Schools and Community: The Communitarian Agenda in Education PDF
Preview Schools and Community: The Communitarian Agenda in Education
Schools and Community Communitarianism,asamovement,isclearlyadominantthemewithin New Labour’s education policy. How does this affect education and the life and work of schools? Researchhasshownthatthereisacorrelationbetweenacademicachieve- mentandthestrengthofcommunitylifeandawarenesswithinaschool. Theaimofthisbook,therefore,istointroducecommunitarianthought to classroom teachers and to those working in education. The book contextualizes the current debates within education around the many topical ideas being developed by communitarian thinkers, including: character-building; the role of parents; the community and the indi- vidual; values education and citizenship; community education; standards; and ethos in schools. Throughout, specific reference is made to the practical implications for both primary and secondary schools as well as for further education colleges. This is a timely book that should be of interest to all those working in schools and with children and young people. It aims to be a guide to this important and highly influential movement which is shaping our educational future. James Arthur is Professor in Education at Canterbury Christ Church University College. He has written widely on education and conducted research in denominational education policy and law, and is currently writing a book on Social Literacy and the National Curriculum and another on History,CitizenshipandDemocratic Education, both for Falmer Press. Richard Bailey is a Lecturer in the School of Education, UniversityofReading.Helecturesandresearches in physical education, child development and inclusive education. Schools and Community The Communitarian Agenda in Education James Arthur with Richard Bailey London and New York First published 2000 by Falmer Press 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Falmer Press Garland Inc., 19 Union Square West, New York, NY 10003 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002. Falmer Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2000 James Arthur with Richard Bailey All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data Arthur, James, 1957 – Schools and community : the communitarian agenda in education / James Arthur with Richard Bailey. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Community and school – Great Britain. 2. Communitarianism – Great Britain. I. Bailey, Richard, 1957– . II. Title. LC221.4.G7A78 1999 371.19`0941 – dc21 99 – 39367 ISBN 0–750–70954–5(Print Edition) ISBN 0–750–70955–3 (hbk) ISBN 0-203-48738-9 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-79562-8 (Adobe eReader Format) Contents Preface – Brian Wilcox, Honorary Professorial Fellow, Department of Educational Studies, University of Sheffield vii Introduction 1 1 Communitarianism 5 2 Communitarianism and the Family 27 3 Communitarianism and Education 47 4 Citizenship Education and the Common Good 70 5 Communitarianism and Religiously Affiliated Schools 95 6 School Case Studies: Communitarian Practices? 117 7 The Communitarian Agenda in Education 134 References 145 Index 157 v Preface ‘If the dominant ideology in the 1960s was collectivism, and in the 1980s individualism, the key word as we approach the millennium is communitarianism’. So wrote Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in 1997. Certainly the term had gained some political currency in this country with the emergence of New Labour under Tony Blair in the mid-1990s. It was seen at that time as Blair’s ‘Big Idea’ (Phillips 1994). However, in the lead up to the May 1997 General Election, and certainly following New Labour’s assumption of power, communitarianism has been hardly audible in the political discourse of the media, the Party and Parliament. That does not necessarily mean of course that communi- tarian ideas have little or no influence on the policies of a government emphasizing ‘modernizing’ and ‘The Third Way’. But what exactly is communitarianism? We can get an initial purchase on this somewhat slippery term by considering the familiar triad of individual/community/the state. The community here can be regarded as the multiplicity of formal and informal associations which not only mediate the relationship of the individual to the state but which are also, in a profound sense, constitutive of the individual. This notionofthecommunitythatincludesfamilies,churches,clubs,societies and many other relatively small scale social institutions is not new. It is similar to the ‘little platoons’ of Edmund Burke. Our century has been tragically scarred by the excesses of the collec- tivist politics of Fascism and Communism – both attempts to mould the individual to the dictates of the State. More recently, political ideologies based on liberal or libertarian individualism are increasingly seen as inimical to the well-being of society. It is hardly surprising then, at the present fin de siècle, that an emphasis on community should re-emerge as a possible route to secular salvation. It would be quite wrong to suppose that communitarianism is a vii Preface monolithic political concept. The term, as this book so clearly shows, has a variety of nuances. Communitarians can and do occupy different positions on the liberal–conservative continuum. There are neverthe- less sufficient ‘family resemblances’ between the different stances for one to talk intelligibly and usefully about communitarianism. Communitarianism has a special significance for schools and those whoworkinthem.Aschoolisnecessarilyacommunity–acommunity of pupils, teachers, parents. It is also, particularly through its parents, linked to the local community beyond its walls. A key function of schools is to help prepare pupils to become full participants in their community and eventually in society at large. In that way schools are inevitablycommittedtothe‘commongood’–anotionthathasperhaps become somewhat occluded in an age of rampant individualism. The way in which we currently seek to understand, justify and improve schools is heavily dominated by the language of markets and managerialism, which many consider increasingly sterile and dehu- manizing. Ideas of communitarianism tapping, as they do, other ethical discourses and traditions may provide a salutary corrective and even reinvigorate the nature of educational debate. James Arthur’s book is to be commended for two very important reasons. First, it provides the general reader with a very accessible introduction to communitarianism and its significance for social policy. It is based on a very thorough reading of the existing literature and its excellent bibliography will be invaluable to those knowing something already of the topic and who wish to know more. Second, the book is surely amongst the first to offer a sustained analysis of a possible ‘communitarian agenda in education’. For me, two things of particular significance emerge from this agenda. The first is a recognition of the very distinctive contribution that can be made by religiously affiliated schools. Such schools often seem to add something over and above that found in other schools. This may be the consequence of their having an extended community of pupils, parents and church broadly united by a set of common beliefs. In effect these schools embody a religious communitarian ethos that provides a powerful coherence to their educational mission. The majority of schools, however, do not have a religious affiliation and must find their justification and coherence through a more secular rationale. This leads me to my second agenda point which is that ‘education for citizenship’ is a main contender for such a rationale. Certainly the government’s intention is that a place will be found for citizenship education in the curriculum of all pupils. The book viii Preface provides a very timely examination of this still relatively unfamiliar curricular component and its relationship to communitarian notions such as the common good. The communitarian agenda is no universal panacea for all the prob- lems of schools and the book, although sympathetic to the agenda, wisely eschews a doctrinaire position for or against. James Arthur is rather its ‘critical friend’. What he has done is to bring an important butmulti-facetedconcepttoourattentionand,indoingso,hasenriched contemporary educational debate. And the book will undoubtedly provoke debate. The final sentence of the book is as good a starting off point as any for such a debate: The problem with the communitarian agenda for education is that it promises more than exclusive State institutional schooling can possibly deliver. Brian Wilcox Honorary Professorial Fellow Department of Educational Studies University of Sheffield ix
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