CHAPTER ONE

Understanding School’s Environmental components

1.1 SOCIETY DEFINED

Society is defined in a number of ways by various educators, sociologists, anthropologists,

political scientists, etc. However, they all agree that members of society have something in
common. Some of the definitions are as follows:
 A society is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations
 A large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the
same political authority and dominant cultural expectations
 Characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who
share a distinctive culture and institutions?
 A given society may be described as a sum total of such relationship among its
consistent members
 The persons collectively considered, who live in any region or at any period , any
community of individual who are united together by a common bond of nearness
 The persons collectively considered, who live in any region or at any period, any
community of individuals who are united together by a common bond of nearness,
those who recognize each of the associates, friends and acquaintances.
 The term society can also have geographic meaning and refer to people who share a
common culture in a particular location.

From the above definitions society can be understood as a group of people related to each other
through persistent relations who are sharing geographical or virtual territory, subject to the
same political authority and dominant cultural expectations.

Society enables members to benefit in a way that would not otherwise be possible on an
individual basis. A society consists of likeminded people governed by their own norms and
values with a dominant larger society. Members of society can be from different ethnic groups
if it is described as economic society, social society, political society, etc. For sociologists, for

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example, society refers to people who interact in such a way as to share a common culture. The
cultural bond may be ethnic, racial, gender, shared beliefs, values, and activities.

Societies can be classified as on the basis of time as pre-industrial society (Hunting and
gathering society, Pastoral society, Horticultural society, Agricultural society, Feudal society,
Industrial society), and Post- industrial societies that comprise (Western society, Information
society and Knowledge society).

1.2 Understanding the Society

Understanding the society may require analyzing the society in terms of physical location, the
climatic conditions, the people (customs and traditions, population characteristics,
communication channels, community groups, leadership and economic conditions).
As indicated in the definition of the concept society, the physical location or common
geographical area is one of the describing characteristics of society. The nature of the
geographical location where the members of society reside significantly identifies one society
from the other. A particular society has been demarcated by the other with natural or artificial
boundaries. The natural boundaries include features such as the rivers, mountain ranges or
forests, canals etc where as the artificial boundaries are the ones demarcated by political
settlements. The people of the area share the resources in common and participate to reach the
common goals of population. The people develop unity with common feelings, integrity
oneness and collection consciousness. The climatic condition of the area inhabited by the
members of society influences the activities of the society members and hence its analysis will
help the better understanding of the society.

Customs and traditions refer to the common ideas, attitudes, and habits of people. They exert
an influence in the shaping of social action and in determination of services rendered by
community agencies. Population characteristics refer to educational attainment, age, sex,
gainful occupation and the ethnic group or nationality. Communication channels since the
education takes place through the exchange of ideas the type of information channels to reach
segments of the society are so important. Leadership is a relational concept implying two
things: the influencing agent and the influenced. Identifying individuals who are considered as

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leaders of the society and their personal background, family connections, group affiliations,
social and political convictions, special competencies, attitudes towards education and training
is requisite to determine the value the society attaches to education. Analysis of economic
conditions helps to obtain information on whether the society is agricultural, commercial, and
industrial or wage earner.

In general, society can be defined according to the characteristics that the members share, such
as culture, language, tradition, law, geography, class, and race. As Shaffer (1992) argues, some
societies are homogeneous while others are heterogeneous; and some are united while others
conflictive. Some communities are governed and managed by leaders chosen democratically
and some others are governed by leaders imposed from above who represent central
authorities.

Zenter (1964) pointed out three aspects of societies: the first aspect is that society is a group
structure, whether formally or informally organized, in which members play roles which are
integrated around goals with the problems from collective occupation and utilization of
habitation space; the second is that members of the society have some degree of collective
identification with the occupied space; and lastly, the society have some degree of local
autonomy and responsibility.
Bray (1996), however, classified society in to three as geographic society, which is defined
according to its member’s place of residence, such as village or district; ethnic, racial, and
religious society where membership is based on ethnic, racial or religious identifications; and
thirdly, societies based on shared family concerns which include parents association and
similar bodies.

1.2.1 Nature of Society

Society can be explained as a state of fellow- feeling, cooperation, friendship and sympathy
among two or more persons who together with common feelings, bonds and aspirations. A
society is an organization of persons which guarantees security to the members’ individuality
and existence.

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Society is a dynamic entity. It has its own political, economic, cultural and religious ideologies
according to which it provides more and more opportunities to individuals to develop their
various powers and capacities to the fullest possible extent and side by side developing the
society by their best and utmost efforts.

1.2.2 Characteristics of society

1. Variety of interactions -The society is full of interactions and the different social processes
going on in the society. The people come face to face and interact among themselves.
People share certain interests, attitudes, aptitudes, traditions, customs, values, objectives
and mores. The people of the society depend upon each other for their survival. The
division of labour among the individuals exists and the functions assigned to them are
performed. This develops functional inter relationship among the members of the society.
2. Feeling of Solidarity - Since individuals of the society occupy a common territory, common
customs and traditions common values, common history common cultures, self contained
interdependence on each other obviously causes oneness and we feeling and develops
feeling of solidarity among themselves. Though occasionally interact with other societies,
they never lore their identity and remains united as long as their society survives.
3. Total culture- Each society has its own culture and the individual relationships are
organized and structured by the culture. Because of commonness in the culture content,
traditional of the society unite together. The society will be differentiated by the other
society because of its unique culture. Culture is present in human society and the same is
absent in animal society.
4. Social Organization - Members of a society are socially organized. Society itself has a
structure and the important components and elements of social structure are norms, rules,
statuses, power, authority, groups, associations and institutions. The norms are the
important which give it stability, order and structure to human society that without them
social interaction would be difficult and chaotic. Organization of human society is
maintained with the help of norms and institutions that pervade the society. Social
organization helps maintain society in social equilibrium.

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 5. Functional differentiation - All the individuals in human society never perform similar
activities and functions. They perform different functions depending upon their sex, age,
interest, abilities, skills and other qualifications. There is more and more specialization in
each work and are expected to do their work allotted to them. Thus several persons work on
a single activity. There is division of labour depending upon sex and age.

1.3.1 Definitions and meaning of school

School is a special environment where a certain quality of life and certain types of activities
and occupations are provided with the object of securing the child’s development along
desirable lines.
John Dewy
Schools are institutions devised by civilized man for the purpose of aiding in the preparation of
young for well- adjusted and efficient members of society.
J.S Ross
School is a place where a definite curriculum is taught to children during a definite duration of
time by definite teachers. In the ancient time, human life was very simple. Knowledge had not
grown so vast as it is today. Human needs were very simple and could be easily fulfilled by
informal agencies like the family and the community. Gradually with the development of vast
and varied knowledge and growth of overpopulation needs of man increased and the form of
culture and civilizations also become so complex and complicated that it becomes almost
impossible for parents to transmit it to their children. Furthermore, most of the parents and
other members of the family became so busily engaged in their own vocations or other
professions that they were not capable enough to educate their young ones diverse subjects of
curriculum. Hence the need was felt some such institution which could preserve, transmit and
develop the cultural heritage.

1.3.2. Importance of schools

School is the only formal agency capable to transmit the huge treasure of knowledge or
extensive cultural heritage to the rising generation. It is also a connecting link between the

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family and the external world. Schools provide a special and well organized environment
before the child according to a preplanned scheme which ensures the physical, mental,
emotional and social development to the child in a natural way.

Schools ensure the harmonious development of child personality through pre-planned

objectives. Schools bring together children belonging to different religions, creeds and social
hierarchy and mix them up freely with each other in a friendly atmosphere that they develop
sympathy, cooperation, tolerance and respect for the views and cultures of others. It is an
important agency to develop cultural pluralism.

School is an important agency to for the propagation of ideals and ideologies of state. It helps
in the perpetuation and development of society in that all social problems and needs of society
are flashed in one way or the other in school which provide the desired solutions for all the
problems of society. Schools provide experiences for the child to understand social behavior
and develop in him a sense of social responsibility. Children learn their rights and duties and
develop love, affection, sympathy and cooperation and responsibility in schools i.e. it helps in
the creation of educated citizens. It can be said that school is a better place of education than
home. School is the only agency through which cooperation of different agencies such as the
family, the community and the state may be successfully achieved.

Schools can be classified as traditional and modern or progressive schools. Traditional schools
impart only formal education. Such schools came into existence when family failed to impart
the needed education to its children. In early times the state and the church were not separate
institutions. Later the state separated from the church and democratic trends began to appear in
the working of the state which enabled more people to receive education. Modern or
progressive schools have emphasized child centered education. The entire educationists have
opposed the traditional schools in which ready-made knowledge is thrust upon the minds of
child forcibly without caring for their individual differences.

In traditional schools more importance is given to the subject matter than the child. Hence,
dozens of content are forced down into the minds of children without paying attention to their

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interests, inclinations and capabilities whereas in progressive schools, the personality of each
child is honored. Hence, each child is provided such pleasant and conducive environment in
which he develops his personality according to his innate tendencies, capabilities and speed.
Thus the modern school seeks to replace information by experience and chooses the most
significant and abiding aspects of experiences for its subject –matter and thereby makes school
life active and meaningful. In traditional schools a child receives education as a passive listener
whereas progressive schools impart useful, useful, constructive and practical knowledge to the
child. More emphasis is given to social values, development of personality and considered as
centers of community life.

1.3.3 Functions of schools

Schools can have both formal and informal functions. The formal functions are mainly
concerned with the mental development of the child such as development of mental powers,
cultivation of dynamic and adaptable mind, preservation, improvement and transmission of
culture, imparting vocational and industrial education, reorganization and reconstruction of
human experiences and development of citizenship through development of character.
The school develops the mental powers of the child so that he will be able to think freely,
clearly and logically. It cultivates a dynamic and adaptable mind which is resourceful and able
to create new value for future life. Schools also preserve and improve the national culture and
transmit it to the coming generation. In developing countries such as ours, education should
also impart vocational and industrial education to enable children support themselves and serve
the country with sincerity. Schools are also responsible to develop in children the essential
qualities of citizenship so that they may become active and responsible citizens imbued with
qualities of leadership to lead the nation in the path of progress in all spheres of national life.
School should also develop the character of children by allowing them to participate in such
moral, ethical, and social activities which may inculcate in them the socially desirable values
and lead to the formation of strong good character.

The informal functions of school relate to the physical, social and emotional development of
children. In this regard the entire environment of school should be in a way that leads to the

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physical wellbeing to children. The school should also provide such a social environment
before children by organizing students unions, social service camps, social functions and
parent teacher associations, etc. so that all the socially desirable values develop in them in a
natural way. To develop the child emotionally, the school building the campus should be neat
and clean. The rooms should be decorated tastefully; trips, tours, exhibitions and debates also
stimulate the emotional and aesthetic sense of children who can further infused with the sense
of admiration of truth, beauty and goodness, the high ideals of human life.

1.3.4. How schools are organized

The best system for organizing a school system revolves around accountable community
autonomy, which takes into account the strengths of both community-centered school systems
and state-regulated school systems. A similar idea was also espoused by Archon Fung in his
book, Empowered Participation. In it, Fung writes about how accountable autonomy manages
the complicated task of balancing discretion versus accountability, and how “school systems
can become more responsive, fair, innovative, and effective by incorporating empowered
participation and deliberation into their governance structures”.
Empowering communities requires a level of decentralization to give localities meaningful
decision-making and administrative power, while holding these communities accountable also
requires a level of centralization of power in order to regulate. Thus, the ideal school systems
combines a bottom- up and top-down approach to simultaneously check each other’s
weaknesses and take advantage of each other’s strengths. Accountable community school
system utilizes the local community of teachers, parents, students, administration, and other
community members to make the majority of meaningful decisions about a school, and yet also
utilizes a strong central power to regulate all the activities.

1.3.5. The peculiar nature of educational institutions or schools

Several writers have identified a number of features that are unique to educational institutions
and their management. Some of the prominent ones are presented as follows:
According to Campbell and his colleagues (1963) schools or educational organizations have
the following unique characteristics.

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1. Public visibility and sensitivity – for various reasons school and its functions are more
visible and sensitive to members of the community larger than any other organizations.
Most of the members of the community are sensitive about the service of educational
organizations such as schools and their internal operations. Hence, school is required to
establish healthy relationship with the community around the school and address
diverse expectations and interests of the society.
2. Crucial to the society – unlike other institutions that delivery identified service to the
community, schools provide education and training services that help to capacitate
individuals working in different social and economic sectors. It is the base for the
effective functioning of all other sectors of a country. Therefore, the school
management should give due consideration to the activities that help to fulfill societal
demands.
3. Intimacy of necessary relationship- unlike other organizations, the degree of
relationship among school personal is very strong. The relationship among students,
between teachers and students, among teachers and between teachers and parents.
4. Complexity of functions- schools deals with delivery of training to produce skilled
manpower. It directly deals with the human factor (the most complex organism) and
attempts to change behaviors. Fulfilling the purpose of teaching learning and the
delivery of training makes the functions of schools complex than other social
institutions.
5. Staff professionalization – unlike other organizations, educational institutions relatively
constitute more professionally trained manpower. The fact that professionals need to
enjoy more autonomy over their work than other employees makes management of
schools special.

6. Difficulty in appraisal – change of behavior in educational institutions such as schools

is not visible in a short period of time. As a result it is difficult to measure the degree of
effect in schools when compared with other social institutions.

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Bush et al (1980) also identified the following four unique features of educational institutions:
1. Difficulty in defining school objectives as compared to defining industrial objectives
2. Human beings are the raw materials for schools. And hence, the process of production
in schools is training of personnel that can contribute to the effective performance of
other organizations.
3. Similarity of the training of the staff- most staff members including the school director
are from common background which could be shared through training.
4. Difficulty of measuring educational outputs in a similar way with other institutions.

Graff and his colleagues in Ayalew (1991) have identified the following five special
characteristics of educational organizations.
1. A school is a unique institution – it provides education and training to the community
members and citizens.
2. School takes its direction from all social institutions – the level of knowledge provision
and skills training are guided by the needs of the society. This is to mean that the major
functions of school are to carry out the responsibilities of implementing educational
system that operates to satisfy the needs of community.
3. School is at the vortex of conflicting values- this refers to the idea that children come to
school with different experiences, attitudes and values that the schools are responsible
to develop and create common values for all the clients or customers.
4. Closeness of school and the community – school has much closer relationship with
community. The frequent relationship between the school and the community manifests
through the interaction of children and the school as well as parents and the school.
5. School points directly towards people – provision of knowledge and skill for future
consumption. The provision of knowledge and skills is considered as a long-lasting
asset for social development.

1.4 Rationale for School Society Relations in education

The greater the community involvement in the process, the greater the input of different groups
within the community, then the more likely that what is generated will be an accurate reflection

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of that society. Thus, by actively involving children and adults in decisions about education
about issues that concern them, and aspects of community development, appropriate decisions
could be made about problems within the community.

The following six areas are the most popular areas of concern and are some arguments in the
favor of increasing close school and community relations.
1. Policy making- community participation will contribute to the developments of
school policies and practices which are most effective and equitable for that
community.
2. Service delivery- the capacity of the school to solve educational problems is
enhanced if parents and community members are part of the problem solving
3. Community development- effective community participation may contribute to the
development of healthy and stable community where services are adequately and
fairly distributed and where people have sense of community pride, responsibility
and power.
4. Individual development: involvement in community activities can contribute to the
development of self-confidence can improve people's abilities and social skills and
lead to a feeling of personal contribution.
5. Organizational effectiveness: Community participation can contribute both to
increased usage of the school and improved performance by the people in the
school. This increases the cost effectiveness, as well as the organizational
effectiveness of the school.
6. Performance of students: Community involvement can contribute to improved
academic performance and less problems of within school.

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 Unit Two

Forms of schooling/education, the goal of education, diversity in education and school

culture and Leadership

Section One: The purpose and forms of schooling/Education

The purpose of schools

Dear learner, why do we have school in the first place? What is the purpose of schooling and
teaching? If we don’t know what the mission and goals of school are, it’s not possible to even
know if we get there. We also don’t know if the target was missed. Interestingly, with all the
focus in recent years on accountability of schools, you don’t see that much public discussion
about the fundamental purpose of schools.

Two primary opposing views exist regarding the purpose of schools. Some, such as the
Business Roundtable (A. Ryan, 2004) and Achieve (Achieve, 2004), an organization created
by governors and business leaders, believe that the primary purpose of schools should be to
create workers who have skills and personal styles to fill and perform available jobs. Others
believe this outcome is too narrow. For this group of people schools should seek to develop
active citizens, helping children develop their own capacity for personal achievement and
contributing to society as an active citizen for democracy.

These two goals, producing workers and creating citizens, require two very different
approaches. If, on the one hand, the key goal is to educate students as workers, where
education essentially functions as a section of the personnel department for business and
industry, schools are expected to perform two essential tasks: (1) create a pool of workers with
at least minimum competence and attitudes from which businesses can select employees; and
(2) provide a way of sorting workers in rank order of ability, eliminating those from the pool
who do not have the perceived capacity to function as employees. The goal for businesses, of
course, is to have a large pool of potentially qualified candidates with requisite skills that far
exceeds the availability of jobs. This allows the business to select the best candidate. The
resulting competition for jobs allows them to keep wages lower, thus decreasing costs and

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increasing profits. This goal becomes evident through the call for standards with higher levels
of skills. It is notable that the Business Roundtable and other business and industry groups
were intimately involved in calling for identified minimum standards and the use of
standardized testing.

Following are some key strategies that may lead to schools accomplishing these personnel
office functions in the societal service of business. They most often include:

 Identify basic skills that all students should achieve, skills needed in most jobs in
business and industry
 Use tests to rank students or, at minimum, identify students as competent or
incompetent on basic skills
 Increase the number of students meeting competence in basic skills.
 Assure that the curriculum focuses narrowly on the basic skills rather than curriculum
options that address individual interests and needs
 Facilitate conditions under which students with challenges drop out of the system to
reduce costs

The fact is, of course, few school districts actually state that their prime mission is to serve as a
personnel department for business and industry. However, functionally many schools make this
clear by engaging in practices designed to insure such outcomes.
If, on the other hand, schools seek to help students achieve personal excellence and become
effective citizens, their learning activities must be organized quite differently. In such schools,
the curriculum would necessarily offer many rich opportunities rather than focusing only on
narrow basic skills. Students are nurtured to become adults who have skills, attitudes, and
knowledge to be productive community members, leaders, parents, as well as workers. Here’s
a short list that schools and teachers would be about in such schools:

 Help students identify their interests and abilities

 Support students in setting personal learning goals

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  Facilitate student involvement and learning in decision-making regarding their own
learning and the use of power and responsibility in the classroom and school
 Create a culture of care and community where students learn to support one another
and take responsibility for the well being of each other and the total community
 Facilitate students learning together in a diverse groups where they learn how to value
contributions of others and manage productive group work
 Teach students who are functioning at many differing levels of ability together in
heterogeneous mixes
 Assess student skills and learning styles to facilitate learning and promote personal
excellence

You might ask, “Can we not do both - educate for being a worker and for being a citizen?”
From one perspective, the answer is “Yes!” This is true because in working towards personal
excellence and citizenship, children and youth also learn how to be effective workers and
producers. However, it’s also true that you cannot organize a school and classroom around the
strategies for each approach at the same time. You can’t, for example, focus most of your
curriculum around basic skills in three subjects and give students opportunities for personal
excellence and learning skills of citizenship. The problem, of course, is that in the present
political environment, schools don’t have much choice in participating in some of the strategies
aimed towards education of workers as the goal of schooling. By law, schools must develop
standards and have their students take standardized tests.

The fact is that most parents and educators, when clearly asked, do not want education for
work as the prime outcome of schooling. some examples of mission statements of public
schools:

 To provide a wide array of instructional programs that assure core competencies and
nurture the unique talents of the individual and that are regularly revised to meet
current needs and anticipate challenges; to provide and regularly review a wide and
relevant array of extracurricular and co-curricular activities at all levels that foster

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 lifelong learning by nurturing the unique talents of each individual and promoting
social responsibility
 To prepare its students for responsible citizenship, sound character, lifelong learning,
and productive employment through programs and activities which challenge and
develop language literacy, mathematical proficiency, scientific competence, and social
maturity

Furthermore, the following can be considered as common purposes of schools. Helping

students to:

1. become an informed citizen

2. Be able to read for pleasure
3. Be trained in the rudimentary skills necessary for employment
4. Homogenize society, at least a bit
5. Pasteurize out the dangerous ideas
6. Teach future citizens how to conform
7. Teach future consumers how to desire
8. Build a social fabric
9. Create leaders who help us compete on a world stage
10. Generate future scientists who will advance science and technology
11. Learn for the sake of learning
12. Help people become interesting and productive
13. Establish a floor below which a typical person is unlikely to fall
14. Teach future citizens to obey authority
15. Increase appreciation for art and culture
16. Teach creativity and problem solving
17. Increase emotional intelligence
18. Decrease crime by teaching civics and ethics
19. Increase understanding of a life well lived

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1.1.2. Forms of schooling/Education
In the subsequent section therefore, the three forms of education, i.e. Formal, Non-formal and
Informal education will be discussed.
I. FORMAL EDUCATION
Formal education corresponds to a systematic, organized education model, structured and
administered according to a given set of laws and norms, presenting a rather rigid curriculum
as regards objectives, content and methodology. It is characterized by a contiguous education
process which necessarily involves the teacher, the students and the institution. It corresponds
to the education process normally adopted by our schools and universities. Formal education
institutions are administratively, physically and curricularly organized and require from
students a minimum classroom attendance.

There is a program that teachers and students alike must observe, involving intermediate and
final assessments in order to advance students to the next learning stage. It confers degrees and
diplomas pursuant to a quite strict set of regulations. The methodology is basically expositive,
scarcely relating to the desired behavioral objectives - as a matter of fact, it is but seldom that
such targets are operationally established.

Assessments are made on a general basis, for administrative purposes and are infrequently used
to improve the education process. Their character is, for the most part, punitive, obeying a
mono-directional methodology that fails to stimulate students and to provide for their active
participation in the process, though in most cases, failures are ascribed to them. The setting-up
of a formal education system does not consider the students’ standards, values and attitudes
that are relevant to the education system which, generally, is not tested or assessed at the level
of student acceptance, as well as for efficacy and efficiency. The same methodology - poor,
ineffective, scarcely creative - is adopted, whether the universe contains 10, 50 or 200 students.

Other institutional resources than the expositive method are seldom employed and, when they
are employed, the basic learning principles are disregarded. The subjects are presented in
isolated blocks, whether as to content or methodology. Thus, for instance, in the case of
Physics, for techno- administrative reasons the subject is divided into theory, laboratory and

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exercises and, their adequate order and correlation is disregarded. In general, the objectives
aimed at the personal growth of students are negligence and, the basic principles of learning
fail to be considered in the planning and the performance of education systems. It is not
excessive to say that in the case of formal education, for the most part teachers pretend to
teach; students pretend to learn; and, institutions pretend to be really catering to the interests of
students and of the society.

Thus, generally, formal education cannot disguise its aloofness from the real needs of the
students and of the community.

II. NON-FORMAL EDUCATION

As seen, formal education has a well-defined set of features. Whenever one or more of these is
absent, we may safely state that the educational process has acquired non-formal features.
Therefore, if a given education system is not presential most of the time - non-contiguous
communication - we may say that it has non-formal education features. Likewise, non-formal
education characteristics are found when the adopted strategy does not require student
attendance, decreasing the contacts between teacher and student and most activities take place
outside the institution - as for instance, home reading and paperwork.
Educative processes endowed with flexible curricula and methodology, capable of adapting to
the needs and interests of students, for which time is not a pre-established factor but is
contingent upon the student’s work pace, certainly do not correspond to those comprised by
formal education, but fit into the so-called non-formal education. Proportionally to the number
of formal education factors that are absent from a process, we find several grades of non-
formal systems.

These preliminary considerations emphasize the need clearly and objectively to establish the
possible basic features of non-formal education. This, however, is not an easy task. A
comprehensive and standard definition of non-formal education is not yet available in common
usage. Perhaps such a definition will not emerge until after much more study of the educational
issues and potentialities inherent in the variety of experiences now called non-formal education
has been done. As regards the distinction between both educational models, the implied and

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real distinctions between formal and non-formal education should be seen within a systematic
and holistic view of education. In the same paper, they remark that education remains
relatively undefined because the non-school view of education has merited little interest and
responsibility from educational planners. Notwithstanding the above, even a preliminary
analysis of the existing non-formal systems reveals the constant presence of two features: (a) -
centralization of the process on the student, as to his previously identified needs and
possibilities; and, (b) - the immediate usefulness of the education for the student’s personal and
professional growth. Non-formal education seems better to meet the individual needs of
students. According to Ward, et al. (1974) a systematic analysis of the main features of non-
formal education, diversely from formal schooling, shows that participants are led to non-
formal programmes because these offer the expertise that they hope to acquire and the
necessary assistance for a better understanding of their own selves and of their world.

It is but natural that if the education offered by schools is without value for a student’s life and
fails to prepare him to deal with daily problems, he will simply refuse to participate in
programmes that may finally disappear or, at best, have to be reformulated to gain significance
for students. As non-formal education is focused on the student, it perforce presents flexible
features as regards the initially established and adopted procedures, objectives and contents. It
is therefore, quicker to react in face of the changes that may affect the needs of students and of
the community. With basis on these preliminary considerations we may easily conclude that
the non-formal label encompasses a wide variety of educational systems endowed with features
that either lead them towards or away from the established formal systems. Thus, we might
infer the existence of a certain degree of continuity linking the formal and the non-formal
education. This view is not limited to a merely academic interest because, as will be seen
below, it is an extremely objective and practical one in the search for alternative solutions to
educational problems.
Given its scope, non-formal education is comprised of an ample diversity of educational
situations, many of which have played a significant role in the renewal of educational systems.
Example distance learning, open system etc

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 III. INFORMAL EDUCATION
Informal education is quite diverse from formal education and, particularly, from non-formal
education, although in certain cases it is capable of maintaining a close relationship with both.
It does not correspond to an organized and systematic view of education; informal education
does not necessarily include the objectives and subjects usually encompassed by the traditional
curricula. It is aimed at students as much as at the public at large and imposes no obligations
whatever their nature. There generally being no control over the performed activities, informal
education does not of necessity regard the providing of degrees or diplomas; it merely
supplements both formal and non-formal education.
Informal education for instance comprises the following activities: (a) - visits to museums or to
scientific and other fairs and exhibits, etc.; (b) - listening to radio broadcasting or watching TV
programmes on educational or scientific themes; (c) - reading texts on sciences, education,
technology, etc. in journals and magazines; (d) - participating in scientific contests, etc.; (e)
attending lectures and conferences. There are many instances of situations/activities
encompassed by informal education, from those that may take place in the students’ homes -
such as scientific or didactic games, manipulation of kits, experiments, reading sessions
(biographies, scientific news, etc.) - to institutional activities - lectures in institutions, visiting
museums, etc.

It is easy to see that the higher the degree of systematization and organization involved in
informal education activities, the nearer it will be to non-formal education. This is a relevant
fact in as much as it suggests the possibility of transition from informal to non-formal. We
must ponder that, considered by itself, we cannot generally assert whether an educative action
belongs to the formal, to the non-formal or to the informal universe. For instance, a visit to a
Science Museum may be an informal education instance if arising from a personal and
spontaneous decision by a student, as it is not directly related to his scholastic activities.
However, if such a visit is part of an established curriculum, requiring from students a written
report and including assessments by the teacher, or tutor, then it will probably be an activity
associated to either the formal or to the non-formal education.

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Diversity in Education
Why it is important to address Diversity?
As more and more students from diverse backgrounds populate 21st century classrooms, and
efforts mount to identify effective methods to teach these students, the need for pedagogical
approaches that are culturally responsive intensifies. Today’s classrooms require teachers to
educate students varying in culture, language, abilities, and many other characteristics. To meet
this challenge, teachers must employ not only theoretically sound but also culturally responsive
pedagogy. Teachers must create a classroom culture where all students regardless of their
cultural and linguistic background are welcomed and supported, and provided with the best
opportunity to learn.

For many students, the kinds of behaviors required in school (e.g., sitting in one’s seat and only
speaking when called on) and types of discourse contrast with home cultural and linguistic
practices. To increase student success, it is imperative that teachers help students bridge this
discontinuity between home and school (Allen & Boykin, 1992). Moreover, a culturally
responsive instructional environment minimizes the students’ alienation as they attempt to
adjust to the different “world” of school (Heath, 1983; Ladson-Billings, 1994). This brief
defines culturally responsive pedagogy and explains how it might be used effectively to
address the instructional needs of a diverse student population.

What is Culturally Responsive Pedagogy?

Culturally responsive pedagogy facilitates and supports the achievement of all students. In a
culturally responsive classroom, effective teaching and learning occur in a culturally supported,
learner-centered context, whereby the strengths students bring to school are identified,
nurtured, and utilized to promote student achievement. Culturally responsive pedagogy
comprises three dimensions: (a) institutional, (b) personal, and (c) instructional. The
institutional dimension reflects the administration and its policies and values. The personal
dimension refers to the cognitive and emotional processes teachers must engage in to become
culturally responsive. The instructional dimension includes materials, strategies, and activities
that form the basis of instruction. All three dimensions significantly interact in the teaching and

20
learning process and are critical to understanding the effectiveness of culturally responsive
pedagogy.
The Institutional Dimension: What Must the Educational System Do?
The educational system is the institution that provides the physical and political structure for
schools. To make the institution more culturally responsive, reforms must occur in at least
three specific areas (Little, 1999):
a. Organization of the school—this includes the administrative structure and the way it
relates to diversity and the use of physical space in planning schools and arranging
classrooms.
b. School policies and procedures—this refers to those policies and practices that impact
on the delivery of services to students from diverse backgrounds.
c. Community involvement—This is concerned with the institutional approach to
community involvement in which families and communities are expected to find ways
to become involved in the school, rather than the school seeking connections with
families and communities.

Although all three areas in the institution must become more culturally responsive, a particular
concern is the impact of school policies and procedures on the allocation of resources. As
Sonia Nieto (1999, 2002/2003) noted, we must ask the difficult questions: Where are the best
teachers assigned? Which students get to take advanced courses? Where and for what purposes
are resources allocated? We must critically examine the educational system’s relationship to its
diverse constituents. Not only must changes occur institutionally, but personally and
instructionally as well. The remainder of this brief addresses necessary transformations in the
personal and instructional dimensions.

The Personal Dimension: How Do Teachers Become Culturally Responsive?

Teacher self-reflection is an important part of the personal dimension. By honestly examining
their attitudes and beliefs about themselves and others, teachers begin to discover why they are
who they are, and can confront biases that have influenced their value system (Villegas &
Lucas, 2002). Because teachers’ values impact relationships with students and their families,

21
teachers must reconcile negative feelings towards any cultural, language, or ethnic group.
Often teachers are resistant to the notion that their values might reflect prejudices or even
racism towards certain groups. When teachers are able to rid themselves of such biases, they
help to create an atmosphere of trust and acceptance for students and their families, resulting in
greater opportunity for student success.

Another important aspect of the personal dimension is exploration. It is crucial that teachers
explore their personal histories and experiences, as well as the history and current experiences
of their students and families. With knowledge comes understanding of self and others, and
greater appreciation of differences. When teachers are unbiased in their instruction and
knowledgeable about themselves and their students, they can better respond to the needs of all
their students.
Specific Activities for becoming culturally Responsive Teacher
a. Engage in reflective thinking and writing. Teachers must reflect on their actions and
interactions as they try to discern the personal motivations that govern their behaviors.
Understanding the factors that contribute to certain behaviors (e.g., racism,
ethnocentrism) is the first step toward changing these behaviors. This process is
facilitated by autobiographical and reflective writing, usually in a journal.
b. Explore personal and family histories. Teachers need to explore their early experiences
and familial events that have contributed to their understanding of themselves as racial
or nonracial beings. As part of this process, teachers can conduct informal interviews of
family members (e.g., parents, grandparents) about their beliefs and experiences
regarding different groups in society.
c. Acknowledge membership in different groups. Teachers must recognize and
acknowledge their affiliation with various groups in society, and the advantages and
disadvantages of belonging to each group. For example, for white female teachers,
membership in the white middle-class group affords certain privileges in society; at the
same time being a female presents many challenges in a male-dominated world.

22
 Moreover, teachers need to assess how belonging to one group influences how one
relates to and views other groups.
d. Learn about the history and experiences of diverse groups. It is important that teachers
learn about the lives and experiences of other groups in order to understand how
different historical experiences have shaped attitudes and perspectives of various
groups.
e. Visit students’ families and communities. It is important that teachers get to know their
students’ families and communities by actually going into the students’ home
environments. This allows teachers to relate to their students as more than just “bodies”
in the classroom but also as social and cultural beings connected to a complex social
and cultural network.
f. Visit or read about successful teachers in diverse settings. Teachers need to learn about
successful approaches to educating children from diverse backgrounds. By actually
visiting classrooms of successful teachers of children from diverse backgrounds and/or
reading authentic accounts of such success, teachers can gain exemplary models for
developing their own skills.
g. Develop an appreciation of diversity. To be effective in a diverse classroom, teachers
must have an appreciation of diversity. They must view difference as the “norm” in
society and reject notions that any one group is more competent than another. This
entails developing respect for differences, and the willingness to teach from this
perspective. Moreover, there must be an acknowledgment that the teachers’ views of
the world are not the only views.
h. Participate in reforming the institution. The educational system has historically fostered
the achievement of one segment of the school population by establishing culturally
biased standards and values. The monocultural values of schools have promoted biases
in curriculum development and instructional practices that have been detrimental to the
achievement of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

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The Instructional Dimension: How Does Instruction Become Culturally Responsive?
When the tools of instruction (i.e., books, teaching methods, and activities) are incompatible
with, or worse marginalize, the students’ cultural experiences, a disconnect with school is
likely . For some students this rejection of school may take the form of simply underachieving;
for others, rejection could range from not performing at all to dropping out of school
completely. Culturally responsive pedagogy recognizes and utilizes the students’ culture and
language in instruction, and ultimately respects the students’ personal and community
identities.

Specific Activities for Culturally Responsive Instruction

a. Acknowledge students’ differences as well as their commonalities. While it is
important for teachers to note the shared values and practices of their students, it is
equally incumbent that teachers recognize the individual differences of students.
Certainly, culture and language may contribute to behaviors and attitudes exhibited by
students. For example, some cultures forbid children to engage in direct eye contact
with adults; thus, when these children refuse to look at the teacher, they are not being
defiant but practicing their culture.
b. Validate students’ cultural identity in classroom practices and instructional materials.
Teachers should, to the extent possible, use textbooks, design bulletin boards, and
implement classroom activities culturally supportive of their students. When the school-
assigned textbooks and other instructional materials perpetuate stereotypes or fail to
adequately represent diverse groups teachers must supplement instruction with
resources rich in diversity and sensitive in portrayal of individuals from different
backgrounds. By utilizing images and practices familiar to students, teachers can
capitalize on the strengths students bring to school.
c. Educate students about the diversity of the world around them. As the “village” in
which students live becomes more global, they are challenged to interact with people
from various backgrounds. When students are ignorant about the differences of other
groups, there is a greater probability of conflicts. Particularly in the classroom where

24
 student diversity is increasing, students need the skills to relate to each other positively,
regardless of cultural and linguistic differences. Teachers need to provide students with
learning opportunities (e.g., have students interview individuals from other cultures;
link students to email pals from other communities and cultures) so that they might
become more culturally knowledgeable and competent when encountering others who
are different.
d. Promote equity and mutual respect among students. In a classroom of diverse cultures,
languages, and abilities, it is imperative that all students feel fairly treated and
respected. When students are subjected to unfair discrimination because of their
differences, the results can be feelings of unworthiness, frustration, or anger, often
resulting in low achievement.
e. Assess students’ ability and achievement validly. The assessment of students’ abilities
and achievement must be as accurate and complete as possible if effective instructional
programming is to occur. This can only be accomplished when the assessment
instruments and procedures are valid for the population being assessed. In today’s
schools students possess differences in culture and language that might predispose them
to different communication practices and even different test-taking skills. Hence,
assessment instruments should be varied and suited to the population being tested.
f. Foster a positive interrelationship among students, their families, the community, and
school .When students come to school they bring knowledge shaped by their families
and community; they return home with new knowledge fostered by the school and its
practitioners. Students’ performance in school will likely be affected by the ability of
the teacher to negotiate this home-community-school relationship effectively. When
teachers tap into the resources of the community by inviting parents and other
community members into the classroom as respected partners in the teaching-learning
process, this interrelationship is positively reinforced.
g. Motivate students to become active participants in their learning. Teachers must
encourage students to become active learners who regulate their own learning through
reflection and evaluation. Students who are actively engaged in their learning ask

25
 questions rather than accept information uncritically. They self-regulate the
development of their knowledge by setting goals, evaluating their performance,
utilizing feedback, and tailoring their strategies. For example, by examining his or her
learning patterns, a student may come to realize that reviewing materials with visual
aids enhances retention, or that studying with a partner helps to process the information
better.
h. Encourage students to think critically. A major goal of teaching is to help students
become independent thinkers so that they might learn to make responsible decisions.
Critical thinking requires students to analyze (i.e., examine constituent parts or
elements) and synthesize (i.e., collect and summarize) information, and to view
situations from multiple perspectives. When teachers provide opportunities for students
to engage in this kind of reasoning, students learn how to think “outside the box.” More
important, these students learn to think for themselves.
i. Challenge to strive for excellence as defined by their potential. All students have the
potential to learn, regardless of their cultural or linguistic background, ability or
disability. Many students often stop trying because of a history of failure. Others,
disenchanted with a low-level or irrelevant curriculum, work just enough to get by.
Teachers have a responsibility to continually motivate all students by reminding them
that they are capable and by providing them with a challenging and meaningful
curriculum.

School culture and Leadership

School culture

Dear learner, what is school culture? School culture is a broader term and encompasses not
only how students and adults feel about their school but also the values, traditions,
assumptions, beliefs and ways that give the school its identity and specify its standards for
behaviour. School culture has a powerful effect on school community. It tells people in the
school what is truly important and how they are to act.

26
School culture is the pattern of values, norms, beliefs, attitudes and assumptions that may not
have been articulated but shape the ways in which people behave and things get done. Values
refer to what is believed to be important about how people and the organizations behave.
Norms are the unwritten rules of behaviour.
The definition emphasizes that organizational/school culture is concerned with abstractions
such as values and norms which pervade the whole or part of school.
They may not be defined, discussed or even noticed. Put another way, culture can be regarded
as a ‘code word for the subjective side of organizational life’. Nevertheless, culture can have a
significant influence on people’s behaviour.

At the root of any organization's culture is a set of core characteristics that are collectively
valued by members of an organization. Several such characteristics are especially important.
Organizations may be distinguished with respect to their basic values, such as the very
fundamental ones summarized here.
 Sensitivity to needs of customers and employees
 Freedom to initiate new ideas
 Willingness to tolerate taking risks
 Openness to communication options

Some Characteristics of a Positive School Culture

 Positive staff attitude and high morale

 Teamwork and the sharing of responsibilities
 A healthy and safe physical environment
 Opportunities for student involvement, commitment, responsibility and success
 High expectations for students and teachers
 Clear and effective communications of school expectations
 The nurturing of personal identity
 The encouragement and recognition of achievement
 Opportunities for shared activities and community interaction

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  Significant involvement of the parents and guardians
 The encouragement of risk-taking
 The acknowledgment of mistakes as part of learning

Leadership
Dear learner, how do you understand leadership? Leadership has been defined in various ways,
depending on whether the emphasis is behavioral, economic, or managerial. For the purpose of
this course, the behavioral orientation of leadership is considered, as the emphasis should be in
building up a willing and able workforce in an organization.
Thus, leadership may be defined as the art or process of influencing employees so that they
will strive willingly toward the realization of common goals (personal goals and organizational
goals). The leadership process consists of three elements the leader, the follower, and specific
situation in which leadership is exercised. And the essence of leadership is follower ship.
The important characteristics of leadership are:
 Leadership is a personal quality
 Leadership presupposes the existence of a group. It is only when there is group of
followers that the leadership can exist.
 Leadership aims at influencing people.
 Leadership can exist only when it is for the realization of common goals.
It should be noted that these characteristics of leadership are not peculiar to business
organizations only but are applicable, with equal force, in non-business organizations like
schools.

Significance of Leadership
The preceding discussions on the meaning and characteristics of leadership provide adequate
information on the extent to which leadership would help in the function of integration.
Leadership is said to have the following significance:
i) Improves employee motivation and morale
A successful leader influences the behavior of an employee in such a manner that he feels like
getting involved in the task of an organization. Leadership creates confidence in teachers and

28
sustains their moral and involvement in school goals. A motivated teacher is comparatively
free from moral problems.
ii). Leads to higher performance
Leadership is a motive power to group efforts. Leadership encourages group members to
higher level performance through its work on human relations.
iii) It is an aid to authority
The use of authority may not always ensure high performance. But leadership can obtain
desirable results by depending upon the use of influence. Thus, leadership provides the basis
for cooperation among the members of the work group and facilitates the use of formal
authority.
iv). Determines organizational effectiveness
The main task of leadership is to direct and unify the efforts and inclinations of the members of
a work group toward the achievement of desired common goals. If this task is not done
competently, the organizational/ school aims would remain unfulfilled which, over the period
of time, may even cause the ‘death’ of the organization.
Thus, it should be well understood that leadership plays a pivotal role in the task of
management of human resources insofar as it touches almost all the important phases of
management
In general, leaderships is an influence process; leadership involves the exercise of influence on
the part of the leadership over the behavior of one or more other people. In other words,
leadership essentially involves one person (the leader) consciously trying to get other people
(the followers) to do something that he/she wants them to do.

Culture and its Implications to Instructional Leadership

Effective leadership in schools in this era is linked to the leader’s ability to facilitate school
improvement. The obvious core of school improvement is the role of the leader as an
instructional leader; which is such a complex role. The teachers, staff members, students, and
pertinent stakeholders have to “buy in” to the vision of the leader and to assist the leader in the
implementation of school improvement. A variable that is directly related to school

29
improvement and to the roles, skills, traits, and perspectives of the leader is the culture of the
school.
Typology of Climate embraces culture as an integral part of climate. There are several
theoretical perspectives that link culture and climate and/or demonstrate an interrelationship
between culture and climate. Ecology (building characteristics, school size); milieu (student
and teacher characteristics); social systems (social interactions); and culture (belief systems
and values) are the four dimensions of climate. In addition to including belief systems and
values of organizations/schools, Hoy and Miskel (2008) suggest that culture includes the
norms, shared beliefs, rituals, and assumptions of organization.
An obvious goal for school leaders is for schools to develop and maintain strong cultures.
Schools with strong cultures will have effective leadership with exceptional student
performance. Deal (1985) identified eight attributes of effective schools with strong cultures:
1. Shared values and a consensus on “how we get things done around here”.
1. The principal as a hero or heroine who embodies core values.
2. Distinctive ritual that embody widely shared beliefs.
3. Employees as situational heroes or heroines.
4. Rituals of acculturation and cultural renewal.
5. Significant ritual to celebrate and transform core values.
6. Balance between innovation and tradition and between autonomy and control.
7. Widespread participation in cultural rituals.
Organizations have distinctive identities; on the basis of practical experiences. A school has
unique cultures; the link is consistently made to demonstrate the impact of culture on the direct
influences of both student achievement and job satisfaction of education.
There are thirteen possible characteristics identified by Phillips and Wagner for cultural
improvement in:
 schools-collegiality (the way adults treat each other;)
 efficacy (the feeling of ownership or capacity to influence decisions;)
 high expectations (excellence is acknowledged; improvement is celebrated;)
 experimentation and entrepreneurship (new ideas abound and inventions occur;)

30
 trust and confidence (participants believe in the leads and each other;)
 tangible support (efforts at improvement are substantive with abundant resources made
available by all;)
 appreciation and recognition improvement (people feel special and act special;)
 humor (caring is expressed through “kidding;”)
 shared decision-making by all participants (anyone affected by a decision is involved in
making and implementing the decision;)
 protect what is important (participant keep the vision and avoid trivial tasks;)
 traditions (celebrations open and honest
 communication (information flows throughout the organization in formal and informal
channels;) and
 metaphors and stories (evidence of behavior being communicated and influenced by
internal imagery).

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 UNIT THREE:
PARTICIPATORY APPROACH IN EDUCATION
3.1. The Essence of Participatory Approach in Education
The term “participation” can be interpreted in various ways, depending on the context.
Shaeffer (1994) clarifies different degrees or levels of participation, and provides seven
possible definitions of the term, including:
 involvement through the mere use of a service (such as enrolling children in school or using
a primary health care facility);
 involvement through the contribution (or extraction) of money, materials, and labor;
 involvement through ‘attendance’ (e.g. at parents’ meetings at school), implying passive
acceptance of decisions made by others;
 involvement through consultation on a particular issue;
 participation in the delivery of a service, often as a partner with other actors;
 participation as implementers of delegated powers; and
 Participation “in real decision making at every stage,” including identification of problems,
the study of feasibility, planning, implementation, and evaluation.

Shaeffer(1994) stresses that the first four definitions use the word involvement and connote
largely passive collaboration, whereas the last three items use the word participation instead,
implying a much more active role.
Shaeffer(1994) further provides some specific activities that involve a high degree of
participation in a wider development context, which can also be applied in the education
sector, including:
 collecting and analyzing information;
 defining priorities and setting goals;
 assessing available resources;
 deciding on and planning programs;
 designing strategies to implement these programs and dividing responsibilities among
participants;

32
 managing programs;
 monitoring progress of the programs; and
 Evaluating results and impacts.
"Participation is needed because basic learning needs are complex and diverse; meeting them
requires multi-sectoral strategies and actions which are integral to overall development efforts.
Many partners must join with the education authorities, teachers, and other educational
personnel in developing basic education if it is to be seen, once again, as the responsibility of
the entire society. This implies the active involvement of a wide range of partners - families,
teachers, communities, private enterprises (including those involved in information and
communication), government and non-governmental organizations, institutions". (WCEFA,
1990a:4).

The definitions given to terms associated with 'participation' have often remained vague,
confusing, and even contradictory. The distinction between 'participation' and 'involvement' is
a case in point. One author in the field "argues for the primacy of participation ahead of
involvement because "community participation means that the community has a right to be part
of the action, community involvement implies that the community is drawn into the action
(Hedley Beare quoted in Moyle and Pongtuluran 1992:8). The World Health Organization, on
the other hand, has said that "the term 'community involvement' has been given preference over
'community participation' because it is not sufficient merely to participate, which may be
simply a passive response; there should be mechanisms and processes to enable people to
become actively involved and to take responsibility for some decisions and activities jointly
with health professionals" (WHO: 1981).

Only recently has there been greater success in clarifying the definitions and essential
characteristics of participatory development. An extensive discussion in development literature
concerning participation of whom, in what, for what purpose, and to what degree - has helped
greatly in this regard (Myers, 1991; Hart, 1992). As a result, several different degrees or
definitions of participation in development can be described. One description, based on an
early work by Arnstein (1976), posits a 'ladder of participation', from non-participatory

33
activities to increasingly participatory activities where participants are 'assigned but informed',
then consulted and informed, then share decision making in activities initiated by others, and
then decide on and direct activities initiated by themselves (Hart, 1992).

Two important issues must be noted here. First, this definition represents a very ambitious goal
- an ideal - likely unreachable (at least in the short-term) by many, if not most, societies of the
world. The degree of participation able to be achieved in any given society, in other words, will
need to be assessed realistically based on its level of development and its political, social,
cultural, and economic context.

Second, achieving greater participation in a society is an evolutionary process; it is "a long-

term learning process and not a management tool. A government bureaucracy, a community
cooperative, a parent-teacher association do not suddenly, by fiat, become more participatory
in nature, leaping from the first degree of participation to the last – or even to the middle.
Rather, their willingness and ability to participate – and the feasibility of their doing so -
evolve over time, faster or slower (perhaps with some backward steps), depending on a number
of complex factors and conditions.

Having said this, however, it must be made clear that underlying all of the more participatory
approaches to development are several important implications and issues that planners and
managers as well as the political leadership of a government must understand. These all relate
to the general process of the 'restructuring' of educational systems. This process represents a
"significant change in the pattern of school governance, where governance refers to the norms
and practices of decision-making regarding three critical areas of school life: (1) instructional
methodology and curriculum; (2) administrative management and organization; and (3) the
generation, allocation, and use of resources" (Papagiannis et al, 1992).

3.2. Decentralization, Accountability, Autonomy, and Empowerment

3.2.1 Decentralization

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Decentralization is a process often particularly crucial in any attempt to facilitate the
participation of a broader range of actors in development. It transfers the decision making
power to the local community or to the beneficiaries of educational services. Decentralization
is another concept, however, fraught with multiple and often contradictory variations
(Rondinelli et al1990, Hallak, 1990, Bray, 1987, Bloomer, 1991). These include:

• Deconcentration: sometimes called administrative decentralization, involves handing over

more routine authority and decision-making owners from a higher level of the central
government to lower levels regional, district, cluster), still accountable to, and staffed by, the
central ministry.
• Delegation transfers (or lends) certain specific management responsibilities or some activities
to other units, governmental or non-governmental, implying somewhat stronger (but easily
cancellable) local autonomy..
• Privatization: is the divesting of functions to the private sector, to it her voluntary or for-
profit organizations.
• Devolution: (sometimes called political decentralization) strengthens sub-national units of
government and actually transfers considerable decision-making powers to local political
bodies’ relatively independent f the central government.

It is in the actual devolution of power to local lower-level bodies of government (and even to
community associations and NGOs) that the greatest scope for participatory development can
be found. This strategy is meant to achieve various results:
1. to generate more resources and assure their more equitable allocation and effective use
within the decentralized administrative units;
2. to improve the quality of decision-making and planning by making these processes more
responsive to indigenous cultures and to local conditions, needs, and practices;
3. to speed up the decision-making process and free the centre to focus on its legitimate
strategic concerns;
4. to encourage initiative, innovation, and participation;

35
 5. to increase local responsibility and accountability over issues more readily understood by local
management; and
6. to stimulate communication down and (especially) up the system of control.

But there are also problems with decentralization. It can lead to too much variety within a
system and greater inequity across the system.

The diversity and complexity of the services and policies which often result from
decentralization make necessary more systematic and sophisticated monitoring and training of
people working in such a system. And given the newly defined functions of powers of different
levels of the system, decentralization might require both careful planning and extensive
training and more staff, resources, and equipment, rather than less.

The important questions in this regard are: (1) what central powers are being decentralized
(e.g., only data collection and not policy-making? Only resource extraction and not allocation
and expenditure?), (2) why such decentralization is occurring (e.g., for the reasons listed above
or because an impoverished State can no longer finances its needed social services?); and(3) to
whom various levels in more decentralized systems are ultimately accountable.

3.2.2 Accountability
The second issue arising from more participatory approach is accountability - another word
that "continues to span a very wide variety of concepts and policies, making it an elusive
concept to grasp (Kirst, quoted in Stanford Educator 1991:10). Accountability relates to who is
required to report to whom about - and therefore can ultimately be held responsible for - the
determination and implementation of policies and procedures, the achievement of goals, the
performance of institutions, and compliance with standards and regulations.

3.2.3 Autonomy
Societies where multi-directional accountability occurs guarantee some degree of autonomy or
'self-government' to lower levels of the system. This includes both autonomy for organizations
to make and implement decisions regarding their own operations, and for individuals, to make
decisions regarding matters pertaining to their own concerns. Such autonomy, within a context

36
of accountability to other actors above and to clients below, can help to encourage better
management, higher professional competence, and more effective services.

3.2.4 Empowerment
One important outcome of more participatory processes will be empowerment. Greater
participation in a decentralized system, with multiple and more democratic processes of
accountability of more autonomous institutions, implies that people:
 gain knowledge and awareness of their own social, economic, and political conditions;
 take action - to make and act on choices and to construct "their own futures through a
process of analysis and action”;
 gain control over the goals and processes of development, and
 gain control over regulator institutions if it is accepted that participation should start at
the stage of conception and still be in evidence at the stage of supervision, then it is
necessary to agree to share certain elements of power (Bugnicourt, 1982:74).

The concept of empowerment has become especially important in attempts to move the
concept of participatory development from rhetoric to concrete practice. This concept is
perhaps best defined as "a group process where people who lack an equal share of valued
resources gain greater access to, and control over, those resources" (Bernard Van Leer
Foundation, 1990:2).
3.3. Major Goals of School-Society participation
The interest in greater participation in development derives from the belief that such
participation can achieve several goals. These include:
1. Ideological goals: to empower people in order to ensure their greater control over
development and their greater influence over decisions that affect them;
2. Economic goals: both to seek more resources from a wider range of actors and to share the
price of development by transferring some Costs from the 'suppliers' to the 'consumers';
3. political goals: from the government's side, to strengthen the legitimacy of the current
government and make people co-responsible for social problems; from the 'popular' side, to
gain greater share of power in policy-making and budget allocations;

37
4. Programmatic: to increase program or project demand, coverage, relevance, effectiveness,
efficiency, success, and sustainability; and
5. capacity-building: to develop new knowledge, skills, and attitudes and provide beneficiaries
a useful share in management tasks, monitoring, etc.
In general terms, a great part of the impact of participation and empowerment is said to lie at
the level of the individual, in the process of "human resource development”. Some of this
impact is cognitive. Through greater involvement in a variety of development activities, people
can gain more knowledge, learn better practice, and end with a greater awareness of the
development problems that exist, the causes behind these problems which may or may not be
amenable to local control), and, in some cases, their possible solutions.

Much of the same kind of impact occurs at the community level as well. Communities can
become less marginal and powerless, more self- reliant and independent, more accountable and
responsible. Such communities can:
1. gain greater control over information and local technologies;
2. form alliances and networks within their own area or across to others;
3. work toward the more efficient and effective management of local resources and, in the
longer term, greater ecological sustainability; and
4. develop skills (in management and resource mobilization), organizations (income-generating
schemes, women's clubs), and a "corporate identity" which can serve them well, both in
community development and as the basis for negotiating, from greater strength, with outside
institutions and bureaucracies.

The result can be greater community cohesion; a more integrated process of "community
learning" across formal, non-formal, and informal learning activities; greater economic
development and cultural unity; and the assurance that local services - such as education - meet
the needs, reflect the traditions and share the goals of the community.

3.3.1 Obstacles to school- Society Participation

38
For some participants the benefit of the participatory process is suspect; the participation
involves people who have less skills or knowledge than those responsible for making
decisions, are less accountable for whatever the outcome might be, or have a more self-
interested level of involvement or concern than perhaps might be expected of the ultimate
decision- makers. In these situations and for these people, participation is burdensome, an
unwarranted cost, and does little to improve the quality of the eventual decision (Brownlea,
1987:605).

It is important to make clear that participation - and any accompanying devolution of authority
and "empowerment of the masses" - should not be seen as a new panacea for
underdevelopment. It is a difficult, frustrating process, sometimes risky and often
unsustainable; both sceptics and advocates of participatory development recognize that it is a
process fraught with disappointments, dangers, and unnecessary promises.

(i) The difficulties of participation

Encouraging participatory approaches to development is difficult to do for several reasons.
First, many communities - perhaps especially those most disadvantaged - are not at all
homogeneous in nature. Social stratification, divisions along caste, religious, and ethnic lines,
personal rivalries and social factionalism, and the incompatibility of interests are all factors
which make it difficult to talk of 'community' mobilization through participation.

A community seen as 'natural' in some ways (such as a caste) may not necessarily be the
community most appropriate to mobilize towards a particular outcome (such as better
sanitation), and a community defined by geography, perhaps most appropriate for improving a
particular social service (such as sanitation), may be too driven with social discord to permit
mobilization.

Second, even where community members may want to work together, a major obstacle may be
the sheer lack of experience and skill in participatory and collaborative activities. Participation
by the community in development and the collaboration of the community with other partners

39
imply certain knowledge and skills: setting goals and priorities, running meetings, planning
budgets, accounting for resources.

Third, potential participants, especially those economically and socially weakest, may lack a
sense of self-confidence and political efficacy - the feeling that "individual political action does
have, and can have, an impact upon the policy process" (Campbell et al quoted in Chimwenje,
1992:25). They may also feel, or may have been encouraged to feel, that, given the overriding
authority of the government, they have little political power, few obligations beyond receiving
government services, and little ability to affect government policy.

Fourth, sceptics argue that marginal communities (and many governments) cannot bear the
added expense of participatory processes – especially in terms of financial resources and of the
time and energy required of participating community organizations, government agencies, and
individuals.

Fifth, participatory processes do not just happen by themselves or by fiat, but rather require
new and complex managerial and supervisory skills, attitudes, and behaviors. Principals able to
share authority within and across schools, teachers (especially those from another region,
ethnic group, or language group) able to carry out surveys of community needs, district officers
able to work with program staff of non-government organizations, central planners willing to
issue the regulations mandating community involvement in curriculum development - all of
these are not easy to develop in traditional bureaucracies and, once developed, to sustain.

Sixth, participation is often in conflict with a political culture where initiatives toward reform
may require clear sanction from above and where, for example, both parental participation in
designing (let alone questioning) school policies and flexible, non-standardized responses to a
variety of development contexts are difficult to imagine.

Seventh, and similarly, many institutions and individuals have a profound inability or
resistance to change. The inertia of inflexible systems, bureaucratic delays, the lack of
teamwork and co-coordinating mechanisms, the absence of clear rules as to who should do

40
what and when, poor technical support from those meant to provide it, and the fear of losing
control to other agencies, to lower levels of the system, or to outsiders - all make it difficult, at
least early in various reforms, to encourage new initiatives.

Eighth, and finally, such problems are compounded by more concrete administrative obstacles.
Logistical problems and staff turnover are notable in this regard; when staff trained in a more
participatory approach and method are transferred or resign, much time and effort are wasted.

Administrative procedures may also discourage collaboration. In some countries, for example,
ministry regulations forbid parent associations from involvement in 'academic' matters, and in
a number of countries more than one ministry may have responsibility for primary education.
This can make any innovation, let alone that based on greater popular participation, difficult to
implement.

3.3.2. The risks and uncertainties of participation

i. The risks of participation
Participatory approaches to development can also carry risks. First, these approaches can raise
expectations, and then frustrations, and lead to greater political and social instability.
Participation can also threaten the political order of things. In simple terms, for example, "how
many of the ruling elite would be comfortable with a critically conscious peasantry, and how
many teachers with a body of students who are developing critical consciousness?" The result
may be suspicion and fear among the elite and repression of the population.

Such approaches can also mislead marginal populations, who have little margin for risk, into
taking risks and then failing, with possible disastrous effects. And the lack of technical
expertise, supervisory skills and of a participatory grassroots tradition in many societies can
lead to failed projects and a decline in the quality of services provided.

Second, the participatory process may place greater power in the hands of the 'wrong' people -
factionalists, demagogues, racists, reactionaries. It can also be taken over by those parts of any
community - i.e., often corrupt and inefficient local elites and party cadres - most able

41
(financially and personally) to 'participate'. These groups may use their increased authority to
manipulate the 'participants' and extract further resources from them.

Third, a further risk of participatory processes may be the domination, at the local level, of
narrow community self-interest, which may be based on short-sighted perspectives and aim at
short-term benefits. This may lead to undue interference in school management or the demand
for favors in return for donations and support.

Fourth, another problem lies in the risk of tokenism- Participation, in other words, may end up
being 'system-maintaining', designed to "transform disadvantaged and disaffected groups into
'responsive citizens' implementing policies outlined by some higher authority", rather than
'system-transforming', designed to "effectively transfer political and economic power to
hitherto disadvantaged groups and thus to introduce more radical social change" (Pearse and
Stiefel l980:65).

ii. The uncertainties of participation

In addition to the difficulties and risks of more participatory processes in development, there
are also considerable uncertainties about it.
First is the sheer inability to know, and to show too there, when a participatory process has
succeeded. Participation and, as described above, its products are often psychological,
procedural is a process, or organizational in nature rather than concrete in terms of money
saved or services delivered. "As a process, participation evolves at its proper pace and rhythm,
adapted to the people involved rather than to bureaucratically or politically defined projects or
goals.
A second problem relates to the inability to standardize or generalize the implementation of
participatory development due to the different configurations of participation in various regions
of the world and even in different parts of a country.
Despite these problems, however, participatory approaches to development have proven
instrumental, in particular contexts and under particular conditions, in expanding the supply
and increasing the relevance of basic social services and in enhancing people's capacities as

42
individuals and as groups to improve their own lives and to take greater control over their own
development. This occurs most readily, of course, under two conditions: (1) that the users of
this approach recognize, and move to control, the possible negative aspects of participation
described above, and (2) that the dominant actor in development - the government - is
committed, at all levels, to working more collaboratively with, and encouraging the greater
participation of, other partners in development. The chapters which follow describe in greater
detail who these partners can be and how their greater participation in the development of
education can be enhanced.

3.4. Major Partnerships in School and Society Relation

3.4.1. Paternalistic and Populist Approach to Society Participation in Education
Two approaches appear to have dominated thinking about rural institutions. The paternalistic
approach assumes that rural people are passive and fatalistic, uninterested in improving their
lives, and incapable of initiative in making improvements. Consequently, everything must be
done for them (or to them) in a top-down, bureaucratic manner.

An opposing view is the Populistic approach which assumes that rural people are vitally
interested in change and completely capable of transforming their communities if only the
politicians and bureaucrats would leave them alone. Both approaches derive from unreal
stereotypes of rural people, who are both as inert and ignorant as the first assume, nor as
virtuous and wise as assumed in the second. On the whole, rural people are more capable and
responsive than the paternalistic model of social change suggests, but less able to change their
lives autonomously than the populistic model presumes....What should be developed is an
institutionalized system which is neither just top-down nor bottom-up nor exclusively
governmental.

3.4.2. Potential partners in school-society relation in education

The particular interest of this review is the development of more participatory approaches in
education. This includes the broader and more active partnerships both inside the system at the
central level and in the school and the greater collaboration of educational personnel and the
external community in planning, managing, and implementing educational programs. The

43
potential partners are many: teachers, head teachers, and local educational officials; parents
and members and leaders of the local community; community associations and non-
government organizations (NGOs); private enterprises and universities. For the purposes of
this analysis, we will focus on four major partners: two 'internal' (the government and its
officials, and the school) and two external (parents and the larger community surrounding the
school, and NGOs).

3.4.2.1. The government: bureaucracies and bureaucrats

What are the general characteristics of 'government' and its officials which affect their usual
reaction to more participatory approaches to development? To answer this question, we must
first differentiate between the political and the administrative sides of government. The
political side is critical for any discussion of participation. Depending on the government's
philosophy, legitimacy, and strength, it may ignore, resist, or actively prohibit greater
participation in society or permit, encourage, and actively facilitate it.

But even if the politics of a nation tend to encourage participation, the administrative side of
government may also do the opposite. Although bureaucracies - in education ministries as well
as in other sectors - may be effective managers of top-down development projects and
programs and may have a range of human and material resources, an extensive infrastructure,
and administrators and experts who bring to their work considerable knowledge, skills, and
experience, they also may possess several characteristics which work against more
participatory approaches to development.

i) Limited knowledge of, or sensitivity to, community conditions and local experience: Older
educational administrators often may have started their careers as teachers but then worked
many years in various parts and at various levels of the ministry structure, far from the
everyday reality of schools and communities.

In reference to another sector, but relevant as well to education, one observer describes a
common perception among government managers that "all knowledge, the necessary clinical

44
skills and insights, the right strategies, the right perceptions of the health problem s at the local
area, all supposedly reside at the centre of the centralized system" (Brownlea 1987:612).

One effect of this perception can be a particular set of attitudes toward the 'periphery'. This
includes:
 the retaining of firm control over the development process by the centre with full
confidence that the periphery will implement the centre's decisions as required;
 the assumption that lower levels of the bureaucracy are capable merely of
implementing policies and decisions made at the top;
 little appreciation of (or even scorn for) local or indigenous knowledge or creative
potential of what are seen as largely passive 'beneficiaries' especially in comparison
with the supposed expertise of professionals in the centre;
 little recognition of the potential or achievements of local institutions; and
 a kind of 'cultural arrogance' that none of these institutions could be more or less equal
in collaboration for development.
ii) A top-down mentality: "based on transmitting instructions from above, giving orders to
people below them, strictly obeying instructions received (or making a show of it) and making
the boss happy" (Pinney, 1983:43). Vertical communication, when it exists, flows down such a
structure, from the top to the bottom, with few opportunities for the reverse. This can lead to:
 the discouragement and even the fear of diversity and local initiative;
 the avoidance of open consultation and interaction, except with other professionals
speaking the same language;
 the desire to control information, events, and people;
 a resistance to change in structures or procedures; and, ultimately,• the principle
motivation of the public servant and the expert being the maintenance and control of
the status quo.
iii) Centralized, standardized, and routinized governmental structures and procedures: based
on departmental, sectoral, and/or disciplinary lines which make difficult any attempts to
respond flexibly to particular local conditions and needs and to integrate development efforts.

45
iv) Limited financial and human resources: With such a limited reach, governments may be
hard-pressed to implement the standardized policies they often seek to promote, let alone react
flexibly to the particular needs of diverse communities.

v) Inflexible procedures of planning, decision-making, implementation, evaluation and

accountability: This generally rigid approach is often reinforced by the importance given to
national goals of unity and integration and by the necessity imposed by both internal auditors
and external funders for detailed planning and budget cycles, work schedules, and target dates.

The particular weakness of the intermediate (regional, district, sub-district) level of

government. This level is necessarily a crucial actor in any kind of educational change,
especially given the variety of important roles it can play. These include:
 providing professional assistance and technical support to schools and their personnel,
 promoting the exchange of information across schools,
 mediating and channeling communication between the top and the bottom and passing
information both up and down the system,
 participating in the selection, placement, and promotion of teachers and principals, and
 given its links to a community beyond that of a particular school (e.g., intermediate-
level offices of other development sectors such as health and agriculture), connecting
the school to this wider range of potential partners and resources.

3.4.2.2. The school: heads and teachers

The school, as the major actors in educational development, is composed of both teachers and
managers. Both are included in this heading, though their roles in various contexts are often
quite different. In some systems, head teachers are seen as the lowest end of the government
bureaucracy, trusted to carry out its administrative tasks and deliver its educational instructions
to teachers; they therefore tend to share many of the characteristics of the government
administrators described above. In other contexts, however, head teachers are seen more as
senior teachers - above all responsible for pedagogical issues, with administrative tasks added
on, but generally treated in the same way as teachers by the bureaucracy.

46
ii) Underpaid, overworked, and demotivated teachers: Many teachers must work with
insufficient and irregularly paid salaries, poor promotion opportunities and living conditions,
the burden of excess subject content, reduced prestige, and either low enrolment and often
absent pupils or overcrowded classrooms.

iii) Lack of competence, experience, and authority of head teachers and other supervisors:
Heads of schools, as well as supervisors and inspectors, are often chosen more for seniority of
tenure (and nearness to retirement) than for expertise..

iv) The ambiguous position of teachers and head teachers: facing many of the particular
dilemmas like Are they merely part of an 'extended elite', representing the top? Are they go-
betweens and mediators between top and bottom? Or are they champions of the communities??
A lack of clear answers to these questions puts many teachers into difficult, ambiguous, even
conflictual situations.

v) The isolation and indifference of teachers: One result of such ambiguity is that teachers
often consider themselves masters or mistresses of their classrooms, fully trained and certified,
and for a similar reason, they also often 'disqualify' the experience of parents.

vi) The 'loosely coupled' nature of schools in relation to the larger education system: While
schools are part of a network of central, regional, and local interests they are often only weakly
linked, at the end of a long chain of command, to this bureaucracy. This makes problematic
both their constructive input to any reform process and the relevance and feasibility of any
decision made by the top about the bottom - and thus imperils the success of any central and
standardized reform at the school level.

3.4.2.3. The community: parents and local organizations

There exists an enormous gap between the power and authority of the educational
administration at the national level and that of parents. The educational administration
represents a wide and stable organization. Its personnel have extensive experience in

47
mobilizing resources and public support for the execution of their decisions. Parents, in
contrast, constitute an unorganized body which lacks a common ideological stand.

In general, especially in socially and economically marginal regions, communities are not
deeply involved as external actors in formal education. Depending on the nature of the
community, this may be also true for parents of children in school. There are several reasons
for this:
1. a lack of the time, energy, and sense of 'efficacy' required for such involvement;
2. a lack of appreciation of the overall objectives of education and a mismatch between
what parents expect of education and what the school is seen as providing;
3. the belief that education is essentially the task of the State; the length of time required
to realize the benefits of better schooling;
5. ignorance of the structure and functions of the school;
6. the school's disinterest or resistance to community or parental involvement in what are
often seen as specialized and professional matters; and
7. an underestimation by parents of their own competence in educational issues and the
fear of being blamed for their children's 'backwardness' (UNESCO:1990).
More involvement in education might therefore permit families and communities to accept
that: "their accountability in the education of children extends beyond the provision of material
requirements for schooling; that it includes the main responsibility of assisting, guiding, and
extending whatever help their children need to harness their potential; and that they equally
share the burden of education children with the teachers."

3.4.2.4. Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

NGOs see development "not merely as an activity geared towards producing a certain output
but as a process of developing community motivation and awareness, of promoting people's
abilities so that they can help themselves and, in turn, create a self-reliant community and
nation (Hadad 1983).

48
Governments often see NGOs as "being unprofessional, dogging, poorly organized, non-
comprehending gaggles of usually undisciplined, if well-meaning, civilians". (Mahabir,
1992:81).As NGOs play an increasingly large role in the collection and distribution of
development assistance, their involvement in the planning and delivery of development
program also mounts.

In ideal terms, NGOs are most often described as people-centered, flexible and responsive,
creative, democratic and non-hierarchical, cost-effective and pragmatic, with rather large
margins for error, and often independent and non-aligned. They generally develop as the result
of community support, are able to tap local knowledge and resources, and usually have a small
core of paid staff and (often) many volunteers.
NGOs may also have quite rigid and bureaucratic structures (perhaps the result of too much
success) and be understaffed and poorly managed, with limited financial accountability, a lack
of professional training, a concern for only short-term change and a narrowly-defined clientele,
and an agenda closely tied to political ends and organizations. Whatever their characteristics,
NGOs generally seek to carry out several functions:
providing development services in those fields, activities, or regions either underserved by
government or parallel to those provided by the government, often with greater effectiveness
and equity.
experimenting and testing new approaches to development and service delivery;
increasingly, within individual countries and internationally through networks and federations,
exploring new issues of social concern and serving as advocates and 'noise makers' in regard
to issues such as the environment and health, human rights, women's issues, and peace and
helping to build consensus and initiate policy change around such issues (Bhatnagar, 1990);
empowering the poor and the oppressed and building and strengthening people's
organizations and community associations; and
"Strengthening civil Society in its relationships vis-à-vis the State and the ruling elites"
(Tandon, 1992:31) by re-energizing and rejuvenating social movements; promoting
democratic practices and processes; and encouraging citizen engagement with public policy
issues.

49
NGOs, on the other hand, often believe that government official s and bureaucracies are
inefficient, cautious, and slow, with a limited capacity for intellectual and technical inputs,
more interested in personal gain than social welfare, dominated by corruption, biased toward
support to the elites and other civil servants, and ignorant of the real problems of the people
(Pinney 1983, Picon 1990). The result of all of these factors can be jealousy, the inability or
unwillingness to seek compromise or clarify respective responsibilities, and the taking of
refuge in technical approaches by government and in ideological rhetoric by NGOs. NGOs also
have fears concerning their links with governments:
 the fear that increased funding of NGOs may lead towards the privatization of services
to the poor and thus the withdrawal of the State from its social responsibilities;
 the risk that the increasing co-ordination of NGOs, either through government
regulation or donor preference, might harm their principal focus on decentralized,
community-based initiatives;
 the belief that more frequent legislation and regulation concerning NGOs in the
developing world may cripple rather than support their activities; and
 the belief that as NGOs become sub-contractors for development programs designed
and funded by others they will lose their role as creative, responsive actors in their own
right.

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 UNIT FOUR
AREAS OF SOCIETAL PARTICIPATION IN EDUCATION
4.1 The Diagnosis of Educational Conditions, Needs, Priorities, and Resources
4.1.1. The Importance of Community Involvement in the Diagnosis of Educational
Conditions, Needs, Priorities and Resources

Encouraging participation of different community members in the process of educational needs

assessment will help teachers to better understand the population's own perceptions, priorities,
and capacities regarding educational activities. Particularly, it will enable:
 to make a more accurate need assessment
 to identify relevant educational goals and objectives
 to increase the motivation of the learners, parents, and the community
 to identify the main effects of emergencies on education
 to assess available human resources
 to assess existing education facilities and services

Teachers can play a special role in educational needs assessment, but they cannot do it alone.
In addition to providing personal suggestions for program development and implementation,
teachers may be particularly able to encourage parent and community participation in
assessment of educational needs, resources, and available facilities. This can be facilitated in
the following ways:
1. Seeking parent and community opinion. such as the location of new schools or the kinds of
skills children should obtain in school. individual and group interviews can help in this regard.
2. Forum for the synthesis of data and the setting of educational priorities. In
School/parent/community associations become especially important for the analysis of the data
collected and the identification of priorities among these needs.

4.1.2. The participatory process of Diagnosis

A more participatory process of diagnosis entails two things: (1) The creation of a data-based
development 'profile' of the community, especially in the sector of education, and (2) The

51
development of mechanisms to encourage the involvement of members of the community in
the process.

4.1.2.1 The creation of a community profile

The creation of a community profile can help clarify the development problems of a
community and the potential role of education in resolving these problems. It requires the
surveying of a variety of different issues as illustrated below. These include:
(a) Indicators and needs of general development
 Population dynamics and health status
 Economic development, income levels, and employment patterns
 Housing and transportation
 The existence of disadvantaged areas or groups
(b) Indicators and needs of educational development
 Absolute totals and rates of enrolment, graduation, and literacy
 Pupil-teacher ratios
 The magnitude and causes of non-participation, of both pupils and teachers
 Gender imbalances in education
 Education of opportunities (pre-school, illiterate, unemployed youth, ethnic minorities)
 The status of mother-tongue education and of traditional knowledge in school
(c) Available local resources
 Available educational programmes and facilities, in and out of school
 Financial and human resources
 Local organizations and other sectors involved in education
(d) Educational processes
 Patterns of school management
 Teaching-learning processes
(e) The nature of participation in education
 The motivation and activities of teachers
 The extent to which parents and community organizations are involved in education
(f) Educational needs and priorities

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  What is more important: greater quantity (more places) or higher quality (better
teaching, more relevant content)?
 Where should new schools be located (school mapping)?
 What are priorities?
 by level (pre-school, primary, secondary, adult?)
 by type (academic or vocational?)
 by pupil gender (a special focus on girls?)

Mechanisms and procedures to gather data on these issues (especially those relating to
educational processes, priorities, and existing resources) may not exist at all in a given area.

4.1.2.2 The involvement of more actors in diagnoses

Several mechanisms might be used to enhance the participation of these partners in such an
exercise. Some relate to the collection of data whereas others are more concerned with data
analysis and priority-setting.
(a) More consistent, systematic, and integrated data collection. On the assumption that in
many countries considerable data related to the issues discussed above is already gathered
at the local level by many different agencies and sectors (local government, health clinics,
agricultural extension agents, education offices).

(b) The seeking of parent and community opinion. In addition to the often regular diagnosis of
development needs, special emphasis could be placed on collecting the opinions and
aspirations of parents and other community.

(c) The involvement of other actors in diagnoses. As a kind of 'extension agent' of the Ministry
of Education and, in many communities, still among the most educated and respected of its
members, teachers may not only have something useful to say about education; they may
also be particularly able to gather and synthesize the needs and priorities of the community.

(d) For a synthesis of data and the setting of priorities. A variety of informal or more formal
mechanisms (e.g., the school/parent/community association) may be developed as fora for

53
 the analysis of the data collected, the synthesis of the data into felt needs, and the
determination of priorities among the needs identified.

4.2. Policy making and Governance

4.2.1. The need for School Governance
A more decentralized governance structure is needed so that schools, as unique educational
entities, can offer their local communities the services, programs, and activities which they
desire....If adults are going to develop this ownership and commitment to their local schools,
the governance of education must be decentralized so they can participate in decision-making
activities, at the local school level, which directly influence the quality and quantity of
education offered to children. The school committees, school councils or parent-teacher groups
establish to facilitate participatory decision-making must be based on a collaborative
management philosophy of governance" (Sander; Murphy, 1989:41).

4.2.2. The Concept of Governance in Education

The term 'governance' can cover a wide range of activities. For the purpose of education it
includes:
1. "The establishment, modification, and implementation of schools' goals and objectives.
This type of involvement would allow parents and teachers to shape the tone of their
school to have it conform to their value systems, and truly address their perception of
the type of schooling their child receives" (Gregg, 1982:46).
2. the selection of specific targets related to areas such as:
 enrolment, attendance, and retention rates
 academic results
3. the development of school policies in regard to:
 pupil enrolment, attendance, absenteeism, and promotion pupil discipline
 staff management by setting of required qualifications, recruitment, training,
monitoring, disciplining, and remuneration
 school calendars and class timetables
 class size and allocation

4. The planning of school programmes designed for:

 improving school quality (reducing class size, organizing in service training for
teachers, buying additional textbooks)

54
  providing remedial/special education for disadvantaged groups
 encouraging productive work

5. The determining of a .school's annual financial requirements and bud get, including costs of:
 construction and maintenance
 materials and textbooks
 staff development programmes
 funding special programmes

6 The collecting of funds from sources such as:

 the central Ministry
 local government
 parents and community groups
 private enterprises
 NGOs
 productive activities of the school

7. The managing and accounting for school finances

4.2.3. Models of school governance
One author has described three models of educational governance.
i. "The administrative model leaves educational governance to the central office or
other offices down the hierarchy where power has been delegated.
ii. The professional model leaves governance to the professionals at the school site on
the grounds that they are the best to determine the needs of learners and best
capable of developing structures to satisfy such ends.
iii. The participatory model is one which aims at involving 'lay' people or communities
and parents" (Chimwenje, 1992:8).

The last two models imply some kind of devolution of authority from the centre to the regional,
district, and, above all, school levels. It is such devolution which leads ultimately to greater
school based-management and reform -bringing the authority to create better learning
conditions closer to the spot where teaching and learning occur.

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"The most effective policies are those that either have originated on site or use the input from
and participation by teachers, administrators, and the community to support teachers and the
school.

4.2.5. Mechanisms to Enhance Community Participation

A variety of mechanisms exists which can be used to enhance their participation. Some of
these are restricted to actors within the school -i.e, the greater involvement of teachers -while
others include the participation of partners from outside the school: parents, community
organizations, NGOs, private enterprise, and other local actors.
1. At the school level

Three mechanisms for greater participation are available: these are;

a. school management councils or head teacher-teacher committees, perhaps based on
a division of labor among senior teachers, assistants, deputies, academic department
chairs and committees for such areas as pupil discipline, guidance and counseling,
and extracurricular activities
b. school clusters -the collective management of several schools, usually relatively
close to each other in location and often quite homogeneous in nature
c. District/sub-district level organizations such as head teacher councils.
2. Outside of school,

It may be the parent/teacher association or the village education committee which has a say in
the governance of individual schools or groups of schools.
Such associations and committees can do a number of things. This can include first the
establishment and implementation of school targets and work plans.
4.3 Community’s Participation in the Instructional Process
4.3.1. The Need for Community Participation in the Instructional Process
This suggests community participation in managing the structures of education, i.e.,
governance, work culture, and, in instructional organization, most particularly, the curriculum.
Some school administrators believe that the local people are not knowledgeable enough to take
part in curriculum building at the local level. This is an erroneous impression. Because,

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  Community citizens have bona fide interest in the local school. They have invested
their money, time, and effort in the building of the school.
 Besides, their children attend the local school. They deserve to know what is taught at
the school and also should take part in the building of the curriculum. They should be
directly or indirectly involved in the teaching and learning process as resource
persons". (Commonwealth Secretariat, 1992:58, 62).

4.3.3. Areas of Community’s Participation in an Instructional Process.

The phrase 'instructional process' covers a wide range of activities. This might include:

4.3.3.1. Determining the content (curricula, syllabi) of what is taught in schools

There are a number of reasons why teachers and the community should be more involved in
areas related to the curriculum and material development. In general,
(a) The involvement of teachers in developing teaching materials and especially in filling in
national curricula and syllabi with content more relevant to local conditions and needs can help
ensure the presentation of material of direct use to their pupils. It can also make teachers feel
greater 'ownership' of the school and of what they teach in it;
(b) the involvement of pupils, parents, and community leaders in the collecting, processing,
analysis, and interpretation of local information may help to ensure the use of local content, the
greater articulation between school and community and the inclusion of family and community
culture in the school, the marriage of traditional and modern knowledge, coverage of local
culture and history, and the inclusion of economically-relevant practical subjects (Punch and
Bayona 1990);
(c) because participation calls for actual hands-on experiences by resource persons in the local
community, their involvement in curriculum design informs them better as to their possible
instructional role (Commonwealth Secretariat 1992:59); and
(d) Involvement in such an activity helps convince both teachers and the community that they
have some 'ownership' of what goes on in the school.
Such involvement can be encouraged in two ways:

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  Surveys or studies of knowledge and skills useful for children of the community. This
includes knowledge in regard to cultural beliefs and events, health and nutrition, the
local economy and environment; and
 The development of syllabi and teaching materials (lesson plans, exercises,
examinations) through teacher, parent, and/or community curriculum panels.

The involvement of parents and the community in developing local content works as follows:
1. The community assists the school staff (teachers and the head teacher) by providing
information and suggestions during the stage of identifying local content.
2. The community leaders (culture, religion, business) make consultative judgments and have
formal and informal discussions to determine whether the content of the local curriculum is
in accordance with certain criteria.
3. The teachers as well as the KKG often request other leaders to provide information on the
details and interpretation of the local content as the teachers may not know how to teach
them.
4. Some schools employ resource persons/community leaders to help teach in the schools or
demonstrate certain aspects of local content.

4.3.3.2. Delivering the required content

Parents and other members of the community can be encouraged and even tutored and trained
to participate more actively in the teaching learning process. This may be limited to motivating
or helping their children at home and include:
 Encouraging children to do school work at home
 helping to organize a study timetable
 establishing a time and a quiet, well-lighted place for regular study at home
 listening to children tells about their day at school
 monitoring their progress in school
 reinforcing positive attitudes about school and learning
 reading to children (if the parents are literate) and listening to them read
 Encouraging enrolment, retention, and attendance (Redding, 1991, Williams, J. 1992)

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Parents and other community members may also teach specialized subjects, such as local crafts
and trades, customs, and history, principles of chieftaincy, sex education, and health and
agricultural practices. For example, in the Colombian Escuela Nueva, "the local artisan able to
prepare clay is asked to teach the small children to manipulate the clay for molding their first
letters. As a result of such activity, the artisan participates in school activities and his work is
valued, the teacher gets learning materials, and the children learn to read in an interesting way"
(Arboleda, 1992:37).

4.3.3.3. Training and upgrading teachers

Both teachers themselves and the community can also be more active in the actual training of
(other) teachers. This can be done through:
(a) in-school or in-cluster upgrading, including the assessment by teachers of their own training
needs and subsequent peer training, and
(b) Participation of parents and community members in professional development programmes.

The community can also be involved in some kinds of teacher training. Such involvement is
particularly useful in training teachers about local language and cultural requirements of pupils
and in introducing new teachers to the tradition, habits, and facilities available in the
community where they will teach (Tatto, 1992).

4.3.3.4. Monitoring and evaluating school quality, achievement and results

Parents and community groups, though usually kept clearly away from what are considered
'professional' matters of teaching processes, may also have a role to play in monitoring and
supervising classroom performance and teacher absenteeism (Durning, 1989). This includes:
(a) The regular opening of the school and its 'products' to parents and the community (e.g.,
observation of classes, open days, school fairs). They may also serve as an 'audience' for
demonstrations of pupil achievement, such as student writing;
(b) Regular status/progress reports from the head teacher on school conditions and results;

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 (c) The involvement in monitoring school quality (e.g., in areas such as the adequacy of
facilities, the attendance and behavior of pupils and teachers, and the achievement of
school targets); and
(d) Helping to identify indicators of success, participate in data collection and analysis, and
then use the results for subsequent programme planning.

4.4.2. The Benefits of Community Participation

i) At the individual level
Individual, in the process of "human resource development". Some of this impact is cognitive;
more knowledge, learn better practice, and end with a greater awareness of the development
problems that exist, the causes behind these problems.

Some of the impact is also psychological; people feel greater self-confidence and self-reliance,
s dependence on external inputs and 'wisdom’, greater pride in the significance and validity of
local knowledge and experience, a greater sense of accountability and responsibility for their
own cations, less of a feeling of marginalization and powerlessness.

ii) At the level of community

Communities can become less marginal and powerless, more self-reliant and independent,
more accountable and responsible. Such communities can:
1. Gain greater control over information and local technologies;
2. Form alliances and networks within their own area or across to others;
3. Work toward the more efficient and effective management of local resources and; and
4. Develop skills (in management and resource mobilisation), organisations(income-generating
schemes, women's clubs), and a "corporate identity" which can serve them well, both in
community development and as the basis for negotiating. The result can be greater community
cohesion.
iii) At the level of society
In the best of circumstances, such achievements at the community level also benefit the society
at large. Greater participation within a society can lower development costs (e.g., through
more volunteer labour and the use of more local expertise and resources),

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 UNIT FIVE
METHODS TO PROMOTE SOCIETAL PARTICIPATION IN EDUCATION
"The relationship between the school and the community will depend on the type of social
relationships prevailing in the country concerned. In a closed and hierarchically segmented
society, it will be very difficult to establish participatory relationships between the school and
the community.
In order to change, institutions we must go for changes. Clearly, speaking collaboration in
education can be successful if individual schools, clusters, and district offices wanted to
provide better education and were willing to work collaboratively to achieve it. More
particularly, the following norms and the resulting bureaucratic climate' seem to be critical in
the development of more participatory approaches to education.

5.1.1 Institutional and individual openness

Openness is the first norm, is to the outside world, to new ideas and new ways of doing things,
or to changes in social life. Such openness includes individual schools and their staff, the
education system and the bureaucracy in particular and the national political and cultural
environment in general.

5.1.1.1 The national political and cultural environment

Nations differ from one another in the extent to which their culture and the existing political
and social system permit pluralism, involvement with the world outside of their borders. They
also differ from one another particularly in regard to the kind of structural openness permitted;
e.g., laws and practice related to the existence and nature of political parties, non-government
organizations, and civic associations.
The process of encouraging participation will be enhanced to the degree that the national
environment is an open one. Many would argue that genuine participation is "feasible only in a
political system in which efforts are undertaken to remedy economic and social injustice"
(Bude, 1985:275).
However, different cultures and political systems, at different periods in their evolution, are

61
characterized by different degrees of complexity and stability. Therefore, they require different
degrees of openness, transparency, permeability, and flexibility.

5.1.1.2 The education system

Experience gained from different countries showed that schools and the systems in which
innovations flourish need to be both 'permeable' in their receptivity to, and willingness to
accept, new ideas, and flexible in adapting to them within a given society, individual systems
and sectors both reflect the nature of the macro-political and cultural system.

There are four things in the analysis of the openness of the education system:
 the extent of openness to input from, and collaboration with, other sectors of
development, such as health and agriculture;
 the extent of openness to ideas and actors at lower levels of the system (e.g. at schools)
where genuine change needs to take place;
 the extent of the system's adaptability to the local context in which education takes place
such as delivery/content, local values and needs, economic and cultural factors; and
 the extent of openness to change and innovation: loosen regulations stress on training
programmes, that provide incentives for innovations in the system's.

5.1.1.3 Schools
"Schools should be encouraged to develop a more complex picture of their community because
on the one hand it serves parents who supply children and on the other hand it serves the
government who employ the graduates of the school system. Therefore, individual schools,
too, can reflect, the dominant political and bureaucratic behaviour of a given society.
There are several important issues in this regard, including the extent to which schools:
 are 'welcoming' to parents and the community and seek to have a dialogue with them;
 are open to "gaze, support, and appropriate intervention" of parents and the community;
 are 'permeable' – schools should accept, adapt, and experiment with ideas coming
One potential benefit of opening the school to the community is to establish more clearly and
directly the link between good education and greater parental and community demand and
support for education.

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5.1.2 Commitment to participation
This norm is a consistent, system-wide commitment and support to collaboration,
participation, and partnerships, across and among various actors in schools and communities
and within the central government. This should include a commitment to "removing obstacles
to participation - ideological, structural, and administrative". Such a commitment needs to be
reflected in both 'administrative will' and 'political will'.
Even lower down in the system, there must be continuous commitment to collaboration, from
the district office and from school and cluster officials, especially the head teacher. In other
words, that people from quite different traditions, disciplines, levels, and sectors can exchange
perspectives, share experiences, and learn from each other.

5.1.3 Autonomy and empowerment

This norm is used to facilitate self- determination among its clients or within the community
with which it is dealing. The role of a government agency in this case is to provide support for
community initiatives and to make available modest amounts of unrestricted resources.
The third norm is greater professional and social autonomy and empowerment both down to
lower levels of the system, especially at the school level, and out to other actors, at the
community level.
Thus, any attempt to encourage greater participation in development must begin from an
analysis of:
(a) nature of distribution of power ( down the system, out to other actors, to the school
(b) role of centre in controlling, enabling, and/or empowering its potential partners.
The center’s role in such a process is played out through a variety of instruments. These
instruments, give to the centre a certain relationship in regard to the other actors. This
relationship can be:
(a) controlling - actions of lower levels and actors are prohibited, restricted and monitored;
(b) enabling - "to provide the political, administrative, and policy framework within which
communities and non-governmental agencies can implement activities".
(c) empowering -centre surrenders considerable control to other partners, other sectors, and

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 lower levels of the system.
5.2 Mechanisms: collaborative structures and organization
It can be argued that genuine and systemic collaboration will only ultimately be achieved
when the norms discussed above are internalized and accepted throughout the bureaucracy.
Achieving this often requires a variety of political, cultural, even economic developments well
beyond the powers of a Ministry of Education.
Another very important requirement is the strengthening of horizontal relationships across a
wide range of actors at all levels of the system. This relationship includes:
5.2.1 Strategies at Macro-Level of Education System
At the top levels of the bureaucracy, planners, managers, administrators, and policy-makers
can be encouraged to implement two kinds of mechanisms and strategies related to the
facilitation of greater collaboration for educational change: (1) those structures and procedures
needed to make possible such collaboration at their own levels, and (2) those needed to
encourage it at the school level.
We need to understand current policies and practices in regard to such collaboration. These
include the following areas of potential partnerships:
(a) Across departments and units of the Ministry.
(b) With other development sectors and ministries. For instance, the MoE may develop an
extensive school health programme using the medical expertise of the Ministry of Health.
(c) With non-government organizations and professional associations.

Equally strong horizontal structures and networks are also required, of public, private, and
non-government organizations, at both national and provincial levels. These include:
(a) Intra-ministerial task forces- relationship between units of the Ministry, to ensure
coordination in the planning, development, and implementation of projects and
programmes.
(b) Inter-ministerial committees- is used to encourage co-operation across ministries in
achieving shared goals and coordinating joint projects
(c) NGO coalitions, to encourage collaboration among NGOs, help them establish a common
position in regard to the government and division of labour among them;

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(e) provincial or national parent groups established to provide support to local PTAs and
education committees;
(f) the use of the mass media (print, radio, television) both to disseminate information about
successful partnerships and to mobilize governmental and community participation.
(g.) joint planning, budgeting, implementing, training, and monitoring activities, across and
among various actors to make collaboration goes beyond rhetoric into actual practice.
5.2.2 The Strategies at the micro-level of the school and the community
At the school-community level three types of structures and mechanisms can be identified
which can help to encourage greater participation:
(1) Within and across schools, (2) between the school and parents, and (3) more generally
between the school(s) and the community and local government
(a) Mechanisms within and across schools:
This kind of activity is limited to the 'school community'; and includes:
• regular staff meetings in schools,
• Subject-specific panels or committees,
• local branches of teacher or association able, for eg, to run in-service training courses,
• various kinds discussion groups, teacher clubs, head-teacher, clubs, and teacher centres
• school clusters, with or without 'nuclear' or model school and supporting cluster offices
The school cluster movement, the administrative grouping of schools in close geographic
proximity for educational purposes, has proven especially prominent in Latin America and has
taken root on other continents as well. In Latin America, clusters are usually called 'nucleos'.
School clusters share many common purposes:
• economic (sharing resources)
• pedagogic (staff development and curriculum improvement);
• administrative (accountability through testing and monitoring, reporting information and
• political (raising awareness of problems of economic and social development and of
government programmes to meet such problems.

(b) School/parent/community activities

There are a variety of ways through which the school can open itself to parents and the

65
community through specific activities rather than through organized associations. While
relatively low on the range of participation (with parents largely an 'audience' at school-
organized events), such activities might be useful in mobilizing parental interest in what is
happening in school and as a first necessary step towards the evolution of greater and more
meaningful participation.
(c) Structures between the school and parents.
These include parent associations and parent-teacher associations. These may be formed
around individual classes, grades, and/or the entire school and depending on their mandate, the
power of a school management committee or a school board.
Ultimately, perhaps, this kind of organization can become what has been called the 'school
community' which "brings families and school personnel together for a central and noble
purpose - to enhance the academic and personal development of the children they share"
(Redding 1991:153).
Such a community is based on several precepts:
• pupil learn more, when sense of community prevails among families and school
personnel
• that school can create such a community bound together by attachment to a common
institution and by adherence to explicit educational values;
• that a school council of the principal, teachers, and parents, can adopt such values,
transform them into goals, establish and define expectations for all community
members, (Redding 1991).
(d) School and community organizations: beyond the PTA
Organizations may have different names and structures. They can be a school management
committee, a board of governors, or a school board. Their members can be nominated
representatives of important formal institutions in the community (such as local religious
bodies, local government, and NGOs).
Any of these groups may have several functions
• developing a general educational policy for the school;
• formulating annual programmes in terms of enrolment, retention, and achievement;

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 • supervising, maintaining, and improving school grounds and buildings;
• making arrangements concerning joint use of school facilities;
• participating in the selection of principals and deputies;
• employing ancillary staff;
• administering grants and resources;
• mobilising additional resources (e.g., for teacher housing, extra classes for teachers);
• monitoring and evaluating ongoing programmes;

5.2.3 Some considerations to implement the mechanism

(i) By the central level, for the central level
At the level of the central government, variety of policies and procedures can be implemented
to develop more collaborative and participatory processes of government. These are:
(a) Procedures and guidelines can be developed to ensure greater inter-sectoral and inter-
departmental collaboration in education,
(b) Legislation, policies, and practices concerning the role of NGOs, community
associations, teacher organizations, in the national education system can be reviewed.
(c) Intra-ministerial collaboration may also be encouraged to ensure that various units of the
Ministry support new policies related to participation.
(d) The national media, especially print and radio addressed both to officials at lower levels
of the bureaucracy and to the population can be encouraged to reinforce participation.
(ii) By the central level, for the school and community
Actions can also be taken at the central level for the sake of encouraging a context more
supportive of participation at the micro-level. These include many significant decisions in
regard to the system's general approach to planning and administration.
The first relates to national, system-wide policies and guidelines concerning:
1. desired levels and types of decentralization to, and autonomy for, district offices, clusters, and
schools, and
2. the desired role of teachers, parents, and the community in various areas such as needs
assessment, school governance, and the instructional process.

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Here it is necessary to define whether and how much local adaptation and variation to allow in
implementing central policies. Such systems seem able to respond flexibly to the needs and
context of individual communities, clusters, and schools.
The second set of actions to be taken at the central level in order to encourage greater
collaboration at the micro-level include policies and procedures related to:
(a) nature, structure, responsibilities, and functions of parent-teacher associations, school
management committees, and/or village education committees;
(b) possible implementation of a system of school clusters;
(c) involvement of the community in issues related to needs assessment, governance, and the
instructional process;
(d) the development of handbooks or manuals;
(e) the possible hiring of teachers in their communities of origin, on the assumption that one
problem in encouraging school-community relationships;
(f) the development and use of a personnel assessment system which rewards personnel
(promotions, salary increases, etc.).
(iii) At the school and community level
Under more decentralized conditions, and based on the policies and procedures established at
the centre, schools or local district offices can encourage:
(a) More regular, open-ended staff meetings in school to permit the more collaborative
planning of school-improvement strategies;
(b) In large enough schools, the sharing of administrative responsibilities with teaching staff
and community in areas such as communication, discipline, and school sanitation;
(c) Guidelines to ensure both better candidates as officers of parent associations
(d) mechanisms for developing collaboration in tasks such as writing community profiles and
surveying local needs, setting goals and priorities, mobilizing and managing resources.
(e) The development of school improvement plans
There is a variety of skills related to these capacities, both skills more generally needed to
encourage participatory approaches to development and more specifically for those at lower
levels of the education system and in schools and communities themselves.

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1. The more general skills relating to participation include:
a) the ability to work collaboratively with people; that is, to be:
• able to listen and give credit to the views;
• willing to share plans, procedures, and information openly and, especially, laterally;
• tolerant both of conflict, dissent, and compromise and of active
• willing to see knowledge as residing in both professionals and beneficiaries;
• willing and able to respond to need, knowledge, and experience of most marginal group
b) the ability to focus on process rather than on final products; to reflect.
2. Officials at lower ends of a bureaucracy (supervisors, inspectors, teachers and teacher
trainees) have a particular need for skills in their role as 'extension or change agent' and also as
"links between national agencies and their communities in such areas as health, agriculture,
commerce, and youth affairs.
3. Skills in schools
(a) Knowledge of local conditions (e.g., economic and cultural)
(b) Simple research and planning skills: the ability to facilitate and carry out community-
based surveys, studies, and interviews;
(c) Attitudes and behavior which encourage an open, transparent, collegial environment;
(d) School management skills need the ability to:
• encourage shared, more participatory decision-making, (a management style of
'inclusion' (Cummings et al 1992);
• define clearly the policies, practices, and expectations of the school
• plan, organize, conduct, and report on meetings;
• encourage teachers and the community to assist in developing relevant curriculum
(e) Supervisory and leadership skills: the ability to develop more collaborative skills;
(f) human relations skills: the ability to gain the trust of parents, NGOS, and other partners
in the community; to communicate, collaborate, and build consensus with them; - a 'client
orientation' (Cummings et al 1992);
(g) Resource mobilization skills, and strategic and political skills: the ability to mobilize
resources from the various interest groups and power centers in the community.

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