| Abstract [eng] |
The topic of the paper. Manifestation of Development and Opportunities for Improvement of the Collaboration Between School and Local Community as a Social Partnership: a Case Study. Relevance of the paper. In nowadays society children and youth engagement, education problems become more and more complex, therefore the efforts of school specialists alone are no longer efficient. This implies that parents, local community, and other social partners have to be involved in the process. The issue of school and local community collaboration is very relevant as today’s school of a rural area should act not only as the organizer of the educational process but also as the institution performing cultural, social, and informal education functions, serving the community and answering its needs. Problem of the research. The implementation model of school and local community collaboration in Lithuania is not developed enough. Any school seeking to perform in the education service market successfully has to build a positive image and develop a relationship with society. The school is a key social actor which possesses a unique opportunity to develop essential and significant relations with the local community. The relationship is mutually important for school and for local community. There is a lack of legal regulation which could determine the guidelines, forms and contents for school and local community collaboration. Hypothesis. It is likely that Kėdainiai district X school, and the local community collaboration is developed more at the initiative of the school rather than the local community. The initiative has a positive educational, social and cultural impact on local community, however, the potential of social partnership is not exploited enough, even though the school becomes the centre of attraction for the local community. Subject matter of the research. Collaboration of Kėdainiai district X school and local community. Aim of the research. To theoretically justify and conduct the analysis of peculiarities of the development and opportunities for improvement of social partnership collaboration between school and local community. Methods of the research. Theoretical, empirical (quantitative, qualitative), statistical. Conclusions of the research. The research revealed that the collaboration process between Kėdainiai district X school and the local community is not very intensive. Common events are held but the number is not sufficient, there is a lack of common activities between the school and the local community. The events of cultural activities prevail though the forms and approaches are not efficient. Pupils state that there is a lack of activities that meet the youth’s needs. It should be noted that the research revealed a lack of initiative and inclusion of teachers, and parents, the latter are usually only the spectators of an event. The hypothesis - it is likely that Kėdainiai district X school and the local community collaboration is developed more at the initiative of the school rather than the local community. The initiative has a positive educational, social and cultural impact on local community, however, the potential of social partnership is not exploited enough, even though the school becomes the centre of attraction for the local community was partially confirmed. The research revealed that Kėdainiai district X school is not the main initiator for the school and the local community social partnership collaboration. Local community initiators tend to initiate the events, thus it lacks supporters for collaboration and partnership development strategy. This implies that the potential for collaboration is not exploited efficiently. Key words. Community, collaboration, school, social partnership. |
