Disclosing the treasure within. Towards schools as learning communities

Schollaert R. (ed) Disclosing the treasure within. Towards schools as learning communities (Syllabus serie nr. 9) Antwerpen, Garant, 2003, 299 p.

Towards schools as learning communities Recent verscheen de tweede publicatie naar aanleiding van het Europees nascholingsproject "The Treasure Within". In deze publicatie wordt het oorspronkelijk tentatief begrippenkader verder uitgediept, en worden kwaliteitscriteria in de weegschaal gelegd tegenover de internationale kwaliteitsvereisten, zoals die tot uiting komen in de indicatoren en benchmarks die via Europese verklaringen en OESO-rapporten op ons worden losgelaten. Nieuwe klemtonen in het boek zijn het werken aan de interne condities in de scholen, alsook het komen tot gemeenschappelijke zingeving en gedeeld leiderschap. Dit alles wordt opnieuw geconcretiseerd via een aantal case studies.

Can quality in education be measured across Europe - let alone across the world - by means of a set of unequivocal instruments? Can uniform standards be set across institutions that operate in widely different contexts - let alone across cultural and national boundaries? And if so, which are these standards? From the tone of this statement, the reader can already assume that the answer to these questions, as presented in this book, is likely to be negative.

This publication attempts to illustrate how quality is not so much reflected in outputs or in products, and not even in the processes that lead to those outputs. The only way for schools to achieve and certainly to sustain quality education, is by creating the conditions that make the school a natural habitat for deep learning.

This book is the second one in a trilogy on quality in education, a product of The Treasure Within transnational educational network. In the first volume 'In search of the treasure within: towards schools as learning organisations' (2002), the network partners put forward the principles they stand for and offered plenty of examples of how they were trying to put these principles into practice within their own particular context.

This second volume widens and deepens the concepts that underlie the network's view on quality in education, while at the same time making a strong statement on why quality goes beyond what is readily measurable and comparable.