Rural Schools as Boundary Spanners: Bridging Competing Factions Through Multidistrict Resource Sharing

• In Event: Rural Education Research in the Service of Rural Communities

Abstract

To avoid full consolidation, some rural school districts share the services of a neighboring district. Close social ties among people in a rural community, along with suspicion or resistance to outside influence, threaten the success of sharing agreements. This qualitative case study explores how school staff and community members in two rural school districts in Minnesota expanded conceptions of belonging in their communities through the process of sharing resources with each other. Findings from this study suggest that the school is a site for expansion of community boundaries in rural communities.

Author

• Rachel Chamberlain, University of Wisconsin - Madison