School as Community

Gail Furman is Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Counseling Psychology at Washington State University. She is the coauthor of Community and Schools: Promise and Paradox.

"Enriching our understanding of what constitutes a community—what it looks like, how it happens—and the tensions that arise in bringing about a sense of community, are useful understandings for educators." — Patrick James McQuillan, author of Educational Opportunity in an Urban American High School: A Cultural Analysis

• Introduction Section I: The School as Community: Extending Our Conceptual Understanding 1. The Complexity and Coherence of Educational Communities: An Analysis of the Images that Reflect and Influence Scholarship and PracticeLynn G. Beck 2. Postmodernism and Community in Schools: Unraveling the ParadoxGail Furman 3. The Role of Community in Spiritually Centered Leadership for JusticeColleen A. Capper, Madeline M. Hafner, and Maureen W. Keyes Section II: Research on School Community: Focus on Teachers 4. Contradictions of School Community in Restructuring Elementary Schools: Lessons from a Case Study Paul Goldman and Gerald Tindal 5. Tensions and Struggles in Moving Toward a Democratic School CommunityUlrich C. Reitzug and Mary John O'Hair 6. Learning from Educators: Insights into Building Communities of DifferenceCarolyn M. Shields Section III: Research on School Community: Focus on Students 7. Schools as Communities for StudentsKaren Osterman 8. Thinking about Community from a Student PerspectiveCarolyn M. Shields 9. Children with Severe Disabilities in Regular Classrooms: Risk and Opportunity for Creating Inclusive CommunitiesCharles A. Peck, Chrysan Gallucci, and Debbie Staub Section IV: Research on School Community: The Ecological Perspective 10. The Microecology of Social Capital Formation: Developing Community beyond the Schoolhouse DoorHanne B. Mawhinney 11. Listening to Communities: An Ecological Perspective on Education and Human ServicesRobert G. Croninger and Barbara Finkelstein Conclusion: Toward a Practice of School CommunityGail Furman Contributors Index