Public Involvement in Public Education Do We Have It? Do We Want It?
Keywords:
public involvement, public education, parent participation, community participation, school governanceAbstract
Although there is a considerable amount of literature on public involvement in Canadian education, the actual extent and efficacy of such involvement is very much in doubt. The literature provides three explanations for the lack of success of involvement efforts. The implications of these explanations are discussed and criticized. Their inadequacies lie essentially in their exclusive focus on the school as divorced from broader levels of discussion. Several such levels are then briefly examined to show how they might re-orient thinking about public involvement in schools.
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