Developing a Community Learning Agreement

Practicing Democracy: A Toolkit for Educating Civic Professionals Lesson 1

Learning Objectives

• Develop a community agreement for joint learning among a group.
• Learn from stories about personal educational experiences.

Creating a Community Learning Agreement is a way of developing mutually agreed-upon ground rules for group communication and civil discourse. This lesson guides the use of a participatory process among participants to shape a culture of learning. The process of developing the agreement should model the approach to civic professionalism presented in this guide; thus, it is essential to create an inclusive process where all participants feel their voices are valued in contributing ideas and perspectives. The result should be a mutual and respectful set of norms that serve as the foundation for a vibrant learning community.