Purpose: Instructional leadership is a major part of the responsibility of principals who achieve promising results in school improvement. This paper aims to explore the inhibiting factors for instituting instructional leadership in elementary schools located in rural areas in Israel. Design/methodology/approach: The participants of this…

A quasi-experimental design was employed to (a) assess the long-term impact of study abroad, service-learning, community service, and cultural coursework as alternative methods of expanding long-term global awareness among college students, and (b) evaluate the predictive validity of a standard secular assessment tool at a rural Christian college.…

Society is accustomed to advancing the meritocratic ethos that sends the children of affluent and professional families on to four-year liberal arts colleges while leaving behind others who are fully capable but who come from low-income or working-class families or from families of color. Such students often feel that a liberal arts college…

Background: Calls to improve learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and particularly engineering, present significant challenges for school systems. Partnerships among engineering industry, universities, and school systems to support learning appear promising, but current work is limited in its conclusions because it…

"Unscripted Possibilities" examines the potential for change that emerges in rural environments affected by poverty and educational reforms that ignore the specific contexts of rural schools. Using a National Writing Project program, the College, Career, and Community Writers Program, as a case, we argue that professional development…

Objective: To investigate the physical activity levels and experiences of students enrolled in a service-learning dog walking class. Participants: College students (N = 10) from a rural university in the Eastern United States (age = 20.8 years ±1.2; 80% female; 90% White). Method: Students wore NL-1000 pedometers twice a week for 50 minutes for…

Critical consciousness (CC) has been linked to academic and civic engagement for students from marginalized backgrounds, but little work has examined CC for students from more privileged groups. In addition, research indicates that school characteristics may promote the development of CC, but this literature has yet to be fully developed.…

Headteachers in the community schools are responsible for academic and administrative activities. They are considered role models for integrity practices. However, the situation is different on some occasions. For instance, political interest plays more important roles than qualifications, training, work experience, etc., in school affairs. In…

Western play theories and practices have had a dominant role in creating China's current discursive condition for preschool play. They are also essential to current knowledge production about play. However, this dominance tends to be transferred into rural preschools, which have recently mushroomed and demanded play activities. The authors reflect…

States have increasingly relied on financial policies to address teacher staffing challenges, particularly in high need areas. Case in point, South Carolina developed the Rural Recruitment Initiative (RRI) to provide funding for recruitment and retention efforts in rural and other underserved districts facing severe teacher staffing challenges.…

The objective of this study is to add to the existing literature on principal recruitment and hiring strategies by examining the turnover and retention patterns of internally recruited principals. For many hard-to-staff schools--particularly urban and rural schools--internal recruitment is considered a primary method of improving recruitment and…

The study investigates the influence of consolidation on women principals and teacher perceptions of their professional role and school climate in Saudi Arabia. The study also investigates how principals navigate the consolidation process. To better understand the consolidation policy, an informational interview was conducted with School Planning…

Instructional coaching is implemented by school districts for the professional development of staff (Knight, 2007). The purpose of this quantitative study was to gain information regarding the effectiveness of an instructional coaching program to limit teacher burnout and increase teacher retention. Non-tenured teachers from two rural school…

This study examines perseverance, the ability to achieve goals, and grit, the long-term completion of goals and tasks. Educators have seen a decline in students' ability to persist through daily challenges. Instilling this quality in students early on can help them set and achieve short-and long-term goals, close academic gaps, sustain…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the perceptions of (a) program design and delivery, (b) professional development opportunities for teachers and leaders, and (c) the inclusion and support of campus leadership among campus principals of gifted programs in small, rural public high school settings within a region of a…