Schools that Don’t Close: Possible Places and Spaces for Progressive Teaching, Learning, and Research

Authors

  • Carol Elizabeth Harris University of Victoria (Prof. Emeritus) Acadia University (Adjunct Prof.)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11575/ajer.v60i4.55979

Keywords:

necessarily existing schools, neoliberalism, critical place-based research, pedagogy, leadership, Mots clés, écoles obligatoirement existantes, néolibéralisme, recherche critique basée sur le lieu, pédagogie

Abstract

Small schools and their communities contribute to an important, though threatened, knowledge base. The threat adheres in underlying technologies (conceptual and material) that propel the capitalistic world towards the rationalization of all aspects of human activity. In education, this appears in the consolidation of small schools and ever larger units of organization. From three studies of Newfoundland coastal communities, I describe schools that were deemed to be “necessarily existing.” Because of their isolated location, students from the schools could not be transported to larger centres. While reporting both positive and negative features of actual small, rural schools, I argue against hasty school closures and point, instead, to rural school and community opportunities for “place, voice, and space-based” teaching, learning, and research. Small, rural schools can be pivotal in leading Canadian education from its deeply rooted, market-based ideology to progressive and socially relevant practices that embrace lifelong learning, community involvement, and ecological awareness and action.

Les petites écoles et leurs communautés nous fournissent l’occasion d’augmenter notre base de connaissances, mais leur contribution est menacée. La menace provient de technologies sous-jacentes qui propulsent le monde capitaliste vers la rationalisation de tous les aspects de l’activité humaine. Dans le domaine de l’éducation, ce phénomène se manifeste par la consolidation des petites écoles et des unités administratives toujours plus grandes. À partir de trois études portant sur les communautés côtières à Terre-Neuve, je décris trois écoles désignées comme « obligatoirement existantes ». Compte tenu de leur isolement, les élèves des écoles ne pouvaient être transportés vers de plus grands centres. Je présente les aspects positifs et négatifs des petites écoles rurales actuelles, tout en militant contre les fermetures hâtives et en soulignant que les écoles et les communautés rurales sont des lieux qui représentent des occasions d’enseignement, d’apprentissage et de recherche qui reflètent « le lieu, la voix et l’emplacement ». Les petites écoles rurales peuvent jouer un rôle clé pour éloigner le système éducatif canadien de son idéologie de marché bien ancrée et le diriger vers des pratiques progressives et pertinentes sur le plan social qui endossent l’éducation permanente, l’implication communautaire, et une conscience et une action écologiques.

 

Author Biography

Carol Elizabeth Harris, University of Victoria (Prof. Emeritus) Acadia University (Adjunct Prof.)

Carol E. Harris (Professor Emerita, University of Victoria, Canada) conducts research in coastal communities, her latest project dealing with pedagogies that explore past and present food practices. Her interest in aesthetics, women’s leadership and adult education are combined in the historical biography, A Sense of Themselves: Elizabeth Murray’s Leadership in School and Community. Her publications include articles in the Australian Journal of Environmental Education, Canadian University Music Review, Educational Administration Quarterly, Educational Management, Administration and Leadership, The Alberta Journal of Educational Research, Canadian Journal of Education, and the Journal of Educational Administration and Foundations; and numerous book chapters on political aspects of educational leadership. 

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Published

2015-11-20

How to Cite

Harris, C. E. (2015). Schools that Don’t Close: Possible Places and Spaces for Progressive Teaching, Learning, and Research. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 60(4), 656–673. https://doi.org/10.11575/ajer.v60i4.55979