Rural Education | Y

Yamagata-Lynch, Lisa C. (2001).  Community of Practice: What Is It, and How Can We Use This Metaphor for Teacher Professional Development? 

This paper focuses on in-service teacher professional development. The purpose of this paper is to: reexamine the definitions and characteristics that are often associated with the community of practice metaphor; clarify that this metaphor is a theoretical tool for educational researchers to make sense of interactions that take place in educational settings; and use the community of practice metaphor as a theoretical lens to reflect on interactions that took place at a rural Midwestern school district that was involved in a teacher professional development program. The paper concludes with suggestions on how to use community of practice as an instruction design tool for supporting and enhancing organizational learning. The data presented in this paper was extracted from a larger multiple case study that took place in 2 rural Midwestern school districts during August 1998 to May 2000.   | [FULL TEXT]

Yamagata-Lynch, Lisa C. (2007).  Confronting Analytical Dilemmas for Understanding Complex Human Interactions in Design-Based Research from a Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) Framework  Journal of the Learning Sciences, 16, 4. 

Understanding human activity in real-world situations often involves complicated data collection, analysis, and presentation methods. This article discusses how Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) can inform design-based research practices that focus on understanding activity in real-world situations. I provide a sample data set with activity systems analyses of a yearlong teacher professional development program designed to foster technology integration into rural Indiana schools. I present the analytical dilemmas I faced while maintaining trustworthiness in the qualitative data analysis. Through the sample data analysis, I demonstrate how the school-wide technology reform initiative affected and was affected by classroom-based teacher technology implementation projects. Additionally, I introduce the theoretical findings from the data analyses that contribute to further development in activity systems analysis.  [Additional funding for this article was supported by the Ackerman Family Foundation. A version of this article was presented at the 2002 biannual meeting of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences.]

The purpose of this research was to describe the status of and factors that influence adult learning and to provide information to help policymakers foster adult learning programs in rural Pennsylvania face a unique set of challenges and obstacles. These include serving a diverse group of rural adults who need a variety of services, a changing job market, and vast geographic areas with low population densities. To this end, this study focused on three main areas: adult learners' characteristics and participation patterns, infrastructure for providing services, and funding streams that support literacy and basic education. The study used three types of data sources: focus group discussions of adult education program directors, a survey of adult education program directors, and an analysis of documents from the Pennsylvania Departments of Labor and Industry and Education. The research found that, in addition to the challenges facing all adult education providers, adult education programs in rural Pennsylvania face a unique set of challenges and obstacles. These include serving a diverse group of rural adults who need a variety of services, a changing job market, and vast geographic areas with low population densities. | [FULL TEXT]

Yan, Wenfan (2006).  Is Bigger Better? A Comparison of Rural School Districts   

School district size is important to policymakers and educators who need to determine the most effective way to structure school organization. For more than 40 years, a growing body of research has focused on the relationship between school size and school effectiveness (Monk & Plecki, 1999). Early studies did not address the effect of school size on student performance but focused more on school expenditures (Brazer, 1959; Hirsch, 1959; Michelson, 1972). Later studies switched the focus to the relationship between school size and student achievement (Summers & Wolfe, 1977; Walberg & Fowler, 1987; White & Tweeten, 1973). This study addressed the limitations of previous literature by comparing different school district types in rural Pennsylvania to determine whether or not the structure of school districts has an impact on fiscal management, administrative capacity, and student achievement. Overall, the research did not find any evidence to support the notion that bigger districts are better districts, in terms of cost, administration or academic achievement, in rural Pennsylvania.  | [FULL TEXT]

Yang, Raymond K.; Fetsch, Robert J. (2007).  The Self-Esteem of Rural Children  Journal of Research in Rural Education, 22, 5. 

The self-esteem of children in small towns was assessed. Comparing these children's self-rated competencies to extant norms suggests that rural children's self-perceptions are not distinctly different from suburban and urban children. Rural children's feelings of self-worth and self-assessments of scholastic competence are comparable to or higher than metropolitan norms. Rural children display the same decrement in self-ratings of physical appearance as they grow older--girls more so than boys--as do urban children. Rural and urban boys rate themselves higher in athletic competence than girls. The impact of rural/urban differences on children may be less marked than suspected.

Yarbrough, Rachel; Gilman, David Alan (2006).  From Five Days to Four  Educational Leadership, 64, 2. 

Facing financial difficulties, the Webster County Public School System in rural Kentucky implemented a four-day school week to save money on transportation and staffing. The district's research in the experience of other rural districts had indicated that such a calendar change could increase efficiency and also yield some unexpected benefits. Webster County's experience in the last two years under the new calendar has confirmed the viability of the four-day week. Student achievement has risen, and teachers feel that they are using planning and staff development time more profitably. Anticipated problems--such as student fatigue from the longer school day and parent problems with child-care issues--have not proven to be serious obstacles.

Yates, Russell (2001).  Right in Your Own Backyard: A Description of Flexible Learning Applied to Primary Teacher Education. 

In 1995 many rural areas of New Zealand, especially on the North Island, faced significant teacher shortages. In response, the University of Waikato developed a program of primary teacher education designed to serve students in remote areas. Program features include recruitment and selection of rural students who will work in their home districts and a "mixed-media" approach involving a range of types of teacher-student communication. Students are typically nontraditional students with work and family commitments; many are Maori. Students are required to attend three 3-week "block courses" on campus each year, work 1 day each week in a local primary school, and use information technology to interact with faculty and colleagues. Forms of communication include individual telephone contact, audioconferencing with small groups, asynchronous computer conferencing, and E-mail. A Web-based interface houses coursework and provides access to discussion forums and library databases. This mixed, low-tech approach accommodates students in areas with poor-quality telephone transmission. Student support is provided through the practice of selecting students in geographic groups, regular visits from faculty to remote areas, and electronically-based peer support. Program successes include high rates of student retention and completion, high academic achievement, and high satisfaction of rural schools with program graduates hired. | [FULL TEXT]

Yaunches, Alison, Ed.; Loveland, Elaina, Ed. (2002).  Rural Roots: News, Information, and Commentary from the Rural School and Community Trust, 2002. 

This document contains the six issues of "Rural Roots" published bimonthly in 2002. A newsletter of the Rural School and Community Trust, "Rural Roots" provides news, information, and commentary from the Rural Trust and highlights the wide variety of place-based education work happening in rural schools and communities across the country. Feature articles include: "Chef Cooks Up a Community Development Harvest in Rural West Virginia" (Alison Yaunches); "Teacher Development: Missouri's North Nodaway School District's Professional Development Program Improves Teacher Effectiveness and Student Achievement"; "A First Person Account of the Rural Trust's Education Renewal Zone Initiative in Missouri" (Vicki M. Hobbs); "Small Works: Schools in Three States Showcase Virtues of Small Size" (Alison Yaunches); "A Firsthand Account of Teaching in a Small School" (Susan McNeil); "Learning and Living with Diversity in Schleicher County, Texas" (Alison Yaunches); "Students from Small, Northern California Town Create a Usable Work of Art"; "LUPE Lends a Hand to the Mexican-Americans of Ojai Valley" (Kelly Midori McCormick); "Connecting Communities and Classrooms" (Elaina Loveland); "Community Collaboration for Place-Based Studies Celebrates Local Natural and Cultural History" (June LaCombe); "Rural Schools Participate in Youth Civic Engagement Initiative" (Elaina Loveland); "Leader Sees Growing Trend in Youth Civic Engagement: An Interview with Wendy Wheeler"; "Challenges and Rewards of Rural School Leadership" (Elaina Loveland); "The Sharing of Authority"; and "Diary of a Rural School Leader: What Really Matters Anyway?" (Jeanne Surface). Issues also contain notices of conferences and new publications; brief articles on school projects, rural education research, and technical assistance and funding opportunities; and organizational news of the Rural Trust. | [FULL TEXT]

Yen, Cheng-Fang; Yang, Mei-Sang; Yang, Ming-Jen; Su, Yi-Ching; Wang, Mei-Hua; Lan, Chu-Mei (2008).  Childhood Physical and Sexual Abuse: Prevalence and Correlates among Adolescents Living in Rural Taiwan  Child Abuse & Neglect: The International Journal, 32, 3. 

Objective: The aims of this cross-sectional survey study were to examine the prevalence and correlates of childhood physical and sexual abuse in adolescents living in the rural areas of Taiwan. Method: A sample of indigenous (n = 756) and non-indigenous (n = 928) adolescents was randomly selected from junior high schools in the rural areas of southern Taiwan. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data anonymously. The prevalence of childhood physical and sexual abuse was examined and their correlates were examined using univariate and multivariate logistic regression. Results: A total of 374 (22.2%) adolescents reported experience of physical abuse and 42 (2.5%) reported sexual abuse in their childhood. Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that the adolescents who perceived poor family function, frequent family conflicts and whose parents drank habitually were more likely to experience physical abuse. The adolescents who were indigenous and perceived frequent family conflicts were more likely to experience childhood sexual abuse. Further analyses indicated that indigenous boys had a higher risk of being the victims of sexual abuse than non-indigenous boys, while no difference was found between indigenous and non-indigenous girls. Conclusion: The results remind clinical workers of the importance of taking abuse histories from adolescents on a routine basis, and this is especially important in the case of dysfunctional families. Practice implications: Adolescents who live in rural areas have less social and medical resources for early detection and intervention of physical and sexual abuse. Correlates of physical and sexual abuse identified in this study may be helpful for the design and implementation of preventive intervention.

_____. (2005).  Yosemite National Park Schools. Senate, One Hundred Ninth Congress, First Session (April 28, 2005). Report 109-63  [US Senate] 

The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, to which was referred the bill (S. 136) to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to provide supplemental funding and other services that are necessary to assist certain local school districts in the State of California in providing educational services for students attending schools located within Yosemite National Park, to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to adjust the boundaries of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and for other purposes, having considered the same, reports favorably thereon with amendments and recommends that the bill, as amended, do pass. | [FULL TEXT]

Young, Anne (2005).  What New Parents "Really" Want to Know. A Principal Responds When a Parent Survey Reveals Some Unexpected Concerns  Principal, 84, 5. 

Part of Clark Elementary School was built in 1911 as a rural school housing grades 1-12 that also served as the community center. In l984, when I first taught there, it was a school with 225 students where the staff knew not only the students, but their immediate families, extended families, and even long-deceased relatives who had attended Clark as youngsters. Information about the school was readily transmitted by word of mouth.

Young, Carl A. (2004).  Conversation as Curriculum: Learning to Teach English in Rural America  English Journal, 93, 6. 

A case study to discover teacher dispositions that promote learning with at-risk students is presented. A teacher's experience on the challenges she faces, her successes in both urban and rural areas and the lessons that can be learned from her experiences is discussed.

Young, Metta; Guenther, John; Boyle, Alicia (2007).  Growing the Desert: Educational Pathways for Remote Indigenous People. A National Vocational Education and Training Research and Evaluation Program Report  [National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER)] 

This report maps the picture of Indigenous people's participation in vocational education and training and other educational services across Australia's desert regions. The report identifies a range of innovations and barriers experienced in enabling pathways through learning into work and other meaningful livelihood opportunities.  [This work has been produced with funding provided through the Australian Department of Education, Science and Training. The author/project team was funded to undertake this research via a grant under the National Vocational Education and Training Research and Evaluation (NVETRE) Program. For the related Support Document, see ED499708.] | [FULL TEXT]

Young, Walter F.; McGloin, Joe; Zittleman, Linda; West, David R.; Westfall, John M. (2007).  Predictors of Colorectal Screening in Rural Colorado: Testing to Prevent Colon Cancer in the High Plains Research Network  Journal of Rural Health, 23, 3. 

Context: Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States, yet screening rates are well below target levels. Rural communities may face common and unique barriers to health care, particularly preventive health care. Purpose: To establish baseline attitudinal, knowledge, belief, and behavior measures on colorectal cancer screening and to identify barriers to or predictors of colorectal cancer screening. Methods: As part of a controlled trial using a quasi-experimental, pretest, post-test design, we conducted a baseline telephone survey of 1,050 rural eastern Colorado residents aged 50 years and older. Smaller counties were over-sampled to ensure a minimum of 30 completed interviews per county. Findings: Seventy-seven percent reported they ever had a colorectal cancer screening test and 59% were up-to-date on at least 1 test. The most important independent predictors of being up-to-date were having visited a doctor or other health care practitioner for a checkup in the past year, having personal or family history of colon polyps or cancer, and having asked for a colorectal cancer screening test. Financial concerns were reported reasons for not obtaining fecal occult blood testing by 18% and colonoscopy by 21%. Conclusions: This study suggests that health care providers should be vigilant in counseling their patients 50 and older to have a colorectal cancer test. Community programs designed to promote colon cancer screening should encourage residents to have regular contact with their primary care physician and ask their doctor for a screening test. Additionally, programs should provide financial assistance for testing for low-income and uninsured patients.

Younis, Talib (2000).  Higher Education: Looking towards the 21st Century. 

Trends in higher education (HE) in Scotland and elsewhere in the United Kingdom in the 1990s were reviewed, and possible policy directions for HE in the 21st century were explored. Special attention was paid to the following areas: features of HE institutions in the 21st century; the relationship between the state and HE institutions; curriculum development in support of learning for the workplace; flexible, open, and distance learning; technology and learning; the corporate university; and virtual education. The following were among the main conclusions reached: (1) HE policymakers and managers must base their policy decisions on forecasts of the skills needed in the workplace; (2) education providers must aim to bring equality of access to learning and encourage the state to fund installation of the infrastructure and new technologies needed to extend education to wider communities; and (3) policymakers and mangers wanting to provide their communities with wide, affordable access to learning must look to new technologies with the potential for mass education, including virtual universities based on the creation of partnerships offering courses and learning materials that have been developed by other institutions and subsequently awarding their own credits/degrees by assessing students' prior learning of the materials. | [FULL TEXT]

Yu, Christina Wai Mui; Man, Thomas Wing Yan (2007).  The Sustainability of Enterprise Education: A Case Study in Hong Kong  Education & Training, 49, 2. 

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce a case of an increasingly popular enterprise education programme in Hong Kong called the Teen Entrepreneurs Competition (TEC) and to examine its sustainability in different dimensions. Design/methodology/approach: Post-activity evaluation feedback was obtained from the participants and the stakeholders of the activity. Three systematic research studies were also conducted for investigating the impact of entrepreneurial characteristics and social interaction on the participants throughout TEC. Findings: Participants and stakeholders generally provided positive feedback towards TEC. The research findings also showed that TEC was able to draw a positive impact on developing the participants' entrepreneurial characters and in turn made TEC sustainable on the provision of an enterprise education programme in the local community. Research limitations/implications: It is suggested that the sustainability of TEC is attributed to three dimensions, namely, opportunities for individual comprehensive understanding, context for collaborative learning, and network for institutional support. Practical implications: Suggestions on how to further strengthen the sustainability of enterprise education programmes through these three dimensions are provided, for example, maximising individuals' practical experience, improving the quality of collaboration and developing a closer working relationship with various stakeholders. Originality/value: Enterprise education is recognised to have a significant influence on the development of entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and attitudes for youths. In order to widen the impact of enterprise education in society, it is necessary to sustain such enterprise education programmes over an extended period of time.

Yunshan, Liu (2007).  Life, Culture, and Education in a Border Region  Chinese Education and Society, 40, 1. 

The border region described in this article is the area in which the three provinces of Guizhou, Guangxi, and Yunnan converge and where Han Chinese, the Buyi minority, and the Miao minority are intermingled. This border region is not remote, because the Nan-Kun Railroad (a line connecting Nanning, Guangxi, with Kunming, Yunnan-Trans.) runs through it. Neither is it really accessible, as it is the area into which the Miao people have retreated ever deeper into the mountains to find a home where they can feel safe. In this article, the author describes life, culture, and education in the border region, focusing on the following themes: (1) the railroad as a framework for the nation and the market; (2) the evolution of the conceptual world in the border area; and (3) the effect of increased social mobility.

Yu, S. Q.; Wang, Minjuan J. (2006).  Modern Distance Education Project for the Rural Schools of China: Recent Development and Problems  Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 22, 4. 

The Modern Distance Education Project for the Rural Schools (MDEPRS) of China has a wider scope and serves a larger population than any other informational project in the world. It likely will result in a far-reaching informational revolution for basic education in China. Here, we introduce three main innovative models of material delivery, the recent developments of MDEPRS, and the problems associated with this project. We then fully discuss strategies for optimizing this project, such as establishing reasonable goals and directions, restructuring its major components, improving the delivery models and digital contents, sustaining its development, conducting better financial audit and project evaluation, and increasing community participation and financial investment.