Community and School Participation: A Path of Decentralization to Community Empowerment

Abstract

The main objective of the study is to examine community and school
participation in education management, leading to community empowerment. There are two specific objectives as follows. Firstly, to understand the basic thoughts of both community and school toward community participation in education provision. Secondly, to demonstrate the process of community and school participation in education provision to the path of community empowerment. Qualitative data were collected in a district of western Thailand by the methods of focus group discussion,
and in-depth interview from relevant persons; namely community leaders, student’s parents, school administrators, teachers, and students. The findings show that there is difference in basic thoughts of both community and school toward community participation in education provision. The difference of basic thoughts results from school’s inaccessibility to community potential and knowledge. As for the process of
community and school participation in education management, it was found that factor leading to a real local power is the acceptance of community knowledge not financial support from the community.