Teacher Empowerment: CommunitySpirit Can Make the Difference

TimothyJ. Bergen, Jr.

Within recent years a relatively new concept has been mtroduced in theeducational profession. After many centuries of autocratic suppression,teachers became articulate; they began to demand a voice in theadministration of their schools and in the formation of policies whichgoverned the operation of the schools. Some school administrators whosesocial vision exceeded the confines of tradition supported the teachers inthis movement for broadening the base of participation in school affairs.From these dual sources has arisen the new and promising concept ofdemocratic school administration.

Democracy in the Profession is Not Enough

While democracy within the profession is a wholesome concept that canbring nothing but good to the education of America's children, there is muchevidence that neither teachers nor administrators have fully comprehendedthe scope of the new movement which they have started. Some of thisevidence is revealed by the outbreaks of teacher strikes which have occurredduring recent years. Some of it has been shown in the polls by communitieswhich have refused to tax themselves for better schools, or refused to giveup their small, inefficient schools and consolidate with neighboringcommunities for the mutual benefit of all. Such factors indicate thateducation in America cannot reach its full stature through intraprofessionaladvancement only. Education is but one of the many institutions of society,and if the schools are to meet the challenge of the world's need for a moreenlightened citizenry, then educators must leave the safety of theirclassroom and offices and venture out into the community, into the strifeand conflict of the marketplace where the nation's destiny is being cast andfashioned.

TheSchoolCommunity Journal,Vol. 1,No. 2,FalljWinter 1991.

25

THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY JOURNAL

The Need for Improved Teacher-Community Relations

Not all educators have isolated themselves from the social settings of theirschools. There have always been some types of ill-defined and littleunderstood extra-school activities classified under the title of "publicrelations." School administrators have carried out sporadic attempts toinform the public of what the schools are trying to do, or to enlist the supportof the taxpayers in raising funds for a new building, band uniforms,computer software, or the football stadium. Teachers have also made feebleattempts to interest parents in the education of their children, or to interpretto the children the forces of the community.

However, these efforts on the part of educators have been notablyineffectual from a broad and enduring point of view (Maeroff 1988). Thecultural lag in our society continues; the American people continue to spendmore money on tobacco, alcohol, and home videos than they do foreducation; millions of children 'receive only a poor skeleton of an educationin our nation, one of the wealthiest in the world. While educators havesucceeded in accomplishing much during the last hundred years, and whilewe have managed to build a great system of public education, we have notdone enough. Our schools do not match our potentialities.

Much of this hiatus between what the schools of America are, and whatthey might be, may be laid on the doorstep of the education profession.Educators, and especially teachers, who comprise the bulk of theprofessional personnel, have failed to comprehend the full significance oftheir roles in society. There is, in fact, much disagreement among educatorsas to what the function of the teacher is in the wider schoolroom of American

life (Raywid 1988, 201). In this day, when the people of the world are provingthemselves ineffectual in creating a unity among the nations, more and morepeople of vision are turning to education as the sole hope and the onlyultimate path toward enduring peace. If this is truly the function ofeducation, then we must once again examine the obligation of teachers tosociety, and particularly to that microcosm of society in which education isfunctioning, the local community.

Should Teachers Follow Social Movements or Lead Them?

There is general agreement among those who have studied the problemsthat teachers, as transmitters and sifters of our cultural heritage, have aserious obligation to the communities in which they function (Nickersonand Mook 1988, 44). But, when we examine and attempt to define the natureof the teacher's obligations, two diametrically opposed points of viewappear.

On the one hand, there are those who think that a teacher's duty is solelyto teach, that their function is that of perpetuating the institutions and socialpatterns that exist today. This concept holds that the proper sphere ofactivity of the teacher is their classroom and the proper subjects ofinstruction are those aspects of the cultural heritage which have been proved

26

Teacher Empowerment: Community Spirit Can Make the Difference

and standardized; those elements of our culture that have been stampedwith the sanction of tradition.

Under such a point of view, the teacher would have to adjust to the socialconceptions that have been settled upon by the community and would servethe community by feeding the students only the established and approvedacademic diets. This would consequently preserve the status quoby adaptingthe minds of the youth to what society has deemed to be good and enduring.

This is, however, only one point of view. It is the traditional conceptionthat the teacher may best serve the community by preserving intact in eachgeneration those values and behavior patterns held by the previousgenerations.

There is another and more daring group of thinkers who deplore thisstatic conception of the teacher's function. They claim that the socialinfluence of teachers was tested during World War ll. They point out thatthrough the medium of education whole nations were welded into a unifiedmood and spirit. In the cases of Germany, Japan, and Italy, and more recentlyIran and the Soviet Union, the role of the teacher was often directed towardevil ends. But, whether for good or evil, it has been proved that teachers andthe schools can form social policies and can alter the course of a nation.

This group of social theorists would, then, demand that teachers breakwith the bonds of the past, that they pick up the reins of their power andexert their influence by building in each community a strong and vital cellof a functional democracy. Together, these cells would achieve those valuesand those humanitarian goals which a democratic form of governmentstrives to foster.

Teachers Must Define Their Function in Society

These antithetical points of view pose some very real imperatives forteachers. If we as teachers choose to continue in our traditional role,functioning as servile pedagogues who do no more than transmit theprescribed forms of the past, submerged in the common thinking of thecommunity, then education is fostering social stagnation. Changes willcontinue to occur in the world, but they will occur despite those who, byrefusing to question the traditional conceptions and anachronisms in theircommunities, absorb themselves in the thoughts and activities of their localgroups, thereby remaining secure in their positions as they drift along onthe serene waters of conformity.

These educators who seek to effect no changes, who wish to do nothingmore socially significant than to fill out their records neatly, to follow theprescribed course of study, and otherwise lead a safe and respectable life,will undoubtedly antagonize no one. If this is truly the social function of theteacher in the schools of a democracy, then there need be no question ofteacher-community relationships. All will remain secure and happy in theirisolation from reality. All, that is, except those who truly appreciate thesocial significance of teaching.

27

THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY JOURNAL

Teachers Have A Moral Compulsion to Lead Social Progress

Teaching has a social function which transcends the institution oforganized education. As educators, those who prepare the young to fulfillthe functio115 of oncoming social offices, teachers are, by virtue of theirpreparation and obligations to the future generations of America, morallycompelled to reach beyond the classroom and take a hand in the othercommunity agencies which are also educative. These agencies differ fromthe schools in that they deal with the here and now, not the future; they areconcerned with material and immediate problems of life, not with the valuesand ideals that will be of significance to the peace, the social efficiency, orthe moral sensitivities of the world of tomorrow.

If teachers realized that social progress demands that they seek to directall forces in their communities toward the goals and purposes of our schools,and if this realization could be deeply instilled in the fiber of the three millionteachers in the United States, and then translated into action, a new realmof teacher-community relationships would evolve. And it can beaccomplished. By breaking the bands of the past and facing resolutely thedemands of our democracy, and by redefining and re-establishing their ownparticipation in our system of government, teachers can raise themselvesand their communities to a new stature.

It requires, first, that teachers realize their educational purposes andactivities to be a form of social policy, a program of social action based uponsome accepted scale of values. They must further realize that this socialpolicy may, by lack of direction, obstruct cultural evolution and harness ourschools to the dark cells of the past; or the educators can, by recognizing theunique functions which their social role thrusts upon them, be instrumentalin raising the quality of our community life to new heights.

This is a real challenge to teachers. Never before has the world so sorelyneeded people who are internationally minded, who would and could placebefore private or national interests the interests of humanity. Indeed, withthe terrible instruments of destruction that now hover over our heads, it isalmost imperative that teachers cease to follow the patterns which haveproduced narrow-minded, self-seeking individuals and take the initiativein broadening the thinking of our communities so that the view of one worldand one people may pervade the minds of this generation and thegenerations now going through our school system.

Teachers Can Stimulate Social Progress

If teachers are to guide the stream of social progress rather than follow inits wake, what shall be the nature of their participation in community affairsif they are to realize these new objective? We must start by facing certainrealities.

Communities have generally set the pattern of teacher participation in theaffairs of their citizens. Standards of conduct for teachers have beenestablished, and these standards have tended to hedge in the activities ofteachers in such a manner as to force the teacher to conform to what the

28

Teacher Empowerment: Community Spirit Can Make the Difference

community felt to be proper conduct for one who is in contact with itschildren. Free expression of opinion, freedom in selection of extracurricularactivities, freedom in matters of recreation, dress, and personal choice ofsocial interests, all of these have been severely circumscribed by thecommunity. Teachers must break these bonds and lead rather than be ledby those whom they serve.

However, such a major reversal of social participation cannot be effectedimmediately. Social changes have always been a matter of gradualprogression, and teachers will have to proceed cautiously, but withdetermination. An analysis of what has been done and written concerningthe participation of teachers in the life of their communities indicatessom~thing of the manner in which teachers may undertake a program ofgradually expanding leadership in community affairs. The program dividesitself into three phases.

I. A Program for Teacher Leadership in Community Affairs

The teacher who would become a community leader must first become aparticipant in community affairs. The teacher must become associated withcivic organizations, become familiar with the home life of their students,become acquainted with the conventions of the community, and becomethoroughly familiar with the problems, the outlook, and the attitudes of theirlocal group.

Once this familiarity has been achieved, the teacher is ready to takeanother step forward in their social activities, that of bringing the lay personinto active participation in school affairs. This is a very critical area ofresponsibility and one that is much in need of consideration by all teachers.Recent media editorials, national research studies, and numerous othermirrors of the public mind have expressed concern for the need of moreeffective training in the basic skills, for good discipline in the schools, andfor changes which dig too deeply into our own educational structure to beignored.

Such criticism may be misdirected, or misinformed, or even malicious,but it must, nevertheless, be considered as a reminder that teachers musteducate not only children, but the public as well. Ultimate control ofAmerican education rests with the people, and only as the people are madeaware of the purposes and functions of the school will the teacher be able tocombat the indifference and antagonism of the community forces thatimpede educational progress or frustrate the achievement of desirededucational purposes.

In the final analysis, educators must look to the public to supply fundsfor conducting the work of the schools and for the selection of boards ofeducation and other agencies that give official sanction to educationalobjectives and policies.

Unfortunately, educators have often taken a very superficial andutilitarian approach to the problem of securing community support for theschool. They have turned to the public only in times of crisis, or when

29

THE SCHOOL COMMUNllY JOURNAL

budgets were being prepared, or when critics were attacking the school. Amuch wider social intelligence concerning the place of education inAmerican democracy is needed, and it is the teachers' responsibility torealize this function and to encourage the laity to consider such educationalproblems as the basic social philosophy of the school, the objectives, and thegeneral welfare functions of education. Such considerations areresponsibilities that a democratic government demands of its citizens.Teachers must strive to make this responsibility felt in their communities.Publicity campaigns, parent-teacher associations, and school improvementcouncils are not enough (Hansen 1989,3). Teachers should stress the valueof the school to society in general, and the approach to the public should beunh;ersal, comprehensive, and intelligent.

The public must not only be given an account of its schools, but must beprogressively included in the inner workings of the school, and ultimatelytaken into partnership (Rosander 1984,13).A true realization of the teachers'function must include sharing management and operation of the school withthe public.

Yet, all this is still not enough. The teacher must know the communityand must bring the members of the community into participation in schoolaffairs. But there is yet one more mandate given to the teacher by their rolein this society. The teacher must lead the thoughts and behavior of themembers of the community on to higher and broader levels.

Teachers must recognize the fact that the school is only one of theeducational agencies of the community. If the life surrounding the school ismaleducative in its effects, then the isolated and sterilized learning that takesplace in the school will be largely forgotten as children go into the maelstromof life and reality which is their fundamental environment. Teachers must,therefore, extend their influences into the community proper and to do soopenly and deliberately (Grant 1985).They must search out those forces thatoppose the proper functioning of the schools and strive to make all of thecommunity a truly educative environment for children and adults alike.

This is the greatest role a teacher can play in the community, and it is alsothe most daring one. It means that teachers must brave those militant forcesthat place economic interests above the social welfare. This means politicalactivity on the part of teachers. It means active participation on the side ofthose who are traveling the road that education is seeking to pave. It meansa struggle against forces of oppression, against the deadly apathy thatprevails in so many of America's communities and against those who cannotsee that, unless we develop an international awareness and communityspirit, nothing less than catastrophe awaits us.

II. The Difficult Social Role of a Teacher

In openly urging the teacher to take an active hand in directing the affairsof the community, it is expressly recognized that this is an invitation to agreat new social restructuring for education. It will hopefully precipitatestrife and conflict in the communities all over the country. But strife and

30

Teacher Empowerment: Community Spirit Can Make the Difference

conflict are signs of social progress; these forces are, in fact, the seeds ofdemocracy. Those individuals who had the courage to stand up againstforces of regression gave birth to the ideas of democracy, and to our owndemocratic organization. In this time of the world crisis, teachers who trulyunderstand their functions in society should do no less. We must becomepartisans and join forces with those in our communities who have the visionand foresight of what we need to be doing in the future.

It is quite useless to talk about innocuous teacher-communityrelationships where no one is antagonized or alienated. H teachers are totake the lead in promoting issues that education must foster, then they mustunderstand that a community is not a unified political organization, nor ade~te geographic area. It is, rather, a group of people with a commonpurpose-a living, growing thing. There may be many such entities withinone local area with diverse purposes. The teacher cannot deal with acommunity of a single thought, because no such thing exists. Therefore, theteacher must be a partisan. The teacher must be aligned with a groupbecause a community is an aggregate of groups, and the teacher must givedirection to the growth of this group.

This is the highest type of relationship a teacher can maintain in thecommunity. In doing so, the teacher performs a function on a level ofeducational statesmanship. And it is an obligation that he/she cannotescape, for the teacher is the ultimate unit upon which an effective schoolprogram of education is built. Only as the teacher's vision is expanded andfreed can he/she put into practice the type of education that is needed forpreserving the values of democracy. It is the teacher's obligation to take thelead in the cooperative efforts of school and community so that the spirit ofdemocracy will be fostered in the school and its environs.

III. Realization That It Can Be Done

This is not a merely visionary program. There is abundant evidence thatits principles and practices are even now being applied and tested inenlightened schools and communities. There are, of course, manydifficulties that beset the undertaking described above. The wise teachershould consider them well before attempting a radically progressive changein the organization that now passes for teacher-community relationships.But obstacles are not new to educators, nor cause for despair. They are butchallenges of life, created by human minds and soluble through humanefforts.

By first putting our own house in order and organizing a model ofdemocracy within the schools, we can slowly foster the true spirit ofdemocracy in society. The purposes may be slow, long, and arduous. It willcall for courage, foresight, and much faith, but the slow, hard way is the onlyway in a democracy. It is the lasting way. H we are resolute in our purposesand determined in our efforts, we should look to the future within the visionof Francis Bacon when he wrote:

31

THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY JOURNAL

Everything is possible to Man. Time is young, give us somecenturies and we shall control and remake all things. Weshall perhaps at last learn the noblest lesson of all, that Manmust not fight Man, but must make war only on the obstaclesthat nature offers to the triumph of Man.

References:

Bacon. Francis. 1902 The advancemen~of learning.Edited by Joseph Devey. New York:American Home library Company.

Grant, Gerald. 1985.Schools that make an imprint: Creating a strong positive ethos. InChallengetoAmericanschools.Edited by John Bunzel.New York:Oxford University Press.

Hansen. Barbara J. 1989.School improvement councils:A guide to effectiveness.Columbia,SC:University of South Carolina.

Maeroff,Gene I. Theempowennentof teachers:Overcrowdingtirecrisisofconfidence.New York:Teachers CollegePress.

Nickerson. Neal, and Amy Mook. School and community relations: Another aspect ofinstructional leadership. NASSP Bulletin72:44-46.

Raywid, Mary Ann. 1988.Community and schools:A prolegomenon. TeachersCollegeRecord90 (winter):197-210.

Rosander, Gerald, 1984.Schoolsand communitiesworking together for effectiveschoolsandstrong communities. In Schoolimprovementcounciltraining:Leadershipand managementforcouncileffectiveness.San Diego, CA:San Diego County Officeof Education.

Timothy J.Bergen. Jr., is an Associate Professor of Education at the University of SouthCarolina in Columbia. He carries out research in Africa and Asia and is the President of theSouth Carolina Chapter of the Fulbright Association.

32