Session Information
14 SES 02 B, Schooling in Rural Settings.
Paper Session
Contribution
The aim of this paper is to examine the pedagogical, cultural and structural meaning and conditions of village schools, by analyzing teacher narratives and contrasting these narratives in a societal context. During the recent decades small schools have become “endangered species” in Finland as well as in many other western countries. Due to national and local policies, aiming at both economic and educational efficiency, hundreds of Finnish village schools have been closed or consolidated in the last years. My curiosity was aroused to find out: what is lost when the schools become bigger and also remoter from the pupils’ homes? It is a paradox that, although small schools are proposed to be inferior, teachers still keep on working in these schools, even if they are continually threatened with closure. Also the local inhabitants and the pupils’ parents defend the existence of these small schools. What do these people value and appreciate in their small schools, or – what is the core of the village school? Through interviews with twelve teachers working in small village schools, the tacit knowledge of the teachers is made visible (cf. Polanyi 1978). By listening to the teachers’ voices, an understanding is reached about what teachers value in their work and in their relationships with the pupils; in other words, an understanding of the teachers’ pedagogical intentions and purposes, as well as of their sense of meaningfulness (cf. Elbaz 1992; Gudmundsdottir 2001; Noddings 2001). Additionally, in order to uncover the cultural construction and meaning of the village school, newspaper comments and articles, local policy documents and school consolidation plans are analyzed. When different perspectives are juxtaposed new understanding is revealed (Karlberg-Granlund 2009).
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Bell, A. & Sigsworth, A. (1987). The small rural primary school – A matter of quality. London, New York and Philadelphia: The Falmer Press. Bruner, J. (1987). Life as narrative. Social Research, 54 (1), 11–32. Bruner, J. (2002). Kulturens väv. Utbildning i kulturpsykologisk belysning. [The culture of education] Translation by S. Andersson. Göteborg: Bokförlaget Daidalos. Elbaz, F. (1983). Teacher thinking. A study of practical knowledge. Croom Helm curriculum policy and research series. New York: Nichols Publishing Company. Elbaz, F. (1992). Hope, attentiveness, and caring for difference: the moral voice in teaching. Teaching & Teacher Education, 8 (5/6), 421–432. Gudmundsdottir, S. (2001). Narrative research on school practice. In V. Richardson (Ed.) Handbook of Research on Teaching. Fourth Edition (226–240). Washington D.C.: American Educational Research Association. Hinton, P.R. (2003). Stereotyper, kognition och kultur. [Stereotypes, Cognition and Culture]. Translation by S. Strålfors. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Karlberg-Granlund, G. (2009). Att förstå det stora i det lilla. Byskolan som pedagogik, kultur och struktur. [Understanding the great in the small. Pedagogy, culture and structure of the village school]. Academic dissertation. Pedagogiska fakulteten, Åbo Akademi in Vasa. Summary in English. Åbo: Åbo Akademis förlag. Kvalsund, R. (2004). Schools as environments for social learning – Shaping mechanisms? Comparisons of smaller and larger rural schools in Norway. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 48 (4), 347–371. Noddings, N. (2001). The caring teacher. In V. Richardson (Ed.) Handbook of research on teaching, Fourth Edition. (99–105). Washington D.C.: American Educational Research Association. Polanyi, M. (1978). [1958] Personal knowledge. Towards a post-critical philosophy. London and Henley: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Witten, K., McCreanor, T., Kearns, R. & Ramasubramanian, L. (2001). The impacts of school closure on neighbourhood social cohesion: narratives from Invercargill, New Zealand. Health & Place, 7 (4) 307–317.
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