Leading school, family and community partnerships: a critical review

Abstract

Research focused on schools and community development promote a community-based leadership in order to generate school, family and community partnerships. The authors respond critically to current educational reforms and trends in leadership and management roles centered mainly on intraorganizational and instructional aspects. By identifying cases of external programs or self-managed experiences in which school leadership focuses on building relationships, practices and their impacts, both intra-and extra-organizational, this review of 25 publications examines the main features of these initiatives, with emphasis on their purpose and effects. It is noted that partnerships between schoolsfamily-community can claim to positively influence specific school goals, broader educational goals or communities assuming that the involvement of the people and resources of the environment can help the overall development of students, particularly those who are in disadvantaged positions within educational systems. As for the effects of such alliances, results are encouraging in terms of the positive perception of participants in the multiple studies, but emergent in terms of specific educational indicators.