach and orientated to equality, inclusion and cultural diversity.

The aim of the research is to explore how Productive Learning based on the community school approach enriches the strategies of inclusive education

Building on the research object and the uniqueness of a new phenomenon in education, community-based school design in the context of Productive Learning (hereinafter referred to as PL) has been chosen as the methodology of the case study based on the paradigm of constructivist approaches (Stake, 1995; Yin, 2003) that truth is relative and is dependent on one’s perspective (Baxter, Jack, 2008). The case study is defined as a research strategy (Dul, Hak, 2008) or an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon in real-life context, in particular, when the boundaries between the object of the study and the context are not clearly evident (Yin, 2003; Sousa, 2016, Zucker, 2009). The case study is an excellent opportunity to gain tremendous insights into a case (Baxter, Jack, 2008; Waterman, 2009). The object of the case study is one single case or a series of cases in their real-life context, and all results obtained from this case are analysed in a qualitative manner. It is non-statistical but an exceptionally “qualitative” method of analysis of all kinds (quantitative and qualitative) data (Dul, Hak, 2008). Data analysis according to Rubin and Rubin (2005:202) is the process of moving from raw data (interviews, observations) to evidence-based interpretations: “to discover variation, portray shades of meaning, and examine complexity”. The implementation process of the PL as the community based school design in Lithuania has been used as the case study of this research. PL students and their parents, teachers, school heads, mentors in practice placements were selected as the research participants. A case study database has been created. It includes the following sources of data: study of literature, interviews, direct observation, data triangulation, direct member checking. The data were analyzed following these steps: recognition, clarification and synthesization, elaboration, coding, sorting and going from data to evidence-based interpretations (Rubin, 2005:207). The research was commenced in September 2012 and completed in November 2017. The role of the researcher in this case study is shaped by her personal experience in the implementation of PL in Lithuania within the term of the past nine years.

PL includes learning inside and outside the school, i.e. at practice placements involving new participants, i.e. mentors, and creates preconditions for successful learning by student through inclusion of his/ her individual experience and needs (Bliss, 2008; IPLE, 2009). The main objective of PL is to introduce to students a meaningful learning method, which combines academic learning at school with practical activities, to engage different partners (employers, entrepreneurs and NGO) in the educational process. PL is for social sensitive youngsters or those who want to learn in a different way in the 9th and 10th grade. Lithuania has been implementing PL since 2012. Over the said period, about 120 students (most of them were at risk of exclusion) were involved in PL; approximately 160 organisations took a part in the education process. PL was tested in VET during the Erasmus+ project “PROVED“. PL makes positive changes at different levels. Students experience the following changes: positive attitude towards school; personality changes and a positive relation with their social environment. The main reasons for the student change are small classes, individual learning, individual and group counselling and change of school culture. Positive changes of teachers are personal, interpersonal and professional. Positive changes at school level: school community is more open to innovations, a changing school culture and the school community’s attitude to education, and development of a school partnership network. The fundamental factors of successful implementation of the community-based educational model identified: • causal conditions (teachers’ individual and professional changes, socially sensitive professional philosophy, internal disposition of teachers for change, institutional response); • intervening conditions (emotional confusion of educators, traditional educational inheritance, legal restrictions); • contextual factors (change in professional experience, educational attendance, the student’s becoming the learner); • actions and strategies (self-directed learning by teachers, “different” education, change in education reality and management of educational expectations.

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