ABSTRACT
This chapter explores competing views of the nature and purpose of school communities as potential sites of social, moral and citizenship learning. Disagreements exist as to the extent to which such learning should take equal status with academic and vocational education and whether they are complementary or inimical to each other. The chapter then discusses various conceptualisations of the school as a paradigm of society and points out that, even where there are agreements on the importance of democratic and just schooling, there are widely differing views on how these should be operationalised. Schools also see themselves as communities within a range of local, national and international communities. However, they disagree on pedagogical approaches and priorities towards teaching about them and on whether, and if so how, to promote positive forms of cohesion and loyalty.
