Community-based Education: Model Programs

This is the last educator’s guide in a series on community-based education. Each previous manual attempted to fill a specific niche in assisting educators in establishing this type of approach to the way in which school is conducted. Readers would be well-served to access earlier educator guides in order to provide the support and resources necessary to begin or enhance their work with students.

Previous educator guides describe a process that educators can follow to connect schools to their communities. They explain the philosophical basis for community-based education.

The community-based approach engages students in the public domain, involves them in the information-gathering that is needed, and then provides feedback to enhance the community’s policy and decision-making capacity. However, teachers who embrace this philosophy often struggle with how to implement the community-based approach into their classroom. So the previous guides also offer specific community-based lessons and activities that educators could use in a typical biology course to get students out in the community. They provide specific lessons for the information-gathering phase of their community-based efforts and address concerns regarding content and content standards as students participate in authentic educational opportunities in the community.

This last educator’s guide will provide a glimpse at what is possible when teachers and their students embrace the community-based approach. It is important to note that everyone starts out with small projects and it is only over time and with relationships built up in the community that larger programs result. I hope the stories included here will provide both inspiration and ideas on how to take your students and school on this journey.

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