Educational Considerations
Volume 13 Number 2 Article 13
4-1-1986
Educational Considerations, vol. 13(2) Full Issue
Charles E. Litz Kansas State University
Gerald D. Bailey Kansas State University
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Recommended Citation Litz, Charles E. and Bailey, Gerald D. (1986) "Educational Considerations, vol. 13(2) Full Issue," Educational Considerations: Vol. 13: No. 2. https://doi.org/10.4148/0146-9282.1691
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Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 1 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2 [1986], Art. 13
Introduction
Contrasted with other fields in American education, rural adult education is still an em· erging d iscipline. Tracing its roots back nearly a century to the development of land-grant universities and the introduction of the Cooperative Extension Service, the field of rural adult education has become increasingly diverse. Rural schools, community development corpo· rations, colleges and universities, grassroots organ izations, rural libraries - these and many other organizations provide educational service to rural areas. While they differ in mission, in style, and perhaps in approach, they share an immense concern and respect for rural areas. With the support of the Fund fo r the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), the Action Agenda Project has spent the past three years exploring this field - asking what, within the discipline o f ad ult education, is special about rural and what, within the discipline of rural education, is special about adults. In many respects we·ve come away with more questions th an we've answered. Examined from the perspective of ru ral empowerment, edu· cation takes on meaning that ex pands far beyond classrooms and degrees. Distinctions be· tween education and information, secondary and postsecondary, formal and informal, credit and non-credit fade when we confront the issue of how the educational resources of a nation can be extended In support of rural people. It is in this spirit of concern for the development of human resources in rural areas th at the articles in this issue have been collected . Our hope is that they enable you to see ru ral education from a broader perspective and that you come away with a better understanding of the Issues and concerns that face those who wish to serve rural areas. If you would like more information on the project or would like to join us in our efforts, please write.
Jacqueline 0. Spears Sue C. Maes Gwen Bailey
Action Agenda Project Kansas State University 1221 Thurston Manhattan, Kansas 66502
https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations/vol13/iss2/13 DOI: 10.4148/0146-9282.1691 2 Litz and Bailey: Educational Considerations, vol. 13(2) Full Issue
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Vol. XIII, Number 2, Spring 1986
EDITORIAL BOARD OF REVIEW Table of Contents-Spring 1986 Wiii iam Sparkman Texas Teoh University, Lubbock "Rural Adults and Postsecondary Education" ...... 2 James C. Carper by Jacqueline D. Spears, Sue c. Maes and College of Education Gwen Bailey, Kansas State Universi!y Mississippi State University, Starksville Eddy J. van Meter "The Rural Adult: A Portrait ot Characteristics, College of Educatioo Needs and Styles" ...... • . . . . • ...... • . • . . . . 6 Unover&•IY of Kentucky, Lexington by Roger S. McCannon, University of Susan J, Seollay, Vi<:e President, E·A·O·A Minnesota·M orris Lexington, Kentucky " Rural Education from a Native American Phillip Caner Perspective" .••...... •...... •••..... 10 College ot Education Kansas State University, Mant>allan by Jacques Seronde, Seventh Generation Fund "School·Based Enterprises: Rural Education EDITORS Through Action Learning" ...... • ...... 12 Charles E. Litz, Professor by Paul F. Delargy, University of Georgia College of Education " Creating a Rural Mandate: Impacting Kansas State University, Manhallan Institutional and State Policies" ...... •.. .. •.... • . • ..•.... 15 Gerald D. Balley, Professor by Wiiiiam H. Gray, Washington State University College of Education Kall$3s Stale University, Mannallan " The Community Education Model: Learning Opportunities tor Rural Adults" ...... 20 PRODUCTION by Dawn Ramsey, Franklin County Community Education David L. Adams, Associate Professor "Adults and Higher Education: Bridging the College of Arts and Sciences Culture Gap" ...... • • ...... 24 Kansas State University, Manhallan by Maurice Olivier, School for Lifelong Learning, Connie E. Nelson, Production Coordina1or Du rham, New Hampshire Student Publications, Inc. Kansas State University, Manllallan " The Rural Free University and the Cooperative Extension Service" ...... •••...... • ...... 29 BOOK REVIEW EDITOR by Jim Ki llacky, University of Mai ne·Orono Susan Oay Harmison "Rural Isolation: The Need for Information'' ...... •.. •...... 32 Kansas State University, M.anhauan by S. L. Ward, Kansas State University " The Partnership for Rural Improvement: An Approach to lnter-·lnstltutlonal Outreach" .. .•...... 3S by Robert H. McDaniel and Ralph A. Loomis, Washington State University
hauan. Kansat;(lG!lOe. Co1rtsoonoer.ce fegaroing mM· providt>¢<>f>!l)U o l permission 10Q1.1otecopyl'fOhte Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 3 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2 [1986], Art. 13 are to be served, what unit to consider in evaluating need and what criteria to use in judging ed ucational quality. Is Rural Adults sues related to whOse interests are 10 be served and what unit is to be considered are related. Issues of educational quality remain a concern for adu lt education in general. and Post· Historically, rural adult education addressed the needs of agrarian communities. In addition to increasing the agri cultural output ot the nation, cooperative extension net works sought 10 strengthen and preserve rural communi· secondary ties. Tl1e "rural turnaround" that resulted from the urlJan outmigration in the 1970s has led many to predict that dis· 1inc11ons between rural and urban may fade by the turn of Education the century (Treadway, 1984). Educational providers remain \ divided between concerns for preserving rural communities and lifestyles and desires to facilitate what they see lo be by Jacqueline D. Spears, Sue C. Maes the inevitable urbanization of rural Ille. Related to this Is an and Gwen Bailey ambiguity regarding the unit of analysis. Traditional institu tions typically survey the needs of individuals in designing Approxima1e1y one-fourth of those involved in adult educational services. Some grassroots and community or learning live In rural areas. With the support of the Fund for ganizations analyze the community as a whole, arguing that the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FlPSE), the the welfare of the Individual depends on the health of lhe Action Agenda Project has spent the past three years ex· community. Historically, land·grant colleges and coopera· ploring the educational resources that serve this popula tlve extension networks were designed to add ress a na· tion. What we wish to share is a synthesis of current writing tlonal need for increased agricultural production. Educa In the field, some exploratory research conducted on pro tional providers remain divided on tile un it of analysis - grams, and tho insights shared by some 200 participants at individual, community or nation - which best serves lhe regional conferences on ru ral adult education held lhrough needs of rural areas. out the country this past year. Finally, issues of quality loom ever large. Adult educa Before examining the state ot the art in rural adult edu tion in general faces concerns with Quality assessment of cation, we need to make a few Introductory remarks about both credit and non-credit courses. Of late, attention has the diverse disciplines from which rural adult education has been focused on assuring quality In credit courses (Cross evolved and the tensions this diversity has spawned. As a and Mccartan, 1984). Questions of quality assumo yet an· distinct discipline, rural adult education draws together other dimension when viewed through the lens offered by practitioners from both higher education and public school grassroots organizations. Tax dollars flow through creden· education, from both service and academic traditions, from tialed institutions and student aid is tied to degree-seeking both formal Institutions and informal grassroots organiza goals. Yet frills, like cake decorating, can tum into success tions, from bolh professional and occupational education, ful business ventures, illiteracy can sometimes be con from both rural improvement and economic development Quered more easily away from the classroom, and an experi concerns. In the face of such diversity, it seems hardly sur enced small business owner can provide more valuable prising that multiple viewpoints emerge. information than a fully accredited business administration In a sense each provider sees rural America th rough a course. Issues of credit and degrees pale in comparison different tens. Seen through the lens offered by cooperative with lhe pressing needs for rural empowerment. extension and community development corporations, rural adults need the knowledge required to create an economic base and provide basic services required to sustain a com· Educational Providers and Programs munity. Seen through the lens oftered by colleges and uni Educational practice in rural adult education can be de versities, rural adulls otfer a new market to help compen· scribed as diverse - diverse in provider, con I en I and sate tor declining enrollmen ts. Seen through the lens method of delivery. In a survey of model programs In rural offered by the public schools, rural adults are a generation adult postsecondary education, Karen Hone (1985) de of Americans shortchanged - a generation whose lack of scribed continuing education programs, community col basic skills lnhlbll their own and their children's develop lege programs, fOb training programs. professional develop ment. Seen through the lens otfered by grassroots organiza ment programs, community education programs, adult \ tions, rural adulls articulate Interests and needs that remain basic education programs, rural focused curricula and com unmet or misunderstood by traditional educational organi munity development programs. Sponsoring agencies in zations. Seen through the lens o ffered by supporters o f the clude four-year colleges and universities, governmental lifelong learning movement, rural adults are a segment of agencies, nonprofit associations and organ izations, private the population lsolate 2 Educational Considerations https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations/vol13/iss2/13 DOI: 10.4148/0146-9282.1691 4 Litz and Bailey: Educational Considerations, vol. 13(2) Full Issue panded their programs to encompass a broader mission. In ness enterprises initiated by schools. The enterprises serve Iowa, the CES offers a series of programs and services di· a dual function - offering a practocal envlronmenl in which reeled at the economic development of communities. Idaho to teach skills and prOYiding the local community with a has involved their CES in offering a computer literacy needed service. course in rural communllies. Kentucky's CES has estab· While the models serving rural areas are diverse in con lished the SOS Learning Network, a system of community tent, organization and purpose. Hone (1985) attempted to learning and development programs in 16 communities. identity some characteristics common to those models Thousands ot Kentuckians have become SOS teachers/ that have been most successful. Three of those characteris learners, spreading nonformal learning throughout the tics Include: (1) response to a specific societal need, (2) re· state. With a stall In excess of 18,000 operating In 3150 sponse to the adult learner's expectations, and (3) extensive counties In the United States (Killacky, 1984), CES provides cooperation with other agencies. states with a valuable resource for serving rural adults. Successful programs seem to lllerally grow out of the Colleges and universities have developed a variety o f community. The link between purpose and product is tight, strateg ies to react\ rural areas. Having been formed with a responding to a specific need ernoraced by the community mandate for community service, community colleges o ften as a whole. Community members take an active role in shap act as primary educational providers in rural areas. Some of· ing the programs developed and controlling the outside re· fer mobile programs in Industrial arts, career education, sources called upon. This close connection between need dental hygiene - circulating equipment throughout the re· and educational product ls. In part. whal has led to the diver gions they serve. Others coordinate a series of regional cen· sity o f educa!ional providers In rural areas. Community ters, offering rural areas access to low cos! postsecondary based organizations are o ften successful because their ori educa!ion. Continuing education programs al colleges and gins lie deep in the communities they serve. More tradi universities ofter a variety of outreach services. Some offer tional educational providers can at so beef lective. once they technical services to the businesses and industries In theor join hands with the community as wllllng partners in theed areas. Others extend a variety of formal and nonformal pro· ucational process. The programs most successlul are the grams to area residents. Some take advantage of technol· programs •owned" by the rural community. ogy 10 deliver educational services to remote sites. Among Successful programs respect adult autonomy and cul the more comprehensive models based on technology Is tural dilferences. At the very least, the program recognizes that offered by the University of Alaska. Serving 250 com· and respects the values and lifestyles of rural people. In ru munitiesof which only 30 are accessible by road, the Univer ral communities where many cultures coexist, successful sity of Alaska provides programs broadcast through the programs respect the differences that exist among cul· LEAN Alaska lns lructional Network, lhe Au dio· tures. Programs that address the learner's expectations, Conferencing Network and Teletext systems. that accommodate adult lifestyles Md responsibilities, and Community based organizations are yet another cate I hat share control over content and method with l he learn gory of educational providers serving rural areas. These pro· ers are also more likely to be successful. They embrace the grams are more difficult to locate, primarily because they belief tnat adults inherently have the capacity to learn and operate on shoestring budgets and a long I ist of volunteers. solve their own problems - they need only the proper re But their Impact in rural communities is substantial. Taking sources. advantage or resources from within the community, these programs are successful in linking community resources Policy Concerns and in acting as a catalyst for other community develop Ultimately. policy issues are tied to outcomes in financ ment activities. In many communities, these locally onltl· ing and funding. Financing and lunding are major barriers to ated organizations offer the swiftest means of getting Infor those wanting to serve rural areas. Rural adult education mation and help to rural adults. More than other educational can be addressed either through rural pohcy or adult educa· providers wor1<1ng in rural areas, community based organi lion policy. A review of both fields raises a number of issues zations reflect rural community needs to gain some control of concern to rural adult educators. over their llvos and their futures. The Lifelong Learning Act passed as pari of the 1976 Given the importance that economic development Higher Education Amendmenls len t credibility and visibil plays In the very survival of rural com mu nit ies, we could not ity to adult education Imperatives, but appropriated very lit· complete our Quick survey of rural adult ed ucation without tie money (Cross and Mccarl an, 1984). Press releases re hightlghtlng some of the more innovative models. Nowhere garding input solicited tor later hearings on reauthorization Is the integrallon ol education and communitydeveloprnenl of the Higher Education Act gave 1estlmony 10 the consider more obvious than In attempts 10 foster economic develop· able input provided by adult ed ucation advocates. but o ffer men1 in rural areas. Traditional educational providers, like little encouragement that these sugges tions will actually cotleges and universities, have been successful in offering be implemented (Palmer, 1985). The Commission on Higher courses in en trepreneurship or technical assistance to Education an(! the Adult Learner (1984) has outlined spe· small buslneses. Sut in some regions o f the United States. clfic suggestions aimed at increasing federal support of the barriers of economic development have been so long· adult education programs and reducing financial barriers to standing and persistent that more integrated models heve adult learners. Similarly the National University Continuing been developed. Community development corporations Education Association has oflered revisions designed to like the Mountain Association for Community Economic strengthen aid oflered to postsecondary Institutions which Development (MACED) take on the rote of change agent, in· take on the task of serving a.dult learners. corporating the analysis and training funct ions provided by However, In all these deliberations little distinction is educaltonal instotutlons with the seed monies necessary to made between urban and rural learners. Concern for the introduce incremental change into the local economy. problems of rural adult learners are addressed primarily School·baseel enterprises offer another innovative model th rough proposals to support the development of Innovative for promoting 111e economic development o f rural communl· delivery mechanisms. To the ex tent that these proposals re ties. These programs foster economic growth through busi· move barriers and offer support equally to rural and urban Spring 1986 3 Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 5 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2 [1986], Art. 13 learners, they are supportive to rural adult education. To the and (2) promote inter-institutional cooperation and co11abo· extent that they continue a long tradition of volume·driven ration. In some rural areas, residents are more isolated from funding, these proposals ignore fundamental issues re· educational resources within their states tt>an from those in garding equity of access in the wake of increased costs to adjacent states, Ou t-of·state tuitions create unnecessary deliver services to rural areas. To the extent that they offer hardships. Reciprocal arrangements, like that between Min· disproporlionate support to format ed ucational instilu· nesotaand Wisconsin, remove this artificial barrier. Encour· tions. they ignore the fact that rural needs may not be ame· aging cooperation was cited as yet another way state policy nable to solution·s posed by traditional Institutions. Without could assist rural education. The range of educational pro· wanting to dilute the solidarity forged on behalf of adult viders active in rural areas reflects the diverse character of learners, it is important to remember the extent to w11ich an rural residents. not inefficiency. Most providers call for urban bias has dominated in the past. state policies that promote and reward inter·institutional The past decade has witnessed a resu rgence of inter· collaboration and cooperation among educational pro· est in rural problems. but those knowledgeable about fed· vi de rs rather than policies that eti mi nate programs under eral policy e.xpress frustration with fragmented efforts. the guise that duplication is occurring. Treadway (1984) speaks to the need tor a federal policy that distingu ishes between ru ral and urban learners, specifi· The Special Needs of Rural Adult Education cally in issues regarding equity and appropriateness. Cur· In an effort to both summarize and synthesize the infor· rent lederal criteria for allocating resources ignore the mation about rural adult ed ucation, we wou ld like to close higher costs of delivering services to rural areas and overes· by examining two questions. What, within the discipline of timate the local resources available to support such ser adult education, is special about rural?What, within the dis· vices. Nearly all concerned with rural development speak to cipline of rural education, is special adult? It is along this the need for a federal policy that recognizes the extent to boundary between existing disciplines - adu lt education which ad ull educ at ion must be integrated into community and ru ral education - that the special needs of rural adults development. Blakely (1983) calls for a rural policy based on fall. the development of human resources, nol natural re· In many respects, rural adu lt learners share the same sources. Isolating educational policy from rural policy is to characlerislics as urban adult learners. They prefer courses ignore the interrelationships between human resources that are directly relevant to their life situations, need ftexi· and rural development. bility ol scheduling and course location, respond best to Because of widespread differences among states and content that is learner driven. But there are substantial dif· instllulions, it is difficult to generalize about state and insti· ferences. The realities ol distance and isolation make ser tutional policies atfecting rural adull education. But many vices more difficult lo deliver - access is severely re· of lhe concerns in traditional education institutions can be stricted. Second, expectations are lower. . Richard Margolis lumped Into two categories: (1) the volume·driven model by (1985) speaks earnestly of 1he "incubus of ignorance and in· which educational programs are fu nded and (2) the stand· ertia" In rural America. Having seen themselves only alone model within which most adult education and ou t· through urban eyes, some rural Americans have been reach efforts must operate. robbed of their pride - feeling condemned to an Inferior Ille Most state funds are allocated to institutions and lnsti· by virt ue of their rural status. Tile urban exodus, if it co.n· tutlonal funds to programs on a per student·credit·hour ba, 1inues, will simply exacerbate the problem. Resources will sis. T11is allocation procedure Is urban biased, motivating be directed to lhe professionals, to the 1echnotoglcally Iller· Institutions 10 offe r services In urban areas where the appll· ate, to the already wel l educated. to the urban outmlgran1s. cant pool is large and the costs are relatively small. This is A third difference lies embedded in the very fabric of exacerbated by state or institvtionat policies that require rural poverty; Current efforts in Ii nking economic develop adult education or outreach efforts be self-supporting. Ur ment and postsecondary ed ucation (See for example ban adults may have up to 50 percent of theil costs covered Charner, 1984 and Charner and Rolzinski, 1985) explore ill\· by tax dollars white their rural cou nterparts foot t he entire portant new ground for education - yet they are dominated bill. In the wake of decreased federal involvement, rural pro· by urban models. Seen th rough the tens of rural needs, eco· viders are united in their concern that states assume re· nomic development models must help adults create jobs, sponsibility for assuring that educational opportunities not simply train for them. As innovative as many of the col· equal to those found in urban areas be extended to rural ar laborat1ve models in economic development are. they pale eas. in comparison to the more deeply integ rated models Another concern raised was that state policies must needed in rural areas. Education must chart new terri tory if recognize the need for different strategies in addressing the it is to have an impact in rural areas. educational needs of the already well·educated as con What, within the field of rural education. is unique trasted to those who lack basic skills. State policies that en· about adults? Certainly adults face the same problems of courage the use of technology and restrict duplication of access and equity, the same need for a rural curriculum that programs In rural areas result in programs for the well· helps them regain self-respect. Whal sets adults apart from educated - those familiar with lhe educational system and young people is the characteri stics of adult learners. Adults aggressive in locating services, Adults who are illiterate or require education thal is experience based, relevant to their who lack basic skills are moreeaslly reached through softer life, at times and places manageable within adult responsi· programs provided locally - commun lty·based efforts, bilities, and over which they have some control. Secondly, sc110ol·based programs or recreational programs. While our review of successfu l programs suggests that no single technology can be effective in extending educational ser provider is well suited for all rural communities or to serve vices to rural adults, states should not view it as l he "rural all educational needs of a given community. Rvral educa· solution:' tion must concern itself with these realities, involve these Perhaps the most supportive role state policy can play other providers in its deliberations, and explore collabora· in improving setVices extended to rural adults is to: (1) en· live relationships if ii intends to reach the rural adult. gage in reciprocity arrangements with neighboring states What is the agenda for rural adult educators? For all, 4 Educational Considerations https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations/vol13/iss2/13 DOI: 10.4148/0146-9282.1691 6 Litz and Bailey: Educational Considerations, vol. 13(2) Full Issue the day to day work in reaching out to rural areas, in extend· MD: Commission on Higher Education and the Adult ing educational opportunities to rural adults remains para Learner, 1984. mount. But the problems faced by rural America deepen. Cross, K. Patricia and Mccartan, Anne-Marlo. Adult Learn· Perhaps traditional concepts of rural education need to give Ing: State Policies and Institutional Practices. ASHE· way to notions of rural empowerment. Perhaps our real con· ERIC Higher Education Research Reporl No. 1. Wash· cern for rural America must become the development o f its ington, D.C.: Association for the Sludy of Higher human resources - using whatever form education must Education, 1984. take. Hone, Karen. Serving the Rural Adult: Inventory of Model Programs in Rural Adult Postsecondary Education. References Manhattan, KS: Action Agenda Project, 1985. Blakely, Edward J. "Rural Policy: An Independent View:" in Klllacky, J. Furthering Nonformal Education in Rural Amer Rural Development, Poverty, and Natural Resources ica. New Mexico State University: ERI C/CRESS, 1984. Workshop Paper Serles, Part I. Washington, D.C.: Na· Margolis, Richard. "The Incubus ol Ignorance." Talk pre tional Center for Food and Agricultural Policy, 1983. senled at the Eastern Region Conference on Serving Charner, Ivan. "Exploring New Concepts for Postsecondary the Rural Adult, Skylop, PA, 1985. Education." Washington, D.C.: National Institute for Palmer, Stacey E. "Congress Showing More than Usual Con· Work and Learning, 1984. cern About the Needs of Non-Traditional Students." Charner, Ivan and Rolzlnski, Catherine. "Postsecondary Re The Chronicle of Higher Education, 30, No. 18. July 3, sponses to a Changing Economy:· Washington, D.C.: 1985. National Institute for Work and Learning, 1985. Treadway, Douglas M. Higher Education in Rural America: Commission on Higher Education and lhe Adult Learner. Serving the Adult Leamer. New York: College En Adult Learners: Key to the Nation's Future. Columbia, trance Examination Board, 1984. Spring 1986 5 Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 7 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2 [1986], Art. 13 Early studies of rural adu It learners sug Table 1. Participation In Adult Education gested that most rural adults were interested by Residential Status: 1981 only in recreational or avocational learning. Residential Status 1981 A recent study which analyzed both regional Percent Number of total and national demographic data suggests RURAL otherwise. This study provides us with a Total Population not In MSA • clearer picture of the learning needs and (Farm and Rural Nonfarm) 52,365,000 31.6 Part icipants In Adult Education 5,865,000 27.6 characteristics of rural adult learners. URBAN Total Population in MSA • 11 3,464,000 68.4 Part icipants in Adult Education 15,387.000 72.4 The Rural Adult: 'Metropolitan Statistical Area 1971) have found that adults enter learning situations with a particular focus that seems to fit their immediate needs. Cross (1 981) reports that data from 35 large-scale state and A Portrait of national surveys tend to suggest that, in general, adult learners have shown increasing interest both in occupa tional training and in social life and recreation education. Characteristics, However, most of these studies were focused upon urban areas. In one large national study (JOhnstone and Rivera. 1965)conducted over20 yearsago, 11 was concluded that ru Needs and Styles ral adults were not very much interested in continuing !heir learning. Very few recent studies have looked either at rural by Roger S. Mccannon adulls' educational needs or at their reasons for engaging In learning activities. A study ot part·lime enrollment In higher More recently there has been greater accenClon on serv· education in this country In fall 1974 (Valley, 1976) found Ing Che eaucational needs of rurat adulls. Life In our agripo· less participation in formal credit educational programs In litan count ryside has become more complex and continued ru ral states lllan In urban states. California had the highest learning 11as become necessary for both occupational and percentage of part·time credil enrollment with 53.1 percent, personal advancement. Rural adults are turning towarcs edu· and Iowa had the lowest at 17.6 percent. To estimate the size cation in Increasing numbers as a means of improving and and focus of the adull learning force in Iowa (essentially a enriching their lives. Educalional providers are attempting rural state). the Educalional Tesllng Service conducted a fO meet rural adu lts" learning needs. Despite this new Inter study (Hamilton, 1976) which showed that an estimated est, most of the literature of adult postsecondary education 676.800 adults in Iowa wanted additional education. The focuses upon urban programs and urban adult learners. results were compared with those of a national study con Less attention has been given to developing an understand· ducted in 1972 by the Commission on Nontraditional Study. Ing of rural adults' educational interests and needs. This The result of the two studies are presented in Table 2. They study undertook the challenge of developing a statistical suggest that the adults surveyed were more interested in base of Information about rural adults' educatlonal needs. personal satisfaction and were slfgh lly less oriented toward interests and parlicipation patterns. vocational advancement. Background Table 2. Rank Order of Adults' Focus on Learning The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education reports that there ls in· Reason Iowa, 1976 Nalion, 1972 creasing participation by adults of all ages In adult educa· To be better informed 1 1 lion programs (Nat ional Center for Education Stat istics. Personal satisfaction 2 2 1982). According to the 1981 triennial supplement to the Improve income 3 4 Current Population Survey, more than 21 million adults age Prepare for different job 4 3 17 and older participated in some form of adult education. Current job requirement 5 5 Of this total. nearly 6 million, or 28 percent, were adu lts liv ing in rural areas (see Table 1). During the summer of 1976, the University of Minne In his classic slUdy, Houte{1961) determined that adult sota conducted a survey of 3,606 households in rural west learners had three types of orientation toward learning: ern Minnesota to assess the perceived needs for education some were goal-oriented, others were activity-oriented, and beyond high school (Copa, 1976). One conclusion drawn still others were teaming-oriented. Other authors (Cross, from the study was that adults In this rural area ol Minne 1981; Boshier, 1977; Knox, 1976; Knowles, 1980: Tough, sota were more interested in continuing !heir education for personal development and self·lmprovement (60 percent) Roger S. Mccannon is the director of Continuing Edu· lhan they were for reasons of vocational advancement cation and Summer Session at the University of Min· through job training (40 percent). nesota - Morris and a member of the National Steer· Between 1975 and t 982. students enrol led In evening Ing Committee of the Action Agenda Project. courses al ihe University of Minnesota-Morris. which Is lo· 6 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2, Spring 1986 https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations/vol13/iss2/13 DOI: 10.4148/0146-9282.1691 8 Litz and Bailey: Educational Considerations, vol. 13(2) Full Issue cated in rural western Minnesota. have been surveyed each NCES data. What I have attempted to do is to selectively re· quarter. When asked what was the most Important reason view certain variables and cross-tabulate them, giving us a for enrolling, 55 percent said that they attended for personal ponraft o f rural adult learners' characteris tics, needs and enrichment or "just for fu n:• On ly 13 percen t said th at job styles. A lull presentation and a more detailed analysis of training or professional advancement was the most I mpor· these data is available in Mccannon (t975). tant reason tor enrolling. In a more recent study, Treadway (1984)concluded that rural people are looking for education Findings from Na1ional Data that relates more Immediately to their needs and has a prac· Tables 3, 4 and 5 summarize information on the sex, tical consequence. age, reason for participation, and subject areas of courses Collectively, these isolated studies do not allow one to taken by rural adults. Table 3 shows that 55.8 percent of the draw hard conclusions. They suggest that. at least in the survey population were women and 44.2 percent were men. past, rural adults have selected learning activities more for Further, the NCES data shows that 94.9 percent of the 3,558 reasons of personal development than lor reasons or voca survey respondents (or 3,378) were non-farm residents: that tional advancement. However, because mandated continu· is to say, they resided in a small communily or town or lived ing educalion requi rements have increased lor various oc in the open countryside, but were not engaged in farming. cupations and professions m most states, this orientation The data summwized in Tables 3, 4, and 5 allow us to draw may now be changing. With the Increasing job growth in the following conclusions: prolessional services now being round in rural areas, more Age and Sex-Near1y three.fourths of all the resPQn· individuals in many occupations will need continuing pro· dents (both female and male) were between lhe ages of fessional education. 23-50. There were slightly more older women participants than men. Nature of the Study At present, designers of rural postsecondary educa· Table 3. Age and Sex of Rural Adull Participants tlon prog rams are handicapped by a dearth of information in Adult Educa1ion: 1981 about rural adults' educational interests. characteristics, rnotivations and participation pauerns. That is not to say Male Female that research studies and local needs assessments have Age Nurnber Percent not been conducted. Rat her, we have not "taken stock" and Number Percent developed a base-line trom which to Judge Improvement In 16 - 17 37 2.4 38 1.9 our practice and upon wl1lch sound discussions and decl· 18 - 22 131 8.3 199 10.1 sions can be founded. Thi s study provides- In a profile 23 -30 445 28.3 537 27.0 form-more current Information to assist practitioners and 31 - 40 464 29.5 586 29.5 policy makers to better understand the educational needs 41 - 50 253 16.1 292 14.7 of rural adult learners. 51 - 60 168 10.7 219 11 .0 Two types of data were analyzed In this study. First. na 61 - 70 61 3.9 89 4.5 tional data(based upon a sample of 3,558 rural adults) were 71 - + 13 .8 26 1.3A obtained through an existing data file at the National Center N =1572 N = 1986 tor Education Statistics (NCES). Second, regional data were collected (on 812 adu Its) through a series of original surveys Table 4. Main Reason of Rural Participants in five mldwestern states. Information from these two i.n Adult Education for Taking Courses sources are merged to provide a demographic profile of the by Sex: 1981 rural adult learner. Description of National Data and Procedure Male Female The National Center for Educalion Statistics (NCES) Reason Number Percent Number Percent sponsors a supplement to the Current Population Survey Personal or conducted by the Bureau of the Census every three years. Social 333 21 .2 744 37.6 Titled "Participation in Adult Education; this study has lmprove, M· been conducted dunng the month of May in each of the fol vance, Up- lowing yews: 1969, f972, 1975, 1978, 1981 and 1984. Those date Cur individuals surveyed were selected from census files with rent Job 808 51 .5 722 36.5 coverage in all 50 states; approximately 60,000 households Train for New were queried at the time of each survey. At the time of this Occupation 151 9.6 176 8.9 study, the most curren t information available from NCES New Job in was the 1981 data tapes. Thus, the Information presented Current Oc here is an analysis ol 3,558 rural adu lt learners who reported cupation 24 1.5 36 1,8 having participated in adult education during the 12·month Other Job period preceding May 1981. Information variables con· Rel atea 100 6.4 66 3.3 tained in the 1981 NCES data on those 3,558 surveyed par· Train for Vol ticipants included: age and sex: race and ethnic groups; unteer Work 36 2.3 27 1.4 level of education; annual family Income: geographic area General Edu· of residence: labor lorce statu s: occupation of employed cation 103 6.6 182 9.2 participants; types of courses taken; reasons for taking Naturalization 2 .1 courses: who provided the Instructi on; and, major sources Other Non of payment for courses. Job Related 14 .9 23 1.2 Space here does not llllow fora complete analysis or all Spring 1986 7 Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 9 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2 [1986], Art. 13 Reason for Participation- The most imporlant reason information gathered substantiated the conclusions drawn listed by rural adulls was 10 improve, advance or updale from our analysis ol the NCES data. Additional lnlormation their currenl occupalion. If the reasons for partlcipallon on barriers and needs expressed by adulls enroll.ad in three (shown on Table 4) were collapsed into two primary reasons, of the five inslllutions (Logan College, Minnesota-Morris occupational enhancement and personal developmen1, we and Wisconsin·River Falls) Is presenled In Tables 6 and 7. can see that over 11'/o·thirds (69 percent) of the males and This data allows us 10 draw the following conclusions: just over one-half (50 percent) of the females were motivated for occupallonal reasons. Table 6. Major Obstacles to Beginning/Returning Subjects Enrolled In-Business subjects ranked first to College for Adult Learners by Sex forrural adu lts; 18.3 percent reported enrolling in business subjects. There were 12.4 percent enrolled in heallh care Male Female subjects and 9.1 percent in education subjects. This analysis provides the first national base-line of In· Obstacle Number Percenl Number Percent formation about rural adull learners. These data suggest Distance 17 11.8 109 27.8 that the predominant intent for participating in adult educa· Costs 54 37.7 192 48.9 lion programs is for occupational enhancement, with per· Time 55 38.4 176 44.8 sonal development as a strong secondary interest. Scheduling Conflict 37 25.8 96 24.4 Conflicts Table S. Rank Order of Subj ect Areas (Courses) with Job 40 27 .9 95 24.2 Enrolled in by Rural Adults: 1981 lack Confidence 14 9.7 84 21.4 Subject Area Number Percent Lack ol CJe. sired Business 650 18.3 Courses 28 t9.5 54 13.7 Heatlh Care 439 12.4 Other Com· Engineering and Computer Science 419 1 t.8 mitments 27 11 .8 20.4 Education 80 324 9. 1 Other t5 10.4 31 7.9 Philosophy or Religion 244 6.9 N 143 N =392 Physical Education or Leisure 22 1 6.2 = Ans 213 5.9 Language 152 4.3 Table 7. Adult Learners Needs by Sex Heallh Education 137 3.9 Home Econom lcs t34 3.8 Male Female Social Science t33 3.7 Personal Service 10t 2.8 Need Number Percent Number Percent Life and Physical Science 87 2.5 Financial Aid 43 30.0 158 40.3 Agrlcullure 59 t.7 More lnfor· lnter·Olsclpllnary 36 1.0 mat ion 25 17.4 81 20.6 Olher 205 5.8 Babysitting Ser.'ices 2 t.3 52 13.2 Time Off Description ol Regional Dala and Procedure lrom Work 31 21.6 102 26.0 In this seclion we are focusing entirely upon postse· Support from condary education and the experiences of adults who were Employer 15 t0.4 21 5.3 enrolled in higher education instilutions in a rural setting. Support from Since the data analyzed from NCES were collected In May Family 8 5.5 74 18.8 198 1, an effort to augmenl and verify ii with more current in· Increased formation was undertaken. These regional data were col· Self Con· lected In Seplernber 1984. Also. lhe NCES ctatadldn't tell us fidence 23 16.0 104 26.5 much about barriers adults experience, nor the needs and Other 22 15.3 49 12.5 prelerences they have for services. These "augmen1ation N =143 ill =392 studies" allowed us an opportunity lo probe a bil more into these areas. Obstacles-Distance, costs. time and self·confidence Five postsecondary education inslitu1ions in the mid· were rnore often reported by women as being lhe biggest west were selected as sites fortheseaugmentation Sludies. obstacles to be{linning or returning to college than men. Included were: Drake University (Iowa); John A. Logan Col· Men reported conlllcts with job and lack of desired courses lege (Illinois); The University ol Minneso1a-Morrls; The Uno· as obstacles at slightly higher rates than women. Compari· verslly of North Dakola; and, the Universlly ol Wisconsin· sons among studenls at lhe three institutions sugges1s River Falls. These institutions represent a variety of 1ypes of that costs and lack of desired courses are lesser obslacles postsecondary education, I.e., two· and four-year colleges, al Logan College lhan at the University of Minnesota-Morris public and private institulions, single focus ad comprehen· and lhe Universily of Wisconsin-River Falls. sive missions, and autonomous and coordinate campuses. Adult Learners' Need s-The need for financial aid, in· formation and time off from work are important factors to Findings from Regional Data both men and women students In order to help them con· Tho data collected from these instilutions allowed us tinue lheir educalion. Women ciled the need for baby· to analyze responses lrom 812 adu lt learners. Much ol the sitting services, lam ily supporl and Increased self· 8 Educational Considerations https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations/vol13/iss2/13 DOI: 10.4148/0146-9282.1691 10 Litz and Bailey: Educational Considerations, vol. 13(2) Full Issue confidence at higher rates than men. From other questions urban adults and are presented in the aforementioned publ l· in our survey, we found preferences for scheduling of cation from Kansas State University). This suggests that courses to be for late afternoon and evening courses, week equal access to quality postsecondary education is a vi tal end courses and clustered courses. concern for adult learners wherever they live. In a country The total regional sam pie, or 8 t 2 Individuals who re· committed to equal access and with lifelong learning be· sponded to our regional surveys, were participants in adult coming an accepted concept, all people have a right to lhe education at five different types of postsecondary institu· benefits of quality learning regardless of age. race. income tions. Yet, their responses painted a similar picture to those or place of residence, even if that place of residence is a from the NCES study. Most were enrolled In courses foroc· small town surroundeChicago: Aldine, 1965. cational needs." Hopefully. this study tu IfIll s that objective. Knowles, M. S. The Modern Practice of A Spring 1986 9 Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 11 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2 [1986], Art. 13 ( Rural educators speak often of the need to tast inner ioundationsof their cultures and values. The irony now, In this time of crisis for the Identity, direction and vital· respect the rural culture - to not impose ur ilyol our own national rural society, is that we have much 10 ban solutions on rural problems. Differences team from our Elder Brother on this land. Underlying the great diversity of Native cul1ures are a infinitely more immense appear when we ex· number of fundamental precepts held in common. the warp amine education through the eyes of Native of a rich aod vibrant multi-colored weave. Alt living beings Am ericans. are related one 10 another, sharing a common dependence on the sacred elements of the Creation-our Mother Earth, the sun, water, and air-anCI a common Interdependence In the web of Ille. What we think o t as Inanimate matterorele· mental forces ot nature- -the rocks, streams, seas and Rural Education clouds - are known to be imbued with the Great Spirit and to partake o f life processes. Within the circle ot being uniti ng all life forms, there are no sharp fragmentary distinctions drawn between art, from a Native medicine. psychology and religion. nor between education and life as a whole. When the origins, nature and interrela tionships of all beings are understoOd, every aspect of our American fives becomes a process of performing the right act in the right way at the right time. Aft of Ille Is a sacred ceremony: every word and gesture. a prayer. Understanding, teaming Perspective and knowledge are contained and transmitted by all life forms and by the elemental foundation of the Creation. The earth herself, the land, the sun and fire, the dawn breeze, the by Jacques Seronde !towing waters, all our plant and winged and four-looted relatives-these are our first teachers. Thero are today 1 million Native American people i11 the It is indeed a very long way from this world-view to the United States, living on over 400 rural reservations which representative reservation classroom. Consider only the com prise nearly 53 mill ion acres. These tribal people and gu ll between what a child absorbs at home from a tradl· lands are ex traordinarily diverse: 200 languages are &till t ion al heal.i ng ceremony grounded 111 respect fortlie sacred spoken by peoples whose trad itional cultures evolved in en· unity of life, and conventional school curricula in whiCI\ re· vironments ranging from arctic barrens to hardwood and duc1lonis1 views of "biology;· "chemistry" and "physics"' are rain forests, from windswept tall-grass prairies to mountain· taugh1 without any sense or the greater unity underlying ous plateaus and hot satt·scrub deserts. these fragmentary descriptions. Consider, too, our civiliza· We cannot learn much from our history and social stud· lion's continuing despoilation of earth, water, air, and even ies texts about the Native American peoples. They were first the power of the sun, In the light of the Native perspective overv1hetmed In battle, then systematically exploited and that teaches that our every decision must take into consid oppressed by a not·yet·ended succession of government eration its impacts on theseven1h generation to follow us. II " Indian agents; traders, missionaries, and educators. Per· is not surprising that so many Native yaulh find themselves haps we expected that by now they all would have become bewildered and alienated from lhe school systems to which completely assimilated by our melting·pot culture, leaving they are subjec1ed. For Native American peoples, a major only a few names of states and rivers as their legacy. ft may part of the solution lies in the articulation of a Native philos· be discomforting to realize that th e Native American cul· ophy of education. and in the expression of that philosophy tures yet endure, despite poverty and social Clistress un· in Native-designed and operated institutions where educa· equaled In 1he United States. Educational statistics for Na· tion is re·integrated with life as a whole-and Is directly re· tlve Americans are grim: ninth graCle median educational sponsive to the aspirations and needs of Native communi· level, 66 percent high school drop·out rate, 1 percent col· ties and nations. Native community-controlled schools and lege completion rate, and almost half of the population 18or colleges do not meet the needs so long as they continue youngor (U.S. Census, 1980). merely to gild non·Native philosophies and curricula with For Native Americans "education" in American society smatterings of cratts and '"cu lture" classes. started at the poin1 o f a gun. Children were forcibly taken Let us look al the ques tion of interrelationships be· from their parents by army and police, and sent to govern· tween education and economic development-now o f na· ment or church·run boarding schools hundreds ol mi les tional concern to rural educators-from a Native American from home. Only 10 years ago, students at such schools perspective. First, what is "economic" development? We were punished for speaking their own languages. The guid start from the origins of the word, the Greek "oikonomima'" ing principle was 1hat the Native cultures were Inherently or "household order:· An economy thus deals with the order, barbarous and pagan-cause only for shame. or balance and tiarmony. of a set of Interrelated parts to a No people can sus1ain such systematic and brutal as· defined whole. For a tand·based people and culture, the sautt on their children's minds and spirits without thedevel· "household" in question can be no other than the Earth her· opment and internalization of severe psychic contusion and sell, and more immediately. the lane! upon which the people emotional stress. What may surprise us is that 1he Nalive live. In the Native view, economic development then is the American peoples have survived. refusing to surrender the ordering in balance and harmony of our relationships with all our relatives with whom we share this earth·househotd . Jacques Seronde is a program officer for the Seventh A clear way to visualize the land as the basis of econ· Generation Fund and a member of the National Steer omy is to consider the watershed as a natural geographic ing Committee for the Action Agenda Project. unit. From the highest ground, often forested and moun· Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2, Spring 1986 https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations/vol13/iss2/1310 DOI: 10.4148/0146-9282.1691 12 Litz and Bailey: Educational Considerations, vol. 13(2) Full Issue tai nous, down though woodlands and rangelands to the ogy: then forestry, wildlife management, range man· low-lying alluvial valleys, the watershed forms a set of inter agement, animal science, soil science, botany, agronomy related and interdependent environments, each with its dis and entomology: and to interlace with the external econ· tinctive micro-climate, rocks, soils, vegetation and animal omy, finance, business management, and marketing. life, and united by the life-giving waters coursing above and For each of these fields of knowledge, listed as sepa below the land surface. When this "household" is disor rate disciplines in the non-Native world, there is a corres· dered, all life suffers. Overgrazed and clear-cut uplands no ponding body of information and knowledge in Native longer retain rainfall lo nourish plants and animals. Sheet American traditional culture-each with its clearly-defined and gully erosion scour t11e land ot tert lie top-soi I and dral n relationship to the o thers and to the whole of life. Pieces of water tables from under valley floors. Pour chemical wastes this knowledge have certainly been lost, as elders have died on the ground on one part of the watershed and they reap without passing on all that they knew. However, the first pear in the ground water downstream. Eradicate the wood· Teachers still wait patiently, and the means o f learning from land homes of the foxes and ferrets, and farm fields are them have not been lost. The possibility is open tor the taken over by prairie dogs. Such relationships, only now be building of a re-i ntegrative learning process, combining the ing tracked by our science, have long been intuited, ob detailed analyses of non-Native science with the wholistic served and respected by Native cultures. understanding of the traditional Native world view. Economic development in Native communities must The vision unfolds. Imagine a school where, first, t11e be grounded on the foundation pri nci pies of reverence for children learn to read and write from their own people In . all life, and recognition I hat all life depends equally on the their own language. Imagine that learning of read ing and freely given earth, air, water and sunlight. The primary task writing from the transcribed oral wisdom, myths and history for Native families and communities is to re-assert respon of the people themselves. Imagine now a curriculum devel sibility for defining and articulating their own aspirations oped from the parents' own perceptions of the life they as and visions fortheirfuture. This responsibility has been too pire to for their children: a life of harmony and happiness, a long abdicated to more-or-less well-mean ing experts from life of being grounded, secure and productive in the land of the dominant society, with the result that the traditional Na their ancestors. That life is sustained by the land: the curric tive institutions for social balance, economic justice and ulum teaches the children about the sacred unity of life in education have largely atrophied from disuse. At the core of all its diverse and beautiful aspects. Classes are the woods economic development planning for Native communities and fields, the deserts and mountains, the spring swelling lies the process of participatory goal and objective-setting. of seeds and the fall contracting of plant-life back into the This in turn requires understanding and affirmation of whO earth. Books and the wealth of audio-visual aids serve to re 1he people are, where they are coming from and where they late what is seen and felt and observed in the immediate lo· are at present. cal area to the region and world at large, to the experiences Once this conceptual foundation has been strength· and wisdom of other peoples in other lands. And as skills ened, it is possible to look again at the land, for indications and knowledge develop, nurtured by parents. elders and not only of potential livelihoods but also of specific learn teachers, the young peo ple move gently and steadily to as ing, knowledge and ski I ls needed to attain such live I ihoods. sume their own ways of response to the Creation's invitation The educational curricula emerge from the earth herself, to join in the work. from the first Teacher. Think again about the watershed, and To paraphrase Sitting Bull: let us put our hearts and list the fields of knowledge needed to restore the productiv minds together to see how we shall make learning for our ity of this region. We can start witl1 climatology and meteo selves and our children once again a joyous affirmation and rology (including atmospheric physics), geology and hydrol· building o f the life we choose. Spring 1986 11 Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 13 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2 [1986], Art. 13 School based enterprises offer an attractive that rural schOols have had urban educational models forced upon them. These urban models support job specific solution to seemingly different problems - training and specialization training, which In many cases is improving rural schools and supporting rural inappropriate for rural communities. Rural communities economic growth. As such, they demon need generalists. Rural schools that have been able to de velop vocational programs have often trained students for strate the very best in rural creativity. jobs available only in urban areas. They, In fact, provided no programs for rural students to develop skills that would en able the students to stay in their rural community. Witl'l this dilemma in mind, Jonathon Sher (1977) of· fered an alternative that has the potential of dealing with some of these rural educational problems: the establish School-Based ment of school-based developmen t corporat ions. School based development corporations are nothing more than small businesses operated by and/or with students to meet Enterprises: community needs for services or products. School-based Businesses Brooks County High School in Quitman, Georgia be· Rural Education came one of the first schools to implement Sher's school· based development corporation concept. With the help of the author and Sher, the school submitted a grant proposal Through Action for $387,000 to Youth Work, a non-prolit organization set up to distribute CETA fu nds for high risk youth operated activi ties. The project, titled REAL Jobs, was funded atong with Learning 11 others in 1979, and remains the only one still functioning. As part of the school·based corporation project, the Brooks County community education advisory council by Paul F. Delargy completed a community needs assessment and generated a list of community needs. Among those needs identified Why does a community educator get involved in eco· for the REAL Jobs project were the need for (1) a day-care nomic development. particularly rural economic develop· center, (2) a swine breeding and feeder pig operation, (3) a ment? This question has been asked often, frequently by construction company, and (4) a business service compo community educators themselves. The answer is quite ob· nent. vious: Commun lty education has as one of its objectives hn Brooks County is a poor rural comm unity in southern provlng the quality of life of a community's citizens. Since Georgia. tn 1979 there were no day.care centers in the one·lhird of our national population is rural and many of county even though the Department of Family and Children these rural residents have a below average quality of life, it Services had indicated a child care need for at least 250chil· stands to reason that ru rat economic development falls in dren. Tl'e need fora swine operation was due to the fact that the realm of community education. Brooks County had more swine producers than any other In Georgia, our rural schools are burdened by an inequi Georgia county, many of whom were operating ine.ffec tively. table distribution of resources. They are hampered by the The decision to develop a business service operation for the fact that school support Is based on property taxes, and project was based on the desire of the business community most rural counties have lower land values than those of to hire generalists-someone who could do a little of every· suburban or urban areas. Rural counties have lower average thing, from waiting on customers and taking inventory to per capita incomes, higher unemployment, higher school sweeping the floor. A community survey had indicated a dropout rates, lower academic achievement scores, more need for persons with building skills, and there appeared to health problems and fewer services available to them lrom be jot> opportun itI es for construction workers and construc service agencies. Add to this list of difficulties the fact that tion sub-contractors. In addition, facilities were needed to close to one-th lrd of our farms are in jeopardy, and you can house the child-care center and the swine operation. begin to appreciate the difficu lties that rural school sys· Immediately after funds were received, all four enter terns face. prises were begun. The students built a 6,500-square-foot The ed ucational needs of Georgia and the South are day-care cen ter, which met high state standards for such a enormous compared to the rest of our nation. These needs facility. They also built facilities for the four-building swine are made obvious by the comparisons made so frequently in operation and a faci lity to house the construction compo· the education literature and in governmental reports. These nent of the project. educational needs are even greater in our rural counties. At the begi nning of the project Brooks County High Many rural schools have difficulties providing ade School was in dire need of help. It had little community sup quate vocational education programs for their students. port. The school had about 1,000 students in grades 8·12; One reason for the inadequate rural vocational programs is 63 percent of the students were black, and over 75 percent were below the poverty level. REAL Jobs, the school-based Paul F. Delargy is the director of the Center for Com community development enterprise (SBDE) functioned as a catalyst and an implementing agency for a broad range of munity Education and a member of the Institute of needed reforms in education and community development. Community and Area Development and Small Busi· The project involved a logical process for integrating rural ness Development Center staff at the University of schools into the economic development of the community. Georgia. Under the sponsorship of the school district, REAL 12 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2, Spring 1986 https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations/vol13/iss2/13 DOI: 10.4148/0146-9282.1691 14 Litz and Bailey: Educational Considerations, vol. 13(2) Full Issue Jobs functioned as a corporation worki ng for the commu· the National Community Education Association. nity as a whole, providing vocational and career training for About the same time the REAL Jobs project was devet· high school students. As should be true of any SBDE. the oped in 1979. planning began in five towns in Arkansas un· functions o f the REAL Jobs project were to: der the leadership of the Arkansas Community Education Own and operate businesses or provide services to Development Association (ACEDA) with support from the other productive enterprises In a local community. pri· Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and the Ozark Regional marily using students supervised by the school fac Commission (Rosenfeld, p. 16). The planning resulted In the ulty. devetopment of school-based development enterprises In Generate or atlract income·producing opportunities five to\•1ns: to the community. • In Mammoth Springs. students began lo publish a Serve to help coordinate local development efforts. weekly newspaper - it became the newspaper of re· Train young people on entrepreneurial skills. cord in the county. Stimulate the development ot community sociat ser • In Arkansas City, students started a maintenance vices that respond to local needs, Interest and circum· company (Handyman, Inc.) and a photography labo ratory. During the second year, they began a small stances. newspaper and undertook a feasibility study for the For over five years the proJect components have oper renovation and conversion to apartments of an his· ated with various degrees o f success. The day·care center toric building. has been the most successtul, having fulfilled the objec· lives set for the project-to Improve the qualityot life In the ' In Mountain Pine, the school district created Educa· communily, to provide opportunities to develop entrepre· tional and Economic Enterprises, Inc., to operate a neuriat skills, to provide Jobs tor students. to impact the cur day-care center and a roller skating rink, employing riculum in a positive way. to make a profit, and not to cause 10students and one local citizen. unnecessary duplication ot a product or service. ' In Pangburn, students developed a community The day·care center made $38,000 last year, which was newspaper and later a woodwork Ing plant. The I rfl rst used for other activities not normally provided for by regular product was a computer desk. school funds. It provides an outstanding service for the • In Clarenden, students attempted to open a movie community at a reasonable price and is considered one of theater, bu t ii was an unsuccessful venture and the better child·care centers In the state. It provides jobs for SBD Ewasended in 1982. students and helps prevent drop·outs. During the past sev Pu blicity about the Georgia and Arkansas SBDE proj erat years, two new privately owned chlld·care centers have ects have created considerable Interest. In a 1982 Special been started using REAL Job students as emptoyees. The Report about Comrnunity Ed ucation, the Charles Stewart chitd-care curriculum was completely revi sed by the home Mott Foundation featured the REAL Jobs project as one of economics department and now provides a two-year pro· six outstanding projects they had helped fu nd over a five· gram for certification of child·care workers - the only high year period. Distributed to over 150,000 educators nation· school In Georgia doing this. It has been a positive force in ally, the report generated requests for SBDE inform ation improving the community's attitudes toward Its public and technical assistance. In response, the foundation schools. funded the author to conduct workshOps throughout the Students in the construc tion component successfully country. bu ilt the swine production and child·care facilities. The con The ou tcome of these developmental activities has struction component has proven to be a positive vehicle to been the formation of a national non-profit 501(c) organiza help students-lnctudlng special education students-in tion, called REAL Enterprises, to help establish SBDEs na jeopardy of failing. The construction enterprise has pro· tionwide. A national advisory council has been organized, 1rided many other services for the community, including and the Small Business Development Center and Institute building dugouts, restrooms and bleachers for the commu· of Business of the University o f Georgia will provide space nity baseball field; building brick retaining walls around and support services for REAL Enterprises. trees for a city beautification program; and laying sidewalks Smatl Business Devetopment Centers in several states in the city and county. It will continue to provide services to have entered Into informal partnerships with organizations the city, county and community at large. d!Mlloping SBDEs and have provlck!d technical assistance The swine operation was designed to provide an up-to· by training students to develop feaslbillly studies market· date contempor.uy learning center through which swine ing studies and business plans. management could be taught in the vocational agriculture Jonathon Sher is currently active in the development of program at Brooks County High School. The swine breeding f ive SBDEs in North Carolina Partially funded by the North farm provides students with hands·on swine management Carolina Smatl Business Development Center and two toun· experience and serves as a model tor farmers in the area. dations he also has a JTPA grant from the North Carolina The breeder pig operation also supplled feeder pigs to local State Department of Edue Spring 1986 13 Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 15 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2 [1986], Art. 13 senger cars. The project also includes a retail Georgia prod· Conclusion ucts store, which will be one of at least 14 new busi· According to Stuart Rosenfeld of the Southern Growth nesses- along with the railroad- being created to attract Policies Board, "The School·based Enterprise concept al· tourists. tows schools to become businesses as well as educational The school·based retail store and 19 other businesses institutions, and puts education into a .. real life" business In Hartwell formed a non·profit corporation called the Depot setting, to employ as well as train. This may be the ultimate Street Development Corporation to direct the development link between education and economic development ~ Ro· of a two·block area next to the scenic railroad as a tourist senteld raises some important questions: Should the local attraction. Students helped the corporation do the research SBDE operate outside the community, the SBOEs to date necessary to have buildings along the entire street placed have been local service businesses? Are there enough on the National Historic Register. Recently an architect was funds to adequately capitalize manufacturing or complex hired, plans have been presented, and commitments made businesses? What about local competition, does it create a to restore the buildings to their original design. After the problem for school·based enterprises with local busi· restoration, Depot Street will appear as It did in the late nesses? And finally, how difficult Is It to get the concept of 1890s and early 1900s. SB DEs across to school administrators to convince them to Recently an interesting modi flcation of the SchOol· accept dual goals of education and economic development based Development Enterprise concept was initiate. Called for their schools? Arch International Export Corporation, it is a REAL En ter· These questions remain to be answered, but with the prise affiliate involving international business stud en ts number of projects now being Initiated throughout the from the University of Georgia. It will function as a student· country, the answers to these questions should be forth· operated export trading company. It is sponsored by a num· coming, ber of organizations including the University of Georgia Center for Community Education, the Small Business De· References vefopment Center, REAL Enterprises and the Georgia Inter· Rosenfeld, Stuart. "School·Based Business Enterprises: national Trade Association. The business is currently being 'Making Schools Profitable.'• Foresight, No. 1 (1983): Incorporated and Is In the process of conducting feasibility p, 14. studies to establish markets and products for the business. Sher,J., ed. Education in Rural America: A Reassessment of Conventional Wisdom. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1977. " , 14 Educational Considerations https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations/vol13/iss2/13 DOI: 10.4148/0146-9282.1691 16 Litz and Bailey: Educational Considerations, vol. 13(2) Full Issue Critics of higher education point to the fail· rather than natural, resources must be the key to improving rural economies" (Blakeley, 1983). People, not the land , ure of land-grant universities and community must become the central ingred ient in economic develop colleges to serve their rural constituencies menl. In order to bring this shift in line with the needs of ru · in meaningful ways. This paper examines ral areas in an information society, rural development policy must nowembrace a strategy that increases the capacity of one model for bridging the gap between ru ral rural Institutions to develop people. problems and educational resources, em· phasizi ng the need for a genul ne partnership Higher Educaffon as a Vehicle for Rural Development between rural people and educational pro· Higher education Is often viewed as an important agent ol change impacting rural areas. After all, many publicly fessionals. supported institutions of higher education were developed (and sold) based upon the needs of the common man. Se· ginning with the Morrill Act of 1862, •a system of industrial Universities , . . would develop a more liberal and practical education among the people, tend the more lo intel lectual· ize the rising generation, and eminenffy conduce to the vir· Creating a Rural tue, Intelligence and true glory of the common country:· This system was expanded in 1914 with passage of the Smlth·Lever Act forming what is known as the Cooperative Mandate: Extension Service, the largest mechanism of lifespan learn· ing yet known. The resulting land-grant university system, with research, teaching, and service as Its mission has his· torlcally been focused on serving rural areas. Impacting Orherpublicly supported institutions {e.g., thecommu· noty college in America) had similar philosophic basis: •open door" enrollment policy for the common man. At a Institutional and minimum, these institutions can be viewed as an opportu· nity for upward mobility through education. From another vantage point. the advent of these popular institutions State Policies cou ld be viewed as planned intervention to transform a na· lion (most particularly rural areas) from an agrarian to an In dustrial society. by William H. Gray When viewed In this latter light, these Institutions have been largely successful. However, the activltism and educa· The needs of rural people have historically been ad· tional advocacy targetod toward the common man has given dressed from the vantage point of an urban theorist apply· way to a middle class, if not elitist lorm of ed ucation as fl· ing proven tools and techniques outward from the city. nanclal pressures lorce these institutions to become mar· Based largely on notions from economic geography, It has kel driven. Forces within academic disciplines and within been argued th al rural areas can best be advanced when the culture of higher education have led to an inertia of policy is directed toward growth centers, because they are present forms al the expense of service to areas of need the most effective at promoting population and economic (however defined). Specifically, research and instruction be growth in a region. The resulting concentrations enable the come emphasized at the expense of public service. Further most efficient delivery of services. mani festation of this change includes the following: When addressed under the banner of rural develop • the land-grant university is tending toward a ment, public policy has been predicated upon an assumed technological/engineering approach to service. connection between the natural resource base and subse •regional universities have become pri marily teach· quent social and cultural development of rural areas. Re Ing institutions as budgets are Increasingly scruti cent research reponed by Blakeley (1983), however, indi nized, cates lew discrete relationships between the development of natural resources and the reduction of rural poverty. Em· • community colleges lose their comprehensiveness erging informat ion technologies are leading to the develop· in tough times, Instead returning to the junior col· mcnt of new base economies lhat are not producer ori· lege model of treating the service district as a catch anted, but related to distribution and transfer of information ment area for student enrollment, and al lied products (Dillman, 1985). • cooperative extension programs have returned to It now appears that natural resources are no longer a that which is comfortable - agriculture and home major contribution to rural economic development. While economics - and &nay from human and community still enormously important to a region because of the development. wealth they generate, they are "far less significant to the • community education has not developed beyond a generation of Jobs. improvement of living standards, and fa vehicle for personal enrichment. cilitations of community development activities. Human, In the absence of planned external advocacy, these trends resu lt in a narrowing interpretation of the mission of postse William H. Gray Is the program administrator for the condary education, to the possible exclusion of public ser Partnership for Rural Improvement and the director of vice and to the disadvantage of isolated areas. the Office of Community Service at Washington State In this paper, we will introduce a model developed, field University. tested and refined at Washington Slate University to im· Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2, Spring 1986 15 Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 17 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2 [1986], Art. 13 pfove the lit between rural development needs and the role Moe and Tamblyn (1974) discuss requirements for a and mission of institutions of higher education in Washing· more integrated design of rural development systems ton. Tho change vehicle, kr>ol'ln as the Partnership tor Rural which include: (1) increased problem solving and knowl· Improvement f PRO. was initiated in 1976 with part I al support edge utllization capacity at the local level: (2) increased from ll>!J W.K. Kellogg Foundation. After a decade ot experi· problem solving and knowledge utilization In regional, state mentahon and development, PR! constitutes a viable model and lederal organizatoons which serve local areas; (3) for fostering change in public postsecondary education. strengthening of linkages among the levels so that the two· way exchange can occur; (4) research and developmenl as Models for Rural Development' an ongoing process which will continuously enable individ· Past development strategies have been narrow In ual communities and organizations to improve their devel· scope, limited either by the problem addressed or the unit opmenl capacily; and (5) a revised organizational arrange· of analysis chosen. The individual and the community have ment that makes increased use ol the capabilities of public been lhe lradltlonal focal points for actvlties Intended 10 and private educalional and research institutio11s. stimulate Improvement in rural condi!lons. For example. A broad assembly of models have been proposed for re· farm programs have supported Individual or firm efforts to solving the rural improvemen t dilemma. No at1emp1 will be increase income through price supports. conservaUon pay· made here to thoroughly summarize and evaluate the full ments and loan programs. Development programs have in· range or possibilities. Ralher, the focus is on those models troduced projects that would produce community Improve· which are most closely related to the strategy emphasized ment through broadly based citizen problem-solving in the Partnership for Rural Improvement. groups. improved organization. or specific activities to al· Havelock (t969)developed a research utilization model leviate sewer, water or transportation problems. which has sinoe been 1es1ed in a vanely of educational set· These thrusts have tended to be llmlled in scope· thal tings. 11 llas polential as part of a systematic rural improve is, they have focused on the solution of a sfngte proble,.;. or a ment process. The mOdel emphasizes a problem or "user• narrow range of problems (such as increasing farm Income). orientation: a problem In need of resolution is defined by an Or, they have focused on single communities or small individual or group. followed by systematic searching for groups of communities, while failing to take sufficient ac· knowledge and skills to resolve the Issue. count of the Impacts and overriding influence of forces Im· Rolhman extends the Havelock model through a more posed from outside the locality. deliberale scheme for deriving knowledge application from Development programs of !his order have certainly social science research. He assumes a six·stage process helped many individuals and communities; but they have which begins with the basic knowledge pool and culmi not achieved a sufficiently broad conception of social orga nates with broad use ol t11 e Knowledge (Rothman, 1974) . The nization, nor taken account of the critical role that complex r~tionale for the Rothman mouer rests on the apparent con· organizations play in generating or obstructing change. tiri ued failure to systematically retrieve useful Information Many communities are caught up in a regional, state or na· from the basic research pool to solve problems or realize op· lional organizational matrix which positively or negatlvoly port unities. Solutions to problems or realization of opportu· influences improvement opportunities to a greater degree nities can be experimentally operationalized through field than local decisions. Local officials and citizens certainly testing, Rothman suggests. Results can be refined and then have some influence on local al fairs, but many of the deci· widely diffused for broad use by individuals, groups. and or· s1ons which affect communities mos! decisively are made ganizations. The model has appeal because II assumes 1hat by firms, or olher organizations based outside Iha local area knowledge can be systematically applied if an adequate (Warren, 1972). process is developed. Local community institutions have gradually lost many Eberts (1971) and Sismondo (1973) have developed and of 1he functions they formerly performed, while specialized tested a model which focuses on community change but public and private agencies ha\'!! become more efllclent in which has implications for broader regional applica\ion. providing these services. Local leadership for solving spe· The fundamenlal stimulus to development, they suggest, c1allzed problems has been partially replaced by highly mo comes th rough !he appearance of new formal Ii nkages be· bile professional problem·solvers who feel relatively little tween communities and organizations (Sismondo, 1973:31), allegiance or responslbllily to any single locality. Moreover, Eberts tested the model emplrically through analysis of both professionals al\d local leaders have dlffloulty peroeiv· dala from a sample of non·metropolitan cities in New York ing rural problems In a holistic sense and tail to understand state. and with a sample of 300 counties o f the northeast how the program for which !hey work Is related to the acllvl· United Stales. The model assumes that any development ties of other Individuals, agencies or commun1 11es. This program must begin with policy objectives which lead to suggests a need for new or adapted professional roles 10 changes in structural conditions. strengthen or create linkages between communities and In· In concep1uallzing lhe Partnership for Rural Improve· stitutions, while filling a gap in the knowledge applicallon ment, elements were selected from each o f these ap· process (Williams, Youmans, and Sorensen, 1975; Moe and proaches or models. The resulling model Includes these Tamblyn, 1974). elements: user oriented, systematic applicalion of knowl· ~dge, policy objectives that lead 10 structural changes, and interrelated change strategies. ldentificalion of Elements of a Comprehensive PRI has operauonallzed these conceptual elements Development Strategy into a comprehensive framework lor rural development. In· Regional development programs have tended 10 limit stitutions ol higher education cons1i1u1e the resource sys their concerns to physical or economic development Is· tem; rural communities comprise the user system. The PRI sues, without sulficient attenlion to social and political de· framework binds these separate systems together into a ve1opment . while educational programs have olten been in· consortium onented towards rural community problem effective In applying available knowledge to solution of solving. The core elements of lhe PRI intervention process rural problems (Moe, 1975). are: collaboration among inslltulions around a common 16 Educational Considerations https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations/vol13/iss2/13 DOI: 10.4148/0146-9282.1691 18 Litz and Bailey: Educational Considerations, vol. 13(2) Full Issue problem, the linkage function, the organizational neutrality Th is set of definitions covers the range of possible service necessary to carry out the linkage model, and the develop· activities-including research and teaching services- .and menl of staff rotes which focus on the relationships be· the range of potential beneficiaries of college and un1ver· tween units of knowledge and action systems.' sity public service. The PRt program has sought to include elements of the Models of Organizational Change Within Higher Education above definition into the rhetoric ol the higher educational The responsiveness of higher education to the needs system. to develop a mechanism which lncorporah?s that of rural areas must be addressed in the larger context of the function into that system, and to find a funding veh1cl.e for nature and purpose of higher education. Different perspec· its continuation. The task, hOwever, is made Increasingly tives on the nature and purpose of higher education are re· complex by the different rote and mission of the various ed· vealed through three popular metaphors - ivory tower, SO· ucational providers: research university, land·grant un1ver· cial service station, and culture mart (Aldelman, 1973). Each sity, regional university, community college, and common concept of h lgher education is characterized by a different school (Zimmerman and Gray, 1983). definition of service and differing perspectives on fts role and funcllon in higher education . Service can be provided Operalionalizing a Rural/Higher Education Partnership through the fulfillment of teaching and research, through "Ideas of value:· through social criticism, through social The Partnership for Rural Improvement was developed with partial support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to problem solving, or through social activism. Each form ~f service has Its advocates in historical and contemporary tit· "devise" appropriate organizallonal forms to bridge the gap erature. Common conceptions of service include: between rural problems on the one hand, and the tack of um· versify resources available to address those problems ... :· • college or university sennce: committees or other (Kinsinger, 1982). The Foundation frequently employs a governance activities Internal to the department. strategy of providing developmental funds that enable aser· college. school, orcampus related to program devel· vice agency to mount a new but unified venture, with the opment and institutional policy. promise of a major breakthrough and .demonstration ol a • protessional service: committee, editorial, or other better way to carry out Its mission. Assistance to Washing. work for national or regional professional assoc la· ton State University to enable public service/rural develop. tlons and/or academic disciplines. ment work was In this found ation's programming tradi1ion. Because of its multi·faceted design, the mission of PRI • public service: activities "other than" basic research varies according to the perspective of the describer. What and teaching involving direct relationships with may be an end for some wou ld legitimately be a means for groups external to the academic community. (Cros· son, 1983) others. For rural citizens, the mission may be to assist them In im proving their collective well·being. For Washi ngton For our pu rposes, the first two are dismissed as too nar· State University, the mission may be to strengthen its capa· rowly oriented to the educational organization a11d aca· bility to support community or regional planning and devel· demlc discipline respectively. opment functions. Or, it may be viewed as a strategy 10 mod· The latter definition of public service-that which is ify the land·grant university st ructure and mode of "other lhan" basic research and teaching and involves rela· operation toward more effective integration of instruc· tionshlps with exlernal groups-is useful as a sta~tlng tional research and extension resources. The mission may point but not sufficiently spe<:ific. Many of the activities be to 'provide assistance to publlc service agencies that carried out under the banner of service are research activi· would enhance tne effectiveness of their functions. Each of ties; many others are teaching activities. What different!· these perspectives is legitimate. ates "public" service activities from research and teaching The Partnership for Rural Improvement was initiated in activities is that they are performed for groups that have not 1976 to strengthen capacity tor rural improvement from two iradl1lonally been involved with higher education. The com levels: (1) within rural communities and regions, where indi· position of those "external " groups changes over time. It Is vidual citizens. local officials, and members of public agen· therefore necessary to continually redefine public service cies are principle participants: and (2) wlt~i~ agencie.s and in terms of the current dynamics of ins1l tutional-socle tal re· institutions which have specific responslb11i ty for ass1st1ng lationshlps. rural people where agency and Institutional professionals are the major participants. The program particularly lo· A definition appropriate to the current context of cuses on increasing the ablllty of educational institutions higher education must include three major areas: to provide a broader range of more appropriate kinds of as • advice, information, and technical assistance to sistance to rural regions. business, government, neighborhood groups, and The relationship between these spheres (institutions Individuals on problems with which the University and the community) does not occur naturally: rather ii re· has competence; quires fostering within each separate sphere. The culture • research toward the solution of public policy prob· and reward structures of rural communities and institulions of higher education differ markedly. (See Figure 1) lems whether by Individual or groups of faculty members or by the formal institu1es and centers of the Universi!y; Figure 1. Characteristics of Spheres • conferences, Institutes, seminars, workshops, Formal Models/ Informal Models/ shoncourses, and other non·degree·orlented up· grading and training for government officials, social Institutions Rural Com munities service personnel, various professional people, H i·tech Low tech business executives, and so on (University of Mas· Non-responsive Personalized sachusetts. 1971). FTE driven Socially driven Spri ng 1986 17 Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 19 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2 [1986], Art. 13 Figure 2 where it is shared with lhe emerging professionals and stu· dents. --::--...... ,, _,. To achieve a socially viable planning and development ;:::_.~---- - \.._ ,;,,;--> :::::,.,. •••• .:; ;:: ::. ' . ~ process. local people must perceive the actlvlly as "theirs" -·-/ ..... and the process as involving tllem. The PAI program associ· ··- I ·--·..·-·.- -)'. ates seek to engage these Individuals In ac1ivi1ies through '\ - Which perspectives are shared, mutual learning occurs and --- conllict can be resolved. The program associate is a con lributor and a participant in these dialogues, providing lhe benellls of special knowledge while seeking knowledge from cilizens. To Ile successful, e Utah. It has benefited from the comments of Mary Emery. Through Dissemination and Utilization of Knowl· University of Idaho Cooperative Extension and Jackie edge;· Ann Arbor: Center for Research on Utilization $pears, Kansas State University. of Scientific Knowledge. The University of Michigan, 'This section draws heavily from sections of the sum 1969. mative report to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. "Cycles of Honadle, George H., "Fls11ing forSuslainabilily: The Role of Change: Seven Years of Partnership, 1976-1983:' Capacity Building in Development Administration;' •For a discussion of these elements, the reader is re Washington, D.C.: Development Alternatives, Inc., ferred to Braglio-luther, et al., "Cycles of Change: Seven 1981. Years of Partnership, 1976·1963." Kinsinger. Robert E., Rural Development and Higher Educa· 'The collaboration proce$$ and stall roles are de lion: linking Community and Method, Batlle Creek, scribed more fully 1n the McDaniel and Loomis article in this Ml: W.K. Kellogg Foundation, 1982. volume. Lindquist, Jack, "From Presentation to Facilitation: Three Types of Dissemination;• in Jack Lindquist. (ed) In Bibliography creasing the Impact of Social Innovations Funded by Agria, Mary A., "Enhancing Traditional and Innovative Rural Grant Making Organizations, Battle Creek, Ml: W.K. Support Services,'' South Hampton, N.Y.: unpub· Kellogg Foundation, 1979. lishe Spring 1986 19 Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 21 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2 [1986], Art. 13 Community education programs are highly areas. Bits and pieces of the community education model have been a part of rural America for years. effective in generating community spirit, in "There's no point in goin' to town for that. 'Sakes, Bes· mobilizing scarce resources, and in encour sle Jones sews the tightest quilts in this state. She'd be aging learning as a lifelong vocation. For ru pleased to show you. Just go visit in' and ask her. She'd rel· ish the company."' ral areas, community education serves a vital tn addition to people passing their skills on to friends role In linking communities with resources and relatives, rural folk have joined together for community barn dances, house raising and in support of local families and individuals with broader educational re in emergencies. "The concept of community education and sources. community schools has historically been an integral part of life In rurall hispanic communities. Theschoot has served as a focal point of life in rural communities for many years, serving as the center for community functions. Some of these functions included dances, political meetings, and weddings, and included all members of the hispanic fam· The Community ily:' 4 Things are not so very different today. These informal bits of community education are In evidence in rural com· Education Model: munities across this country and even around the world. In a more formal Wtl'f, the community education model can be adapted to any tocal area. It provides a framework for addressing the learning needs of rural adults by combining Learning educational resources with existing activities and new ideas. As a result, community education can provide a com· prehensive plan for maximum resource utilization for that Opportunities community's people. for Rural Adults The Community Education Model "My belief (is) that the vast majority of people are es· sentially the same, that we des I re most of al I to I ~prove our· selves through learning, bOoks, and contacts with othe'.s. that we strive in youth and throughout our lives for contin· by Dawn Ramsey ued personal improvement:·' Jesse Stuart was a writer - he wrote about life. He was "You don't need to worry about opening the school. an educator - he challenged his readers to think differently Why, everybOdy out here has a key or knows where to get about life. He was a Kentuckian - he shared his belief in one.•' Kentucky's people with the world. In his eloquent way the What better compliment to a school, its principal. its belief he expressed serves as a pre lace to, almost a back· dislnct, its people! The school has become a true commu· drop for, the community education model. nity school - open around the clock for people who live near "Community education is a concept that stresses an It. expanded rote for public education and provides a dynamic Peaks Mi ll School is one such rural school. Bulll In a,pproach to individual and community improvement. Com· 1939 as a pan of the Works Progress Administration. this munity education encourages the development of a com· strong Imposing structure originally housed grades 1-12. prehensive and coordinated delivery system for providing Situated in the rural northeast portion of Franklin County, educational, recreational, social and cultural services for all Kentucky, this school ls looked 10 by area residents not only people in a community. Although communities vary greatly as a place to ed uca1e theiryoung (In 1959 Peaks Miii became with some being richer than others, all have tremendous hu· a 1·6 program) but also as a meeting place for the commu man and physical resources that can be Identified and mo· nity. bitized to obtain workable solutions 10 problems. Inherent Lee Troutwlne. resident of Peaks Miii and chairman of in the community education philosophy is the belier that the Franklin County Community Education Board ex· each community education program should reflect the pressed the school's centrality to the community when he needs of its particular community. The philosophy advo· said, "People who live in Peaks Mill feel like it is the 'chosen cates a process which produces essential modifications as land' and our school is the nucleus of the community along times and problems change.•• with the local country store an everyone teaches - everyone learns or 1. initial conversations and Informal interest polling. people helping people 2. formation o f a citizen council and formal structure or 3. community needs assessments something for everyone 4. community problem solving 5. program implementation Wherever It is implemented. the community education 6. ongoing discussions and redirections. model has generally accepted commonalities. Iden tified in the federal Community Education Acts of 1978 those eight elements are•: 1. Initial Conversations and Informal lnteres1 Polling 1. ROLE OF THE SCHOOL. The program must provide The people who want to develop a community educa· for tho direct and substantial involvement of a pub· lion program in therr community Informally talk to their lie elementary or secondary school in the ad minis· neighbors to identify others who are at so interested. Formal tration and operation of the program. educational resources become involved as this small group 2. COMMUNI TY SERVED. The program must serve an seeks Information and/or materials from the local school identified community which is at least coextensive dlslrict or a regional university. Contact is made with a staff with the school attendance area for th e regular in· person who can assist with model Implementation and, as structlonal program ol the school. the process develops, can assist the community in secur· 3. COMMUNITY CENTER FACILITI ES. Program ser· ing educational services from both the LEA and higher edu· vices to the community must be sufficiently con cation. centrated and comprehensive in a specific public 2. Formation of a Citizen Council and Formal Structure facility, such as a public elementary or secondary This step features the formali zation of community edu· school, a public community or junior college, or a cation for the community. A group o f citizens take on an ad· community recreation or park center, In terms of vlsory role in planning a systematic approach to community scope and nature of program services, to serve as a education. Usually a series of regular meetings are an· community center. nounced and office space and telephone arrangements are 4. SCOPE OF ACTIVITIES AND SERVICES. The pro· made. At this pcint a coordinator (pcssibly part·tlme) is gram must extend the program activities and ser· hired or a volunteer is appointed to direct activities. Again, a vices offered by, and uses made of, the public facil· consultant from an educational institution may be able to ity In terms o f the scope and nature of program assist in the hiring and/or training ol the coordinator and services, the target population served, and the council. Shared resources and interagency cooperation hours of service. may develop as arrangements forofllce space and phone re· 5. CO MMUNITY NEEDS. The program must include quire a pcoling of local resources. systematic and effective procedures for ldentilying 3. Community Needs Assessment and documentrng on a continuing basis the needs, interests and concerns of the community served After a structure for implement Ing community educa with respect to community education activities and tion is in place, the Citizens' Council usually undertakes a services; and for responding to such needs, inter community needs assessment. This can be done either for ests and concerns. mally or informally with a written questionnaire, phone tree, 6. COMMUNITY RESOURCES AND INTERAGENCY community meeting, etc. The goal Is to identify the needs In COOPERATIVE ARRANGEMENTS. The program the community. While a part ot this process might be 10 as· must provide for the Identification and utilization to certain what classes people would like to take, or who the fullest extent possible of educationat, cultural, would be willing to teach; another and at least equally tm· recreational, and other existing and plan ned re· portant task is to list what residents see as the important sources located outside of the school; and it must Issues and problems that need to oe considered. These Is· encourage and use cooperative methods and agree sues and/or problems may or may not result in class offer· ments among public and private agencies. ings. 7. PROGRA M CLIENTS. The program must be de 4. Community Problem Solving signed to serve all age groups in the community as The core of the community education model Is the well as groups with special needs. process by which neighbors work together to solve com 8. COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION. The program must mon problems and meet common needs. In this step, re· provide for the active and continuous Involvement, source sharing and lnteragency cooperation is critical. Wi th on an advisory basis, of Institutions. groups, and in· the results of the needs assessment as a point of departure, dividuals In the planning and carrying out of the pro the community council members and other residents begin gram, Including involvements in the assessment of the process of working out W Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 23 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2 [1986], Art. 13 the Cooperative Extension agent agrees to provide pro school program on Saturday that involves both parents and grams and activities, and the local country store donates children. Clarence Gamble, assistant superintendent. needed supplies. To round out the day, a woman's club may points out: "Our pre-school program is paid for by local volunteer to prepare sack lunches. Through cooperative funds and prepares both the parents and thei r children for planning, many of the identified problems and needs can be active Involvement with the schools. The community addressed. classes provide· participants with a sense of belonging to 5. Program Implementation the community and the schools. Many of these participants This step is the most easily identified part or any com do not have children in our schoo1s:·1• munity education program. As programs, classes, and activ Some of the outcomes a community and Its residents ities are planned in Step 4, they are advertised, organized can enjoy from an active community education program in and begun in Step 5. Each community's approach in Step 4 clude: provides a unique set of programs for Step 5. The coordina· increased community spirit fuller use of pub I ic spaces tor and council members must now let everyone in the com solutions to community structures for bringing in munity know what is available. Whether the advertising is by problems credit classes fliers, posters, or word ot mouth, it is important that the cultural activities elimination of duplicated word be spread. In previous steps, council members have services learned to worl\ together toward common goals and com recreational activities eval uatlon of community mon solutions. In this step their efforts meet public scru Increased public awareness tiny. Opportunities for individual growth include learn ing organized volunteers needs promotion and advertising techniques, communication increased intergenerational unified efforts skills, organizational and management skills. contacts reduced vandal ism and 6. Ongoing Discussions and Redirections forums for discussion crime Critical to the continued success or any community ed Community education benefits the individual as well ucation structure is the process of continued evaluation as the community. Participation in community education and adjustments. Needs change as communities change. activities can enable people to: The beauty of the community education model is Its f lexibi l use their talents train for job skills ily. Community councils meet regularly to evaluate current programs and activities, to make necessary changes, and to develop self-confidence develop better communica- respond to new issues that affect their community. Com· make friends l ion skills munilies constantly cycle through Steps 3,4,5, and 6. gain experience in pub I ic develop better leadership speaking skills The Possibilities develop organizational develop skills in resource Everyone Teaches - Everyone Learns leads to the de· skills analysis velopment of human potential. Community education of become Involved in develop skills In information fers opportunities ior rural adults to learn-to grow in every community life gathering activity in Which they become involved. Some down.play the develop decision making develop skills in public importance of macrame' or old-time movies in the church abi lities relations basement. But in reality, these simple low·cost educational strengthen I heir sense of efforts play a highly effec!ive role in generating community enroll In credl I classes develop self-lnitiative belonging to the spirit and uncovering the talents of community members. community These efforts also can act as a springboard for community services such as daycare centers, community dinner the Conclusion aters, handicapped recreational programs, literacy efforts. "Community education reflects the belief that learning and other services which benefit individuals and commulli is lifelong, and that self·help efforts foster human dignity, ties. compassion, and individual pride. Community Education Is In Montgomery County, Kentucky, Com munity Educa a philosophy, a way of looking at public education. Commu tion sponsors a homebound adu lt basic education and liter nity education programs work precisely because they are acy program. Instructors get to people who cannot get to designed by 1ocal residents to meet local needs ?'" classes - older people, young mothers, etc. and teach them Peaks Mill is a unique community. Its uniqueness lies at home. They offer classes In rural centers in subjects such in what it shares with hundreds of thousands of other as gardening, canning, and animal breeding. The Commu unique communities across the U.S.A. In Peaks Mill, com nity Education program established a senior citizen center munity education is a "Frontier Days" celebration, classes, in a rural area. Senior citizens are transported to the local a parade complete with a police car, a fire engine and as agencies with which they must deal. In the summer. school sorted bicycles, a ball 1ournament sponsored by the Ruritan buses bring rural residents to town one day a week to swim. Club. Farmers in Peaks Mfll, as a result of a community edu A health program was est ab I ished for rural women and cation class entitled "Using Computers for Small.Farm young children. These are just a few of the many activities Managemen1;• may decide to pool their money to purchase sponsored by the Montgomery County Community Educa· a modum to link the school computer with free farm pro lion Program. According to Don Patrick, the former director, grams available through the state university and coopera "Through their gultar classes, Montgomery County turns · tive extension program. High school students can then use out more pickers than anybody in the world!'' this same equipmen t for their computer education classes. Russellville, Kentucky, has a new Community Educa· Like hundreds of t housands of rural communities ti on program and al ready boasts of classes on Clvl I war across our nation, Peaks Mill can mold the community edu relics, puppet making, Black history, appetizers and hors cation model to fit its needs. And through community eou d'oeuvres, and birdwatching. Russellville has an interesting cation, they have an opportunity to Improve tl1e quality of approach to parent i1wolvement by offering a voluntary pre· life. 22 Educational Considerations https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations/vol13/iss2/13 DOI: 10.4148/0146-9282.1691 24 Litz and Bailey: Educational Considerations, vol. 13(2) Full Issue Notes ucation How to Series, No. 1 (Midland: Pendell Publish· 1. Interview with Phyllis Rogers, Community Education In· Ing Co., 1976), p. 4. structor, Frankfort, Kentucky, January 7, 1986. 7. Franklin County Community Education, An Overview of 2. Interview with Lee Troutwine, Chair, Franklin County Community Education in Franklin County, Kentucky Community Education Board, Frankfort, Kentucky, Feb· (Frankfort: Franklin County Community Edu cation, ruary 10, 1986. 1983) p. 2. 3. Interview with Doe Martin, citizen, Grayson County, Ken 8. Decker, op. cit., p. 6. tucky, December 27, 1985. 9. Interview with Don Patrick. Former Director of Commu 4. Ricardo Barros, Rural·H ispanlc Community, Commu· nity Education, Montgomery County, Mount Sterling, nity Education Proven Practices Series, (Chama Valley Kentucky, February 13, 1986. Independent School District #19), p. i. 10. Interview with Clarence Gamble, Assistant Superinten 5. Jesse Stuart. quoted in University for Man, Divi sion o f dent, Russellville Independent Schools, Russellville, Continuing EducaHon, The Rural and Small Town Com· Kentucky, February 13, 1986. munity Education Manual (Manhattan: University for 11. Mary Richardson Boo and Larry E. Decker, The l earning Man, 1980), p. 1. Community (Washington, D.C.: National Community Ed· 6. Larry E. Decker, People Helping People, Community Ed· ucation Associa!lon, 1985), p. 1·2. Spring 1986 23 Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 25 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2 [1986], Art. 13 Serving rural adult learners requires a basic the ever-increasing numbers of adult learners is no easy task. Serving the adult population raises ver>/ complex is· and fundamental understanding of both the sues. Many of these Issues, I believe, require more thought· culture of adulthood and the culture of ful and considered analysis and discussion than are cur higher education. Th is paper explores a rently taking place on the campus today. This paper proposes that a new lens is required to pro model for bridging the two cultures. vide a wider angle of vision In identifying and designing higher education's response to the adult learner. One way to re·examine our thinking about the changes that could and should be incorporated into higher education is to use the analogy of culture. From this new perspective, we can come to understand that we are essentially dealing with two dll· Adults and ferent "cultures"- the •culture• of the university or college community and the ·culture• of adulthood. As institutions ot higher education continue to wrestle Higher with lhe questions of how program responses and lnstltu· tlonal structures can be reshaped to serve the needs o f the adult learner, more attention needs to be devoted to the careful and considered analysis of both cultures. The ab· Education: sence of any serious carnpus discussion concerning the fundamental differences between these two cultures will only perpetuate what I call •cultural gridlock" - an inability Bridging the to move toward understanding each other. A Point of Reforonce: Culture Gap Discovering the Importance of Culture In 1978, I conducted a year-long study which examined the nature and characteristics of adulthood and the nature by Maurice Olivier and characteristics of the college/university community. The purpose o f this study was to gain a more comprehen Adult learners are undoubtedly one of the most perva sive understanding of the special aspects of serving adult sive forces currently influencing and challenging the very learners, particularly In an off-campus setting. The study in· fabric and structure of today's l\ighered ucation enterprise. eluded a review, analysis, and synthesis of the history, Few observers and critics of higher education today would events, and characteri stics of both higher education and contest the idea that this new group of students is clear1y the adult population of New Hampshire beginning in the dedicated to lllelong learning through the nation's colleges year t636 and continuing through the early 1970s. In addi· and universities. lion, over 100 interviews with adult learners, campus faculty tncreaslngty, at scholarly and professional meetings and administrators were conducted . and in mainstream publications, attention has focused on One major ou tcome of this study was the recognition adaptations to allow institutions of higher education to that serving adult learners, bo th on and off campus, re serve the new constituency, particularly those adults pursu· quires a basic and fundamental understanding of both the ing undergraduate or postgraduate programs. An implicit cullure of adulthood and the culture of a college/university assumption made by most institutions is that a more practi· community. These lmdings have been documented In a re cal curriculum, mo re nexible degree requirements, and port titled " Future Directions and Emphasis: The Two courses offered at more convenient times and in varied for 'States' We're In" (Olivier, 1978).' mats are the new institutional reforms needed to effectively This comparative historical analysis between higher serve the growing adult market. education and adults clearly indicated that a major "cullural But as Patricia Cross (1965) points out, lhe task in gap" exists. The cultural divide is perhaps at its greatest. adapting institutions of highereduc ation to serve the needs when analyzing tho culture of adulthood in the rural setting. of the adult learner is more profound than simply changing Occasionally, rural ooult learners and the higher education the time when courses are o ffered. community have managed a frozen smile across the terrain. Ed ucators should be thinking about more than However, most campus i nitiatives to serve the educational new ways to deliver the standard curriculum, needs o f the rural adult learner have been focused on the about more than convenient schedules and lo· issues of marketing and delivery of programs, leaving many cations for new populations of learners, about needs unmet. more than increasing the accessibility of life· Col leges and universities are not designed to serve long learning opponunities. Rather, it seems to adults. They have been generally perceived as "a place me that the task is to reconceptuatize the role ot where you get an education• during one stage of your life. postsecondary education in the learning socl· For adults, learning Is not aonce·in·a-tlletime "investment•• ety. (Cross, 1985) of time, money, and personal commitment. It becomes, by desire and necessity, a lifelong Investment. Adults as stu· As many practitioners in adult higher education wlll attest, adapting college and university programs to accommodate dents, because o f varied and extremely diverse lifestyles are seemingly not compatible with the instit ution's pur· pose. Many faculty members, for example, find it difficult to Maurice Oliver is associate dean for Academic Affairs teach adults, perceiving them to be incompatible in terms o f at the School for Lifelong Learning in Durham, New academic preparation. Consider the following faculty re· Hampshire. sponse to the question: "Where does adult learning and life· 24 Edvcational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2, Spring 1986 https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations/vol13/iss2/13 DOI: 10.4148/0146-9282.1691 26 Litz and Bailey: Educational Considerations, vol. 13(2) Full Issue long learning belong on this campus?" and traits. Through such lnterplaiy, a student sub-culture Nowhere, or ii there must be one, keep it away evolves that becomes an influential source of change lor all from everything else-give It to the extension di the individuals who are Inducted into it. Thus, students are vision. Then the rest of us can concentrate on not only the objects of the educational process, but also an our regular teaching and research and won't important part of the environment In which instruction 11ave to bother about that low-standard stuff. takes place. Similarly, individual faculty and staff members Unfonunately, such a sentiment Is still reflected in the atti· bring to an institution their unique traits and interests. lndi· tu des of many faculty and cam puses today. vldually and collectively, they create a sub·culture that in flu · Many of the questions and Issues being raised today ences their own members and also their students. The sum concerning higher education's response to the nation's of Hie various sub·cultures, including the interactions adults run counter to the norms, values, traditions and as· among them, becomes the culture of a college orunlversl 1y sumptlons widely held in academia. Simply stated, col· community. leges and universities were not designed, organized and This culture, lor the most part, has not changed dra structured to serve adults. Despite long-standing and re matically over time. In tact, in "Three Thousand Futures: marl Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 27 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2 [1986], Art. 13 ginning a career. Furthermore, one cannot al· compass the dynamic relationship belween the two cul ways tell the difference between people who are tures. It helps identify and analyze dimensions and ele· 3 or 50- the dress is not that different; the llair ments in each culture tor lhe pu rpose of achieving style Is not that different. Fifty-and 60-ycar-olds compatible interests, shared understandings, and learning now wear jeans to class. (1984) In community. Another major characteristic ot the adult learner popu The Dual Learning Culture Model (Figure 1) was de· lation is the range, depth, and richness of experience and signed to be a comprehensive slralegy tor analyzing vanous insight. As Frances Mahoney (1982) reported: aspec ts, dimensions and condilions within these two cul· A diversely prepared student population IS one tu res. II was inlended for use by professionals in the higher in which the mix of experience, motivation, abil· educallon communily and also for some groups ol adult ity, aspiration, and insight Is constantly In flux. learners. In organizational lerms, !he Dual Learning Culture Personal Issues faced by students aro com Model utilizes six Slruclural elemen ls to help instltullons of pounded by problems with children and spouse. higher education sucoessfully bridge two seemingly In Work schedules complicate academic patterns, compatible worlds. These are; but work experience adds to the quality of the in· 1. Situation and Trend Analysis Process sight and of the questions that students often 2. Leadership Development for Faculty and Admlnls· bring to challenge the thlnking of faculty and tralive Slalf other students. Ethn ic and social class differ· 3. Curriculum Developmenls and Renewal ences fu nction to create a sense of cogni tive 4. Learning Communities and Networks - tn1erna1 dissonance that leads students to examine and external to the campus some of their well-established beliefs and to ad· 5. Service Systems just their thinking In the light of new or discrep 6. Planning, Evaluallon, and Institutional Commil· ant Information. menI "Transitions" seem to be the most normal state for the All six elemenls are focused on bridging the lwo cul late 20th-century adull. In Iha pas!, the adu ll could sit qui· tures. They represenl organizing frameworks lo facililate elly tor a portrait; today's adu lt can barely be caught on fast discussion and ac lion. II Is nol a linear model-bridging speed film. As John NaisbiU (1982) put it, "These days, the can occur through anyone ot these areas. However, Iha like only constant Is change .. . from industrial to information lihood of establishing an inlras1ruc1ure that supports a age, from regional to world ou11ure, from one educalion tor workable partnership between !he adull learner and the one fulure 10 lifelong educalion lor lhe constanlly changing college/university will be greally increased when all six ar present :· We experience what Palricia Cross calls eas are functioning al some minimal level. "blended II fe·styles" in which a person does not necessarily follow a prescribed I ife course. Clearly, one major character Figure 1: The Dual Learning Culture Analysis Model istic of thecullureof the adult learner is its fluid lifespan. As Aslanian and Brickell (1980) found "over four-flflhs of adult students cite some major transition in their lives as the pri mary cause tor !heir return to college:· Within lhe rural selling, the culture of adulthood re· ( ..1~ •11' "':Motl((, fleets some very dislinclive characlerislics. For example, :u·,it :• i.+""·'•l.U•111 '."'-•S11"t' J.: l!!loto!•(, M) 1•M<~:l\~l ·•i• rural adulls lyplcally share the reality or geographical isola· ~·1<1><;•;1) • 1) •1« 11•\f tion which, no doubt, limits the scope ot oplions to suppor1 1·••"'¥'•• , ..,...... 1. (\.._ ·~ ...... _...... 1• ...w-..0. " ''""' their learning needs: Traveling distances to a campus are ...... -...... - .... ·~ ·...... - .. !'"l:_- . .. o(ft .-...... ,.,_ ....- ...... _ .. usually prohibitive. Rural adulls are also very pragmatic in -.~...... ,...... -.... !heir thoughts and actions; !here is a need tor immediacy of ...... , .. .,, ...... application. Rural adults also have a greater sense of self· ...... , ...... 11 ...... '>'" O>-<"'"'" ,,.\', u ~ n '1r ( • ) 't"'".. , ...... ~ •1•• •• reliance. The desire to solve their own problems is very ...... ,"."''"'ft'"'""' much an inherent charac1erlstic also highly cherished in lhe rural setting fosters sense of apprehension and occa \ sional distrusl of outsiders. \ In general, bolh cunures can oe summarized as fol· I lows: Colleges and universllles represent an established slructure (culture) characlerl zed by expectalions of studenl , t)l 1'111t:....i. ~Uuti !y hornogenelly In areas such as campus residency, lull-lime M .l(!l.lf11.\11li'\((Wo.l• rn study, and lite phase development. In con1ras1, tl1e culture of adulthood Is characterized by its heterogeneily In terms of life experiences, levels ot knowledge, and degrees ot mo tivalion. The lifestyle of adults not only embraces diverse and ever-changing life circums1ances bul also lhe 1remen dous responslbilily for family. Using the Model: Empowering lhe Rural Adult Many campus attempts to serve adults are based upon The Dual Learning Culture Model implici t ass um ptlons concerning teaching and learn Ing, ad· Following thal year-long sludy and my own experi· mission criteria and curriculum content and process. These ences in working with bOth cultures, a model was developed assumptions, allhough not often made explicit. are fre which, I Delieve. facilita1es bridging both cullures: The Dual quently conveyed through the approaches and methods Learning Culture Model. This model provides a new fens used in needs ldentfficalion and program planning. Conse· which widens the scope ol vision lo more completely en · Quen Uy, learning needs and inlereslsof adulls often remain 26 Educational Considerations https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations/vol13/iss2/13 DOI: 10.4148/0146-9282.1691 28 Litz and Bailey: Educational Considerations, vol. 13(2) Full Issue unmet or misunderstood by the campus community. assessment, and analysis toward facilitating a new under· Within the rural setting we have come to understand standing of each other. In short, it is a process which recog· that successful programs are those that are "owned" by that nizes the importance of shared learning and ii empowers community. As was recently stated through a set of four re the community with the rights of ownership. gional conferences sponsored by The Action Agenda for This process is summarized to serve as an illustration Rural Adult Postsecondary Education (1985), on serving the of how one of the six structures can be employed in a real rural adu It learner: life setting. Other settings might call for one or more of the Some ge neralizations do emerge from the other frameworks. models most successful in meeting rural needs. Successful pfOgrams seem to literally grow out The Situation and Trend Analysis Process: of the community itself. The link between pur Toward Mutual Understanding and Community Ownership pose and product is tight, responding to spe The Si tuation and Trend Analysis Process is not a cific need embraced by the community as a needs survey. It is a six-step process which engages appro· whole. Community members take an active rote priate groups and individuals from both cultures for the pur· in shaping the programs developed and control· pose of: l ing the outside resources called upon. a. determining ways in which adult learning needs Community-based organizations or ru ral Ii· and interests and institutional resources can be braries are often successful because their ori· meshed in a viable and vital program. gins lie deep in the communities they serve. But b. establishing an on-going dialogue and network other providers - colleges, cooperative exten within both comm unities which can faci litate a sion, rural development centers - can also beef greater mutual understanding. fective, once they join hands with I he commu c. providing a framework which makes community nity as willing partners In the educational ownership and shared learning possible. process. The programs most successful are the programs •·owned" by the rural community. STEP ONE: Establishing Collaborative Assessment and Planning Group: This core group is comprised of 12 to A second characteristic found among success 20 people, including community mem bers, members of ful programs is l hat they respect cultural differ civic groups, potential learners, faculty, deans , and other ences. At ll1e very least, the program recognizes academic adm inistrative staff. This group assumes respon· and respects the values and lifestyles of rural sibility for reviewing and discussing dimensions and char people. acteristics of the various campus and adult communities One of the conceptual foundations which supports i he chosen for assessmen t and analysis. It also assumes re Dual Learning Cul ture Model is the philosophical commit· sponsibility for two types ol information: (1) demographic ment to a process of empowering the people. This concep information, and (2) anecdotal Information including per tual foundations was drawn from work completed in 1975 ceptions of lhe communities involved. through a two-year FIPSE funded project which established STEP TWO: Determining the Current Situations and six university-sponsored community learning centers Trends: This step Is focused on determining existing situa (CLC). According to Robby Fried (1980), the CLC project di· tions within each of lhe respective communilles bei ng ana rector: lyzed. The Collaborative Assessment and Planning Group The empowerment process is less a haMing reviews and shares information and percep1ions concern· down of knowledge between the professional Ing the communities involved. A tentative plan of aclion Is and the other people than a partnership, a mu· proposed for conducting the community interviews. tual sharing of ideas, intuitions, and experi· STEP THREE: Conducting the Community Interviews: ences. The power of empowerment involves a Members of the Collaborative Assessment and Planning sharing, not a delivery, and that means reciproc Group identify 60 to 100 community leaders and ci tizens ity between faci litating professionals and the who might be interested in participating in one.·half hour in people 1hey work among. terviews. Interviews are conducted by members of the core Cen1ral to the idea of empowerment is the belief lhat group at a variety of locations within the community over a ru ral adu lts have the capacity to learn and solve their own three-day period. Team members are paired to conduct the problems. Citing the proceedings of the recent regional interview with community members. During these inter· views, no questionnaire is completed; rather the interview conferences: focuses on a set of probing questions. This interview proc . . . successful programs respect adult auton· ess provides not only learning needs and interests, but also omy. Programs that address the learner's expec· the conditions and situations under which learning should tations, that accommodate adu lt lifestyles and be organized . responsibilities, and that share control over con STEP FOUR: Interpreting and Translating: The Collabo· tent and method with the learners are more rative Assessment and Planning Group is then charged with likely to be successful. They embrace the belief preparing a sum mary report to include their individual ob· that adults Inherently have the capacity to learn servalions and perceptions- What did you see? Whal did and solve their own problems - they need only you hear? What did you learn? A preliminary program re· the proper resources. (Proceed in gs, 1985). sponse is developed. The planning group agrees on what How then , do colleges and universities go about find appropriate resources will be required. ing lhe appropriate setting where mutual discussions con· STEP FIVE: Reviewing the Initial Program Response cerning these issues can take place? One of the structural with Community Members - the "Open Houses": Based elements of the Dual Learning Culture Model is the Situa upon their preliminary report, team members organize feed tion and Trend Analysis Process. This process engages back sessions - "open houses:· At these "open houses" members who represent both cultures in some discussion, the initial program response is presented to members of the Spring 1986 27 Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 29 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2 [1986], Art. 13 community who participated in the interview process. Mem· traditionally oriented higher education. One of the great bers of the planning group facilitate the review and discus· benefits of exploring this frontier Is that many of the out sion of the group report. Two types of information are dis· comes may find a wider application in colleges and univer tributed at this meeting: a summary of the team·s sities across the country. observations and perceptions of the culture of the commu· nlty, and the one·year program response which is discussed Footnotes in a small group format. These groups report on whether the 1. This report served to set in motion a five-year action program response is indeed appropriate and In line with agenda for the school for Lifelong Learning of the Univer community and learner interests and needs. Community sity System of New Hampsl1lre. It helped initiate a major members are then asked to vol unteer as community re· institutional transformat ion from an organization whose sources to facilitate program implementallon. Many com· mode of operation was delivery - deliver a course, deliver munity members will vo lunteer to serve as faculty, as pro· a program, deliver a facu lty member - to one committed gram coordinators, and as advisors to the plan ning group. to bridging the cultural divide between adults and higher STEP SIX: Networking: Once consensus has been ed ucat ion. A new framework within the institution reached by all parties and groups involved. program lmple· evolved to em brace such concepts as compatible inter· mentation needs to be followed by the establishment of an ests, shared learning, empowerment, and membership informal network of citizens, participants, and other com· and association. These concepts served as the guiding munity members to assist in monitoring and evaluating pro· principles in reshaping the Institution's mission and gram effectiveness. learning philosophy. This Situation and Trend Analysis Process was carried out by the School for Lifelong Learning at least a dozen Bibliography tomes in New Hamphlre overthe past six years. The result of Aslanian, C. B., and H. M. Brickett, Americans in Transition: this process has been significant. Between 1972 and 1978. Lile Changes as Reasons for Adult Learning. New 78 students were able to complete associate and baccafau· Yori<: College Entrance Examination Board, 1980. reate programs In the northern portion of the state. Subse· Cross, K. Patricia, "The Changing Role of Higher Education quently, activity resulting from the Situation and Trend Anal· in the Learning Society;• Continuum, Journal of the ysls Process (carried out in 1980) has allowed 380 rural National University Continuing Education Associa· adu lts to complete the requirements for associate's and l ion, Spring 1985. bachelor's degrees. Three regional offices were also estab· Fried, Robby, Learning in Community: An Empowerment lished which fostered, in a very tangible way, the working Approach. Published by the tnstllule for Community partnership between the university community and the rural Educal ion Development, Ball Slate University, adu lt learner. In addition, the Situation and Trend Analysi s lhroug h a grant from the Community Education Office Process was vital in ini tiating a series of discussions and of the U.S. Department of Ed ucation, 1980. conferences on issues associated with economic develop· Ketler, George, Academic Stra tegy. Baltimore: John men t in northern New Hampshire. Hopkins University Press, 1983. Mahoney, Frances A., "Guidance and Plann ing with Di· Some Reflections versely Prepared Students" in New Directions for Ex The Dual Learning Culture Model provides us with the periential Learning: Diverse Student Population: Ben framework 10 capitalize on the natural community of Inter elils and Issues, No. 17, C. Taylor. San Francisco: est between colleges and universities and the adult popula Jossey-Bass, September 1982. tion. It is a bold approach, based on the idea that some of Naisbitt, John, Megatrends. New York: Warner Books, 1982. the best and most productive innovations are also the slm· Olivier, Maurice E., Future Directions and Emphasis: The ptest and most obvious. The purely rational and linear Two States We're In - Planning Report. School for model of needs assessment, program planning, marketing, Lifelong Learning, University System of New Hamp and delivery Is valuable but not sufficient. Attention also shire, 1978. needs to be paid to the direct involvement ol the Institution " Proceedings 1985: Serving the Rural Adult: Four Regional in experiencing the culture of the adult, 10 face·IO·faoe Conferences;• The Action Agenda for Rural Adu lt meetings in local communities, and most of all, to creating Postsecondary Education, Kansas State University. a cauldron and letting it bubble. Schlossberg, Nancy K., "Caught in a Di lemma: Adults as Lastly, this paper has aimed at being a modest pro · Learners:· 1984. Paper presented at lhe 1985 Summer posal but It contains a potentially radical element. There Isa Institute, Dimensions of Diversity, sponsored by the sense in which adult learning is a frontier of higher educa· Council for Adull and Experien tial Learn ing, Annapo· tion. It affords a perspective for the re-evaluation of more lis, Md . 28 Educational Considerations https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations/vol13/iss2/13 DOI: 10.4148/0146-9282.1691 30 Litz and Bailey: Educational Considerations, vol. 13(2) Full Issue The Cooperative Extension Service (CES) annually at a per capita cost or less than $8. In Manhattan, where UFM is located, some 900 courses are ottered each has been an acknowledged leader in rural year engaging over 12,000 participants. Course leaders are adult education. As rural economies shift, all volunteers, and there are no credits or examinations. however, many of the services offered Courses both in Manhattan and in the smaller communities across the state cover every conceivable topic one could ex· through CES agents seem inappropriate. peel to find in any adult learning catalogue. Th is paper explores the ru ral tree university One substantive measure or the valldltyof the rural free university model lies in actions taken by the Kansas Legis· model and its usefulness in linking CES re· lature. In 1979 UFM proposed legislation that would make sources with local needs. state funds available on a startup matching basis 10 com· munities wishing to form their own free university project. In an unprecedented action, the Legislature took only 10 weeks to pass and appropriate funding ($40,000) for the Community Resource Act. Since then over 40 projects have been funded in an average amount of $1,300 ·showing that The Rural Free one does not need large amounts or funds !or effective and responsive programs. The rural free university model has brought consider University and the able change to the face of adult education in rural Kansas. There is little argument about its success; and for its partici· pants and communities. it accomplishes much. For exam· Cooperative pie: 1. It demystifies learning. 2. It creates new interests and taps heretofore unrec· ognized community resources. Extension 3. It provides i ntormat and cost efficient learning op· portunities. as there are no grades and leaders are all volunteers. Service 4. It keeps old skills alive and thriving. 5. It provides an Important forum for nonthreatening attention to taboo subjects: a1co11ollsm, spouse by Jim Killacky abuse, single parenting and a range of mental health issues. Throughout this special issue there is ample evidence 6. It helps address the critical Issues of rural Isola· and support for the assumption which underlies this paper lion and the "nothing to do" syndrome. - i.e. that for economic, social and cultural reasons. tMre is 7. It provides an entree tor newcomers to a commu an increasing need for adult learning opportunities in rural nity and an opportunity for the emergence of new America. The rural free university model has been shown to community leadership. be effective In responding to the needs of rural adult learn· 8. It allows participants and community members to ers (Killacky, 1984a}. The Cooperative Extension Service cross social, economic and cultural barriers. (CES) is the largest adult education organization In the 9. It is a means of fostering adult development, espe world (Knowles, 1977). This paper proposes the widespread cially !or rural women who wish to turn to new pur· development of the rural free university model by the CE$. suits once their childrearing days are over. Although the rural model has been developed with soma 10. It utilizes the skills, ablllhes and talents ot older success by the CES in Kentucky(Quick, et al. 1982), there is people, giving them an active role in the commu· still need tor further development. The most recent blue· nity and a vital sense ol Importance. ribbon committee looking at the future ot the CES notes 11. It provides a much needed clientefe for the spon· "ways must be found to reach more people with educallonal sors of such programs. programs through the CES" (USDA·NASULGC, 1983, p. 4). 12. It opens the doors of learning to a population not usually disposed In that direc tion, and thereby ere· The Rural Free University Model ates an awareness or the potential in more formal The rural free university model is based on the notion academic pursuits. that anyone can teach and anyone can learn - everyone In the community is both a potential teacher and learner. Free The Cooperative Extension Service universities offer ungraded, non-credit courses to the com· At the national level theCES isadivisionolthe U.S. De· munlty. Developed by the University for Man (UFM) at Kan· partment of Agriculture. At the state level It is a division ot sas State University, the tree university model was extended the land-grant university. At the local level It operates from to rural communities across Kansas beginning in 1975. the County Extension Of!ice - often located in the county There are now over 50 programs o! rural free university edu· courthOuse. The fundamental goal of the CES, established cation In that state involving more than 35,000 participants bythe Smith·Lever Act of 1914, is the transmission of practi· cat knowle-Oge to the people o! the nation. This knowledge is generated primarily through the teaching and research Jim Killacky is the director of Talent Search and Up· functions at the Un iversity. ward Bound at the University of Maine-Orono. He was The CES currently operates In some 3, 150 counties In formerly director of Outreach at the University for Man the Un ited States and its territories. Program areas include (1973·80). agriculture, natural resources and environment, home eco· E.duca//onal Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2, Spring 1986 29 Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 31 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2 [1986], Art. 13 nomics, community development and the youth program l ions such as the CES to stick with what ''we know works:' 4-H. Some 18,000 staff members nationwide work for the An effective answer may rest in small scale develop CES. functioning as administrators, supervisors, state spe ment of programs within the CES combined with the dis cialists and county agents. State specialists serve as the in· semination of what is already known about rural free univer terpretive link between teaching/research at the university sity efforts and the CES. For example, in 1979 UFM initiated level and the county agents. Programs/information are a joint project with the CES in Kentucky. Now over one transmitted locally through the 8.000 county agents who dozen local free university programs operate under the aus· live and work with lhe people at the county level. Assistance pices of a local county extension office in various parts of is provided through demonstrations, meetings, workshops, that state. Although initiated because of the enthusiasm of short-courses, publications and mass-media. CES pro the particular individuals involved rather than the CES as an grams cover a wide range of topics, with a primary emphasis institution, state leaders soon became interested when on education for increased efficiency in agricultural pro they saw the new audiences these projects reached. tn an duction and marketing. Other areas loflow in decreasing or article in the Journal of Extension this important point was der of priority. Matthews (1960) provided this useful su m made about the different bases ol knowledge between free mary of the methods and CES contributions to adult universities and the CES: education: SOS Learning Projects (the name c l the Ken 1. During the two world wars and the Depression, the tucky project) are taking a signlficant step by OES dealt effectively with disasterous situations merging these two valuable yet distinct bases of because of the extensive formal and informal com knowledge and making the resulting inlorma plex resource networks established by service tion available to the local community. The fact \Yorkers. that local citizens are responding In numbers 2. The CES has effectively taught Its staff to present beyond expectations suggests that this merger Information simply. is meeting important needs. 3. The CES has had a major role through adult educa· (QuicK et al., 1982, p. 11) \ion in fostering farmers' productivity. In Kansas several local free university programs cooperate 4, The CES has fostered the invotvement o f learners - with the CES by listing their offerings in the brochures, and a basic principle of effective program building. one county extension office offers a limited free university 5. The CES has pioneered the demonstration method program. of teaching and the production of learning materi· The following points outline steps that might be taken als, especially visual aids and uses of the media. and directed to the state level leadership in the CES: The first and still major substantive criticism of the 1. A brief review of the history of the CES and its role in CES was the book Hard Tomatoes, Hard Times (1973) in that particular state. A proposed revised mission statement which author Jim Hightower argued strongly that the CES wou ld Include language reflecting the integration of the ru had focused on helping large agricu11 ural producers, ignor· ral free university with the OES, thereby combining the ing the pressing needs of the majority o f America's farmers CES's strengt11 as a stable institution with its needs lo ac and the great majority of rural people. Hightower's work tively engage a Wider audience ol learners, to bridge the served as a catalyst fora large number of leports, analyses, have-have not gap in te.rms of participation, and lo affirm ru commissions and panels devoted to developing new plans ral values and culture. and directions for the CES. Most recently, a blue-ribbon 2. The designatiori of a state specialist whose primary commission completed a major study titled Extension in task woutd be to assist county staff members in adopting the '80s, calling for the development and demonstration of the free university model into their ongoing activities. This new educalional methodologies and delivery systems, for person would also take charge o f research and evaluation materials and programs having regional and national appli efforts of the programs. cations, and for greater numbers ot volunteers in CES pro 3. The development cl a rationale that addresses is· grams (USDA·NASULGC, 1983). The rural free university sues such as: model provides the CES a strong and positive response - a) the new audiences this program will reach; both to Hightower's criticism and its own blue-ribbon com b) the public relations benefits that will accrue to the mission - but not without raising some Questions. OES as a result of positive reactions to the learning networks and systems created within the service The Rural Free University and the CES area; The Integration of the rural free university model witn c) the closeness of the rural free university model to the CES will call for a fundamental shift in the CES view of lhe ideas central in the creation of the CES - the vi· education an(! sources of knowledge. The cornerstone of lality o f conservation, development of alternative me CES approach to learning is the demonstration method, resources and tile concept of provid ing knowledge involving professionally qualified people as transmitters of and lnformaiion for rural people; knowledge. Ttie free university, on the other hand. draws pri· d) the need to provide county siaff with new and crea mari ly on the Knowledge and wisdom of people at the local tive options for work. In light of the fact that agricul comm unity level on the formal or informal expertise of local ture now involves less than 3 percent of the popula· volunteers. This does not necessarily exclude the CES lion, the development of such options may be base, but it goes beyond the traditional sources, such as the critical if the county staff are to avoid becoming pro· university, for learning opportunities. fessionaJ ly extinct. Additionally, there is a pragmatic problem of lntroduc· The number of reports, blue-ribbon commissions and ing new and innovative ideas in stressful times of economic tasl\ forces looking lnto the future ol the CES suggest and fiscal instability. Even though the free university model that change in that organization is appropriate. While the is very cost efficient, it represents change. During Insecure rural free university model may not answer l,lll of the Is· times like these, there is often a tendency in large organiza· sues being faced byttie CES. it will make substantial con· 30 Educational Considerations https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations/vol13/iss2/13 DOI: 10.4148/0146-9282.1691 32 Litz and Bailey: Educational Considerations, vol. 13(2) Full Issue tributions to the enhancement of this giant In adult edu· References cat ion. Furthermore, the rural free university model is Bailey, L.H. - The Country life Movement, NY: MacMillan consistent with the thinking and philosophies espoused 1911 by two early figures in the development of the CES. In Hightower, J. - Hard Tomatoes, Hard Times, Cambridge: 1911, Liberty Hyde Bailey wrote, "the malerials and agen· Shenkman 1973 cies that are part of lhe furniture of the planet, are to be Killacky, J. - Rural Learning for Learning's Sake: It Is the used by each generalion carefully, and with regard to the Matter in Kansas; College Board Review, No. 133, Fall welfare of those to follow us" (1911 , p. 178). Even earlier, 1984 pp. 11-15, 30 Seaman Knapp-the acknowledged founder of the famed Knapp, S. - "Speech at Mississippi Agricultural and Me· Extension demonstration method - might have been pro· chanical College June 30th, 1894" in R. Bliss (ed) The posing the adoption of the rural f- university model Spirit and Philosophy of Extension Work, Washington: when in an address to extension workers in Mississippi USDA and Epsilon Phi, 1952, p. 38 he said: Knowles, M. - The Adult Education Movement in the United Now let us have an education of the masses for States, NY: Kreiger, 1977 the masses. Your mission Is to solve the prob Mat1hews, J. - "The Cooperative Extension Service" in lems of poverty, to increaSG the measure of hap Knowles (ed) Handbook of Adult Education, Chicago: piness, to add to the universal love of the coun· AEA/lJSA, 1960 pp. 218·290 try the universal love of knowledge and comfort, Quick, S. Killacky, J. et al. - ·•sos Learning Networks" and to harness the forces of all learning to be Journal of Extension, 20 (1), January/February 1982 useful and needful in human society. pp. 7·12 (Knapp, 1952 p. 38) USDA·NASULGC Committee - Extension in the '80s, Madi· The rural free university model holds the potential for son: University of Wisconsin, 1983 helping the Cooperative Extension Service respond to these charges In a manner that would please both Bai ley and Knapp. Spring 1986 31 Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 33 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2 [1986], Art. 13 Adults faced with a cri sis need immediate mately 25 percent of Kansas' rural population could be dis· placed by 1991. access to information more than entry into The implications of this type of displacement in rural longer-term educational programs. This ar· communities is likely to be devastating, but more immedi· ticle describes one state's attempts to coor ate is the impact on individuals and families who are faced with the loss of not only a llveffhood but also a way of life. dinate its educational resources in response For many rural residents facing this situation, the broad dis· to the agricultural crisis. lances that once represented their livelihood and their free· dom now isolate them from potential assistance. Time, dis· tance, lack of program avai lability, shortages of trained helping professionals and insufficient supporting revenues are usually cited as the major barriers to providing assis· tance in most rural communltles. Rural Work at Kansas State University and the Menninger Foundation over the past few years has suggested that lack of access to information about existing programs is per· haps an even greater obstacle to rural residents seeking as Isolation: sistance wiU1 personal and family problems than the tradi· tional barriers. Two programs are now attempting 10 address the service delivery neeas of rural residents through the de· The Need for veloprnent of an information access system. While these two programs have mutual roots they have evolved in differ· ent directions. Information One of these programs Is the Service Coordination System for Aural Rehabilitation developed by the Men· ninger Foundation's Research and Training Center forVoca· by S.L. Ward tional Rehabilitation. This model ls designed to provide dis· abled rural residents with a user oriented, actuated and The state o f the farm economy has been of consider· controlled delivery system which Is community based. 10- able concern nationwide and has received extensive media cally adapted, yet linked lo a state or regional information attention during the past year. Farm financial conditions network. have deteriorated over the past four years as agriculture has The other program is the Kansas Fariner's Assistance, experienced a prolonged period of excess supply with per· Counseling and Trai ning Service (FACTS). Established by sistent pressures on income and net worth of farmers. the 1985 Kansas legislature this program was designed to The Inflationary period of the 70s provided an increas· assist Kansas farmers, ranchers, agri businessmen and Ing financial base lor borrowing, but since 1981 farmland their families in avoiding or alleviating the problems and values have declined drastically and lower farm Incomes distress resulting from the current agricultural economic have reduced the farmer"s ability to service existing debt. crisis. More specifically the legislative mandate directed Signillcant numbers of farmers, panicutarfy commercial the FACTS Program 10: sized family farms (those with gross sales over $100,000), 1. help Kansas farmers, ranchers and agribusiness· face problems in obtaining credit, and many la<:$ llquida· men save the family farm/business operation whenever hu· tion or foreclosure. In Kansas, as in other states with a manly POSS1ble. strong agriculturally based economy, the problem of indi· 2. hef p individuals and families cope with the problems viduals and families being dislocated from rural communl· involved in living under the conditions imposed by the cur ties has reached crisis proponions. rent farm economy. As an example o f the problems being faced nation· 3. help families make a successful transition to an wide, a farm finance survey completed In February 1986 by other livelihood, when absolutely no way can be found to the Kansas Crop and Livestock Reporting Service indicated save the farm/business. that 5.55 percent o f Kansas' 72,000 farmers expect to fall In simpler terms, the FACTS Program was developed to during 1986. The same survey also indicated that an addl· serve as the state's point of first assistance for rural lndivid· tional 12.5 percent are in critical financial trouble with debt· uals and families in crisis. In this capacity, the FACTS Pro· to-asset ratios of 70 percent or more-a strong signal that gram was envisioned primarily as a statewide, toll· free tele their survival is in serious doubt. Agricultural Economists al phone hotline to provide Information and referrals for farm Kansas Stale University predict that an additional 25 per· production, financial managemen t and family stress prob cent of Kansas· family farms will likely be lost during the fol · lems. In fact, the overwhelming number of calls has caused towing five years. And to make gloomy statistics even more the FACTS Program lo evolve Into much more than just a dire, It Is estimated that for every seven tarms that faff, one hotline referral source for farm families. In the first eight rural main street business establishment will close. Based months of operation, nearly 2.000 individuals and families on these predictions, conservative estimates of the have requested FACTS assistance. numbers of Kansans likely to be affected over the next There trave been some surprises In the Individuals call 12 monl11s and the following five years would suggest that ing and the types of assistance requested. Prior to staning perhaps as many as 200,000 rural residents or approxi- up the hotline, all pertinent research and knowledgeable in put suggested that this economic crisis was a young farmer's problem and that, as such. the farms involved S. l. Ward is the director of the Kansas Farmer's As· would be smaller. Also, it was suggested that since farmers slstance, Counseling and Training Service at Kansas are such a stoic lot, that a significant proportion of all calls State University. would be from farm wives wanting to discuss family prob· 32 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2, Spring 1986 https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations/vol13/iss2/13 DOI: 10.4148/0146-9282.1691 34 Litz and Bailey: Educational Considerations, vol. 13(2) Full Issue lems. Statistics suggest otherwise, as shown in Figure 1. FACTS Program consist of: 1) Farm Credit Counseling - no cost farm plan reorgan· Figure 1 ization and debt restructuring assistance at six loca.lions Personal Data throughout the state. Male Callers: 72.33% Average Age: 49 2) Legal Assistance - no cost legal assistance a111 lo· Female Callers: 27.67% Average Years Farming: 25 cations throughout the state provided through a contract Farm Data with Kansas Legal Services, Inc. (a non-profit legal assis tance corporation). Diversified Farms: 63.73% Crop Only Farms: 23.75% 3) Documentation of Innovative Approaches - catalog· Agri-Businesses: 6.70% Livestock Only ing of innovative indiyidual and community responses to Farms: 5.80% specific problems that might be transferable to other situa Average size of Farms: 11 45 acres tions. 4) Assistance Directories - development of a state· Type of Assistance Requested wide directory of emergency assistance resources and adi· Financial/Legal: 70.84 % rectory of agricultural, social service, community and legal Employment/ assistance sources for use by both the FACTS staff and Retraining: 10.66% other helping professionals who might have di re ct contact Family Problems: 5.71 % with distressed farmers and other rural residents. (Includes mental 5) Community Response Assistance - technical assis health problems) tance to local communities and organizations in developing Other: 12.79% local responses to specific situations and needs. (Includes requests 6) Master Calendar of State, Regional and Local for speci fic Events - ldentlflcalion of workshops, seminars, confer information) ences and other educational activities that mlghl be of At the current level of usage, it is estimated the FACTS value to either those with problems or other helping agen· Program will receive calls from at least 5 percent of the cies. state's farmers in the first year. Considering the Increasing 7) Documentation and research of farm and rural com· difficulty farmers are having in finding operating capi tal tor munity conditions and analysis of possible state and local the approaching season and the expected Impact of the Initiatives. 1985 farm bill, there is every reason to expect the level of 8) Documentation and research of radical and extrem· calls to increase during the spring and winter of 1986. isl organizations and activities. Currently, the FACTS staff consists of six staff posi One unexpected resu lt of receiving so many calls has tions. This includes: been the ability of FACTS staff to accurately identify imme· 1) a program director with experience In business and diate problem situations (e.g. a bank closing), individual and community development, family needs not being met by existing ser1ices and geo 2) an attorney with an agricultural law background, graphical areas of the state with concentrations of particu 3) a farm management specialist with a strong farm lar types of problems. The ability to iden tity such situations finance background. and needs has motivated the FACTS staff to be as respon 4) a family needs specialist, sive as possible. In some situations, response is possible 5) a family therapist with a strong crisis intervention almost immediately. In other situations. FACTS works coop background. eratively with other state and local agencies and programs 6) and an employment/retraining specialist with ex to provide assistance utilizing exisl ing resources, To date, tensive experience in dislocated worker programs. the FACTS program has seen on ly one agency refuse to uti· lize existing resou rces to respond to rural crisis situations. The current procedure in providing assistance to Currently, cooperative relationships have been devel hotIi n e callers is for a FACTS staff member (ortrai ned vol un· oped with seven agencies providing needed services state· teer) to take the initial incoming call and fill out an intake wide: sheet listing name, address, phone and basic nature of the 1) Kansas Cooperative Extension Service - provides call along with a brief description of the situation. Callers one-on-one farm financial analysis to all farmers requesting are then assured of the absolute confidentiality of all calls such assistance, assists communities with economic de· and asked when it would be convenient for a FACTS staff velopment programs, provides entrepreneurial training member to call them back. Return calls are made in all situa seminars ford is located farmers wanting to establish a pri· ' tions except when we encounter extremely emotional vate business, provides train ing for individuals and organi· callers, potential suicides, orcallers who refuse to provide a zations wanting to establish inter-personal support net name or phone number. During this interval, the situation is works, and cooperates in the development of local Farm assessed, prioritized and a determination is made as to Stress Seminars and Rural Issues Forums. which staff specialist (or specialists) can provide the most 2) Kansas Attorney General - investigates and pro appropriate counseling. vides legal assistance in cases involving loan fraud and A return call is then made to the individual and as much consumer protection. lime as is necessary is spent on the phone with them 10 de· 3) Consultation of Cooperating Churches in Kansas - termlne specifics about the problems being experienced, provides immediate cash grants for families needing tem how these problems developed, and what lhe caller wants porary emergency assistance for food , medical assistance, for his or her future. The FACTS staff specialist then helps utilities, etc. callers exam ine potentlal options for dealing with the iden· 4) Kansas Rural Issues Ecumenical Coalition - assists llfled problems and, as necessary, provides refemils to organizations and communities in the development of Rural sources of direct assistance. Issues Forums and other public educational programs. At the present time, services provided directly by the 5) Regional Mental Health Centers - provides long· Spring 1986 33 Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 35 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2 [1986], Art. 13 term professional mental health counseling as well as pro· Another factor that has contribu ted much to the suc Viding local backup, as necessary, in suicide intervention cess of the FACTS Program has been its political neutrality. situations. Considerable effort has gone into insuring that callers are 6) Area Agencies on Aging - provides special services provided with factual information as it relates 10 their situa· to individuals55and older as well as providing employment/ l ion. From the beginning, it was felt that if callers believed retraining assistance. that counseling was biased toward any particular political 7) Small Business Development Centers - provides viewpoint, the program's cred ibility wou ld be seriously one-on-one financial counseli ng services for rural non-farm compromised. Our success in ach ieving this goal has aptly businesses and also provides assistance to commun itI es in been demonstrated by the fact that, to date, the FACTS Pro developing plans for adapting 10 long-term business pattern gram is the first issue all of the state's farm organizations changes. have ever unanimously supported. Recent work by rural sociologists suggests that dislo· But for all of the apparent responsiveness and success cated farm families value most those individuals who took of the FACTS Program, several issues still need to be ad· the time to listen and were willing to be non-judgmental. dressed. One persistent problem is exposure. Media sup· The experience of the FACTS staff strongly supports these port has been remarkable, but even so a common complaint findings. If there is any one significant aspect of the devel from individuals across the state is that they don't find out opment of the FACTS Program that has enabled it to suc about the program until it is too late. Additionally, several ceed , it has been having a professionally trained staff that priority needs have been identified that have yet to be met has extensive personal experience in the subject matter ar· through any existing resource. eas they deal with. When callers talk to a FACTS specialist it The emotional toll of operating a farm under today's becomes immediately obvious to them that they are talking economic conditions can be devastating to both individuals to a person who not only cares about their problem, but al so and families. In order to help families work through these understands it. As a result, very close relationships tend to stresses, the FACTS Program believes it is highly desirable develop between the FACTS staff and the individuals and to develop a statewide "Good Neighbor" network whereby families they counsel - relationships that sometimes last farmers and farm famil ies who have been through crisis sit· over extended periods of tlme and eventually encompass a uations can provide peer support to others facing si milar wide range of problems. problems. Finding the resources to begin the development Another factor that seems to result from the profes of local support networks that can link together has been sional expertise of the FACTS staff is trust. It Is no1 Infre difficult. Similarly, the effect o f farm stress on children is ex· quent for callers to ha.ve literally hundreds of thousands of treme. But as of yet there are few, if any programs, that are dollars at risk when they call the hotline. It is absolutely crit· capable or responding specifically to youth problems either ical that the information individuals receive be the best pos· in a family setting, through the schools or through youth sible for their circumstances. And the only way this can be programs. assured is with a professional staff. Volunteers in such a The fact has also been recognized that professionals program as FACTS can play many valuable roles, receiving from a wide variety of agencies and organizations who have initial intake calls (after they have training in handling Sui · direct contact with farmers and other rural residents under cide calls), assisting in research and promotion activities, stress are at a loss as to how to deal with the intimate, per· providing administrative support. But the counseling role is sonal (and sometimes explosive) situations that can sud· one that must, if for no other reason than liability, be han· denly develop. Much work needs to be done to provide these d led by professionals. professionals with a working knowledge othow to deal not One demonstrable result of the levels of trust exhibited Only with such situations but also their own feelings about is the fact that at least half of all calls daily are repeat calls. such situations. Furthermore, the followup rate on referrals is remarkably And lastly, the potential for research across the broad high. In most situations it runs close to 100 percent. In two range of individual, family and community issues involving particular types of referrals (legal assistance and farm fi· reactions to stress and change are hardly being addressed. nancial analysis) followu p sometimes exceeds 100 percent. To put it mildly, there is a significant event occurring in rural Such a situation results when individuals Ii nd the service so America today. It is one that we have a responsibility to valuable that they go home and tell friends and relatives know more about: not just so we can cope with the immedi· about the service and they, in turn, go directly to the service ate problems, but also so we can address the future. provider, bypassing FACTS. 34 Educational Considerations https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations/vol13/iss2/13 DOI: 10.4148/0146-9282.1691 36 Litz and Bailey: Educational Considerations, vol. 13(2) Full Issue Ru ral educators point to the need for In These organizations have introduced numerous programs aimed at producing community betterment. For the most creased inter-institutional collaboration - part these same programs have tended to be limited In fo· partly in response to scarce resources but cus, intent on solving a single problem or a narrow range of problems. also In response to the complex problems Olten professionals and local leaders associated with faced in many rural areas. This article exam these programs have had dilflculty perceiving rural prob ines some of the experience gleaned from lems in a holistic sense and have failed to understand hOw their program is related to the activities of other individuals, ten years' work in inter-institutional collabo agencies. or communities. The end result is that delivery of ration directed by the Partnership for Rural services has been piecemeal and uncoordinated, suggest· ing the need for new or adapted professional roles to Improvement. strengthen or create linkages between communities and in· stitutlons, and to fill the gap in the knowledge application process (Williams, Youman s, Sorenson. 1975:5·8; Moe and Tamblyn, 1974:13·14). The Partnership The Partnership lor Rural Improvement, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, was initiated In 1976 to address these problems. Specifically, PAI was created to implement for Rural and evaluate alternative rural development models and to seek to improve tl1e range, quality and coordination of ser· vices available to rural people. PAI has especially concen· Improvement: trated on increasing the ability of educational institutions to provide a broader range of assistance to rural areas within An Approach to the state. Organizational Structu re Structurally, PAI consists of eight higher education I nter-1 nstitutional institutions-the land-grant university and its cooperative extension service, two regional universities, the state's lib· eral arts college, and four community colleges. The rela· Outreach tionship is formalized by memoranda of agreemen ts and shared governance. Each of the universities and the state college have des· by Robert H. McDaniel and ignated community service units. These units have two ma· Ralph A. Loomis ;or functions. They act as an access point for citizens In ob taining faculty expertise needed for community projects and they provide project planning consultation. The land· There is a growing recognition within the ranks of rural grant university"s designated unit additionally provides pro adult educators of the need lorinstitutional collaboration in gram development leadership, coordination, and manage· meeting rural problems. At the same time an examination ol ment functions for the Partnership. successful programs in meeting rural needs has brought to The community colleges participate In the Partnership light certain generalizations. These programs are most ol· through a shared staffing arrangement with the land-grant ten characterized by: university. A PAI program associate Is jointly hired by the • Community members having an active role in pro· two institutions and is housed in me participating commu· gram development and management; nity college. Each community college program has a •Recognition ol and respect for rural values and Ille· dlstric t-wido PAI advisory committee made up of style; community-based public agency representatives and inter· • The belief that community members have the capac· ested citi<:ens. lty to identify and solve their own problems - ii they PRt staff, then, consists of the four program associates can tap the proper resources (Spears, 1985:4·5). from the community colleges and individuals assigned This paper examines a model for collaboration among from the affiliated universities. A policy board, which sets educational institutions, public agencies and rural citizens program direction, consists o f a representative (al the manifested in the Partnership lor Rural Improvement (PAI) dean's level or above) from each of the higher educational program in the state of Washington. PAI is a consortium for Institutions and two community representatives from each community development which Incorporates the character of the community college advisory boards. istics Identified above and which successfully undertook more than 150 community projects in 1985. The PRI Approach An underlying premise ol the PAI program has been Impetus for the Partnership for Rural Improvement that public organi<:ations and agencies with mandates to A vast array of nonprofit and public agencies are re· provide public services to rural areas can enhance the elfec· sponsible for providing goods and services to rural people. tlveness of their delivery systems through collaboration. Th is premise is based on the fact t11 at white develop· Robert H. McDaniel is a project coordinator in the Of· ment problems and change In rural areas are multifaceted, lice of Community Service and Ralph A. Loomis is an service organizations are functionally specialized. Usually Extension economist at Washington State University. no single organization possesses all lhe necessary re- Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2, Spring 1986 35 Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 37 Educational Considerations, Vol. 13, No. 2 [1986], Art. 13 sources, knowledge, and skills to addr·ess all the dimen· 7. Establishment of over1apping board and joint set· sions of a problem. Provider organizations are normally l1m· ting of program policies. 1ted to supplying only a specific service or Input, for These levels of increasing collaboration are fairly ge example, financial assistance or a technical englnee11ng neric to any cooperative arrangements between organiza· skill. However. in completing a community project, the us· tions. tt is lmportar>t, however. to recognize that one level ers of these services generally require Inputs from more of collaborative interaction Is not "better• or"worse" than than one organization. Problem resolution, then, Is depen· another. Rather, an appropriate collaborative relationship dent uPon a means for coordinating the unique Inputs of is a function of the shared objectives of the organizations specialized service providers. Recognizing this, one focus and individuals Involved. Typically though, high degrees of PAI efforts has been to foster working relationships be· of collaboration do not occur In the absence of tower col· tween organizations and to test means of strengthening CO· laborative interactions. Many collaborative arrangements operation be tween service providers and the users of public start at the project level. As experience is gained in work· service. ing together, the barriers 10 further collaboration are re· In choosing this approach to rural development. PAI duced. draws upon the work of Moe and Tamblyn (197 4), Moe (1 975), Because most collaborative interactions are project and Muilord et al. (1975). Moe and Tamblyn's (1974) approach specific and ad hoc, most collaborative arrangements do to rural development emphasizes Increasing local problem· not develop to the level of formal Integration of program· solving capacity, the strengthening of linkages among lo· ming tt>at exists in PAI. The external Kellogg funding pro· cal, state and federal organizations and the development of vided the participating institutions the otherwise unavail· organizational arrangements that make Increased use of able opportunity to develop an integrated outreach the capabilities of educational institutions. system. Developmental tunding became the "carrot" for Mulford et al . (1975) have outlined a process for areal· change. It allowed initial experimentation without direct Ing lnterorganlzational coordination. A 10.step sttategy be· cost. The other uncertainties and tensions that accom· gins with problem definition and proceeds through the pany change remained . identification of key organizations to securing organlza· All of the ir>stitutions of higher education involved in tional commitments for resolution of the problem. The pro· PAI have experienced organ lzational change and redefi ni· cess then moves to achieving agreement to coordinate l ion of their outreach furictlons. This is not to say that such organizational ac tivities, securing consensus on the appro· change has been easy. As has been well documented, priate approach, reallocating resources from the coordl · change within organizations often meets resistance - nated agencies toward the achievement of the approach, higher education institutions have proven no different. developing an organizational or coordination structure. Fi· In achieving successful collaboration among higher nally lhe process initiates a set of interorgan izatlonal objec· education instilulions four necessary conditions must ex· tives wl1loh lead to a specific plan of work. ist. First, and possibly foremost, there must be a personal In establishing partnerships among higher education commitment to collaborative efforts by those involved. entitles, PAI has concentrated on implementing new orga· While tills stems lrom a value set, there also must be evi· nizational arrangements and linKage mechanisms which dence of the second condition - the probability that collab· make It possible for institutions with overlapping goals to oration can contribute to l he accomplishment of the goals work together in goal achievement (Moe 1975). In PAi's of the institution. case, the goal has been to meet higher education's respon Individuals involved In acting as catalysts for building sibility for public service. relationships between and among organizational entities As part of this conceptualization of an approach to ru· can be exposed to considerable prolesslorial risks, for they ral development activities, PRI incorporated certain core et· are playing non-traditional roles within their institutions. ements into a model for public service provisiori by educa Therefore, the third essential condition is the existence of a tior>al institutions. These core elements are: collaboration base of support within the institution which can assure pro among Institutions, organizational neutrality, and the devel· fessional rewards for those involved and can provide opment ol staff roles to actualize the approach. needed institutional resources. The fourth condition Is the establishment of mecha· Collaboration within the Partnership nisms for effeclive inter-insti tutional communications. Even within organizations, effective communication is a Much has been written on the realities of inlerorganlza· perpetual problem. Both the need for and the difficulty of tional cooperation and collaboration (e.g., Klonglan and communication Is increased manyfotd in an interorganlza, Yep, 1972; Aram and Stratton 1974; Davidson, 1976; Warren, tional collaborative setting. This is particularly true in a mul· Mulford and Yelley, 1976; Hougland and Sutton, 1978; and tiorganizational endeavor such as PAI. There ls an en· Rogers, et al. 1982). From the 10·year experience ol PAI, we hanced need for effective communication both within and have identified seven levels of colla.boratlve Interactions. among the partners. The following list Is arranged by increasing degree of for· The necessary conditions for collaboration outlined mality and integration of activities. above are by no means aH·lncluslve, but for PRI they have t Informal communication among the personnel of proven to be the most Important. Of equal importance to the the various member institutions. Partnership's success has been Its ability to foster collabo 2. Ad hoc exchange of information regarding the mem· rative projects al the community level. ber institutions' project activities. 3. Planned provisions for sharing information. 4. Ad hoc exchange of personnel and resources for Collaboration at the Point of Ser;ice Delivery completion of member institution projects. A unique characteristic ot PAI that enables its staff 5. Planned participation on joint projects. members to act as catalysts forlnterorganizational coliabo· 6. Joint development of program budgets and use of ration at the community project level Is the earned credibil· pooled resources. ityof the program in facilitating collaboration from a neutral 36 Educational Considerations https://newprairiepress.org/edconsiderations/vol13/iss2/13 DOI: 10.4148/0146-9282.1691 38 Litz and Bailey: Educational Considerations, vol. 13(2) Full Issue base. Through a non·aligned thi rd party role, the staff can agreements to fit varying Institutional require discourage and avoid concerns or turf protection on the part ments. of the other actors. This carefully developed and guarded 3. An organ izatlonal ly neutral th lrd party staff position quality of PAI Is one of the most highly valued and effective which contributes to the organization, nurture, and characteristics of the program. maintenance of optimum levels of coilaboratlon. PAI stall has relied on a facilitative and •resource 4. A developmental and flexible organizational design linker" approach in community project consultations (Lip· which allows linkage building between public ser· pitt 1973). w orking with community representalivos to iden vice proviaers and users, with programming cues tify acceptable solutions and the resources needed for originating from t11e needs of users . meeting a communi ty problem, the staff members can call 5. Working with Individual partners to improve their on any number of Partner institution faculty or agency pro· service delivery capabilities. lesslonafs to furnish the expertise needed. 6. Provision of communication mechanisms among A mode of operation which has been closely associ partners and adoption of a consensus style of ated with this nonadvocacy role Is the maintenance of low group decision making. public visibility for PAI. This strategy has been followed in PAi's challenge for the future remains one of maintaining an effort to boost the visibility of individual partner organi support for the Partnership while maintaining a low vlslbll· zations. This operational style Is carried over into strategies lty cooperative approach to rural development. for project completion. When working with a community group, PAI stall makes certain that upon the successful completion ol the community project, the good will and Bibliography public visiblllly accrue to the group, not PAI. Aram, J.D. and W.E. Stratton. (1974). The Development of The question of the proper level of visibility for the Part lnter·AgencyCooperation. Social Services Review, 38: nership has been one of concern throughout its history. Be 412·421 . cause the Individual institutions derive the public recogni Davidson, Stephen M. (1976). Planning and Coordination of tion from PAI efforts, the probability o f their continued Social Services in Multiorganlzational Contexts, So participation In the Partnership is strengthened. To that ex cial Science Review, 50, (1). tent, 10\v visibility has had a positive impact. However, low Hougland, James G., Jr. and Willis A. Sutton, Jr. (1978). Fac visibility has also contributed to a general lack of aware· tors Influencing Degree of Involvement in lnterorgani ness of PAI, thus precluding the development of a public zational Relationships in a Rural County. Rural Sociol· base of support for the program. To that extent, low visibility ogy, 43, 3: 649-670. has had a negative Impact. The balance o f assuring recogni Klong Ian, G.E. and B. Yep (1972). Theory and Practice of In· tion for the partner Institutions and agencies, while assur terorganizatlonal Relations. Iowa State University, ing some visibility tor PRI remains a constant program con Ames. cern. Lippitt, Gordon L. (1973). Visualizing Change. NTL-Learning Aside from the visibility issue, there Is no doubt that or Resources Corporation, Inc., Fairfax, Va. ganizational neutrality has been a major building block of Moe, Edward O. (1975). "Strategies In Rural Development;' the program. The strength o f this approach has been the Working Paper, Summer. ability o f PAI to create an environment with minimal com Moe, Edward 0. and Lewis R. Tamblyn. (1974). Rural Schools petitiveness in which agencies and institutions can jointly as a Mechanism for Rural Development. Eric Reports, contribute personnel and other resources in response to Arlington, Va. the needs identified in rural areas. Sustained participation Mulford, C.L., G.E. Klonglan, J. Winkelpleck and A.O. Warren in the program would be highly unlikely if PAI were aligned (1975). Creating lnterorganizatlonal Coordination: An with one specific member institution. Orientation. Sociology Report #122B, Iowa State Uni versity, Ames: Department o f Sociology and Anthro Concluding Remarks pology. As has been noted, a basic assumption undergirding Rogers, et al. (1982). lnterorganizatlonal Coordination: The the PAI endeavor has been that cooperation among public ory, Research and Implementation. The Iowa State service providers would enhan<:e their individual and collec University Press, Ames. tive effectiveness in addressing muttlfaoeted rural develop Spears, Jacqueline 0. (1985). Serving the Rural Adult: Four ment issues. In an era of ever-increasing specialization, the Regional Conferences, Proceedings. Action Agenda initial challenge for PAI was to provide a pragmatic demon Project, Manhattan, Kan . stration that collaboration had something to offer. In· Warren, Richard 0., Charles Mulford and Melvin J. Yetley. terorgan izational collaboration among PAI partners and its (1976). Analysis of Cooperative Organizational Effec value is now a demonstrated fact. The PAI strategies con tiveness. Rural Sociology, 41, (3). tributing to this changed behavior have been: Williams, Ann S., Russell C. Youmans and Donald M. Soren 1. Trust building through practicing joint ownership of sen. (1975). Providing Rural Public Services: Leader the program, including budget allocation and pro· ship and Organizational Considerations. Western Ru gram planning. ral Development Center, Report #1 , December, 2. Development of interorganizational contractual Corvallis, Ore. Published by New Prairie Press, 2017 39