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| Community cohesion: what can schools do? Tony Eaude Click here for a print version of this article. A first principle is that every school should be prepared to address explicitly, and to celebrate, not just accept, both sameness and diversity. This may involve considering primary and secondary values. Otherwise, this tends to disenfranchise those who are different, and least powerful. Putting the onus on individuals emphasises their difference, which is especially hard in a culture where identity is so closely linked to belonging. So questions of faith need to be raised explicitly, not just in RE or collective worship, but throughout the curriculum. This helps show that religion has been, and continues to be, especially in other countries, an essential part of how the world is understood. While this may be harder in terms of social class, national and global issues often involve questions of power differentials, social justice and interdependence. Recognising and respecting sameness and difference requires more consideration of complex, often moral, issues which require continual debate, rather than definite answers. Yet, this is in tension with the demands of an agenda which values conformity and right answers. A second principle is to try and promote contact and shared endeavour across cultural divides. This is more easily achieved within a school community where different cultures, in the broadest sense, co-exist. This does not just imply learning about the customs of other religious groups, locally, through visits to different places of worship; or, nationally, through study of other countries and faiths. It involves understanding other people's mind sets and abilities, whether by linking up with a school in a different area, or country, or courses where students from independent and state schools work together, or by mixed groups within the school. There may be structural and practical difficulties for an apprentice plumber to work with those in private schools, or for Oxbridge candidates to work in the local FE college. But if we are serious about community cohesion such contact needs to happen more often, and not just superficially. A third principle is that to provide opportunities for co-operation as well as competition. As Williams writes 'any one who has ever been involved in the intensive work, of say, drama in a school will know something of how excellence is guaranteed by the sense of mutual accountability that characterises such work, rather than by any appeal to instincts of rivalry.' He cites school plays, but this is true of any collaborative activity like an orchestra or a sports team. The personalised learning agenda is dangerous if this is interpreted to mean individualised. So, young people need to work in groups which cross the boundaries of familiarity, whether in encouraging young children to work outside their friendship groups, or adolescents to work, at least part of the time, in mixed ability groupings. Or even in multi-age groups. This is, after all, what happens in the workplace. A fourth principle is to listen out for those with the most silent voices. While schools need to draw on people and ideas available locally, governing bodies and parents' association only rarely reflect the whole school community, let alone locality. And in setting up extended schools, different groups will usually want different things. This entails listening carefully to, and encouraging, those least able to make their voices heard, whether because of cultural or linguistic reticence. It may involve making provision, like halal meals or a homework club, where there may be little or no community or parental pressure; or, more problematically, resisting such pressure where other needs are greatest. Community cohesion involves decision-makers advocating when necessary for those with least voice and least power.
Dr Tony Eaude is an independent research consultant, and a NET Leading Thinker. A full printed version of this ‘Counterblast’ is available from the National Education Trust, priced £5. Williams, R (2000) Lost Icons - reflections on cultural bereavement Edinburgh, T and T Clark, p 89 |
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