This research was a qualitative case study involving 24 participants of a rural
junior/senior high school in East Texas. The purpose of this study was to document the
perceptions of students, faculty, administration, and community members in a small rural
Texas community, exploring why they perceive their school to be a successful learning
environment. The main objective of this basic interpretative case study was to interpret
the meaning of how the participants make sense of their lives and their worlds. This
study was guided by the following research questions: What factors determine success as
identified by stakeholders in Pinewoods Independent School District? How do
stakeholders in Pinewoods Independent School District perceive success in their
junior/senior high school?
The method of inquiry was an informal conversational interview with each
participant. These interviews triangulated with a focus group, examination of historical
documents, observations, and member checks. The themes revealed in the research
included: (a) the rural advantage with three sub-themes, community safe and supportive
of its citizens, a community without racial tension, and a nurturing community; (b) pride and tradition with two sub-themes, high expectations and competitive nature of school
and school pride; and (c) quality of the school, Pinewoods style with four sub-themes,
good discipline in school, dedicated teachers, high expectations in academic and
extracurricular activities, and Pinewoods as a successful school.
There are implications for policy, practice, and additional research that are
necessary for all demographic factors of a rural community. The demographic factors
include administrators, teachers, students, and citizens. The intent of the researcher is
that the findings of this study be shared with other interested individuals throughout the
state and nation to help them better understand how students are taught by a dedicated
faculty, staff, and administration, while working through various difficulties such as low
socioeconomic students, a continually decreasing community economy, and a lack of
sufficient resources for the school.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-3145 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Centilli, Jeroladette |
| Contributors | Salinas, Claudio, Webb-Johnson, Gwendolyn |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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