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Understanding social capital

Positive teacher-to-teacher, teacher-to-pupil, pupil-to-pupil and school-to-community relationships are the foundation for building social capital. As a school leader, you have a key role in inspiring broad engagement in mutually beneficial relationships among pupils, staff and the wider community. Developing social capital is a major factor in facilitating school improvement.

What is social capital?

The meaning of social capital can be summed up in two words: relationships matter. By making connections with one another, and keeping them going over time, people can work together to achieve things that they could not achieve easily by themselves.

Most models of social capital include the following elements:

  • a strong sense of shared values
  • trust
  • collaborative action
  • levels of volunteering and social engagement
  • co-operation on economic and social projects
  • a sense of ownership and investment in the future

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Why social capital is important

Research shows a strong statistical correlation between high levels of social capital and positive child development. In communities with high levels of social capital, people communicate well with one another, have a sense of mutual obligation and shared values, and are willing to assume responsibilities. As such, these communities benefit from high levels of overall engagement among inhabitants. In order to address the needs of the whole child and encourage positive child development, developing social capital in the school and in the community is a high priority for you as a school leader.

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How to develop social capital

Most importantly, schools can make relationships their core business. To begin with, schools can centre their work on key relationships involving students. These include the student’s relationship to:

  • the subject
  • other students
  • the teacher
  • the wider community

Focusing on these relationships can encourage staff to work together in an effort to enrich the social capital within the school itself.

Both at the school and community levels, the key is to involve everybody. Practical steps for building relationships between the school and the wider community include:

  • extending community use of schools on equal terms through shared access to resources
  • switching from the idea of being ‘teachers in schools’ to becoming educators across the community
  • using ICT to support learning across the whole community
  • moving from age-related teaching to needs-based learning
  • developing multi-use, multi-service approaches to educational resources
  • introducing community-based governance and accountability

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The role of the school leader

Finding better ways to bridge community and school is the essence of the school leader’s role in building social capital. It changes the idea of your role from someone who leads in an institution to someone who shares leadership in the community.

The task of building your school’s social capital requires you to think about incorporating a number of new strategies in your work, including:

  • developing a vision for the community based on consensual values and aspirations
  • encouraging dialogue, conversations and engagement
  • committing yourself to shared learning through experience
  • developing your ability to work with others in partnership

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Examples of good practice

There are a variety of ways that schools can begin to build social capital. Below are just two examples.

  • The City Academy, Bristol has created programmes to engage the growing population of Somali pupils and their parents. With funding from different areas, the school teamed up with the Amana Foundation, which provides support for Somali children. Initially, the project ran four cultural and language sessions per week during term-time for children aged 5 to 16. Now, parents are encouraged to come along on Saturdays to socialise and get involved with their children’s education.
  • High Storrs School in Sheffield hires out rooms to local drama groups, holds talks for local people and was recently the venue for an evening on the culture of Pakistan. The school has specialist status in performing arts. Under its funding agreement, the school must show how it is using its facilities to help the community. The project has been popular. Of 23 ongoing community projects, many are a response to requests from the community

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