Creating a Learning Community in a Multicultural Setting: Issues of Leadership

Abstract

For a four year period, the author has been studying the efforts of two principals to implement changes which would turn their schools into learning communities. The original purpose was to determine whether these approaches would lead to greater student empowerment and better learning environments. As I studied the issues related to cross-cultural leadership in two schools serving largely Native American populations, questions arose concerning the nature and utility of the community metaphor in such cross-cultural settings. I did not readily find evidence of the gemeinschaft notion of a community of kinship and shared values. How then might community be defined and/or achieved? The paper presents an empirically-based conceptualisation of community for cross-cultural settings, and identifies the implications of this concept for school leaders.