New
England
Writings about
Civics
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Civic Participation & Citizenship Collection
Introduction to Rural Team Writings
Stephanie Menard, Hardwick Community Learning Center, Hardwick,
VT
Teachers
of adult students in rural settings are faced with some unique challenges
that, more often than not, are ignored in publications designed to help
all educators. As rural teachers, it's impossible to count the number
of times that we've been exposed to wonderful and exciting teaching ideas
but have been left wondering how we could apply those same ideas to the
students with whom we work. Many of the barriers experienced by our students
are common to all literacy students but seem to play out differently in
a rural setting. The popular image of an adult education classroom filled
with students who meet on a regular basis rarely, if ever, exists in a
rural setting. Our teaching relationships are very different and are mitigated
by the geography in which we live.
If there is one word that we associate with our work and with our students
it is "isolation." It is a word that permeates everything that
we do and in fact can become the basis from which we construct our programs.
It is a concept that may help you to understand why there is such a paradox
in having rural educators use the Civic
Participation and Community Action Sourcebook. At first glance
it seems as if the goals of the Sourcebook are virtually unachievable
given the realities that we face, yet it is for this reason that the Sourcebook
is so necessary and suited for the population with whom we work.
Isolation plays out in many different ways and creates a snowball-like
effect for rural students and teachers. For instance, in most rural areas
there is very limited public transportation. That means that students
either have no way to access group learning or they must drive their own
vehicles, which more often than not are unreliable. Childcare options
are also scarce as most licensed sites are full and parents are forced
to use friends and family who have schedules of their own. Both of these
circumstances greatly interfere with intensity and frequency of instruction.
Some rural areas lack learning centers and provide most of their instruction
at students' homes or at other designated places, such as local libraries.
Group meetings, when they do occur, are usually small. Many times students
will work one-on-one with a teacher once a week and in some cases may
never have contact with other students. Without the benefit of group support
it becomes difficult to motivate students to become involved in projects.
In fact, because students do not have a lot of contact time with teachers
and other students, they are even more adamant about sticking to their
original goals with absolutely no detours.
In addition to logistical problems, the rural tradition can produce a
"culture of isolation." Many families, purposefully, have little
contact with others and have a highly developed spirit of independence.
It is easy to feel exposed in small communities and historically negative
relationships frequently prevent students from wanting to get involved
in their communities. Instead they are often left with a feeling of wanting
to "escape" the towns in which they live.
Using the Sourcebook with rural students can be a difficult task but certainly
not impossible. As always it requires that we, as teachers, shift our
thinking and redefine our expectations. With some lessons learned, our
team can share that the Sourcebook activities are usable and adaptable
for this population. More importantly, though, the process of involving
students in civic participation and community action has deeper implications.
For all of us the process strengthened the teacher-student relationship
and enabled us to become much more in touch with student needs and interests.
Teaching perspectives also changed as we shifted our role from teacher
to coach and allowed individual students the time and flexibility to explore
their ideas and take them as far as they needed or wanted to. Gone were
preset materials and we challenged ourselves to develop activities that
we couldn't find in a book.
After many team meetings we also realized that for rural students we needed
to value the process of community participation more than the product
that might emerge from the work. As coaches in the process we began to
see that our job was to plant seeds for our students. Sometimes those
seeds grow immediately and other times we know they will take root a bit
later. The results, however, are just as valuable.
The following selections are not specific lessons or activities but instead
are personal stories that represent how the process of facilitating community
action and civic participation played out for each of our teachers in
their own rural situations. We hope our writings give other rural teachers
a chance to relate to our situations, impart some lessons learned and
help teachers approach the process in a way that feels realistic and effective
for their own student population. Preceding the stories is a list of "Do's
and Don'ts" which, although now painfully obvious to our team, were
not realized until we were well into our field-testing phase. The importance
of these lessons can't be overemphasized. As simple truths they have become
for us the cornerstones of ensuring that the process of facilitating civic
participation and community involvement be both a pleasant and meaningful
experience for both teacher and student.
Promoting
Community Involvement with Rural Students
Do's and Don'ts
Do take time to probe for student
interest in and knowledge about their community and
its issues.
Don't launch directly into activities.
Do be realistic in your expectations and
allow for revisions during the process.
Don't have preset ideas of where things will lead or what will
come out of them.
Do weave civic participation and community
involvement activities into the context of student goals.
Don't present it as something separate.
Do recognize that students may make only
small steps in the process. Celebrate them!
Don't expect elaborate projects for all students
Do use windows of opportunity. If a student
asks a question or makes a comment about their community,
build on this interest.
Don't present activities on your own timeline.
Do make sure you adequately prepare students
for any activities in which they are interfacing with
the community (The Right Question
Project activities can be helpful).
Don't send students out without the skills and knowledge they need.
Do define which students are appropriate
for moving forward with community involvement.
Don't assume that every student will be interested or ready.
Do connect students with others who are
engaging in (or have engaged in) similar activities
to help them feel motivated. (E-mail exchanges or the sharing of published
student writings are good ways to connect.)
Don't let the student feel like they are the only one out there.
Do recognize that you are planting seeds
with some students and may not see the pay-off immediately
or during your contact with the student.
Don't view any aborted missions as failures.
New
England Literacy Resource Center
World Education
Boston, MA
(617) 482-9485
