Scholarship & Research
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Item Superintendent efficacy and addressing community needs(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2024) Kirchner, Derek Lee; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Tena VerslandThe purpose of this intrinsic case study was to explore how a self-efficacious superintendent mitigates the challenges of addressing community needs. In previous literature on community dissatisfaction, superintendents who have neglected the needs of community members have lost their jobs. Despite being trained for and required to demonstrate knowledge on ways to identify and address the needs of the school district community, many superintendents fall short and end up being removed from their positions by the school board and community. Self-Efficacy theory postulates that individuals with a high degree of efficacy for their jobs seek out and are more receptive to innovations within their workplaces. This research study utilized a document review of school board meeting minutes, public voting data, and superintendent correspondence to determine instances of community needs. This information was utilized to conduct semiformal interviews with a superintendent to explore strategies he used to address needs in the community. The results of the document revealed that dissatisfaction occurred around four events: the Cougar's Cave playground structure, the Economic Development District, the High School project, and COVID-19. The analysis of the interviews indicated that the superintendent employed three strategies to mitigate community dissatisfaction: Developed a Culture of Learning within the District, Involved the Community, and Built Relationships. The strategies in this research echo what has already been written regarding successful superintendent leadership. Conclusions drawn from this project include the idea that both the superintendent and the school board should research each other prior to offering and accepting employment in a district to ensure superintendent skillsets match district needs. A second conclusion is the superintendent should develop a strong relationship with the school board but should remain open to feedback and concerns from the community. A final conclusion drawn from the research is that the superintendent should selectively choose mentors and be receptive to their advice.Item Hold fast: cultural resilience in the face of climate change(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2024) LaCalle, John Christian; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Hugo R. SindelarThe Cajun Prairie of South Louisiana offers a distinctive lens through which to view the resilience, spirit, identity, and culture of a regional community that is under threat by the impacts of climate change and unsustainable development. Hold Fast explores and captures these struggles using documentary storytelling techniques through the lens of an emblematic subculture in southwest Louisiana in the McNeese State University Rodeo Team. The film presents the challenges of living within a changing climate as the team rebuilds after Hurricane Laura ravaged southwest Louisiana and uprooted their lives in 2020. The short film showcases that in a time of upheaval and widespread displacement, strong cultural identity becomes critical to a community's ability to rebound after disaster. By highlighting the McNeese Rodeo team's journey against the backdrop of Cajun Prairie's challenges, this project seeks to illuminate the interconnectedness of human and environmental stories, showcasing the unwavering spirit of the Cajun community.Item Covid-19 response and recovery by tribes and urban Indian organizations in Montana(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2024) Sorrell, Anna Whiting; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Alexandra K. Adams; This is a manuscript style paper that includes co-authored chapters.Research shows American Indians and Alaska Natives' resilience when they are connected to cultural lifeways, beliefs, and in relationship with families, their communities, and Tribes. It aids in traumatic times. This was true during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, it still disproportionally affected AIANs in the number of cases, hospitalizations, stays in intensive care units, deaths, and at younger ages than non-Hispanic Whites. This unequal impact of COVID-19 may be explained using the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's social determinants of health, but also raises doubt on the accuracy and thoroughness of data collected for AIANs. Additionally, when Tribes and urban Indian organizations responded to meet the needs of their members and communities, there were positive outcomes. This dissertation shows lessons learned in the response and recovery led by Tribes and Urban Indian Organizations, while successful, may have been improved if their actions were guided by a Tribal or UIO specific, comprehensive emergency preparedness plan. The literature review is a comprehensive examination of available reports, newspaper stories, and journal articles. It found there are gaps in available data that is tribal or UIO specific that has confidence of accuracy and cultural appropriateness as determined by Indigenous researchers. The co-authored manuscript focuses on the social, mental, physical, and spiritual impact COVID-19 had on one Native American and one Hispanic community. While the findings of the study revealed the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic on each of these qualities, there were positive realization about resilience and adaptability. The third dissertation product builds on the findings of the first two products and interviews from two Tribes and one UIO to create an Indigenous strategic planning process for Tribes and UIOs to use when they develop their own emergency preparedness plan to guide their response to the next emergency, crisis, or pandemic. These plans must be written by the Tribe or UIO and incorporate tribal lifeways, beliefs, and values, and shared with key stakeholders. Collectively, the three dissertation products affirm Indigenous leadership is fully capable of directing Tribes and UIOs recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and set plans to prepare for the next emergent event.Item Building an inclusive land management and conservation decision-making system with local stakeholders of Ulaan Taiga Special Protected Area in Mongolia(Montana State University - Bozeman, The Graduate School, 2022) Dovchin, Badamgarav; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Christine Rogers Stanton; Christine Stanton, Suzanne Held, Kristin Ruppel, Paul Lachapelle, Tumursukh Jal, herders user groups and the Community Advisory Board were co-authors of the article, 'Twin ride: integrating WSEK and TEK in Mongolia (literature review)' submitted to the journal 'The other ways of knowing' which is contained within this dissertation.; Christine Stanton, Suzanne Held, Kristin Ruppel, Paul Lachapelle, Tumursukh Jal, herders user groups and the Community Advisory Board were co-authors of the article, 'Community-based participatory research in action: lessons from communities in the Ulaan Taiga Special Protected Area bufferzone communities' submitted to the journal 'Journal of land management and appraisal' which is contained within this dissertation.; Christine Stanton, Suzanne Held, Kristin Ruppel, Paul Lachapelle, Tumursukh Jal, herders user groups and the Community Advisory Board were co-authors of the article, 'Building an inclusive decision-making system for buffer zone land management and conservation of Ulaan Taiga Special Protected Area' submitted to the journal 'The other ways of knowing' which is contained within this dissertation.Environmental degradation and its management are pressing issues worldwide, especially in developing countries. Mongolia is a nomadic culture country with publicly owned land grazed by privately owned herds of domestic animals experiencing intense land degradation (Ministry of Environment and Tourism of Mongolia, 2018). The Eurocentric system (Koobak et al., 2021) Western Science-Based Ecological Knowledge (WSEK) (Studley, 1998) was introduced first by communism, then global North aid programs. Mongolian government fully adopted WSEK methods despite the reality that people of Mongolia still utilize Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) (Berkes, 2012; Jamsranjav et al., 2019). Gradually the disconnect between the stakeholders increased over the last 100 years. Climate change, socioeconomic pressures on publicly owned land, and multiple stakeholders who practice different decision-making systems call for collaborative facilitation and interventions. The purpose of this study is to examine the following two major points: 1. The possibility of addressing the land degradation issues by integrating TEK and WSEK through Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) facilitations in the Darhad Valley, Mongolia (2014-2020). 2. The perceptions of buffer zone communities of Ulaan Taiga Special Protected Area (UTSPA) regarding their ability to manage their land and the ecosystem services it provides. Guidance and participation of locals and advisory board across all steps in the research process (Hallett et al., 2017; Stanton, 2014), and application of a CBPR framework help rebalance the power dynamics among the stakeholders (Coombe et al., 2020a) and bring shared ownership (D'Alonzo, 2010) and trust (P. R. Lachapelle & McCool, 2012) to decision-making. Our team concluded that integrated epistemologies offer added strength and innovation in addressing some of the complex challenges. We found that the 'twin ride' (integration) of WSEK and TEK complement each other (Maweu, 2011). CBPR provides a framework to facilitate collaboration, apply theory to practice in culturally and epistemologically appropriate ways specific to the host community (Stanton et al., 2020), and help overcome various barriers such as loss of trust, institutional differences, and give time to collectively develop shared goals (P. R. Lachapelle et al., 2003). CBPR is a complicated but rewarding, potentially healing process (Stanton, 2014a; Waddell et al., 2020).Item Adaptation and water resources management: examining adaptive governance in Montana(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2022) Gilbert, Ashlie; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Sarah P. Church; This is a manuscript style paper that includes co-authored chapters.A pressing challenge facing water resource users and managers of the twenty-first century is how to address resource needs under the complexities of climate change, growth and development, habitat degradation, and more. Under these pressures, scholars and practitioners look to adaptive frameworks to increase the resilience of communities and ecosystems. Popular adaptive approaches to natural resource management include adaptive management, adaptive co-management, and adaptive governance. In this thesis, we examine adaptive governance in Montana, USA. Adaptive governance is commonly conceptualized as the multitude of actors, organizations, and institutions that utilize information sharing, collaboration, and flexible policies to promote resilient social-ecological systems. Although there has been a substantial increase in scholarship examining adaptive governance and related adaptation terms in the last forty years, scholars have yet to distinguish them from one another clearly. Further, there has been little research on adaptive governance conducted in the headwaters State of Montana. This thesis is an attempt to reduce these gaps in the literature. First, I review the command-and-control paradigm, decentralized approaches to natural resource management, adaptive management, and adaptive co-management. These concepts provide important background for examining the saliency of adaptive governance and separating it from related terminology. Then, we examine adaptive governance in Montana using semi-structured interviews (n=36), a round one survey (n=79), and a round two survey (n=42). Our findings show that water resource professionals and stewards working with non-governmental and governmental entities in Montana embrace collaboration, diverse viewpoints, information sharing, and local knowledge in their work, all of which are described as necessary for adaptive governance. However, we find that this water resource stewardship and protection work is sometimes stalled or derailed by a lack of government support and shifting administrations. Our findings lead us to assert the importance of governmental support in adaptive governance and propose a definition to re-frame the concept for future scholars and practitioners.Item Community, agency, and place: an instrumental case study of a relational partnership between rural museum and school stakeholders(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2022) Weikert, Angela Hewitt; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Jayne DowneyIn the discussion about the formation and function of partnerships between community anchor institutions (e.g., schools, communities, and museums), previous studies examining motivating reasons for partnerships have been primarily focused on urban settings. Next to no research has been conducted to understand the unique factors that support partnerships in rural communities. Therefore, the purpose of this instrumental case study was to examine the motivating reasons why stakeholders from community anchor institutions establish and sustain a partnership to design and implement a place-conscious approach to education in a rural context. Data were collected using field notes, documents, audiovisual digital materials, and semi-structured interviews with nine stakeholders representing a museum and a local school district. The findings from this study illuminated the importance of understanding the nature of partnerships in a rural context. They highlight a significant shift away from previous definitions of partnerships as transactional and elevate the importance of both the relational aspects of a partnership and the critical role that relationships play in everyday rural life. The results of this study revealed how rural community members are connected through multiple roles and intentionally build long-standing relationships to support students beyond the classroom. The results also extended the findings of previous studies regarding individuals' motivating reasons for partnerships, through articulating the multidimensional reasons why stakeholders in rural contexts participate in partnership activities. These reasons included: a vision for the whole community, beliefs about personal contributions, and the value of place. Finally, the participants in this study demonstrated solution-focused innovation in their approaches to prioritizing partnership activities. This new finding highlights the shortcomings of previous descriptions of the factors that shape partnership activities which reflect superficial understandings of partnerships through vocabulary choices such as constrain or promote. Notably, this study provided an example of rural education innovation modeling how new ideas developed with rural communities can build on and extend previous positive outcomes (White & Downey, 2021). Recommendations are made for future research to explore relational partnerships and anchor institutions in other communities, as well as studying how these relationships contribute to measures of community well-being, vitality, and student outcomes.Item The inner workings & long-term impacts of unconventional oil and gas development in the Bakken Shale Formation(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2020) Smith, Kristin Kingsbury; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Julia Hobson Haggerty; Julia H. Haggerty was a co-author of the article, 'Devolved governance and alternative dispute resolutions: an example from the Bakken' in the volume 'Governing shale gas: development, citizen participation and decision making in the US, Canada, Australia and Europe' which is contained within this dissertation.; Julia H. Haggerty, David Kay and Roger Coupal were co-authors of the article, 'Using shared services to mitigate boomtown impacts in the Bakken Shale play: resourcefulness or over-adaptation?' in the journal 'Journal of rural and community development' which is contained within this dissertation.; Julia H. Haggerty was a co-author of the article, 'Exploitable ambiguities & the unruliness of natural resource dependence: public infrastructure in North Dakota's Bakken Formation' in the journal 'Journal of rural studies' which is contained within this dissertation.; Julia H. Haggerty was a co-author of the article, 'How energy communities subsidize industry: road infrastructure investments in the Bakken Shale Formation, U.S.' submitted to the journal 'Annals of the American Association of Geographers' which is contained within this dissertation.This dissertation argues that public infrastructure investments are a primary way in which communities subsidize unconventional oil and gas (UOG) development at the local level. Notably, these direct and indirect costs are often ignored in assessments of the UOG industry's distribution of costs and benefits. Natural resource extraction typically requires large capital investments from the public and private sectors, particularly in rural and remote geographies. This creates a risk of resource dependence as communities that over-accommodate industry may struggle with large municipal debts and/or underutilized facilities once industry leaves. While public infrastructure investments are typically assumed to mutually benefit the public and industry, the extent to which infrastructure benefits communities in the long run is unclear. UOG heightens these unknowns due to its volatility. UOG is a particularly infrastructure-dependent resource due to the industry's geographically dispersed nature and subsequent labor intensity. Yet, there is surprisingly limited research on the capacity of local governments to address the burdens of UOG development on public infrastructure and government services. This research addresses these knowledge gaps through a series of case studies on infrastructure investments that communities made during the boom in UOG in the Bakken Shale Formation (eastern Montana and western North Dakota, United States). It uses a mixed-methods approach, drawing on over 90 stakeholder interviews, document analyses, participant observations, and extensive field research. The findings suggest that communities in the Bakken struggled with infrastructure decisions due to the overwhelming pace, scale, and unpredictability of the UOG industry. Nonetheless, community leaders repeatedly demonstrated adaptability and innovation as they addressed the boom's challenges. This research demonstrates that infrastructure investments simultaneously reinforced and disrupted economic dependence on industry, illustrating the unpredictability and unruliness of the long-term impacts of UOG development at the local level. In the conclusion, the dissertation argues that unconventional oil and gas (UOG) development creates distinct geographies of production and distinct geographies of public finance.Item Navigating the local costs and benefits of modern mineral mines: the role of non-regulatory agreements(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2020) Rose, Jackson Cooper; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Julia Hobson Haggerty; Julia H. Haggerty was a co-author of the article, 'Navigating the local costs and benefits of modern mineral mines: the role of non-regulatory agreements' submitted to the journal 'Society and Natural Resources' which is contained within this thesis.This thesis explores natural resource development at the local level from the perspective of resource peripheries in the United States. Using three case studies--two in Montana and one in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan--this study combines qualitative mixed-methods with on-the-ground experience to explore the dynamics of the costs and benefits of extractive industries in the context of short-duration, high-impact underground mines. Research questions focused on the specific concerns and priorities in each place and the novel tools communities are using to address both short-term impacts and long-term economic development. The methodology relied on in-person, semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, participant observation, and document and policy analysis. Results reveal that rural places share similar concerns tied to these projects, although multiple stakeholder groups often have divergent ideas and priorities. Non-regulatory agreements show promise as a tool for stakeholder groups to navigate the balancing act of mining projects, but the initiatives found in these agreements are often affected by classic dilemmas facing resource peripheries as well as individual places' institutional and regulatory context. Findings also suggest that communities are granted a limited window of opportunity to maximize their negotiating power in the social license to operate process. Ultimately, non-regulatory agreements should be tailored to fill regulatory gaps and, in the best cases, are able to focus on delivering lasting economic benefits from short-term mining developments.