To continue to be an effective local educational leader in curricular change, fiscal policy making, and, above all, in planning for education, the school administrator must have a continuous flow of usable information on public opinion. The purpose of this book is to provide the administrator with practical methods for systematically monitoring…

Describes a year-and-a-half-long history project that involved elementary students in exploring their community's past. Students took field trips, interviewed community persons, taped oral histories, painted murals, and produced a dramatic musical based on their community's history. (RM)

This project was launched to discover if the communications gap between technical information about educational issues and lay consumption of the data could be breached. One of these issues, the financing of public education, was selected, and an investigation was launched to ascertain how written communications about educational finance could be…

Case studies of five rural Nebraska communities identified why some rural communities have survived economic trends stemming from the worst agricultural economic crisis since the Great Depression, while others seem to have surrendered. Background information on each community was gathered from available state, federal, and private information…

The book presents information on the use of oral history as a classroom device. The first chapter discusses the evolution of oral history from a practice intended to preserve information on noted Americans to a way of preserving recollections of older Americans about the past. The second chapter explains why interviewing members of their own…

There is concern that laypersons participating in environmental or natural resource decision making cannot or do not engage the scientific and technical information sufficiently to integrate that information into the decisions and reach a highquality, science-based decision. This study examined how thirteen citizens participating in two Superfund…

The notion of a community curriculum in Thailand comes from widespread recognition that Thai society has been greatly influenced by the west in its development and modernization. According to many Thais, community curricula are needed to encourage young people to preserve Thai culture and revive local ways of thinking about "development"…

Based on the environment and directed at elementary and intermediate level students, 5 field trips are a significant part of the 12 social studies activities in the sixth booklet by the Upper Mississippi River ECO-Center outlining environmental and outdoor education activities. Most of the activities include objectives, activity description,…

This guide, which is based on the Foxfire project (see SO 009 021 for project description), is full of practical suggestions to help secondary school students put together a magazine using stories from their own communities. Contents include the following: choosing a name for the magazine; how to organize staff; story ideas to choose from; sample…

Discusses methodological issues in cross-cultural studies of diverse communities, including language problems, data collection and analysis, sample size, and dissemination of findings. A study of the information-seeking behavior of ethnolinguistic gatekeepers in several communities in California is described. Suggestions are given for public…

Using techniques of the reputational method to study community power structure, this report identifies components of power structure in a Tennessee school district, demonstrates that proven methodologies can facilitate educational leaders' reform efforts, and serves as a pilot study for further investigation. Researchers investigated the district…

Planting by the signs of the moon, well digging, hewing logs, wood carving, knife making, bird trapping, and horsetrading are but a few of the aspects of Appalachian culture explored in "Foxfire 4." Like its predecessors, the volume was compiled by high school students at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School. Information on the cultural heritage…

The social studies unit involves students in learning about how their families and neighbors view their community. In addition, students identify community issues and problems, and explore their own attitudes about their community. It is designed for use in grade five through junior high school. There are four parts to the community study project.…

A window into the customs, folklore, and cultural heritage of Appalachia is provided in this volume, the third in the series of "Foxfire" books. Compiled by high school students at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee school, it is based on personal interviews with long-time residents of Appalachian Georgia. In many cases the material is in the words of…

Transcripts are presented of interviews with 20 individuals of various ethnic backgrounds who live in the Westport-Norwalk, Connecticut, area. The document is part of a project to investigate the ethnically varied cultural, heritage of the Westport-Norwalk area from 1900 to 1979. Persons interviewed are identified by ethnic group, including…