This paper reports on a qualitative study which generated detailed case study information about the transition experiences of seven Indigenous students as they moved from Year 7 in their community school to Year 8 in their new urban high school context (Rennie, Wallace, Falk & Wignell 2004). In particular the study aimed to document the literacy and numeracy practices valued in the home community, community school and urban high school and highlight any continuities and discontinuities...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Numeracy, Community Schools, Student Attitudes, Literacy Education, Indigenous...
A partnership project was developed in which parents volunteered to support teachers in training years 1-3 children in computer skills at a primary school in a small, low socio-economic community. This article identifies the ways teachers and the "tutors" (as the volunteers were called) understood the value of the project. "Being a teacher" and "being a volunteer" were structured by different forms of social engagement, which in turn influenced the ways individuals...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Volunteers, Partnerships in Education, Computer Literacy, Elementary School Students,...
This research, conducted with an introductory sociology class at the University of British Columbia during the 2001-2002 academic year, explored community service-learning as a pedagogy and philosophy. The theoretical focus of this paper is Nancy Fraser's (1997) criticisms of Jurgen Habermas' (1992) bourgeois liberal model of the public sphere. We analyzed the class experiences with community service that emerged from students' contributions to a database of community organizations, concept...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Course Evaluation, Sociology, Concept Mapping, Community...
The perspectives of three rural middle school principals as they implement Georgia's A Plus Education Reform Act of 2000 were investigated in this study. A case study approach was used, employing both within case and cross case analyses. Three interviews were conducted with each of the three participants, resulting in a total of nine interviews. Five perspectives emerged from the data: (1) Evaluation of teacher effectiveness can be indicated only by the results of standardized tests, (2)...
Topics: ERIC Archive, School Schedules, Middle Schools, Teacher Effectiveness, Supervision, Standardized...
The Rural Education Bureau of the New Mexico Public Education Department has established a program to address the special needs of schools and communities in the extensive rural areas of the state. High poverty rates, depopulation and a general lack of viable economic opportunity have marked rural New Mexico for decades. The program underway aims at establishing holistic community socioeconomic revitalization at the grass roots level with the schools playing a leading role. Initiatives include...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Economic Progress, Poverty, Foreign Countries, Rural Development, Community...
The U.S. Department of Education (USDOE, 2004) administers a formula grant program to states that is intended to increase the academic achievement of students in mathematics and science by enhancing the content knowledge and teaching skills of classroom teachers. Partnerships between high-need school districts and the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty in institutions of higher education are at the core of these improvement efforts. These programs articulate the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Education, Rural Schools, Educational Change, Rural Areas, Grants,...
New ways of participating in rural communities and in community development have evolved as the structure of rural communities has changed. In some communities, the impetus to redefine and reenergize is strong while, in others, ways to move forward have yet to be identified (Pomeroy 1997). Rural schools serve a vital role in recreating communities in a highly mobile, industrialized society. According to Lyson (2005, 26), "It is important for policy makers, educational administrators, and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Community Development, Rural Schools, School Community Relationship, Foreign...
A community-campus health partnership was formed in 1999. To determine health partnership priorities, it was collaboratively decided that an assessment of the community's health needs and interests was necessary. This article describes a community-based participatory research project: namely, a door-to-door survey to assess community health needs and interests. The survey was developed and approved by the health partnership's board of directors, consisting of a majority of community residents,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, African Americans, Empowerment, Health Needs, Participatory Research, Health...
In this essay the author attempts to distinguish space as a social aspect of education, see it as a force that shapes the space called school, and evaluate the ability of that public space to represent the needs and desires of the constituents it serves, tackling the essential foundations driving progressive education; seeing and living in the intersections between democracy, freedom, learning, and ownership indispensable to a modern civil state. He argues that "No Child Left Behind"...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Curriculum Development, Federal Legislation, Democracy, Educational Change, Public...
The current need for physical activity has extended beyond the limited time given to students in physical education classes. In order for students to receive appropriate levels of physical activity (i.e., at least 60 minutes per day), it is necessary for physical educators to incorporate physical activity opportunities outside the traditional class setting. The purpose of this article is to discuss several strategies that can be used to help bridge the gap between physical education in school...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Physical Education, Recreational Activities, Physical Activities, Incentives,...
This article addresses the many ways in which schools can provide physical activity opportunities for students by taking advantage of hours that students might otherwise spend waiting for school to begin or playing computer games after school has ended. The article presents creative strategies for engaging students in activities that are inexpensive--such as activity prompts, intramurals, and facility sharing--as well as ideas that require more effort and community collaboration, such as the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, School Buses, Physical Activities, Games, Physical Activity Level, Educational...
How can physical educators make connections to the larger community? This article discusses how physical educators can better inform community physical-activity leaders and coaches about appropriate instructional practices and how they can inform students about activities available in the community. It also offers suggestions for how to invite the community into the school and promote the use of school facilities for community activities for the benefit of all involved.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Facilities, Physical Education Teachers, Teaching Methods, School...
Since internships are generally the culminating undergraduate experience, it is often assumed that students will be fully prepared to enter the workforce upon completion of the internship. However, senior interns are often uncertain about their professional strengths and weaknesses and about the expectations of agency professionals in terms of entry-level employee competencies. A cooperative, competency-based, internship experience can help student interns learn what the entry-level job...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Internship Programs, Competence, Recreation, Undergraduate Students, Job Skills,...
Many institutions that prepare teachers profess a commitment to issues of diversity and educational equity in their mission and vision statements. However, despite the fact that the enrollment of students of color in institutions of higher education has increased by 48% over the last ten years, the racial/ethnic composition of teacher preparation programs has changed relatively little. Although teacher preparation programs have had a larger pool of students of color from which to recruit, they...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Preservice Teacher Education, Preservice Teachers, Teacher Education Programs, Higher...
Are instructional aides colleagues of teachers, bridges to the school community, both, or neither? This study addresses this question by asking instructional aides about their relationships with teachers and parents and about their status in schools, and suggestions are made to create stronger bonds among these partners in education. This paper relies on the concept of "teachers' knowledge" (Carter, 1993; Connelly & Clandinin, 1988; Doyle, 1990; Shulman, 1987) as a way to study...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Epistemology, Educational Media, Parent Teacher Cooperation, Partnerships in...
This multi-site case study examined the relationships and interactions among school professionals, parents, and a faith-based institution striving to create viable learning communities in the Texas Borderlands. Through a school-community partnership known as the Texas Alliance School Initiative, two sample schools collaborated with the El Paso Interreligious Sponsoring Organization, a local faith-based institution, to facilitate parental engagement with the school and to meaningfully connect...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Qualitative Research, Research Methodology, Parents, Case Studies, School Community...
Students who are chronically absent are more likely than other students to drop out of school. Many schools have goals to reduce student truancy and to help chronically absent students attend school regularly. Few studies, however, have focused on whether or how family and community involvement help reduce rates of chronic absenteeism. In this longitudinal study, data were collected from 39 schools on rates of chronic absenteeism and on specific family and community involvement activities that...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Community Involvement, School Community Relationship, Positive Reinforcement, Family...
Based on qualitative research, this article aims to clarify the process of creating school-community partnerships. Two secondary schools with numerous partnerships were selected within a southern Ontario school board characterized by economic and cultural diversity. Drawing on the within- and cross-case analyses of documents, observations, and 25 semi-structured interviews with 2 principals, 1 office manager, 8 teachers and 19 community partners, the process of creating partnerships is...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Qualitative Research, Partnerships in Education, Cultural Pluralism, Foreign...
The findings in this article will be presented in relation to developing and implementing processes of school, family, and community partnership programs in two primary and two secondary schools in Quebec from 2001 to 2005. The action research project was based on Epstein's (2001) comprehensive framework of six types of involvement: parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with community. In keeping with Epstein's recommendations, an Action...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Action Research, Partnerships in Education, Cooperation, Foreign Countries, School...
In order to explore parental involvement among low-income families, a case study was conducted at a public elementary school in the Pacific Northwest. In 2002, a new school replaced an outdated structure. During the planning stage for the new school, community members and agency professionals, along with educators, developed and implemented programs to both support families and engage them in their children's education. Utilizing qualitative research methods, interviews, observations, and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Qualitative Research, Parent Participation, Parent School Relationship, Low Income...
S. Redding noted the many challenges facing research and researchers in family-school-community involvement, and he presented a call to "rally the troops" to respond to a series of concerns. The issue of control over defining the role of schools should be a shared enterprise among the family, the school, and the community, with the individual child as the center. This paper presents reflections on past developments providing the background and reasoning for contemporary practice of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, School Involvement, Family Involvement, Community Involvement, Parent School...
This article provides an overview of the conceptual framework and preliminary findings from a compendium of studies on school-university-community partnerships in Latino communities, with a focus on lessons learned on the U.S./Mexico border. The voices of professors, school administrators, and students with whom the co-authors have worked over a period of seven years in collaborative research are woven throughout the narrative. In this article, participants from the University of Texas at El...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Elementary Secondary Education, Partnerships in Education, Foreign Countries, School...
Involving families in their children's education is not only a legal requirement in special education, it also predicts academic achievement, social and emotional development, and a variety of other positive school outcomes for all children. Unfortunately, school-home relationships often have been ignored or underdeveloped. Disconnections between home and school may be especially acute in urban areas where school personnel may not understand the culture of the students and families with whom...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, School Districts, Urban Areas, Conflict Resolution, School Personnel,...
In this article, the author presents findings from a national project coordinated by the University of Queensland. The project was designed to explore the links between home, school, and community that supported children's numeracy development. Two of the aims of this project were to: (a) critically review recent Australian and international research in this area, with a particular emphasis on the extent to which the needs of educationally disadvantaged students are addressed in current...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educationally Disadvantaged, Numeracy, Foreign Countries, Primary Education, Early...
This paper presents an interview with Douglas Brinkley, an award-winning author and historian and director of Tulane University's Theodore Roosevelt Center for American Civilization. His wide-ranging portfolio includes books on John Kerry and the Vietnam War, Ronald Reagan and D-Day, Rosa Parks, Henry Ford, Dean Acheson and Jimmy Carter. He is also editing Jack Kerouac's diaries, Hunter S. Thompson's letters and Theodore Dreiser's travelogue. Brinkley's latest book, "The Great Deluge:...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Interviews, Authors, Historians, United States History, Science and Society, Historic...
Nestled in the valley between the Berkshire hills and the Taconic range, North Adams, Massachusetts, in many ways is typical of old New England mill towns working hard to create a new identity in the global economy. When Sprague Electric left town in 1985, the city of 16,000 reeled from the loss of 4,000 blue-collar jobs. This article describes how North Adams has been reinventing itself today as a center for arts, culture and the "creative economy." The former Sprague site itself has...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Economic Development, Economic Impact, Facility Improvement, Entrepreneurship, Visual...
Institutions like Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) provide New England with cultural wealth in a variety of ways, including the great art and design housed in their museums and their vibrant faculty and student body, which numbers in RISD's case, 1,900 undergraduates and 375 graduate students from the United States and almost 50 countries. Traditionally, institutions have relegated their relationship with their neighbors to a discreet set of activities referred to as "town-gown...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Business, Quality of Life, Museums, Nonprofit Organizations, Economic Impact, School...
Most college students and parents want higher education to marry two lifelong goals: pursuit of what one loves and financial security. They know the subtext: college is an investment, and the higher the education level one achieves, the higher one's potential income for life. So what about the education of artists? Most art departments and colleges educate for careers in the so-called "applied arts." The majority are in design-based fields, and their graduates do, in fact, find...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Undergraduate Study, Fine Arts, Artists, Outcomes of Education, Sculpture, Painting...
New England colleges and universities impact their local and regional economies in many ways. They are often major employers and purchasers. They construct new facilities, attract visitors, provide cultural and intellectual enrichment for the community and boost property values. The knowledge produced by New England's higher education institutions is both a major export and a continuously renewable regional resource. In this article, the author stresses that the most significant value that...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, College Graduates, Economic Impact, Outcomes of Education,...
Although other New England cities also reap the benefits of college and university presences, Cambridge is the quintessential "college town." It was with an uncomfortable appreciation for this value-added aspect of universities that the author, as a newly elected city councilor in 1993, found herself in the offices of a VP for government affairs at one of Cambridge's well-known universities to ostensibly discuss local unease over university plans to build numerous new facilities....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Taxes, Foreign Countries, City Government, College Faculty, Accountability, Higher...
The City of Burlington (population 40,000) is home to the University of Vermont (UVM), Champlain College and Burlington College. UVM alone enrolls some 7,300 undergraduate students and almost 9,000 students overall. With the university just a half-mile up the hill from the city center, Burlington's urban amenities--its arts and culture, restaurants, coffee houses and retail outlets--are within easy reach of the campus. UVM students have a significant, positive impact on the local economy. At...
Topics: ERIC Archive, College Students, Neighborhoods, Municipalities, Student Behavior, School Community...
This article describes a school-wide arts education project that incorporates an interdisciplinary approach involving an Australian university, the Singapore Ministry of Education, the Singapore National Arts Council, a community music association, and a local primary school. The Project engages young school children with Nanyin music, an ancient musical art form from China, and works with practicing Nanyin musicians and their musical practices. The Project integrates music into the regular...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Music Education, Interdisciplinary Approach, Musicians, Foreign Countries,...
The J.P. Das Developmental Disabilities Centre celebrated its 40th anniversary on September 1, 2007, followed by The University of Alberta's 100th anniversary in 2008. The year 2008 also brought the appointment of a new Director for the Centre. As the immediate past Director of the Centre, the author recounts some of the history of the J.P. Das Developmental Disabilities Centre. ["A Brief History of the J.P. Das Developmental Disabilities Centre" was written with Kent Cameron.]
Topics: ERIC Archive, Developmental Disabilities, Foreign Countries, History, Institutions, School...
From 1999-2005, the Mathematics in Indigenous Contexts (MIC) project was implemented by the Board of Studies, New South Wales (NSW), in conjunction with the NSW Department of Education and Training, and academics from two universities. MIC project members worked with schools and communities at two sites: a primary school in an urban community in western Sydney and both a primary and secondary school in a rural site in western NSW. These two sites were selected because of the significant...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Indigenous Populations, Foreign Countries, Mathematics Instruction, Elementary...
Education technology leaders are ever seeking new ways to eliminate the traditional social and geographic boundaries that hinder communication and collaboration for both K-12 students and educators. Larger districts with geographically dispersed schools often find that innovative ideas for technology use and integration are balkanized into "islands" of inspired creativity, bound up within the borders of an individual site or department. On rare occasions, these ideas actually spread...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Elementary Secondary Education, Program Development, Social Networks, School...
Background: Schools in K-12 have generated mission statements as ways of focusing their efforts and energies in specific areas. These mission statements vary by institutional setting as a function of the stakeholders and constituent groups who facilitate their development. To date, no studies were located in which the mission statements of elementary schools were examined. Aims: To determine the themes that were present in the mission statements of 100 elementary schools in the State of Texas....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Qualitative Research, Investigations, Elementary Schools, Elementary Secondary...
As the prevalence of service-learning within higher education institutions grows across the globe there is value to explore, discuss, and describe the similarities and differences between the various expressions that are emerging. Such comparative analysis can deepen understanding of service-learning pedagogy, improve practice, and create a framework for future research. This paper compares service-learning in the United States and South Africa to understand Western-oriented and Africanized...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Educational Theories, Foreign Countries, Comparative Analysis,...
Students from seven institutions of higher education reported their preferences for different paradigms of service at the beginning of their service-learning courses. At the end of the courses, they described the associated service activities in terms of the same paradigms and also completed scales describing their learning outcomes and attitudes toward civic issues. Students who expressed positive preferences for Charity or Social Change activities or both kinds of activity showed more...
Topics: ERIC Archive, College Students, Social Change, Attitude Change, Student Attitudes, Courses,...
We analyze a multi-campus collaboration in a Food Stamp Enrollment Campaign to demonstrate that a well-managed public benefits campaign, associated with broader advocacy-based community partnerships, can result in positive outcomes for the community that include measurable benefits for clients, data needed to make policy and administrative changes, and new institutional relationships that enhance existing capacities. Public benefits campaigns also provide effective service-learning experiences...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Social Justice, Service Learning, Welfare Services, Food, Public Policy, Poverty,...
There is an emerging body of literature advocating a "critical" approach to community service learning with an explicit social justice aim. A social change orientation, working to redistribute power, and developing authentic relationships are most often cited in the literature as points of departure from traditional service-learning. This literature review unpacks these distinguishing elements. (Contains 1 figure and 1 note.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Social Justice, Service Learning, Social Change, Critical Theory, Literature Reviews,...
Conversations continue as to whether and how community-based learning and research (CBLR) can be most effectively integrated into the mission and practice of institutions of higher education (IHEs). In 2005, eight District of Columbia- (DC-) area universities affiliated with the Community Research and Learning (CoRAL) Network engaged in a planning and evaluation exercise, applying a "rapid assessment" method to gauge baseline levels of CBLR institutionalization on each campus,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Colleges, Institutional Mission, Service Learning, College Environment, School...
This paper presents the results of interviews with staff from 64 community organizations regarding their experiences with service-learners. One of the themes that emerged from the interviews focused on concerns related to short-term service-learning commitments that last a semester or less. We explore the challenges presented to community groups by short-term service: investment of staff time; staff capacity to train and supervise; incompatibility with direct client service; timing and project...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Community Organizations, Interviews, Problems, Service Learning, School Community...
This qualitative study is based on in-depth interviews with 40 representatives from 12 community-based organizations (CBOs) working with the Steans Center for Community-based Service-Learning at DePaul University in Chicago. These CBOs see themselves as partners with the University in educating college students about the realities of racial and socioeconomic disparities in the United States through direct interactions with CBO programs and clients. Findings include: motivations for these CBOs...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Service Learning, College Environment, School Community Relationship, College Role,...
This article illustrates the sometimes unproductive tensions between community engagement goals in teaching writing and academic trends and institutional structures that influence grading practices and the language of authorship. To broaden instructors' understandings of possibilities for the relatively peaceful coexistence of individual and collaborative authorship and the always-existing pull between them, it offers an overview of authorship history. In addition, it offers directions for a...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Discourse Communities, School Community Relationship, Grading, Models, Writing...
This paper provides an example of how institutional service-learning assessment data can be used to drive organizational change. Furco's (1999) self-assessment rubric for the institutionalization of service-learning in higher education is used in modified form as the instrument through which organizational-level assessments were made. The process of organizational change over time is reported through the lens of Weick's (1995) Organizational Information Theory and specifically the double...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Information Theory, Scoring Rubrics, Organizational Change, Data Analysis, Program...
Colleges and universities that aim to sustain or expand community partnerships and institutionalize civic engagement face important faculty challenges. Faculty adoption of community-based pedagogies and research approaches, in turn, faces important practical and conceptual barriers, as engagement activities appear in competition with expected teaching, research, and service roles. Semi-structured interviews with 29 faculty members at one private liberal arts college, all of whom engaged in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Service Learning, College Environment, Liberal Arts, Faculty Development, Interviews,...
The paper discusses the concept of schools as "multi-purpose learning centres", proposed by the European Commission in the year 2000 as part of the Lisbon Strategy to improve competitiveness. This concept was arguably the "European vision" for school education and was meant to drive the modernization of school education. However, the concept has been somewhat ignored. The paper proposes a characterization of such "multi-purpose learning centres" based on the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, School Activities, Foreign Countries, Educational Objectives, Competition,...
This essay considers the intellectual engagement of rural people in the context of their schooling. It argues that rural schooling shares the miseducative purposes common to American schooling in general (i.e., purposes associated with sustaining American global economic dominion). It frames rurally appropriate education as an on-the-ground pursuit of rural alternatives in American life, alternatives explained as the engagement of rural ways of being, living, and knowing--alternatives that only...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Rural Schools, Rural Population, Academically Gifted, Rural Areas, Academic Aptitude,...
We analyze a two-year Faculty Fellows Program designed to enhance the service-learning pedagogy and scholarship at a regional comprehensive university. The impact of the program was analyzed using initial questionnaires, meeting notes, final reports, and faculty reflective essays. Participation in a faculty fellows cohort program provided a sense of campus community, led to professional and personal development, and improved community and student outcomes. Findings indicated the supportive...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Program Effectiveness, Grouping (Instructional Purposes), College Faculty, Service...
School improvement literature emphasizes collaboration of teachers, parents, and community members. Schools are challenged to create mutually beneficial partnerships that result in improved student performance. One source of challenge is schools' organizational structures and processes do not contribute to full and meaningful involvement of non-professionals. Using the lens of institutional theory, this paper reports a study that examined the organizational resistance to including parents and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Community Involvement, Educational Change, Foreign Countries, Educational...