Schools and Neighborhood-Based Collaboration: Structural Resistances and Realities.

Autor/in	Smithmier, Angela
Titel	Schools and Neighborhood-Based Collaboration: Structural Resistances and Realities.
Quelle	(1995), (23 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Elementary Secondary Education; Integrated Services; Qualitative Research; Resistance to Change; School Community Programs; School Community Relationship; School Organization; School Role; Social Agencies; Social Services; Social Structure + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Qualitative Forschung; School organisation; Schulorganisation; Sozialisationsagentur; Social service; Soziale Dienstleistung; Soziale Dienste; Sozialstruktur
Abstract	Community-based interagency collaboration among schools and other public service agencies is one reform idea for addressing the complex conditions of children with a high level of needs. This paper presents findings of a study that explored the workings of one community-based collaboration, referred to as the Community-Based Collaboration for Families (CBCF), in two low-income neighborhoods of a midsized midwestern city. The study sought to examine the ways in which the school structures, routines, and regularities changed or resisted the goals of the collaboration. Data were obtained through observation; document review; and interviews with 31 CBCF team members, school-community liaisons, residents, agency administrators, and 130 students. The paper discusses three themes of resistance: (1) the rigidity of school-ascribed roles; (2) the resulting focus on students as clients separate from their families; and (3) the various and conflicting conceptions of time. The findings demonstrate that the rigidity and regularities of the school cannot be reconciled by simply setting up a "link" between schools and organizations. Indeed, the link may operate inadvertently as a foil for change. A prerequisite for an integrative approach in collaboration may require the disruption of fundamental conventions, routines, and forms, such as roles, responsibilities, clients, and time. In sum, connections between agencies are as vulnerable as the weakest link, and simple links cannot reconcile rigid conventions and regularities. Developers of agency-school collaboration should consider alternative understandings of roles, responsibilities, and time. (Contains 18 references.) (LMI)
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC