This paper analyses a community-based educational program involving private and public sector partners instituted in a small city in northern Tasmania. The program represents part of a state-wide initiative to challenge the persistence of structural educational disadvantage and what is understood to be an entrenched "culture" that is…

This paper examines the Australian government's Indigenous policy by interrogating the concept of partnership between governments and Indigenous communities through three examples. Increasingly, the Australian federal government is focusing attention on the poor literacy and numeracy outcomes for Indigenous children in remote and very remote…

This article is essentially written as two linked parts. The first part considers how space, spatiality and history can contribute to understanding and "doing something about" the sustainability of rural communities. This is done by extensive reference to Soja's (1989 & 1996) space and spatial theorising and selective perspectives of…

A 3-year study of decentralization of Alaska schools identified several factors that influenced whether a school was locally controlled and found patterns of control associated in important ways with staff and community attitudes toward school. Information was gathered by surveys and interviews conducted in 28 communities randomly selected to…

Summarizes the history of education in a rural, primarily African-American town in North Carolina as one of denial used as a coping mechanism for disappointment. Denial of real problems by blacks and whites has contributed to the town's weakened sense of community and its lack of a local school. (SLD)

Case studies of local development projects in Scotland, Norway, Australia, and the United States (Minnesota) indicate that federal education programs of a "generative" nature (those linking educational improvement to other improvement efforts, emphasizing process, and stimulating grass-roots participation) are most likely to promote…

Beginning in 1981, a 3-year study examined implementation of decentralization in rural Alaska education; legislated decentralization had begun in 1975 largely in response to the Native self-determination movement. All rural local school administrators were initially surveyed. Based on their responses and other statewide data, four types of…

The paper discusses dilemmas in doing research on the kinds of teachers who are effective with Eskimo and Indian children in isolated, rural Alaska communities. Issues discussed are identification of effective cross-cultural teachers by a "multiple hurdle" technique; criteria that 228 teachers, 29 administrators, and 40 community members…