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What is the International Network for School as Learning Community?

The International Network for School as Learning Community was founded in 2012, succeeding international collaboration and heritage of research and practice for more than 10 years. The proposal of “school as learning community” is not a technical approach but a set of three integrated components of a vision, philosophies and activity systems. We redefine school of the 21st century as “learning community” where students learn together, teachers learn together for professional development, and even parents learn together through participation in school reform. This definition corresponds to the public mission of realizing the human right of learning for all children.

In order to realize the above public mission, the “school as learning community” delegates three philosophies: public philosophy, which demands teachers open their classrooms; democratic philosophy, which introduces “a way of associated living” (John Dewey) for all the members to be protagonists of the school; and philosophy of excellence for doing their best both in teaching and learning.

The activity systems of “school as learning community” have three constituents: collaborative learning in the classroom, collegiality in the staff room through promoting lesson study, and learning participation by parents.

This idea has deeply captured teachers. Miracle success at the “hard schools,” which “at risk” children in poverty attend, has fired democratic professionalism of teachers.

During the past 10 years, the grassroots movement for establishing the “school as learning community” has spread its wings to Asian countries, especially Korea, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia and Vietnam. In all of these countries, as well as in Japan, the movement is recognized as the most powerful school reform for innovation in correspondence to the 21st century.

This platform mainly provides;

  • Information about events and news of the International Network for School as Learning Community.
  • Information about trends and events of school reform for learning community in the networking countries.
  • Storage of news, articles, research papers, books and DVD documentations concerning school as learning community in each country.