Network
Network 14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Title
Charting the Way Forward: School-community Relationships and Educational Research
Abstract
Respecting the conference theme, “Charting the Way Forward: Education, Research, Potentials and Perspectives”, ECER/EERA Network 14 invites contributions aiming to shape future school-community relationships in all locations, in particular those involving families and schools in the socio-educational development of the community. For example: How can educational research best support the charting of the way forward in terms of school-community relationships? How is artificial intelligence shaping new school-community relationships? How might collaborative relationships between families and schools be created based on current realities and future hopes?
The Call
This call unites the key concepts of ECER/EERA Network 14’s research mission: communities, families, schooling and place. It invites contributions on school-community relationships in all locations, exploring how these relationships are examined from our past endeavours, current realities and future hopes.
Contributions might suggest a mapping for an understanding of which factors shape these relationships in an educational environment. They should elaborate on which factors are the most critical and whether these may need to be mitigated in learning and/or teaching and/or the community. In particular, proposals should provide a clear insight of the complexity of the local context and the ways in which the wider societal puzzle of environmental and demographic changes is assessed in that context.
This call continues the long-standing Network 14’s examination of the theme of socio-educational development in wider contexts beyond the rural to the regional, remote, urban, local, and even virtual places.
Network 14 welcomes contributions on (1) how cooperation or partnerships between schools and/or other organisations can be designed to foster the development of a more inclusive community and (2) how the wider societal puzzle of environmental and demographic changes affects school-community relationships.
Contributions might build on existing work, challenging commonsense understandings about binaries relating to place (Corbett & White, 2014), moving beyond deficit notions of particular groups and fostering school-community partnerships at a time of demographic and environmental changes (Laseter et al., 2023; Zuckerman, 2023), and/or developing frameworks mapping school-community relations (Kerr et al., 2016).
It is expected that the contributions submitted as part of this call will be wide-ranging, representing a range of interrogations, which might address:
- What can be learned in/from these spaces to chart the way forward in terms of school-community relationships?
- How can community engagement in education be redefined?
- How might trust be built in community engagement?
- How might collaborative relationships between families and schools be created, based on current realities and future hopes?
- How can educational research best support the charting of the way forward in terms of school-community relationships?
- How is artificial intelligence shaping new school-community relationships?
Contact Person(s)
Laurence Lasselle, University of St Andrews, UK, laurence.lasselle(at)st-andrews.ac.uk, ECER/EERA Network 14 link convenor.
References
Corbett, M., & White S. (2014). Doing educational research in rural settings: Methodological issues, international perspectives and practical solutions. Routledge.
Kerr, K., Dyson, A., & Gallannaugh, F. (2016). Conceptualising school-community relations in disadvantaged neighbourhoods: Mapping the literature. Educational Research, 58(3), 265–282. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2016.1207872
Lasater, K., Crowe, T. C., & Pijanowski, J. (2021). Developing family-school partnerships in the midst of demographic change: An examination of educators’ attitudes, values, and beliefs and the discourses they shape. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 22(2), 347–368. https://doi.org/10.1080/15700763.2021.1958869
Zuckerman, S. J. (2023). The ecology of rural cross-sector school-community partnerships: A literature review. Peabody Journal of Education, 98(4), 430–447. https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2023.2238521
NW 14 runs a mailing list and invites researchers to join. To join the mailing list, send a blank message to nw14-subscribe(at)lists.eera-ecer.de