0.19 Watts, l., kolsun, c., cline, v., & Williams, l. (october 20  (Page 5/11)

In a 1996 study however, Howley recognized that students in rural areas “experience greater internal conflict regarding their post high school choices than their nonrural counterparts, and they evidence an aspiration for a sense of place” (Budge, 2006, p. 12).

Some writers have characterized Appalachian culture as a way of life that creates serious disadvantages for its people. In a major study done in 1960 by the University of Kentucky, Thomas Ford identified four characteristics often associated with the people of Appalachia: (1) individualism, (2) traditionalism, (3) familism, and (4) fundamental fatalism. While at times in the essay on “The Passing of Provincialism,” Ford appeared to give credence to individualism and traditionalism, he did believe that the people of Appalachia were generally like all other Americans, though he saw the region as not fully sharing in “the larger culture of the nation” (p. 34). Ford added, “To an appreciable measure their distinctiveness as a people is vested in restricted social and economic opportunities” (p. 34).

Despite these findings, some researchers deny that a distinctly Appalachian culture exists. Lewis and Billings (1997) wrote:

A central theme in much of the vast popular and scholarly literature about Appalachia contends that deficiencies in mountain culture have contributed to, or at least reinforced, economic backwardness and poverty. Although the myth which links cultural deficiency and economic underdevelopment in Appalachia has been evolving for a century, a large body of literature written by regional scholars during the past twenty-five years, along with a reappraisal of earlier studies, demonstrates a far more complex relationship between Appalachian culture and economic development past and present than previously imagined (abstract).

Lewis and Billings (1997) did suggest that the model of familism may have some usefulness when “theoretically reconceptualized and situated historically” (p. 6). Reck, Keefe, and Reck (1987) noted: “The extent to which Appalachians differ culturally from other Americans is an important aspect of the debate. Still others maintain Appalachians do not have a unique subculture (Billings 1974; Fisher 1978; Ford 1962; Miller 1978a). Some researchers concentrate on describing what they feel is a distinctive ethnic culture in Appalachia (Jones 1971; Friedl 1978; Pearsall 1966; Williams 1961). Characteristics cited include ties to their homeland (the mountains), familism, a unique history, a Southern Mountain dialect, fundamentalist Protestant religion, and various value orientations” (p.14).

Wallace and Diekroger (2000) cited the following influences on the perceptions of individuals regarding education: (a) cultural determinants, including income levels, teenage pregnancy, literacy rates, and drop-out rates, (b) family and peer influence, which refers to parent and child relationships and parent expectations for their children, and (c) locus of control, the degree of confidence an individual has in his or her power to determine outcomes based on behavior, skill, or other dispositions (p. 5). The study concluded that students in Appalachia were frequently the recipients of messages that discouraged their educational aspirations.