Introduction

This is the first book to tackle the very topical issue of community participation in schools in developing countries, with a breadth of scope and depth of analysis in relation to the current international policy agenda. In particular, the book aims to deepen the contextual understanding of community in developing countries and its involvement in schools in general, and its impact on quality, equity, and inclusion of school education in particular. By presenting various case studies in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and a post-conflict state in Europe, the book analyzes commonalities and differences in the ways communities are involved, and how such case studies cast their impacts and challenges as compared to theories and widespread notions. By doing so, the book will contribute to knowledge on the ways in which community involvement could work in developing countries, the detailed processes and factors involved in such cases, and remaining challenges that scholars and practitioners still need to be concerned with in the field. This chapter presents an outline of the book.