No description available.

No description available.

Due to government intervention the inhabitants of Rainy River First Nations were deprived of the material resources available to many Canadians. In 1914, the federal government established a community reserve that consisted of peoples from eight separate and distinct communities, which directly contravened Treaty Three. The paper (through interviews, observation and textual analysis) provides a critical overview of the community's land claims settlement and reclamation process, and struggle for sustainability in the twenty-first century. In addition, it examines the manner that land-culture, human resources and capital resources may be applied to revitalize the community through community development and economic strategies.

The purpose of this study was to explore if an integrated approach can help mothers living in low SES achieve personal and academic success. The research objectives focused on two areas. One was exploring the development and impact of a community of learners who collaborate and work together to support each other in their journey to academic success. The other focus was students’ engagement in a community service credit and how this impacts the student. A qualitative research methodology was used. Five female participants participated in journaling, interviews and a focus group. The Circle of Courage® (Brendtro, Brokenleg & Van Bockern, 2002) was the theoretical framework used in this study. The key findings illustrate how the community of learners supports students with personal and academic success. The women in this study experienced challenges when it came to the community service experience, but when time, childcare and resources worked out the experience was valuable and rewarding. The findings inform our understanding of the symbiotic relationship between community development and adult education.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Indiana Cooperative Extension Service Community Development Youth Project and the steps used to implement this new project. The Community Development Youth Project was adopted as a state project in the Indiana Cooperative Extension Service in January, 1973, when the guidelines for implementation of the project were published. This study evaluated the results of implementation one year later. Questions raised in the study included (1) What implementation steps had been taken by the agent? (2) What was the relationship of each agent's total Cooperative Extension Service tenure and the community position tenure to the successful implementation of the project? (3) What relationship was there between the number of hours reported expended on the Community Development Youth Project and the successful implementation of the project into a county program? (4) What was the relationship between an agent's following the guidelines and his achievement of the project goals? (5) Did the theory developed by the North Central Regional Agricultural Extension Service concerning "innovator, early adopter, adopter, and non-adopter" hold true for implementing new programs within the Cooperative Extension Service? (6) Were the goals of the project achieved?Procedures for the study involved the use of three sources of data. The first source was a questionnaire sent to each of the Cooperative Extension Service agents in charge of the Community Development Youth Project. The second source was the Indiana Automated Extension Reporting System Activity Report. The third source was comprised of ten in-depth group interviews with participants in the Community Development Youth Project. The chi square test for significant difference was also utilized in the research to determine whether or not there was a significant difference at the .05 level. The population of the questionnaire included all of the ninety-three youth agents in charge of the Community Development Youth Project in their counties. The population of the Indiana Automatic Extension Reporting System Activity Report included all 302 extension agents in Indiana. The ten group interview population included seventy-two youths who participated in the Community Development Youth Project and who were selected from a total population of 2186 youth who had participated.Research indicated that the implementation steps of the Community Development Youth Project guidelines were followed by the Cooperative Extension Service Youth Agent. The research also demonstrated that there was a positive relationship between an agent's following the guidelines and the successful achievement of the project goals. The hypothesis that both the total extension service tenure and the county tenure of a youth agent were positively correlated with successful implementation of the new Community Development Youth Project was also supported. The study, however, did not support the hypothesis that there is a correlation between time reported expended in community development and successful implementation of the project in a given county. The research revealed that two or three per cent of the population were "innovators" and that five to seven per cent of the population were "early adopters." The research also indicated that the Community Development Youth Project had achieved the stated goals of the project.

In this dissertation, I use a single qualitative case study methodology, participant observation, focus groups, and semi-structured interviews to explore how a rural school’s closure influenced the lives of residents in one rural farming community: Limerick, Saskatchewan, Canada. Three “stand alone” papers comprise this dissertation. In the first paper, I investigate the impacts of the school’s closure on rural families. In the second paper, I explore the ways Limerick School’s closure affected adults without school-aged children. In the final paper, I assess school closure’s impact on gendered volunteer roles. Using social ecological theory and socialist feminist theory, I argue that the school’s closure had far-reaching implications for community members and that these implications varied depending on stage of life, gender, and roles within the family and community contexts. Together, these papers not only make a contribution to filling the gap in existing literature pertaining to rural school closures, but they also strengthen our scholarly understanding of the school-community relationship in the rural context.

In this thesis I explore community mapping as a tool for transformative community learning and planning for sustainability. This inquiry is set within the context of “grassroots post-modernism” which prioritizes the realm of locally-based knowledge and narrative. The first part of the thesis explores the landscape of discourse and the tension between hegemonic and situated knowledge. Deconstructing the power relations behind colonial and globalized worldviews provides a foundation for examining pedagogy and its relationship to power relations and everyday life. The argument is made for an inclusive community and eco-system-based approach to knowledge production as a cornerstone of healthy and sustainable development. This leads into the second part of the thesis: the exploration of mapping and case study of community mapping as a practical application of this theoretical framework. As discourse, I look at maps as subjective reflections of the world and the culture of the mapmaker. In this sense they are paradigmatic. They reflect cultural patterns and worldviews and therefore offer a medium for inquiry that reveals the interdependence of worldview, pedagogy and planning. Maps can help to create a sense of place, provide space for dialogue, and bridge personal knowledge to community learning and planning. Mapping is also a tool for narrative, for “storied residence,” and, when applied in a community context, it can facilitate creative and engaging expression. Overall, maps have significant spatial power, reflecting social, economic, and ecological relations that influence communities and patterns of development worldwide. The thesis attempts to show how mapping discourse, grounded in ecological and social narrative, can be tied practically to asset-based community learning, and participatory planning for sustainability. This is accomplished through a case study of the Common Ground Community Mapping Project based in Victoria, British Columbia and through a profile of various approaches to, and examples of, community mapping methodologies and projects.

In municipalities across the globe, traditional forms of governance are being supplemented by collaborative arrangements between governments and their constituencies toward jointly produced public services. Since the late 1970s, this phenomenon known as coproduction has been utilized in efforts to survive severe budget cuts, improve performance, increase accountability, and welcome traditionally silenced voices. However, no study to date has undergone a citywide assessment of coproduction to determine its breadth and depth in a city. Additionally, there is practically no empirical study that examines what citizen characteristics and perceptions are associated with participation in coproduction. The present study represents a first attempt to begin to fill these gaps in the literature. Specifically, this dissertation analyses: (1) How prevalent is coproduction? (2) Who engages in coproduction? and (3)What motivates coproducers? I employ a mixed-method case study of Atlanta, Georgia via its Neighborhood Planning Unit system, using focus groups, citizen questionnaires, census and GIS data, and direct observations. Overall, the coproduction classifications developed in this dissertation enable more systematic research on coproduction. The dissertation findings also contribute to our understanding of (1) how much this service delivery strategy is being utilized in an urban municipality, (2) which forms are most utilized, (3) what triggers participation in each form, and (4) who utilizes coproduction the most – even challenging the longstanding perception that African Americans and low-income groups do not participate in such activities. Lastly, study findings suggest a need to reconceptualize the current theory of coproduction as a public service delivery strategy.

No description available.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2003.