The role of professional organizations and the need to sponsor research in the area of rural education.
It appears that there is a lot of support by professional organizations for research on education in general and more specifically in the area of urban education. The areas of rural and even suburban education do not seem to garner near the support for such research.
What topics need to be supported by professional organizations for research in rural school districts?
How can rural school district educators support these research activities?
What might be some barriers to research in rural school districts?
March 24th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Rural schools are facing a community cycle of thought. The community is often cohesive out of necessity. When schools present options that are outside the realm of understanding or experience for that community (i.e. college educating high school grads) the community as a whole must be won to that way of thinking. Otherwise, the children are forced to become bicultural—one culture at school and another at home/in the community. Research needs to focus on the whole community, using the school as the segway.
March 28th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Here is an article that makes your point…the cultural experience for rural students attempting a college education is much different than their non-rural peers…
http://www.psu.edu/dept/jrre/articles/21-6.pdf