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Descriptors:
Evidence; Boards of Education; School Districts; Group Dynamics; Board of Education Policy; Formative Evaluation; Meetings; Policy Formation; Inferences; Decision Making; Governance; Advocacy; Research Utilization; Audience Participation; Context Effect; Local Issues; Conferences (Gatherings)

Abstract:
This article analyzes the use of research evidence in school-board deliberations in three school districts in Wisconsin. In these settings, the circulation, meaning, and function of research depended importantly on the interests and backgrounds of advocates, the composition of audiences, and the values and contexts of decision-making. Board members and other meeting participants sought direct connections between research evidence and local district concerns. Their use of research gainsays linear models of policymaking, demonstrating that research carries different meanings in different situations and that research may not resolve value differences that inform policy disputes. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Action Research; Intervention; Mental Health; Rural Areas; Community Leaders; Counties; Gerontology; Barriers; Research Problems; Resistance (Psychology); Access to Health Care; Program Descriptions; Federal Programs; Health Promotion; Models; Educational Resources; Technical Assistance; Community Attitudes; Older Adults; Aging (Individuals); Rural Population; Rural Sociology; Community Influence; Social Environment; Local Issues; Participatory Research; Community Health Services; Health Education; Health Programs; Health Needs

Abstract:
Geographical, economic, social and cultural barriers to accessing services in rural areas are widely reported. Less widely discussed are dilemmas posed by individual and community reluctance to address sensitive health issues. This article, focusing on the highly sensitive area of mental health, and employing a participatory action approach, describes the natural history of a project, the Mental Health and Aging Initiative (MHAI) to enhance awareness of mental health issues in rural Kentucky-Appalachian communities and overcome the reluctance of individuals in these communities to seek assistance. Funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), MHAI involved an educational intervention to improve knowledge about mental health and aging in rural Appalachian counties. The need to overcome significant community reluctance to engage in discussion of mental health resulted in significant modification of the protocol. The intervention was grounded in recognition of four key aspects of the local situation: (1) the need to understand the sensitivity of mental health as an element of rural culture; (2) the critical role of local community leaders as points of entry, acceptance, and action; (3) the need to overcome social stigma and reframe the topic of mental health in a more positive light; and (4) the need for methodological innovation in developing an empowering educational action plan oriented toward community-wide long-term impact. The intervention model that emerged from these considerations was based on engaging community leaders, providing educational and technical resources, and nurturing the acceptance by individual rural residents of responsibility for monitoring community mental health. This motif became a central theme in a strategy designed to facilitate culture change and acceptance of mental health as a community concern. It involved active engagement of community representatives in defining and implementing an intervention consistent with participatory action research as a means of empowering rural residents in monitoring and addressing sensitive health care issues. Given that many issues in rural health are difficult to address because of such sensitivity, the approach described is considered to have application in other contexts. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Foreign Countries; News Reporting; Rural Areas; Well Being; Older Adults; Aging (Individuals); Rural Population; Rural Sociology; Community Services; Community Change; Social Environment; Local Issues; Case Studies; Volunteers; Misconceptions; Theories; Discourse Analysis

Abstract:
This paper examines voluntarism as a response to the challenges faced by people growing old in rural communities that are themselves being transformed in fundamental ways, both socially and demographically. Informed by evolving theorisations within the rural aging and geographies of voluntarism literatures, we outline the key processes in space and consequent impacts in place that have affected the experience of growing old in rural communities. We identify the changes in service systems that have led to concerns about "vulnerable people in vulnerable places" and explore this idea in regional contexts ranging from the agricultural heartland to the resource hinterland of Canada. We argue that a distinction needs to be made between the impacts of long and short cycles of change flowing across rural space and attention paid to voluntarism as a critical process at the intersection of broad shifts in service and settlement systems and particular changes in rural communities. Specifically, we suggest that the "local dynamics of voluntarism" involving the activities of voluntary organisations, community groups and individual volunteers in particular communities can be understood, at once, as a "barometer of change", a "mechanism of adjustment" and a "space of resistance", and we draw on recent case studies of rural voluntarism to illustrate this three-part distinction. In considering the transformative potential of voluntarism for the experience of aging in place, our findings suggest that public discourse, as reflected in media coverage, tends to romanticise voluntarism at the expense of a more nuanced and critical appreciation of its importance to the future of aging rural communities and their elderly residents. The research raises timely questions about academic-versus-popular conceptions of aging in evolving rural spaces and changing rural places. (Contains 1 figure.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Foreign Countries; Trust (Psychology); Interpersonal Relationship; Social Capital; Familiarity; Attitude Change; Predictor Variables; Older Adults; Rural Population; Social Environment; Local Issues; Public Policy; Policy Analysis; Sociometric Techniques; Rural Sociology; Social Attitudes

Abstract:
Using Simmel's notion of sociation, the way in which rural elders in England and Wales relate to, or connect with, each other and others within their community, can be seen to be conflictual as well as consensual. As a vehicle for exploiting this relationship, social capital also can be antithetic as well as convergent and an important element of social capital--trust--can be freely given but also, at the extreme, instrumental and enforced. Measuring trust as a descriptive variable amongst rural elders suggests that personal trust is very high but trust in organisations (system trust), less so. All types of trust tend to be higher amongst the "better off" measured by a number of socio economic and locational variables. Exploring trust as a process suggests that losses of trust and not trusting do damage social capital and connectivity, but rural elders will try and overcome trust loss in a variety of ways. Building personal trust through bridging capital is important here, where a "leap of faith" in trusting and reciprocity are significant. System trust is built around helpfulness, honesty, reasonableness and civility. Instrumental and system trust start with scepticism but can be built through personal experiences and the "word of mouth" of those already trusted, where there is strong bonding capital. "Localness" is seen as an important aspect of building instrumental trust and here familiarity is more important than reassurance or "warrants of trust". Successive government polices promoting trust as a means of building both social capital and connectivity are seen to have limitations as the factors that influence convergent trust largely fall outside of the scope of policy manipulation. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Foreign Countries; Organizational Culture; Instructional Leadership; Cultural Context; Power Structure; Educational Research; Global Approach; Local Issues; Ethics

Abstract:
The literature on educational leadership and management has referred to culture since at least the 1970s. Despite the concept's mention in over one-third of articles written in this journal, there has been little in-depth engagement with how leaders might influence it and the ethical issues involved. The article argues that leadership must engage with culture as a key mediator of power within organizations. Four levels of cultural activity are suggested: the cultural context created by global phenomena; the cultures of local communities; the organizational culture; and the sub- and counter-cultures within the organization. The article considers a bifurcation in the skills assumed necessary to respond to, on one hand, multi- or intra-culture and, on the other, organizational culture. The article suggests that the degree of perceived difference from norms dictates leaders' orientation to and engagement with culture, with cultural competence generally promoted only in relation to multicultural issues. It concludes that leaders are currently ill-served by encouragement to focus on aligning the organization's members to a single, strong culture and that the persistent surface engagement with culture may perpetuate inequalities. The need to move leaders to engage more deeply with the power and complexity of culture is indicated. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Reading Achievement; Economically Disadvantaged; School Districts; Data Analysis; Reading Improvement; Politics of Education; Political Influences; Local Issues; Educational Change; Parent Influence; Achievement Gains; Pretests Posttests; Reading Programs; Policy Analysis; School Administration; School Effectiveness; Racial Differences; Interviews; Student Records

Abstract:
This ex post facto, causal-comparative research study examined student reading performance data within a school district before and after a school district-wide decision to alter the reading curriculum in response to local political pressure from parents. Data analysis revealed that test scores dropped to a significantly lower level, especially for students who were economically disadvantaged, after the reading curriculum was altered. This study underscores the importance of making data-driven, rather than politically-influenced, decisions related to pedagogy, curriculum, instruction, and assessment by educational leaders. (Contains 2 tables and 6 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Foreign Countries; Equal Education; Educational Policy; Educational Environment; Program Descriptions; Program Effectiveness; Educational Cooperation; Networks; Stakeholders; Expertise; Social Capital; Educational Change; Improvement Programs; Local Issues

Abstract:
This paper describes and analyses the work of a large scale improvement project in England in order to find more effective ways of fostering equity within education systems. The project involved an approach based on an analysis of local context, and used processes of networking and collaboration in order to make better use of available expertise. Reflecting on the impact and difficulties involved in using such an approach, the paper draws out lessons that may be relevant to other contexts. Consideration is also given to the implications for policy makers, practitioners and community stakeholders. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Community Colleges; College Administration; Ethics; Models; Decision Making Skills; Institutional Mission; Moral Development; Justice; Caring; Local Issues

Abstract:
This article encourages community college leaders to employ ethical paradigms when constructing and considering alternative courses of action in decision-making processes. The authors discuss four previously articulated paradigms (e.g., ethic of justice, ethic of critique, ethic of care, and ethic of the profession) and propose an additional paradigm--the ethic of local community. The ethic of local community is a communitarian and utilitarian frame embodied by the philosophical underpinnings and mission of the community college. Questions designed for praxis are proffered following a discourse on how each paradigm is defined and described in extant literature. (Contains 1 figure.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Foreign Countries; Economic Factors; Power Structure; Conservation (Environment); Conflict; Ownership; Land Use; Economic Development; Rural Environment; Rural Population; Rural Economics; Rural Development; Rural Sociology; Local Issues; Trend Analysis; Indigenous Populations; Regional Characteristics; Regional Planning; Traditionalism; Resistance to Change; Sociocultural Patterns

Abstract:
Within Australia's tropical savanna zone, the northernmost frontier regions have experienced the swiftest transition towards multifunctional occupance, as a formerly flimsy productivist mode is readily displaced by more complex modes, with greater prominence given to consumption, protection and Indigenous values. Of these frontier regions, Cape York Peninsula has become the focus for increasingly entrenched, complex contests about regional futures, with the transition towards complex multifunctionality demonstrated in the 1970, 1990 and 2010 tenure maps. Transition dynamics are explored in tables summarising functional trajectories at these benchmark years, also with an examination of non-Indigenous and Indigenous driving forces, actors, agendas, power relations and decision processes. In this increasingly contested arena, currently the pivotal divide is between traditionalist/localist against modernist/reformist/regionalist visions of Indigenous futures, with this divide influencing the agendas and strategies of other major participants, notably conservationists and state and federal governments. The most probable functional trajectory towards 2030 can be identified, based on the partial resolution of the current flux in land tenures, property rights, power relations and economic prospects. The peninsula yields further evidence on the links between multifunctional dynamics, contestability and shifting place identities. (Contains 5 tables and 5 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
City Government; Public Policy; Local Issues; Courses; Simulation; Political Science; Politics; College Instruction; College Students; Teaching Methods

Abstract:
As state capitals and city halls influence our daily lives, how can students become active participants in the affairs of their communities (Saffell and Basehart 2009)? For students to explore this question and local policy making in general, I developed a city council simulation for a state and local government course. This article describes the details of this city council simulation so that it can be easily replicated. Moreover, the goal is for students to move beyond classroom lectures and become more informed participants of local policy making. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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