Last modified: 2017-03-01
Abstract
Problem Statement
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the results of an action research with teachers of a comprehensive Institute of Bergamo, in the Northern Italy. It focuses on the relationship between school, community and students’ parents, the first persons teachers have to deal with. This research could be seen as a useful tool to enable both school and teachers to dismiss self-referential practices, fostering new ways of experiencing the significant relationship between schools, families and society at large (Epstein, 2001).
Purpose of study
New media and alternative sources of training and circulating information (Postman, 1969), the dissemination of informal learning and its competition with the formal training (Biesta, 2006), the deep changes of the "family", the ambivalent connections between education and labor market are all phenomena that school has to face nowadays (Dewey, 1938). They force teachers to face a complex and new scene, and to try to answer to its trends, which challenge the school’s identity (Postman, 1996). Therefore, in order to redefine the latter and its social and educational functions, it is necessary for schools to take the distances from theirselves, examining their identity from different perspectives (Sachs, 2010). Starting from a dialogue with the community and the closest partners, that is to say the students’ parents, could be an effective way to begin to do it (Sheldon, 2003; Simon, 2004).
Methods
Regarding epistemology and methodology, the research refers to ecological and naturalistic paradigms (Mortari, 2007; Lincoln & Guba, 1985), and, in particular, to the Participatory Action Research (PAR) (McIntyre, 2008). Indeed, it takes place in contexts of educational work, and aims to develop a deeper understanding of the phenomenon, building a local knowledge useful for both the participants and their context of work.
Moreover, according to the transformative objectives of the reaserch, interpretative perspectives about the role of the schools and the dynamics between the latter and families are proposed, in order to identify new methods and ways to interrelate school, community and families.
Finding results
The results are divided in two categories. First, they referred to the pedagogical identity of the school. The research highlighted some features of the educational practices done by the teachers involved: the openness towards external society, the collaboration with stakeholders and their involvement in school life, the experience as a condition to learn and to teach.
Second, the results dealt with the ways through which teachers could live the relationship with the territory: teachers recognized useful keywords that allowed them to understand this relationship and act fruitfully.
Conclusions and Recommendations
In order to foster a new educational pact between school, families and communities, the research highlights that it is necessary:
- To narrate and find forms of documentation that make visible the quality of school experiences (Cifali, André, 2007);
- To “open” the school to the parents' skills;
- To build educational projects with parents;
- To rethink school programs in the light of the projects made outside the school.
The main limit of this research is that it involved teachers only. Therefore, its future steps could be related to the involvement of the other parties-protagonists of the relationship, which the research focused on: students, parents or families. Another perspective to develop is related to the need to rethink the school curriculum in the light of projects made and shared with the community. This is an important point in order to continue redefining the school’s identity in the local and contemporary social scene.