NCCRESt

part of the Education Reform Networks

You are in: Subject —>

Rural Areas

• "I Wish I Could Have Been There Dancing with You": Linking Diverse Communities through Social Studies and Literature
  Profiles the Indiana Exchange Project, an endeavor that uses technology to link fourth-grade teachers and students from three geographically and ethnically diverse communities. The students exchange letters, photographs, response journals, local newspapers, and videotapes of classroom and community activities.
• Already Reading Texts and Contexts: Multicultural Literature in a Predominantly White Rural Community
  Examines how the inclusion of multicultural texts played out in one predominantly white rural community, focusing on repercussions of a key event that set off conflict in the community and describing how various interpretations of this event haped teachers' and community members' beliefs about the selection, interpretation, and teaching of multicultural literature. (SM).
• Are the Culturally Diverse Needs of Children Being Met in Special Education?
  A mail survey was conducted of 149 students (grades 4-8) with special needs in 19 school systems in inner city, suburban, and rural settings to determine their knowledge of cultural diversity and to identify their educational needs in this area.
• Developing a Rationale for Multicultural Education in Rural Appalachia
  Because of their ethnic/racial homogeneity, Appalachian schools often see multicultural education as irrelevant. Teacher education must link the oppression of Appalachia with that of more visible minority groups; show how knowledge is subjective; and emphasize that true national unity results from honoring diversity.
• Honoring Our Roots and Branches...Our History and Future. Proceedings of the Annual Midwest Research to Practice Conference in Adult, Continuing, and Community Education (19th, Madison, Wisconsin, September 27-29, 2000)
  These proceedings consist of 44 presentations in these categories: distance education and evaluation; community issues and research; multicultural issues and research; teaching and learning; research methods; and organizational development.
• Multicultural Literature in Rural Schools: A Social Studies Unit that Promotes Cultural Awareness
  Presents a study in which 12 multicultural literature selections were used in a unit on families in order to facilitate the cultural awareness of second-grade students who live in a predominately African American, rural community. Discusses the themes that emerged.
• The Relationships between Situated Cognition and Rural Preservice Teachers' Knowledge and Understanding of Diversity
  A study examined the influence of situated knowledge embedded in 17 rural preservice teachers' autobiographies on their perspectives on diversity and future classroom practices. Four themes emerged in interviews: situative cognition in rural contexts; cultural groups being together but existing apart; understanding group similarities and differences; and desire to teach in a small rural school.
• The Understanding of Local Context in Teacher Education
  The teacher education program at Western Montana College helps preservice teachers understand how the local context of the rural school and its community impacts student learning and the teacher's role. Coursework and multiple field experiences help preservice teachers identify their own cultural background and give them experience in teaching culturally diverse students.