Kettering Research-Connections

"Connections" is a research project exploring the historical links between communities and their educational systems focused on reconnecting the public with public education. This research was initially funded by the Kettering Foundation of Dayton, Ohio. Studies by many educational specialists suggest that people feel alienated from their schools, believing that they can have little impact on how schools are operated. David Mathews, president of the Kettering Foundation, suggests in his book, Why Public Schools, Whose Public Schools?, that this has not always been the case. Since 2005, the Truman Pierce Institute in the College of Education and the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts have conducted research in various communities exploring the connections among one's sense of history and place, engagement in the community, and connections to public education in that community. Through our research we are attempting to better understand what makes a community feel connected to its schools and perhaps learn how tore-engage the public’s sense of ownership in their educational systems. Over the years our research strategies have included: oral history interviews, focus groups, public forums, community photography projects, surveys, resource inventories, informal conversations, and studies conducted by hired consultants.

To date, two books have been published based on this research. The first book, In the Path of the Storms: Bayou Le Batre, Coden, and the Alabama Coast authored by Frye Galliard, Sheila Hagler, and Peggy Denniston (2007) tells the stories of a "rich and complicated culture, a town simultaneously old and new" and the people who live there, rebuilding their communities after Hurricane Katrina. The focus of this work is on how a community comes together following a tragedy and decides what it wants to become as it rebuilds.

The second book, Connections: Communities, Schools, and the People Who Made Them (2009) explores how existing connections might be strengthened or how new connections might be made between communities and their educational systems. This book offers 10 stories about life now and then in Anniston, Alabama and lessons learned through this research. The focus of this research is on how a community has changed over the years and the influence of those changes on public education.

A third research project is currently underway in Pike Road, Alabama. This project is exploring community perceptions and processes used to create support for a new, proposed school system. The proposed school system will be innovative, utilizing a multi-university Professional Development School model as the basis for its curriculum design and delivery. Data sources to date include individual interviews, focus groups, "on the street" survey/interviews, and documentation of public meetings and events.

Last Updated: Feb 12, 2011