Small Town Schools: Sites and Symbols of Moral Community

• In Event: Community and Urban Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 8: Small Towns and Rural Regions

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between local schools and "moral community" in small towns. Small towns are often viewed as the cultural heart of America, and scholars have long argued that schools are the heart of small towns. In this paper, we build on research on the importance of schools to small towns, as well as theoretical and qualitative accounts of small-town moral community, to examine the effects of school presence and symbolism on moral community in small, rural towns. Small towns have been argued to exhibit qualities of being a moral community, characterized by enduring obligations, frequent interactions, and shared local identity. We argue local schools contribute to moral community by serving as physical sites where community happens and symbolic markers of community in the minds of residents. We assess our argument using data from a repeated cross-sectional survey of residents of small towns in Iowa. Results show that the presence of a local school, along with inclusive school naming, are positively associated with moral community. Simply having a school, regardless of grade level, strengthens aspects of moral community, and having a local high school or having a school(s) that covers more grades is even more beneficial to moral community. We also find school names are powerful symbolic markers of community, such that there is an “inclusion effect” when a school includes the town name, even if it is hyphenated with another town name, and there is an “exclusion effect” when sending local youth to a neighboring town high school that carries only the neighboring town’s name. Our findings contribute to the notion that small town schools are the heart of the community. Small-town schools act as both vital physical gathering sites and essential symbolic anchors, fostering moral community through increased civic engagement, denser social connections, and strengthened sense of community vitality.

Authors

• Monica M. Whitham, Oklahoma State University

• Daniel R. Alvord, Oklahoma State University

• Andrew S. Fullerton, Oklahoma State University