ABSTRACT

Community participation is a vital component of the educational decentralisation policies that are now widespread in Nigeria. In this paper, we explore school–community relations in different localities in northern Nigeria, where there is both very little inter-generational experience of schooling and minimal engagement by local communities in social and political management processes. Drawing on ethnographic data in and around six primary schools in Adamawa State, northern Nigeria, we problematise school–community relations and highlight the complexities and tensions in their social interactions. This we do by focusing on the school boundary that both connects and distinguishes it from the surrounding community. In particular, we explore the agonistic spatial and temporal regulation that operates at the school boundary, with specific attention to the different ways that students, teachers and the community comply or resist such strategies of governmentality. In concluding, we argue that it is imperative to think through the implications for/of international education and development policies as they are launched in diverse localities. This would help to avoid accounts of local deficit that are so readily invoked when top-down policies reach communities.

摘要

社区参与是目前在尼日利亚广泛实施的教育权力下放政策的重要组成部分。在本文中，我们探讨了尼日利亚北部不同地区的学校与社区关系，那里的代际教育经验很少，当地社区对社会和政治管理过程的参与也很少。利用尼日利亚北部阿达马瓦州六所小学及其周围的民族志数据，我们解决了学校与社区关系的问题，并强调了他们社会互动中的复杂性和紧张性。为此，我们将重点放在将其与周围社区连接起来并将其区分开来的学校边界上。特别是，我们探索了在学校边界运行的对抗性空间和时间调节，特别关注学生、教师和社区遵守或抵制这种管理策略的不同方式。最后，我们认为，当国际教育和发展政策在不同地区推出时，必须仔细考虑它们的影响。这将有助于避免在自上而下的政策到达社区时很容易援引的地方赤字账户。