Communal deliberation: The art of learning schools

Purpose - To illuminate the importance of the communal deliberative process, as a form of collective thinking, in overcoming the growing complexities of schoolwork in uncertain and turbulent environments. Design/methodology/approach - Introduces the notion of deliberation as evolved from Dewey's moral theory, the essential phases and elements of deliberative activities and the principal's role in facilitating this communal process. Findings - Provides information on the stepping-stones towards communal deliberation, while recognizing its major impediments. Originality/value - In light of structural restructuring efforts that have not yielded significant effects in issues of teaching and learning, this paper offers the rhetorical process of communal deliberation as a means for developing schools that learn.