Premium
Rural students’ transitions to secondary school: culture, curriculum and context
Author(s) -
WALSH MARY ELLEN
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
the curriculum journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.843
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 1469-3704
pISSN - 0958-5176
DOI - 10.1080/0958517950060108
Subject(s) - dialogical self , curriculum , context (archaeology) , transition (genetics) , pedagogy , sociology , alienation , rural area , biology and political orientation , politics , skepticism , mathematics education , psychology , political science , social psychology , geography , epistemology , biochemistry , chemistry , archaeology , law , gene , philosophy
This article is based on a year‐long study of elementary to secondary transition in rural Ontario, Canada. The study considered the experience of transition for rural students within the political context of recently mandated changes to the transition years in Ontario. Research elsewhere suggests that the strong academic orientation of the secondary school creates a polarized and fragmented school culture which leads to student alienation and high drop‐out rates. These issues were regarded as less relevant in the rural area where the study took place and, thus, the teachers, parents and students who participated were sceptical about the need for change. The article examines the influence of contextual factors, including the rural setting, school structure and size, and teacher experience, on school culture and curriculum, and participants’ experiences of transition and their perspectives on change. A dialogical approach to enquiry was taken which attempted to bring together, through dialogue, the disparate views of research and participants to achieve new understandings on the critical issues of rural transition.