Schools as Imagined Communities The Creation of Identity, Meaning, and Conflict in U.S. History

As the federal government forces states to create centralized systems of accountability, the notion of a "community" school is now less and less defined by substantive decisions on core curriculum. Yet, the idea of a school as community survives, through the local politics of education or the policies of magnet and charter schools with small student populations. This collection explores the extent to which our collective notions of school-community relations have prevented us from speaking openly about the tensions created when we imagine schools as communities.

Sherman Dorn, Barbara Shircliffe, and Deirdre Cobb-Roberts are historians of education at the Tampa campus of the University of South Florida.

Schools as Imagined Communities--Deirdre Cobb-Roberts, Sherman Dorn, Barbara Shircliffe * A Lesson in Education and Community--Vicki Eaklor * Crafting Community--Melissa Ladd Teed * Student-Community Voices--Deirdre Cobb-Roberts * From Isolation to Imagined Communities of LGBT Teachers--Jackie Blount * The Closing of Blake and Middleton--Barbara Shircliffe * Politics of Memory, Re-imagining Community--Jose Alamilla * Canal Town--Julia Hall * Special Education as a Problematic Community--Sherman Dorn * Youth For Christ--Allison Halpern * Conclusion and Lessons--Deirdre Cobb-Roberts, Sherman Dorn, and Barbara Shircliffe