Book Review: Building Community in Schools

This volume is one of a series of re­ cent books by the prolific Sergiovanni (Value-Add ed Leadership, The Prin­ cipalship: A Reflective Practice Per­ spective, Moral Leadership) . His in­ tent expressed in the Preface of the book is that the book would be useful to principals, teachers, and superinten­ dents. Later Sergiovanni notes that he also directs his arguments to organiza­ tional theorists who he challenges to reconsider how they conceptualize what goes on in schools to focus on community building. In this book, Sergiovanni defines community as, "the tie that binds stu­ dents and teachers together in special ways, to something more significant than themselves: shared values and ideals" (p. xii) . And he sees com­ munity building as, "the secret weapon that can help domesticate the wild cul­ tures that now seem so omnipresent in our schools" (p. xiv) . Communities are characterized in his view by a particu­ lar kind of attitude: "relationships in communities are characterized by the kinds of emotions -personalization, authenticity, caring, and unconditional acceptance-found in families, ex­ tended families, neighborhoods, and other social organizations" (p. xvi) . His unequivocal advocacy for mount­ ing a strong effort to build this type of community in schools is evident throughout the book. The writing style and organization of the book will make it easily accessible to practitioners and students of educa­ tion. The book also provides a sum­ mary of research and descriptions of schools that promote ideas of com­ munity : (a) report of the research of the Institute for Education and Transformation from Claremont Grad­ uate School, Voices from the Inside: A Report on Schooling from Inside the Classroom; (b) descriptions of pro­ grams at New York's Central Park East Secondary School, Koln-Holweide School in Germany, Denali School in Alaska, and the Jackson-Keller School in San Antonio. The research dis­ cussed and the descriptions of these schools make use of qualitative data which may be of interest in illustrating this type of research for university stu­ dents, though the presentation of the actual data is very limited due to the number of examples used and the length of the book. There is much in this book that I find resonates with my own desires to live in a community with a greater sense of purpose. A quote by George Bernard Shaw hangs over my desk: "I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. " A recent article by Brownstein (1994) describes, ''America's Anxiety Attack:' and points out that four con­ verging trends have unsettled our na­ tional sense of purpose or direction: the restructuring of the economy, global migration of workers from poorer to richer countries, erosion of the traditional family, and the end of the Cold War. He says that president Clinton, "Increasingly seems to define his job as helping people make sense of the times. 'I do believe that a major part of the President's job in a time of profound change is getting people to first of all think about themselves as a community . and then to imagine the future in a good way, meaning both realistic and hopeful" (p. 20) . This is the same effort that Sergiovanni makes in Building Community in Schools.