Relationship; Social Capital IDENTIFIERS Sense of Place

Rural students face many challenges in gaining a sound education, but one of the advantages they have is that their schools are set in a community context that values a sense of place and offers a unique set of conditions for building social capital. A school-community partnership model of school renewal might be an appropriate means by which rural school communities can improve their educational processes. Six types of connections in rural communities important to developing an authentic school-community partnership are social capital, sense of place, parent involvement, strong church ties, strong school-business-agency relationships, and use of the community as a curricular resource. A school-community partnership model requires a constructivist type of leadership that encourages adults in a community to consider the views of others. Constructivist leaders are open to change, welcome diverse thinking, and are not driven by institutional constraints and bureaucracies. School-community partnerships, led b