School and community working together for improving children´s lives in Latin-America

From the 90's the responsibility of the quality of education has been shared with other social actors other than the State (Gajardo y Puryear, 2003). Parents, community organizations and NGOs have come to play an important role by committing to improving the quality of education of the poor. By using a multiple case study we focus on the benefits of articulating schools with community-based organizations in four main aspects: the construction of political identities, the creation of community social capital, the use of community spaces as learning environments and the support the community that brings to the school learning processes.

Theoretical Framework

Studies on school and community relations highlight the importance of enhancing learning opportunities outside the school, and indicate the need of engaging the educational systems, both formal and non-formal, to improve the quality of student learning (Torres 2001, Herrera 2005). Posada (1999) indicates that the school that contextualizes learning tasks within the culture of the community will produce meaningful and content-negotiated learning. The school, then, becomes an instance for the redefinition of local cultures. We have identified four aspects that are strengthen when there is a close relationships between schools and community-based organizations.

1. Construction of political identities. Identity is socially constructed in and through discourse. It has real epistemic and political consequences for how people experience the world (Ivanic, 1997).

2. Building community social capital: "What distinguishes social capital from other types of community social capital, is the fact that a significant part of social networks emerge from the same community" (CEPAL, 2008). When communities are associated with schools, the community networks improve and their capacity for participation and deliberation in the fields of local politics increase significantly.

3. Building culturally situated learning environments:
The community, their territory and their cultural heritage become learning spaces for children.

4. Community support for school learning.
Since the process of learning is promoted when is contextualized, community interventions within the school support the construction of meaningful knowledge.

References CEPAL (2005) Panorama Social de América Latina 2004. United Nations Publications. Gajardo, M. y Puryear, J. (2003) Formas y reformas de la educación en América Latina. Buenos Aires: Edin Herrera, J.D. (2005) El giro interpretativo de la pedagogía. En: Sujeto, Cultura y Dinámica social. Rafael Ávila, (Ed.) Bogotá: Anthropos. Ivanic, R. (1997) Writing and identity. Amsterdam: John Benjamin Francis. Posada, J. (1999) Notas sobre la relación Escuela – Comunidad – Contexto. En: Instituto para la investigación educativa y el desarrollo pedagógico IDEP. Bogotá. Stake (1995) The art of case study. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications Stake (2010) Qualitative Research Studying How Things Work. New York: Guilford Publications Torres, R. M. (2001). Participación ciudadana y educación. Quito: Instituto Frónesis