ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the institutional environment of schools: family and home, religious groups, financing and the economy, political and legal systems, and the community. As part of the larger societal system, school systems are surrounded by pressures from ideological groups, political systems, economic conditions, and trends in society, and they are particularly vulnerable to environmental influences when issues relate to their function of socializing youth. The authors illustrate how these interconnected strands present both opportunities and challenges for schools and their students; none perhaps more clear than the Covid-19 pandemic, which the authors discuss at length throughout the chapter.
