Rural Education and the 'Bigger Picture'

editor — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:29:54 -0700

Between 1999 and 2004, people on the Gulf Islands of British Columbia’s Strait of Georgia (an area along with the Puget Sound to the south dubbed the Salish Sea) created their own community maps, an example of place-based education.

What’s the point of rural education?

In her case study of a Missouri school district, Kathleen Budge finds that some educators think living in a rural community makes their students apathetic and unsophisticated. Because rural students fail to “see the bigger picture,” their academic aspirations are limited to high school graduation. The point of rural schools, according to some of the educators Budge interviewed, is to “get them [students] ready for the real world” — that is, a world of college and work away from their communities. This is a view shared by some economists, guidance counselors, and education researchers.

But in another study of 26 rural work-bound, college-able seniors in 11 schools in New York report that their aspirations are, in fact, “real world.” As one student put it, “See, [educators] think that because [work-bound students] aren't going on to college that they're just blowing it off, they're taking the easy route. They need to realize that they're actually working to go on to work.”

Students in the New York study say that their immediate plans are to join the military, complete vocational training, or begin work. Some plan to attend college later, but are first saving money and gaining life experience. Yet they all argue that their plans are “real world,” decisions based on family needs, a desire for immediate financial independence, or a concern that they not attend college “just to go.” Some of the students even suggest that it’s college-bound kids who are out of touch with the “real world” because further studies prolong their adolescence and dependence on family.

It’s interesting to note that some students’ “real life” aspirations are for making just enough income to provide for comfortable family lives. Their hopes for the future appear to reject fast-paced, achievement-oriented — and ostensibly non-rural — middle class lifestyles.

What's Rural About Being a Bully?

editor — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 09:52:30 -0700

"Do Not Bully Others," a painting by Chelidze Kesaria, age 6.

Source: The Charter for Human Responsibility

What’s rural about rural? It’s an important question.

In their article “Bullies and Victims in Rural African American Youth: Behavioral Characteristics and Social Network Placement” (2007), Estell, Farmer and Cairns tell us that bullying hasn’t been examined much in rural places. Studying two impoverished rural counties in a Southern state as part of an evaluation of a violence prevention program, the researchers find that rural bullies differ little from bullies in urban or suburban places described in other studies. That is, bullies are more likely to be boys, aggressive and manipulative, and leaders of the school social groups to which they belong.

What’s curious about this article is that the researchers—from the otherwise estimable National Research Center on Rural Education Support— offer no theory about why bullying might, or might not, be different in rural places. In fact, after the research sites are described (p. 147), the word “rural” is used just once more, in a recommendation that future studies sample participants from diverse locales (p. 156). It’s not clear how the study deepens our understanding of the rural world, since there is little description of what makes the sites rural, how being in a rural place could influence bullying behaviors, or what rural schooling dynamics or circumstances might have to do with aggression. The sense readers are left with is that rural is sort of an empty category—simply “not urban or suburban”— with no particular characteristics that might influence educational or social dynamics differentially across locales. But then why even ask the question about whether bullying plays differently in rural places?

By Caitlin Howley

Rural Education and the 'Bigger Picture'

What's Rural About Being a Bully?