Abstract
The purpose of this article is to clarify the concept of the learning community, particularly in comparison with a related concept, the learning organisation.
Educational researchers in Anglo-Saxon countries consider the learning community an adequate management system for self-governing schools. However the concept is used with different meaning in different studies and sometimes used interchangeable with a related concept, the learning organisation. This article shows that the meaning of these two notions in eight studies (three studies on the learning organisation, and five on the learning community) can be analysed and compared with one another by utilising the concepts of the ‘metaphor of community’ and the ‘metaphor of organisation’ .
Firstly this study examines their definitions and other elements including aims and features on the basis of criteria ten of which are suggested by Sergiovanni and three of which are proposed by Mitchell and Sackney. Secondly these two notions in eight studies can be carefully analysed and compared by positioning them in the continuum advocated by Sergiovanni between the ‘metaphor of community’ and the ‘metaphor of organisation’.
Furthermore this study indicates that the learning community as an authentic ‘metaphor of community’ might improve potential to establish an original school management system which is different from management systems in the private sector.
