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Education, Place, and the Sustainability of Rural Communities

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Education, Place, and the Sustainability of Rural Communities Journal ofResearch in Rural Education, Winter, 1998, Vol. 14, No.3, 131-141 E(Qlu.n(c21~fi~rm9 JIDll21(C<e92lrm(Ql ~Ihl<e §u.n§mfirm21bfillfi~y ~f JRu.nJr21ll <C~mmu.nrmfi1fi<e§ firm §21§lk21~(CIhl<ew21rm Terry Wotherspoon University ofSaskatchewan Schools which have long been cornerstones ofsustainability for rural communities are in danger ofdisappearing in many areas that rely on agriculture as the primary industry. Many forecasters project the demise ofrural schooling and the communities the schools serve amidst global pressures to concentrate and centralize economic production, jobs, and services. Other commentators argue that rural schools can playa vital role infostering a sense ofplace that is critical to the development ofmeaningful social, economic, and cultural opportunities in uniquely situated communities. This paper examines the perceptions about schooling's contributions to community sustainability held by southwestern Saskatchewan residents. In the face ofpressures to close and consolidate many community schools, area residents place a high value on the maintenance ofextensive local educational services, are generally satisfied with the services available to them, and contribute actively to support schooling. However, schools offer credentials and content that serve urban centres more than local communities. If schools are to remain vital to rural community sustainability, educators, policymakers, and community members must offer strategies that link education with the development ofeconomic diversification, meaning­ ful jobs, and supportive community infrastructures. Introduction tion and the introduction of advanced communications tech­ nologies have made these regions less isolated than once The phenomena of education, work, and community was the case. On the other hand, increasing concentrations sustainability traditionally act in a complementary man­ of resources and services in metropolitan regions have posed ner. The general expectation that formal educational insti­ new threats to the existence of rural communities. tutions exist to produce the kinds of workers and citizens This article examines the general significance of edu­ needed by industrial society has rarely been called into cation to community life where agriculture is the dominant question. However, this close relationship has become un­ industry. Particular reference will be made to a region of raveled in what has been variously conceptualized as the rural and small communities in Saskatchewan, Canada. postmodern era or an intense crisis in advanced capitalism. First, I discuss significant issues that arise in general de­ Schooling has come under sustained public attack for its bates about the role played by education with respect to the apparent failure to provide the kinds of training and quali­ sustainability of rural communities. This is followed by an fications required for a globally competitive economy. overview of factors related to recent socioeconomic and Longstanding assumptions about pathways from school­ educational changes in Saskatchewan. Then I summarize ing into the labour market have been reconceptualized to data concerning the public perceptions about, and involve­ take into account what has become a protracted process of ment in, educational services in rural communities in one "transitions" among formal, informal, and nonformal edu­ region of the province. To conclude, I examine implica­ cation and diffuse work settings. Meanwhile, the meaning tions that arise from the contradictory place offormal edu­ and nature of community sustainability have become un­ cation in rural community sustainability amidst wider certain as a consequence of the interpenetration of local processes of social and economic change. and global influences and shifting notions of communities and their boundaries. Education, Reproduction, and While these issues confront people in virtually all so­ Community Sustainability cial settings, they are of particular significance to those liv­ ing in single-industry communities and relatively isolated Formal education contributes to social and economic rural regions. On the one hand, the dynamics of globaliza- reproduction within defined national, regional and com­ munity settings. Sociological analysis of education, from Correspondence concerning thisarticleshouldbe addressed both traditional and critical perspectives, places emphasis toTerryWotherspoon, University of Saskatchewan, Department on education's functional importance to the maintenance of Sociology, 9 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A5 ofgiven social orders. Schooling, understood this way, pro­ CANADA. ([email protected]) duces workers and community members, as well as predis- 132 WOTHERSPOON positions, that benefit society as a whole (according to tra­ ences as revealed through indicators such as unemployment ditional functionalist and liberal analysis) or to particular patterns, crime rates, educational attainment, and partici­ dominant interests (according to more radical and critical pation in community activities (Bolaria, Dickinson, & analysis; see Lynch, 1989, and Wotherspoon, 1998). Wotherspoon, 1995; Bollman & Biggs, 1992). Rural areas While at a general level these approaches to reproduc­ themselves are characterized by considerable diversity in tion are appealing, they contain several limitations that a locale as well as social and economic circumstances. Re­ more systematic understanding of formal education reveals. gions dominated by resource industries (e.g., agriculture, Among the most important factors to be acknowledged is fishing, and mining) are highly vulnerable to the negative the reality that education is oriented to a broad and not al­ impact of shifts in markets, technological changes, and ways coherent range of aims and objectives. The question concentration of capital that are intensified within global­ of "what is being reproduced by education?" cannot be ization. By contrast, metropolitan fringe zones and regions answered in any simple way. Educational processes and that are able to diversify to take advantage of emergent outcomes are multidimensional in nature, reflecting in part service industries (e.g., tourism) may experience substan­ substantial diversity among teachers and learners involved tial growth or revitalization through the same processes in education as well as distinct interests held among policy­ (Miller & Smith, 1997). While remote areas are frequently making bodies and communities served by educational pro­ abandoned under policies of market deregulation and state grams. Because educational programs and practices take downsizing, there are prospects for new information tech­ shape as a consequence of political choices, fiscal resources, nologies and "virtual" enterprises to mitigate some of this and other pragmatic considerations, education is often char­ isolation. The diversity of social and economic conditions acterized more by indeterminacy than by any strict repro­ in rural areas suggests that there will be a corresponding duction of predictable ends. array of issues that influence rural schooling and more gen­ In these regards, despite reform agendas that promote eral patterns of social reproduction. a technical vision of education based on commercial or Several factors, such as commodity markets, employ­ vocational principles, it is important also to recognize that ment opportunities, skill and education levels, and state and education is an enterprise that involves moral choices employer policies, make labour market integration espe­ (Apple, 1993; Theobald, 1997). Schooling, in other words, cially problematic in rural areas (Organisation for Economic is significant for its social and human dimensions rather Cooperation and Development [OECD], 1995). Rural ar­ than just its fiscal and technical merits. This means that eas, in contrast to large metropolitan centres, typically are what is taught and what happens in schools may be subject dependent upon a relatively narrow range of resource-based to contestation and influence by various groups, including industries in which employment tends to be seasonal or members ofthe communities in which schools are located. highly sensitive to market fluctuations. High levels of skill In a rural context, as Theobald (1997, pp. 1-2) argues, and education are not generally required for such work, schools therefore contain potential "by attending to their employers or self-employed workers are often not in a po­ place" to build and restore healthy communities rather than sition to offer high wages, benefits, and employment secu­ leaving them as remnants ofthe onslaught of global forces. rity, and wages are further depressed through periodic In social settings that are experiencing significant eco­ labour surpluses. Individuals who possess the highest cre­ nomic and political changes, educational uncertainty and dentials, or those seeking to upgrade their formal educa­ contradiction are likely to be especially pronounced. Over tion and skill levels, commonly are forced to migrate from the past decade and a half, education systems in the ad­ rural to urban areas if they wish to derive the greatest re­ vanced industrial nations have been the focus of intense turn on their human capital. This, in tum, further weakens public criticism. Government reports, media scrutiny, and a rural area's potential for economic diversification and lobbying by business and parents' organizations have ques­ growth. tioned the viability and relevance of public education
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