Understanding the Concept of Community in Education

The word “community” is used so casually in everyday language that it can start to feel hollow – we talk about the “school community,” the “local community,” the “online community.” But in education, understanding what a community actually means – sociologically and anthropologically – is far more than a vocabulary exercise. How a community is defined directly shapes how schools are designed, supported, and experienced by every child within them.

What does “community” really mean? 🔗

At its most basic, a community is a social unit in which people share one or more socially significant characteristics – a place, a set of values, a culture, a religion, or an identity. These shared characteristics create a common ground from which interaction, trust, and solidarity can grow. But the concept is more layered than that simple definition suggests.

As far back as 1955, sociologist George Hillery reviewed 94 social-scientific definitions of community and found that the only point of agreement across all of them was that communities involve people. Everything else – geography, shared values, social ties – was contested. This tells us something important: community is not a fixed object but a dynamic, multifaceted concept that sociologists and anthropologists have been trying to pin down for over a century.

The sociological view: belonging, territory, and “we-feeling” 🔗

Sociologists approach community by asking: what holds people together, and why? Three thinkers have been especially influential in shaping how we understand community in modern social science.

Emory Bogardus and the idea of “we-feeling” 🔗

American sociologist Emory Bogardus defined community as a social group with some degree of “we-feeling” living in a given area. The term “we-feeling” refers to the psychological sense of belonging shared among group members – the feeling that one is part of something collective and meaningful. Bogardus argued that without this emotional bond, people occupying the same physical space do not constitute a true community. A crowd of strangers on a city street is not a community; a group of parents working together to improve their children’s school very much is.

Kingsley Davis and shared social life 🔗

Sociologist Kingsley Davis brought a structural perspective to the discussion. Davis viewed community as characterized by shared social customs, ideologies, and attitudes, making it the most complete and bounded unit of social life. For Davis, the community is the right lens through which to study real human problems – housing, poverty, health, and education – because it reflects how people actually live, not just how they are abstractly connected.

Tönnies and the Gemeinschaft-Gesellschaft distinction 🔗

Perhaps the most foundational framework in community sociology comes from German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies, who in his 1887 work Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft distinguished between two types of social organization. Gemeinschaft (community) refers to close-knit, emotionally bonded groups – families, villages, religious congregations – where relationships are personal, rooted in shared values, and valued as ends in themselves. Gesellschaft (society), by contrast, refers to the larger, impersonal structures of modern life – cities, corporations, states – where interactions are driven by self-interest and governed by formal rules.

Tönnies presented an evolutionary argument: as societies modernize and urbanize, they naturally shift from Gemeinschaft toward Gesellschaft. He saw this not as progress but as a loss – the erosion of the close bonds that give individuals identity, security, and purpose. His concern is especially relevant in education, where the warmth and cohesion of a Gemeinschaft-type community can significantly alter whether a school feels like a welcoming place or an impersonal institution.

The anthropological view: culture, identity, and shared meaning 🔗

Where sociology tends to examine the structural features of communities, anthropology looks at culture, meaning, and lived experience. Anthropologists ask not just how communities are organized, but what they mean to the people who belong to them.

In anthropology, a community is understood as a group of individuals sharing common values, interests, or geographic location who interact with one another more frequently than with those outside the group. But early anthropologists tended to study communities – villages, tribes, islands – as bounded, culturally homogeneous units that could serve as laboratories for observing how kinship, institutions, and social norms interrelate.

This view evolved considerably over the 20th century. Anthropologist Arjun Appadurai, for instance, argued for separating the idea of locality (a contextual, categorical idea) from that of neighbourhood (an actualized social form with potential for social reproduction). In other words, the community is not simply a place on a map – it is an active, socially reproduced reality shaped by the people living within it.

Anthropologist Anthony Cohen took this further by focusing on the meanings people attach to community. The concept of community holds significant sociological and anthropological implications and has evolved considerably with the advent of technology and the internet. Cohen found that community exists partly in the minds of its members – it is defined less by objective boundaries than by the subjective sense of belonging and the symbolic markers (language, customs, rituals, stories) that set one group apart from another.

In anthropology, three broad approaches characterize community: defining it in terms of common interests, a common ecology and locality, or a common social system or structure. These are not mutually exclusive. A school community, for example, typically involves all three – a shared physical location, a common interest in children’s education, and a shared social structure of teachers, parents, administrators, and students.

Types of community and why they matter in education 🔗

Understanding the different types of communities helps educators identify who forms the support network around a school and how best to engage them.

Geographic communities 🔗

Geographic communities are bound by a shared physical location – a village, town, city, or neighbourhood – where people interact physically on a regular basis and participate in shared local events or issues. In education, this is the most visible form of community: the families, local businesses, religious institutions, and civic organisations that exist within a school’s immediate catchment area. Their investment in the school is often tied to their investment in the locality itself.

Communities of interest 🔗

These are groups formed around a shared concern or goal rather than geography. Parent-teacher associations, school management committees, and advocacy groups for inclusive education are all communities of interest. Community engagement in education implies both enhancing resources for schooling and taking part in defining and guiding educational programs at the community level – functions that communities of interest are especially well-positioned to perform.

Communities of identity 🔗

Identity-based communities are held together by shared cultural, ethnic, linguistic, religious, or social characteristics. These communities have a profound effect on how students experience school. Visibility and representation of a student’s own community within the school environment are key to making everyone feel valued and seen. When students see their cultural community reflected in school curricula, in the teaching staff, and in school events, their sense of belonging strengthens – and with it, their engagement and attendance.

Virtual communities 🔗

With the growth of digital technology, communities no longer require physical co-presence. Online forums, social media groups, and parent communication platforms have created new forms of community that transcend geography. Traditional sociological definitions of community were formulated before the internet existed, but today millions of people participate in digital groups that share interests, language, norms, and even emotional bonds without ever occupying the same physical space. Schools increasingly need to engage these virtual communities as part of their broader outreach strategy.

Shared identity, belonging, and their impact on education 🔗

The most educationally significant aspect of community is its capacity to generate a sense of belonging. Belonging is not simply about physical presence in a space – it is the feeling that one is accepted, valued, and seen. Research consistently shows that this feeling is tied to learning outcomes.

Students from minority groups who see themselves represented in the wider community – and see that community involved in their school – show improved learning experiences and attendance rates. Conversely, students who feel their identity is invisible or unwelcome in the school environment often disengage.

Participation and engagement in education represent an expression of the overall development strategy of recognizing the critical role of people’s collective action in a democratic society. When communities are treated as passive bystanders rather than active partners in education, schools lose access to the resources, perspectives, and social capital that communities naturally hold.

The U.S. Department of Education’s National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments describes the role of community in schools as the connections between schools and individuals, businesses, and formal and informal organisations that can leverage community resources and assist students in achieving positive outcomes. Schools that are well connected to their local communities can create environments that are safe and supportive both inside and outside the classroom.

Why community is not a single, fixed idea 🔗

One important insight from both sociology and anthropology is that community is not monolithic. A single school exists within – and overlaps with – many different communities simultaneously. Community is a multifaceted concept, best viewed as an assortment of social processes, and each community contains within it many different communities. A teacher’s understanding of “the school community” may differ significantly from that of a parent, a local employer, or a student from a linguistic minority.

This complexity is not a problem to be solved – it is a reality to be worked with. Effective educational engagement requires recognising which communities a school intersects with, understanding what each values, and creating genuine pathways for participation. Engaging the community brings a wealth of resources, expertise, and diverse perspectives that enrich educational experiences, inspire students, and foster a sense of belonging.

Historically, responsibility for educating children rested with the community until the middle of the last century. The shift toward government-provided schooling changed that relationship, but it did not – and should not – erase it. The best educational systems are those that draw on both: the professional expertise of trained educators and the social knowledge, cultural richness, and collective investment that communities bring.

What do you think? How would you describe the community that surrounds a school you are familiar with – is it primarily geographic, identity-based, or built around shared educational concerns? And how do you think schools can better recognise and engage the multiple communities they are part of, rather than treating “the community” as a single, undifferentiated group?

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community
2. https://sociology.institute/introduction-to-sociology/understanding-community-definitions-sociologists/
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemeinschaft_and_Gesellschaft
4. https://www.sociologyguide.com/thinkers/Tonnies.php
5. https://anthroholic.com/community
6. http://sumananthromaterials.blogspot.com/2018/10/community-basic-anthropological-concept.html
7. https://www.idra.org/resource-center/community-and-public-engagement-in-education/
8. https://chartered.college/news-blogs/the-power-of-community-engagement-in-our-schools/
9. https://thoughtexchange.com/blog/community-involvement-in-schools/
10. https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/training-technical-assistance/roles/community
11. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J293v05n02_03
12. https://www.parentsquare.com/blog/community-involvement-in-schools-reaching-beyond-students-staff-families/
13. https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/265491468743695655/pdf/multi0page.pdf