Children, Youth and Environments

Abstract:

We studied the efforts of rural math teachers to make community connections, a comparatively rare field for placed-based education. Subjects included educators, parents, non-parent community members, and students in Alabama, Kentucky, Maine, Nebraska, Ohio, Vermont, and Washington. We used a multiple case-study design, based on verbatim transcripts. Three themes emerged, comprising eight subthemes. Claims about “relevance” (theme I) functioned complexly as follows: (1) real-world relevance served mostly as motivation; (2) higher-level math made fewer community connections; and (3) typically, these methods involved less capable math students, often in “vocational” or “general” tracks. Three interacting conditions sustained these initiatives (theme II): (4) the strength of the “champion” educator and allied network; (5) ease of sponsorship, moderated by enabling conditions; and (6) strength of participants' belief in the future of the local community. Inferences about social-class differentials (theme III) indicated: (7) egalitarian localism and elitist universalism were in active contest; and (8) this contest shaped the local purposes of math education in ways that tended to reinforce social reproduction and youth outmigration. The authors recommend that community members and educators interested in this approach to education give more attention to its purposes and to the place of mathematics education within such purposes.