Community, choice and the organization of schools under radical decentralization: Two Polish case studie

This research examines the relationship between school choice and community-building in Polish education through two school case studies. These cases present evidence that provides a better understanding of the process of community-building in schools' organizational settings, the dynamics of conflict among different members and groups in these settings, and how school leaders manage conflict as they work to build school community.;The study analyzes school data on two levels. At the organizational level, analysis draws primarily from interviews to understand how members construct different organizational functions of school, including reasons for school selection, views on learning and teaching, and attitudes about school collaboration and participation. At the institutional level, analysis focuses on societal developments in Polish education relating to traditions of civic cooperation, emerging trends of academic competition and associated social attitudes toward schooling as a private good. These developments are assessed by using a variety of secondary sources, including educational statistics, economic data and public opinion polls. These two levels of analysis are synthesized to form a rich picture of the dynamics of conflict in the school settings, and in particular, how parent choice motivates utilitarian interests in education that are at odds with the communal principles on which the schools are formally based.;While some scholars have characterized the relationship between school choice and community-building in education as complementary processes, the findings of this study suggest this relationship is problematic in schools under Polish radical decentralization. This study's evidence offers some support for the claim that choice enables schools to attract families that share similar values and beliefs, an important condition for school community building and the production of social capital. However, the study also shows a strong association between differences in attitudes toward adult collaboration and interpersonal conflict in school settings. The case studies illustrate how such conflict can undermine schools' ability to foster broad-based cooperation and build community. The findings of this research suggest that under institutional conditions marked by weak state regulation and strong market competition in education, the goals of radical decentralization to both advance parent choice and build school community may exert on schools contradictory pressures and pose a fundamental dilemma to those who lead them: do schools primarily serve the needs of the community or the needs of clients?...