Abstract:
This paper provides a sociocultural account of learning within the context of contemporary schooling practices, and critiques recent attempts to change the classroom into a "community of learners". The paper argues for a multiple and diverse re-framing of the notion of community. Rather than a "community", we need to theorise the site of learning as involving multiple and intersecting communities. The vision for re-forming schools needs to be based on the notion of communities for difference and diversity, rather than a community with clear boundaries for exclusion and inclusion. Specific studies are examined which exemplify how teachers can build communities for difference by allowing student space to resist as well as participate, and by valuing the resources that students bring with them to learning tasks.