0.19 Watts, l., kolsun, c., cline, v., & Williams, l. (october 20  (Page 4/11)

Cultural features unique in rural appalachia

Brown, Copeland, Costello, Erkanli, and Worthman (2009) studied family and community influences on educational goals and attainment among 200 rural white youth in Appalachia using data from the Great Smoky Mountain Study (GSMS; Costello, et.al., 1996). After discussing the relative influences of family and community, they concluded: “In the wake of global urbanization, youth from rural areas face increasing risks of social estrangement and marginalization” (p. 805). The data from the study indicate that the environment of the family (especially parent education level and poverty) influenced children’s level of educational attainment several years later. The greatest community influence was on college goal-setting with students living in communities with lower educational attainment exhibiting lower educational goals. Yet, the authors also state that many of the pressures facing youth across the globe also affect rural youth (p. 805).

The Appalachian region has often been viewed as an area where educational aspirations and results lag behind more progressive areas of the country. Johnson and Strange (2009) identified several factors indicating that student needs are not being met in rural education. Most school districts in West Virginia would be classified as rural based on the definition used in the report which ranked all 50 states on five gauges, including educational outcomes. West Virginia received an overall priority rating of 18 (with a rank of 1 being most crucial or urgent). However, in the area of educational outcomes, the state ranked fourth among all 50 states in terms of urgency. Other data have also brought attention to serious problems with reading and math proficiency, high school graduation rate, and other indicators of student performance as compared to the national average for these areas.

Chenoweth and Galliher (2004) cited low-college going rates in rural West Virginia and sought to determine if any relationships existed between student aspirations and both direct and indirect influences of the environment. Three factors they considered were localism, historicism, and familism:

Localism is characterized by a sense of belonging, or being a part of the land. Appalachian families tend to maintain a commitment to the place in which they live or where they grew up. This concept is supported by the fact that a large number of individuals from the region continue to live in the area, work in the area, and raise families of their own. Historicism refers to the sense or understanding of one’s place in history, within the family and region where one developed. Such devotion to place and time is further accented by one’s sense of family. A strong commitment and reliance upon family of origin defines the concept of familism. Individuals in Appalachia tend to maintain close family ties, in both geographic proximity and interpersonal relations (p. 4).

The results of this study suggested that familism had some indirect influence on the students’ college decisions but did not find any support for the hypothesis that either localism or historicism had an impact on students’ goals and decisions (p. 12).