In spite of increasing interests in the relationship between neighborhood environments and children's walking-to-school behaviors, few studies have examined the dynamic nature of school-community relationships from physical and social perspectives. Questions such as how centrally the school is located within the larger community, and how connected or accessible the school is to the surrounding communities, will have significant implications for children?s walking to school and physical activity behaviors and also for the community's social capital. The primary aims of this study are: (a) to assess the association between school-community relations and social capital among parents of school children; (b) to assess the relationship between school-community relations and walking-to-school behaviors among school children; and (c) to examine the mediating effects of social capital on the relationship of (b). This cross-sectional study focuses on children and parents from 19 elementary schools in the Austin Independent School District (AISD) in Austin, Texas, utilizing the parental Safe Routes to School (SRTS) survey and conducting a follow-up Parental Social Capital survey to gather additional in-depth data on social capital. Also objective measurements are performed to assess school-community relations and physical environments using the spatial centrality index and Geographical Information System (GIS) network analysis at/around schools and surrounding communities. Data analyses are conducted based at the school/community-level and the individual-level (large full data and small sub-group data) separately by using ANOVAs, bivariate statistical analysis and multivariate statistical models. Overall findings of this study show that: (a) neighborhood schools have more students walking to school and a higher centrality of the school than non-neighborhood schools; (b) differences in social capital between neighborhood schools and non-neighborhood schools are not significant or are only marginally significantly; (c) two social capital variables, "volunteerism" and "social cohesion" are correlated with children's walking-to-school behaviors but no significant mediating effect is found for social capital in the association between school-community relations and children's walking-to-school behaviors; and (d) "volunteerism" is shown to be positively correlated with "perceived centrality" but negatively associated with all objective centrality measures. The other social capital variable of "social cohesion" has a positive correlation with one of the objective centrality measures, "closeness centrality." Findings of this study may contribute to research exploring the dynamics of school-community relations with socio-spatial perspectives, and also bring attention to the policy makers for school siting in the large community context and evidence-based knowledge promoting healthy community design.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:57:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria Luiza Franco Nery Machado.pdf: 571758 bytes, checksum: 7a8cd268bf5af27a419c42b2a73d8f85 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-05-27 / This research aimed at investigating, through the education professionals point of view, how parents/guardian are participating at school, what professionals expect from this participation and which factors could damage or help its promotion. Two auxiliary canals at Public State Schools: Parent and Teacher Associations (PTAs) and School Councils were approached as they are in force and guaranteed by law. Fourteen subjects (directors, teachers and employees), from seven Elementary Schools - Cicle I, in Franca-SP, took part in the research. A questionnaire and an interview were used to collect data. Results showed that school professionals recognize the importance of parents/guardian at school, but they also recognize the difficulty to promote it. The study revealed that Parent and Teacher Associations (PTAs) and School Councils could not be firmed yet as effective auxiliary canals for the Education Institutions. On the contrary, the participants consider these canals as formal, bureaucratic spaces: the first, giving priority to the finance dimension, without any connection with the pedagogic dimension; the latter, it is showed through reports, have little performance in the everyday school life. About both Parent and Teacher Association (PTAs) and School Councils it was detected a lack of clearness on the part of the school professionals as for the aims, rights and owes that these canals point, discrediting, thus, the power of decision and participation on them, in the sight of improving education. On the other hand, it was observed a change, at least in the discourse, going towards the recognition that the school is not self-sufficient to take decisions and it needs the parents/guardian to achieve the goal of a school with better quality / O trabalho que aqui se apresenta teve como objetivo investigar, na visão dos profissionais da educação, como está acontecendo a participação dos pais/responsáveis na escola, que expectativas têm os profissionais sobre tal participação e quais os fatores que prejudicariam ou auxiliariam sua promoção. Foram focalizados dois canais auxiliares existentes no Sistema de Ensino Público do Estado de São Paulo: as Associações de Pais e Mestres (APMs) e os Conselhos de Escola, ambos em vigor nos dias atuais e garantidos por lei. Participaram do presente trabalho 14 sujeitos (entre diretores, professores e funcionários) pertencentes a sete escolas de Ciclo I do Ensino Fundamental do município de Franca SP. Para a coleta dos dados foram utilizados o questionário e a entrevista. Os resultados indicaram que os profissionais da escola reconhecem a importância da participação dos pais/responsáveis na instituição escolar, mas reconhecem, também, a dificuldade em promovê-la. Revelou-se que a APM e o Conselho de Escola ainda não conseguiram se firmar como canais auxiliares efetivos para a instituição escolar. Pelo contrário, os participantes percebem tais canais como espaços formais, burocráticos: o primeiro priorizando a dimensão financeira, sem que esta apresente ligação com a dimensão pedagógica; quanto ao segundo, evidencia-se, a partir dos depoimentos, a pouca atuação do mesmo no cotidiano escolar. Em relação aos dois APM e Conselho de Escola detecta-se a falta de clareza por parte dos profissionais da escola quanto às finalidades, direitos e deveres que esses canais apontam, desprestigiando o poder de decisão e participação nos mesmos com vistas à melhoria educacional. Em contrapartida, observa-se uma mudança, pelo menos no discurso, em direção ao reconhecimento de que a escola não é auto-suficiente para tomar as decisões e necessita dos pais/responsáveis para concretizar a meta de uma escola com maior qualidade