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"Trauma-Responsive Schooling" outlines a novel approach to transforming American schools through student-centered, trauma-informed practices. The book chronicles the use of an innovative educational model, Trauma-Responsive Equitable Education (TREE), as part of a multiyear research project in two elementary schools in rural Maine. In this model, Lyn Mikel Brown, Catharine Biddle, and Mark Tappan endorse whole-school change, encouraging educators to upend traditional classroom power dynamics by listening foremost to student voices, validating student experiences, and promoting student agency. The authors provide complex real-life examples of student involvement in the creation and implementation of trauma-responsive and equitable practices. Their work offers readers concrete, actionable examples of such practices, which include supporting the whole child by promoting social and emotional learning (SEL) as well as academic achievement; providing access to basic needs such as food, clothing, and health care; and meeting the instructional requirements of dual-language learners. Many rural schools in the United States experience low student achievement and high absenteeism rates as their geographically isolated communities struggle with poverty, substance abuse, and other significant stressors. Yet, as the authors demonstrate, supportive learning environments, even in under-resourced rural schools, are able to mitigate adversity, stress, and trauma--and thus promote healing. This heartening work illustrates that, when educators and school leaders put student needs and interests at the core of school life, long-lasting change for all students is possible.

This book contains 15 papers on current issues and future options in Australian rural education. Part 1 covers contemporary issues and includes: (1) "Issues in Education in Remote Rural Australia" (education of girls, education of Aboriginals, lifelong learning, and research needs) (Ted Scott); (2) "Redefining Remoteness in the Post Industrial Society" (Peter d'Plesse); (3) "Expanding Vocational Preparation in the Post-Compulsory Years" (Richard Sweet); (4) "Educational Change in New South Wales: Rural Teacher Reactions and Rural Development" (Colin Boylan); (5) "Education in Rural Victoria Is a Social Justice Issue" (Merryl Robson); (6) "Austudy Rural Inequities" (Jennifer Sheed and Doug Lloyd); and (7) "Farm Management Education for the Future" (Keith Woodford and Ray Collins). Part 2, "Target Groups," includes: (1) "Retaining Teachers in Rural Schools: Satisfaction, Commitment, and Lifestyles" (Colin Boylan and others); (2) "Overcoming Distance: Isolated Rural Women's Access to TAFE across Australia" (Pauline Mageean); (3) "Isolation and Culture: The Challenges for Teachers in Torres Strait" (Barry Osborne); (4) "What about Me? Ever Thought about Including Rural Australians Who May Also Have an Intellectual Disability?" (Libby Cross and James Burrell); and (5) "Non English-Speaking Background Children in Wagga Wagga Schools" (Marietta Elliott). Part 3 covers technology and includes: (1) "Technologies: Present and Future for Distance Education in Victoria" (Neil Elliott and Ian Conboy); (2) "Learning Technology Programs in an Isolated Region: Classroom Applications of Technology" (Carol Hughes); and (3) "Technology and the Provision of Specialist Educational Support Services to Young Children of Itinerant Families" (Mike Lally). (SV)

This book challenges taken for granted views of early childhood across the globe. It deepens and broadens our understanding of what it means to be a child today and of the challenges children face in different parts of the world. It will be essential reading for all who work with young children or are students of early years education and professional care. The authors examine the effects of changes in family circumstances and of poverty, rural and social isolation and trauma on young children's lives, and consider also how new technologies are changing policy in education. The contributors come from the UK, USA, Eastern and Western Europe, Australia and two African countries. Each reflects on the nature of childhood from their personal perspective, illustrating their theme with case studies. Questions are posed to encourage readers to relate the issues to their own environment. The contributors include Jennifer Bowes, Stig Brostrom, Eileen Carmichael, Philomena Donnelly, Joanna Einarsdottir, Eve Gregory, Mary James, Foster Kholowa, Horatiu Rusu, Sian Wyn Siencyn, Christine Stephen, Allison Tatton Glenda Walsh and Lynne Williamson. This book is divided into four sections and contains 16 chapters. The chapters include: (1) Introduction: Themes and Issues (Margaret M. Clark and Stanley Tucker); (2) Icelandic Parents' Views on Playschool Education and the Transition to Primary School (Johanna Einarsdottir); (3) Starting School in Ireland: the Experience of Young Children from the Refugee Community (Hilomena Donnelly); (4) The Role of Siblings and Grandparents in the Lives of New Londoners (Eve Gregory); (5) The Challenges for Children Experiencing Rural Poverty in Wales (Sian Wyn Siencyn); (6) Isolation and Inclusion in Australian Early Childhood Settings (Jennifer Bowes, Kerry Hodge, and Rebekah Grace); (7) Growing Up in Rural Malawi: Dilemmas of Childhood (Foster Kholowa and Sue Ellis); (8) Childhood in the World of AIDS in South Africa (Mary James); (9) War and Peace in Northern Ireland: Childhood in Transition (Glenda Walsh and Dorothy McMillan); (10) Romanian Childhoods: Continuity and Change through Intergenerational Lenses (Horatiu Rusu and Anca Bejenaru); (11) Weaving a New Life: a Somali Family's Resettlement in Urban America (Lynne Williamson); (12) The Changing Face of Care for Looked After Children in England (Allison Tatton); (13) Integrated Care Strategies and Their Impact on Family Life in Glasgow: Parents and Children Together (Eileen Carmichael); (14) Digital Technologies at Home: The Experiences of 3- and 4-Year Olds in Scotland (Christine Stephen, Joanna McPake, and Lydia Plowman); (15) A Voice in Decision Making: Young Children in Denmark (Stig Brostrom); and (16) Issues for the Present and Issues for the Future (Margaret M. Clark and Stanley Tucker).

This book reviews trends in household well-being in Africa during the 1990s. Using the better data sets now available, the main factors behind observed poverty changes are examined in eight countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mauritania, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. A broad view of poverty is taken, which includes income poverty and four basic measures of well-being: private consumption, primary school enrollment, child malnutrition, and child mortality. These data reveal systematic distributional effects linking growth and poverty, which lead to some groups' gaining from episodes of economic growth and others being left behind. Four key conclusions are drawn. First, economic policy reforms (improving macroeconomic balances and liberalizing markets) have been conducive to reductions in poverty. Second, location matters for poverty reduction strategies in Africa. Some regions, by virtue of their sheer remoteness, have been left behind when growth has picked up. The role of infrastructure, especially access to roads, is crucial. Third, education and access to land are key private endowments to help households benefit from emerging economic opportunities and escape poverty. Finally, the evidence underscores the significance of social protection in a poverty reduction strategy. Ill health and the impact of rainfall variations are risk factors that have profound effects on poverty outcomes in Africa. An appendix presents surveys used, welfare measurement computations, and computations of macroeconomic policy scores. (Contains 54 references.) (Author/TD)

In 1987, the author accepted the position of principal/program-support teacher in the Inuit community of Anurapaktuq in the Baffin Island region of Nunavut, Canada. In the 4 years she spent there, positive changes occurred in the K-9 school and community. This book recounts how and why this was achieved. Chapter 1 describes the psychological context, research design, methodology, and development of the book. Chapter 2 describes the history, ecology, and sociology of the community, and the author's previous experiences as a primary teacher and special education programmer. Chapter 3 discusses major changes effected at the school: improved attendance; increased student commitment; increased cognitive and language development, particularly in Inuktitut; and increased numbers of Inuit educators in the school. Chapter 4 discusses the instructional strategies that led to change in the school: teaming and theming, learning centers, small-group instruction, consideration of the Inuit perspective, the use of Inuktitut in the school, parental involvement, and assessment and tracking of students. Chapter 5 contains five sections about staffing: increasing the number of Inuit educators at the school, teacher development, increasing language and culture in the school, cross-cultural issues related to being a non-Inuit in an Inuit school, and the creative allocation of staff. Chapter 6 has three sections devoted to the role of the principal: philosophical orientation, the use of time, and the ethic of caring. The epilogue recaps insights into education change. Two appendices present the Anurapaktuq school goals and discipline policy, based on "Catching 'Em Being Good." (Contains 76 references and an index.) (TD)

During the mid-1930s, the main line of the Newfoundland (Canada) Railway stretched 547 miles from St. John's to Port aux Basques, and railway workers and their families lived along the line in small isolated settlements. The provincial department of education, the Newfoundland Railway, and the Anglo-Newfoundland Development Company devised an imaginative approach to bring education to these settlements in the form of a school in a railroad car, called School on Wheels. Drawing extensively on interviews with the former head teacher, students, and retired railroad workers, this book presents the 6-year history of the "school car." Part 1 describes the railway settlements served; the conversion of the railroad owner's private luxury car to a school outfitted with teacher living quarters, kitchen, and student area; the establishment of the program; the first teacher; and the car's inaugural trip. Part 2 contains recollections about life in the settlements served, the children served, the community reaction, teaching in the school car, and the school car itself. Part 3 discusses parent involvement, the adoption of correspondence courses, the hiring of a second teacher, the head teacher's role, and responses to the new approach. Part 4 recounts scheduling the car's visits, moving the car, establishing itinerant schools at settlements off the railroad, visits by the inspector, and the adult education program. Part 5 describes life in the car, leisure activities, summer employment, and the resignation of the first teacher. Part 6 covers the last year of the school and the end of the program. The epilogue gives brief histories of the teachers and car after the program ended. Contains 111 references and over 125 photographs. (TD)

In 1986, Colorado native Carolyn Kremers accepted an invitation to teach music and English at a school in Tununak, a remote Yup'ik Eskimo village on Nelson Island, Alaska. This memoir recounts her experiences as a teacher, and also her reflections on music, the outdoors, teaching, Alaska, and how she came to understand Yup'ik and Inupiat Eskimo culture and social traditions. Her reflections on the similarities between the 85-student school in Tununak and the 2,000-student school in inner-city Chicago, where she had previously taught, offer a penetrating look at American education. The dominant culture feeds non-white students with white teachers, white values, and white goals, resulting in time wasted, and spontaneity and creative energy snuffed out. Yet, some students learn, some interests are sparked, and some opportunities are provided that otherwise would not have been. One chapter is named "I Hate Schools," but it concludes with Carolyn's confession that she loves to teach. Similar counterpoints are woven throughout the book as she describes her developing understanding of Eskimo culture and worldview, friendships and other relationships, and eventual acceptance by the townspeople. Nineteen related readings are listed. (TD)

This book examines the history of education of indigenous peoples in circumpolar countries of the Western world and contemporary issues in schooling there. It offers perspectives on school and society in villages spread across the Arctic and Subarctic regions of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. More commonalities than differences are found, and regardless of the region, four historical periods of educational development are identified: (1) introduction of missionary and government schools soon after Western contact, which emulated the values of the majority society of that day, and Native passivity towards their establishment; (2) appearance of dissatisfaction with the education system among a few Native groups; (3) assertive Native rejection of inappropriate school systems, supported by newly established Native political organizations and academicians and polarized around the goals of either cultural replacement or cultural continuity; and (4) attainment of various political provisions that accommodate Native self-determination. Common contemporary issues include the organizational structure of schools, the location of school governance, culturally relevant curriculum, language of instruction, teacher preparation and development, and student achievement. The book contends that the lessons learned in the Far North have relevance for minority populations in all multicultural societies. Their conclusions relate to the school as a social system, relative size and power in the school-community relationship, dimensions of integration, community-level phenomena, balance between systems, schooling as a socialization process, the macro and micro phenomena of school, and education as cultural process and identity formation. (Contains 133 references and an index.) (TD)

In Australia, many teachers begin their careers in rural schools, a posting for which they are often ill-prepared. This book addresses the concerns of beginning teachers or other teachers about to take up rural appointments. The first chapter examines the context of rural schools, differentiates between "rural education" (education tailored to the needs of rural students and communities) and "education in rural areas" (provision of a common curriculum to rural schools), discusses issues of equality, and explores implications of various types of isolation. The second chapter reviews the history of rural education in Australia. The next three chapters examine characteristics of isolated rural families, students, and teachers, including: (1) parental educational attainment, occupation, and educational attitudes; (2) student aspirations, dropout rates, reasons for dropping out, and gender differences in school completion; and (3) teaching conditions, teacher-community and teacher-parent relationships, teacher experience and attitudes, and discipline problems. The sixth chapter addresses curriculum concerns, advantages and disadvantages of small schools, innovative programs in music and environmental marine studies, how teachers can get funding for innovative programs, and teaching methods and classroom techniques for multigrade classrooms. The seventh chapter discusses the use of various distance education technologies. A final section offers remarks on practical teacher preparation for rural schools and questions for consideration related to each chapter. Contains 56 references and suggestions for further reading. (SV)