PROPOSAL FOR A COMMUNITY SCHOOL

Abstract

In the following article we consider the possibility to promote and incorporate in school the Community model stressing a trend that has been present in the educational Italian panorama and elsewhere for the past forty years. An interesting proposal of the American professor Sergiovanni opposes the Community model to the Organization model, highlighting the peculiarities of two worlds that on some aspects are characterized in different ways: the lifeworld, which is characterized by communicative acting, by shared values and spontaneity, and the systems world, characterized by a technical, instrumental and strategic acting. When things work properly in a school, the lifeworld and the systems world undertake one another on a symbiotic and mutual relation profitable for both of them. The key to everything is the reciprocity from which should result trust and respect. When the lifeworld and the systems world get along symbiotically, they have an equal value position. Sergiovanni’s position shows that this reciprocity can be reached in schools only when lifeworld leads the systems world. If, on the contrary, the systems world is guiding the lifeworld, the strictly organizational dimension brings damage and various disorders, but it is important that the systems world does not oppress the lifeworld.

Key words: community school, systemsworld, lifeworld

SCS_13_2009_9