This paper draws on qualitative research in mountainous, rural areas of Tajikistan to reveal the complex and contradictory effects of the Soviet collapse on the life and work of teachers. While within the former USSR, Tajikistan experienced comparative modernization, but the Soviet collapse and 6 years of civil war left the republic with a ruined…

1996 National Teacher of the Year--a high school teacher from rural Minnesota--reflects on the 30 years of her career and on social changes that have necessitated that her community and local schools work toward cultural understanding. The community went from a mostly white, middle-class, conservative community to one with at least six different…