25th Annual Student Research Conference
The Process of School Consolidation in Schuyler County, Missouri
Rudolf P. Cesaretti
Dr. Amber Johnson, Faculty Mentor
Do consolidated schools provide the institutional framework so instrumental in the preservation vitality in rural Midwestern communities? How is the reorganization of a primary social institution, like schools, related to perceptions of the role rural schools play in the communities of Northeast Missouri? Influenced by Salamons work (1992, 1995, 2003) in rural Illinois, this qualitative community study asks us to reevaluate our perceptions of education and its function within rural modes of life in the twenty-first century by examining the disjuncture between cultural expectations and social reality caused by the reorganization of community schools. Local schoolsfundamental components of rural Midwestern community institutional cohesionallow communities to coordinate, organize, and identify themselves. Having weathered the dramatic demographic, economic, and social changes in the American countryside since the Second World War, rural Northeast Missouri faces a void left by disappearing schools that were central to the social fabric of communities.
Keywords: Anthropology, School Consolidation, Rural, Education, Sociology, Community, Identity, Social Change
Topic(s):Anthropology
Sociology
Education
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 304-5
Location: MG 2001
Time: 2:00