Adaptive Rural School District Improvement: The Case of One Statewide Research-Practice Partnership

• In Event: 47.087 - Rural Schools and Communities: Conflict and Collaboration

Abstract

Although research-practice partnerships (RPPs) for school improvement are on the rise, those taking place in rural contexts are under-documented. This study describes the early stages of an RPP with six rural school districts and two universities across the state of Idaho using Heifetz’s (1994) construct of leadership as adaptive work. In doing so, we present the case of an RPP in rural regions that explores how one arrangement for school improvement developed to share promising design elements that mobilized district stakeholders to begin identifying, understanding, and solving persistent challenges in their districts. The analysis challenges the normative view of leadership and authority that assumes researchers and practitioners operate outside shifting multi-level economic, political, social, and institutional contexts.

Authors

• Elizabeth Wargo, University of Idaho

• Davin Carr-Chellman, University of Idaho

• Kathryn Marie Canfield-Davis, University of Idaho

• Kathleen M. Budge, Boise State University