ABSTRACT

The purpose of this chapter is to argue that it is necessary to move beyond technocratic notions of school-based management if community participation contributes to community empowerment. By empowerment, we mean the process by which individuals become aware of the practices and structures that contribute to their marginalization; and the process through which individuals and groups are enabled to respond to – if not change – those practices and structures. More specifically, the chapter emphasizes the need to combine parental involvement with adult education, community organizing, and social justice leadership. More particularly, the chapter argues that the last of these, social justice leadership, is crucial to enabling the first three. A combination of these four things – social justice leadership, parental involvement, adult education, community organizing – can contribute to the foundations of community empowerment. Empirically, this chapter investigates the four dimensions mentioned above in a private (but fee-free) school in a marginalized community in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.