Schools As Imagined Communities

As the federal government forces states to create centralized systems of accountability, the notion of a "community" school is now less and less defined by substantive decisions on core curriculum. Yet, the idea of a school as community survives, through the local politics of education or the policies of magnet and charter schools with small student populations. This collection explores the extent to which our collective notions of school-community relations have prevented us from speaking openly about the tensions created when we imagine schools as communities. The case studies included here highlight early nineteenth-century common schools to twenty-first-century public schools. Schools as Imagined Communities is an essential collection for students and professors alike.

The editors are associate professors of Social Foundations at the University of South Florida.