Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
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Item The ball's in your court: the effect of sports in rural English classrooms(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2020) Reierson, Elizabeth Anne; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Allison Wynhoff OlsenEducation in rural areas is affected by the place in which the education takes place. This affects how students interact with the community as well as the classroom. The most visible way in which the community interacts with the school is through spectating at high school games. The author interviews four English teachers in rural eastern Montana to explore the ways in which community, school, English classrooms and sports interact. Educators noted that while sports had many benefits, there was no sports literature being explicitly taught or being directly incorporated into the classroom. Furthermore, absences caused by school athletics create a tension between academic needs and extracurricular expectations. These absences are directly affecting the ways in which English teachers create their curriculum. The author offers next steps for teachers looking to create a connection between classroom and community through athletics.Item Teaching english on the moon: a memoir of teaching at a rural school(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2020) Hoffmann, Alan David; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Allison Wynhoff OlsenMontana is a primarily rural state. The majority of Montana's high schools are 'Class C' schools with enrollments under 107 students. Of these, over sixty Montana high schools have enrollments under sixty students. In these schools, high school academic departments normally consist of one person. This experience is rarely examined. Even existing literature that focuses on rural education focus on settings with higher enrollments than many of Montana's smaller schools. Drawing on the author's personal experience of teaching at high school with an enrollment of around 25 students, this memoir provides an account and guide for working in these settings. Through this, the author details the benefits of teaching in these settings, such as smaller class sizes that allow for more one-on-one interaction. It also examines the challenges of coming and teaching in rural places, including the stresses of prepping for seven different classes and difficulties of integrating into rural communities. Given the number of these schools in the state of Montana, many graduates from the Montana University System's education programs will go on to teach in these settings. This work aims to advocate for rural settings and to give teachers that may go into these areas an idea of what to expect.Item The space between: the plight of rurally isolated, impoverished Montana school districts(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2019) Patterson, Joshua Glenn; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: David HendersonDespite growing awareness of the teacher staffing crisis in rurally isolated, impoverished Montana school districts, little has been done to effectively address the issue. As opposed to a general lack of supply, current state and national research attribute the problem to challenges in teacher recruitment and retention. While many of these studies have identified factors associated with teacher staffing challenges, none have fully conveyed the essence of the struggle through the experiences of school leaders who endure the crisis. Therefore as revealed through the experience of eligible superintendents, the purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate teacher staffing challenges in rurally isolated, impoverished Montana school districts and the role of state school funding policy in the recruitment and retention of high quality teachers. Anchored by punctuated equilibrium social theory, the study's conceptual model provides a basis for multiple instrumental case studies. Investigative research began with two focus groups of eligible superintendents and was followed by multiple interviews with the superintendents of four representative case study school districts. Audio recordings of interviews were transcribed and reviewed using typological data analysis methods to identify semantic relationships, themes, and significant statements. Study trustworthiness was established through bracketing the researcher's personal experiences with teacher staffing challenges, thick description, peer review, member checking, and triangulation with school district related information and other state research. Findings indicate that current Montana school funding policy may exacerbate the staffing challenges experienced in these remote and poor districts as well as their organizational functioning.Item The relation of rural and urban backgrounds to frequency of grammatical errors made by Montana State College freshman(Montana State University - Bozeman, 1962) Huller, FrankItem A study of adult education and its implementation in a rural community(Montana State University - Bozeman, 1968) Jewell, Calvin WilliamItem Distance-mediated mentoring : a telecommunication-supported model for novice rural mathematics and science teachers(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 1998) Luebeck, Jennifer LynItem Burnout among the isolated, rural teachers in Montana(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 1986) Taylor, Ryan DItem Developing a sense-of-place in middle school students through service learning : a case study(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2001) Ingraham, Patricia Jay