The Teacher and the

Community, School,
Culture and Organizational
Leadership

First Quarter - Module 1:

School and Community

partnership
 OVERVIEW
Former DepEd Secretary Florencio Abad once said, “The problem of Education is everbody’s
problem. As building literacy is our collective responsibility. We must build bridges between
the school and the home. We must build bridges between the school and the community.”
(2005 Educators Congress).
This module hopes to do just that… to help you new teachers build bridges between the
school and the community. It will acquaint you with the importance and channels of
community-school collaboration.
You must remember that schools belong to the public, and the public is entitled to be
informed about the operation of the school system. Schools operate best when they have
positive relationship with the community.

OBJECTIVES
After you have finished this module you should be able to:
identify and utilize community resources as context of learning and teaching;
identify and establish areas of linkages between the school and community for
mutual benefits;
describes the various roles of teachers in the community where the school is
situated; and
recognize the roles and harness the support of the Local School Board, PTCA, and
other organizations and institutions, both GO’s and NGO’s.
 What I Know

PREASSESSMENT
Before working on this module, test your knowledge on school-community partnership.
Ready? Begin.

Instruction: Write True of False before each statement.

_________1. A group of people with common or diverse language, culture, occupation and
values is a community.
_________2. The teaching and learning that takes place in a school is rarely affected by the
community where it is situated.
________3. Communities can be differentiated in terms of their social, political, economic
and cultural features.
________4. Teachers don’t have the power to break the cycle of financial difficulty.
________5. The physical environment of a community can serve as a resource from which
the school can draw support and sustenance.
________6. The community has something to teach students in the same way that teachers
have something to teach the community.
________7. Teachers are partners of both the government and non-governmental
organizations in the promotion of the common good.
________8. Teachers put their lives in danger when rendering election duties.
________9. It takes entire community to raise a child.
________10. The PTCA is strictly for parents and teachers only.

II. Encircle only the letter of the correct answer.

1. One of the statements below is true. Which is it?

a. The teaching and learning that takes place in school is not influenced by the
location of the community.
b. The location of the community does not affect the teaching and learning.
c. The teaching and learning that takes place in the school is affected by the
community where it is situated.
d. School performance cannot be linked with the community.
2. What kind of community is predominantly farming or agricultural where most
families are low-income and few are elites or rich?
a. Squatter area
b. Elite community
c. Urban community
d. Rural community

3. Which of the following CANNOT be considered as community assets?

a. Material resourceb. social assets c. people’s attitude d. gambling dens
4. In order to break the cycle of financial difficulty, there is a need to
a. be aware of the community resources.
b. Identify community assets
c. Locate material wealth
d. Tap all available community resources
5. Which is a false statement?
a. The community cannot be a place for learning.
b. Teachers have something to teach the community.
c. The community has something to teach the students
d. The community members benefit from the teachers.
6. What is expected of teachers by the community members?
a. To be always in accord with their ideas
b. To do functions aside from teaching
c. To perform everything except teaching
d. To treat them according to their financial status
7. Teachers as a surrogate _____, perform the role of a parent during the time the child
is in the school.
a. Friend b. relative c. parent d. neighbor
8. A teacher is a_______; therefore she must be a source of knowledge.
a. receiver b. facilitator of classroom experiences c. reactor d. believer
9. Teaching is not merely a _______, it is a vocation.
a. Dream b. hard task c. vision d. profession
10. A teacher is a _____if he/she can meet the community ideal for good citizen, good
parent/sibling and good example.
a. Role model b. public citizen c. government worker d. civil
worker
LESSON 1
COMMUNITY AS A CONTEXT OF TEACHING AND LEARNING
LESSON 1-A

The Community: its Social, Political, Economic and Cultural Features

INTRODUCTION

Let us view the school as part of the whole system. Consider this: A school is
situated in a specific community and its students are members of this community or a
nearby one. The teaching and learning that goes on in a school is affected by these
communities. When we view a school, then we must see it as part of a community.

We must study the community

and try to understand its
social, political, economic and
cultural features because
they greatly affect the
performance of our school in
general, and our effectiveness
as a teacher in particular.

OBJECTIVES

After this lesson, you are expected to:

define community;
identify the kind of communities students come from;
describe the social, political, economic and cultural features of the communities
where students come from; and
identify ways by which the social, political, economic, and cultural features of
communities may impact on how students learn.

READ
A community (also called a social group) is a plurality of individuals with the following
essential characteristics (Chalfant and labeff, 1988):

1. regular and sustained interactions, though not necessarily directly, between

members
2. shared decision making
3. sense of common identity
4. shared interests/goal

The members of the community maybe diverse language and occupations. They may even
have varying ages but they form a unity or group and can be identified as such for as long as
they share the aforementioned characteristics.

ACTIVITY 1-A1

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Where do you live?

2. Describe the neighborhood where you live.
3. Classify them according to the list below. You may have more than one
classification.

urban suburban indigenous

rural rich depressed area

poor industrial remote

 Where you able to identify one? Then that means your group is homogenous, meaning
people have the same background.

If you identified several on the list, that means you belong to heterogeneous class
and school. You come from different communities.

Do you have a student who comes from a community that is not on the list? Given the
variety of communities around us, that is very likely to happen. You can add that kind of
community to the above list (and you can congratulate yourself for being observant)!

Do you think different kinds of communities would have different social, political,
economic and cultural conditions?

If your answer is yes, you are right!

Read on so you will know exactly how these communities can vary. Examine this grid
and take note of the different aspects of each kind of community.

Kind of Social Relations Political Economic Cultural

Community (What are their
typical (Who has power)? (Who has wealth? (What do they believe
interactions)? What is the source in? What do they
of wealth)? consider important)?

Urban impersonal Patronage politics; Members come Modern, westernized

politics controlled by a from different
few elite income brackets;
cash-based

Rural Personal, usually Patronage politics; Predominantly Traditional beliefs

face-to-face politics controlled by a farming of fishing exist side-by-side
interactions; few elite mostly low income modern ones
bayanihan or families; few
voluntary elite/rich
groupings

Indigenous Personal, usually Indigenous power Mostly low income Pre-Christian or pre-
Communities face-to-face arrangements (ex. families; few colonial beliefs and
interactions; Council of elders called elite/rich practices exist side-by-
bayanihan or lallakays or side modern ones
voluntary panglakayen in the
groupings Cordilleras, or the
sharia in Muslim
 communities in the
South) exist alongside
formal governmental
institutions

Squatter Impersonal Patronage politics Low income

Colony transient protection fron ranking families; unstable
populations government officials sources of
livelihood

Urban Tend to be Can afford to pay

exclusive impersonal for quality
community products,
including
education; own
the latest in
technology;
industrial and
business economy

Can you think of other communities? Is your school within a mining community, fishing
community or suburbia (or sub-urban)? You can continue filling up the matrix by
characterizing the social relations, politics, economy and culture of these communities.
Before doing that, bear in mind these distinctions:

Social Features – refer to the typical relations of people in a community (impersonal

of personal? Close, direct, face-to-face and highly emotional or indirect, brief and
instrumental/utilitarian? Clannish or individualistic?)
Political Feature- refer to how power is described in a community. Those with power
are known as leaders, elites, authorities and the like. Power can be formal/official or
informal/unofficial. Examples of individuals holding formal power are the elected
officials, designated or appointed authorities in business corporations, government
agencies and NGOs. People enjoying informal power may not be easily identified by a
newcomer to a place because they don’t have formal appointments. Their power
rests on the influence they wield over others. Example: Sharon Cuneta’s influence
over her fans, the respect we automatically give to the elders, the deference we
accord to priests. Celebrities, older people and priests enjoy informal power.
 Economic Features – refer to the production, distribution and consumption of goods
and services. These days, the economy of communities is classified as either
predominantly agricultural or industrial. The people in a community can be classified
economically in terms of the socio-economic status.
Cultural Features – refer to the belief, norms or rules of conduct and values in a
community. Today, we differentiate between modern, westernized culture, and
traditional culture. Modern culture can be traced to industrialize US and Europe. It
has reached our shores through the power of technology (think of internet, satelites,
computers and mass media). Traditional culture refers to the beliefs, norms/rules of
conduct and values that can be traced to our past and which have survived the
colonialism and/or modernization and westernized of our country. Examples of these
are the beliefs in nuno sa punso, or the practice of skipping a bath on Tuesdays and
Fridays in the belief that these are “bad” days.

ACTIVITY 1-A2

Imagine that you are a teacher with students who come from the communities listed
above. Do you think your students will behave in different ways? Do you think their parents
will relate to the school in various ways as well?

If your answer is YES to both questions, list down the ways in which they differ.

Example:

Kind of Community Student’s Behavior in School How Parents Relate with School

Rural Poor Frequent absences Hardly attends meetings in school

Now your turn. You can list down as many as you can think of. You can also add more
communities to the list based on your experience and/or observation. You may ask mentor
for assistance in doing this.

Kind of Community Student’s Behavior in School How Parents Relate with School

Rural Poor

Urban Poor

Indigenous
 Squatter

Rich

Let us view the school as part of the whole system

As you went through the exercises, you learned that school performance is linked to
the community where the school is located and the communities to which its students
belong.

Simply put, the social relations, politics, economy and the culture of the community can
greatly affect how the school performs its functions and how students learn.
 ACTIVITY 1-A3

As a new teacher, it is likely that you will be assigned to a school where

students have varied social, political, economic and cultural conditions. Some of these
students are likely to come from poor communities.

What adjustments can you make in your school and in your class so that the students
and parents from these poor communities can participate more actively in school
activities?
Using the knowledge from this lesson, complete the puzzle.

1. Based on the description, where do you think the school is located?

1-DOWN. Students practice pre-Christian, pre-colonial traditions and beliefs.

2- ACROSS. Students have parents with low income and unstable livelihood source.

3- DOWN. Relationship is impersonal.

4- DOWN. Most of the students from this community come from low income farming
families

5- ACROSS. Pupils can afford to pay high tuition fees for quality education.

 The teaching and learning that goes on in a school is affected by the

community where it is situated.
 Communities can be differentiated in terms of their social, political,
economic and cultural features.