Boom and Bust, Rage and Rust: Rethinking Rural Community Cohesion and the Rural School Superintendency

• In Event: 32.074 - Complex Politics in Rural School and Community Relationships

Abstract

This article challenges researchers and practitioners to rethink notions of rural, specifically notions of cohesion between local schools and communities and among community, as well as constructs of the rural school superintendency. Asserting the rural school superintendency is a practice without a theory, we suggest critical place-conscious leadership as potentially responsive to contemporary rural realities, but in general under-theorized and ripe for exploring the dialectic nature of theory and practice. We draw on case studies of two diverse rural Rust Belt communities and the school superintendents who serve them as evidentiary support for our claims; however, this work is conceptual in nature and is intended to open a dialog that can inform professional practice and the preparation of rural leaders.

Authors

• Kathleen M. Budge, Boise State University

• Erin McHenry-Sorber, West Virginia University