The purpose of this paper is to provide an alternative operationalization of amenities that does not privilege certain kinds of natural resources and climatic conditions and that can be used for assessing the quality of life in small towns. The amenity inventory presented here extends previous literature by including a broad range of amenities…

Significant shifts are occurring in higher education pedagogy, research methodology, and community development, ones that value civic engagement and experiential learning as bridges to holistic education and sustainable social change. Engaged scholarship through university-community partnerships can result in providing a well-rounded education for…

While universities can play a major role in advancing research-based community development, academic discourses of rigor, quality and ethics often conflict with the participatory and collaborative approaches required by community development principles. While experienced academics often have difficulty negotiating these issues, they present…

Building the research capacity of the vocational education and training (VET) sector is a key concern for the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). To assist with this objective, NCVER supports an academic scholarship program, whereby VET practitioners are sponsored to undertake university study at honours', master's or…

Discusses three approaches to participatory research typically followed by academics: (1) initiator, (2) consultant, and (3) collaborator. Argues that participatory research is part of a larger community-change project, and that determining how academics will fit in the project requires answering several questions about the nature of individual…

When metropolitan universities refer to serving the entire metropolitan area, they often refer to rural fringes as well as concentrated urban populations. Working with rural communities requires somewhat different approaches to planning programs and understanding needs. Survey research helps the campus understand the perceptions and realities of…

Designed to provide basic guidelines and examples that can be used by community colleges for organizing and conducting community impact studies, this booklet describes the experiences of Kalamazoo Valley Community College (KVCC), Eastfield College (EC), and Valencia Community College (VCC) in conducting their impact studies. Introductory material…

Presents the social indicators approach (which infers needs from currently existing descriptive data) and the key informants technique (which secures information from individuals with insight into community needs) as alternatives to the community needs assessment survey. Considers both approaches more cost-effective and successful for diagnosing…

With the ultimate goal of articulating a research agenda, a November 1999 conference of researchers and educators examined the educational, social, and economic factors affecting rural adolescents' transition to the workforce. The first section of this white paper discusses the need to clarify research questions about adolescence to include a…

This multi-site case study examined the relationships and interactions among school professionals, parents, and a faith-based institution striving to create viable learning communities in the Texas Borderlands. Through a school-community partnership known as the Texas Alliance School Initiative, two sample schools collaborated with the El Paso…

Asserts that, although research can be a powerful resource in guiding and fueling grass-roots social change, the community-based research enterprise often is contentious. Recommends collaborative research studies in which the researchers and practitioners work together from the project's inception. (CFR)

This book addresses the need for research information that can be used as a foundation for rural development policy. Part I deals with the four components of rural development: education (human capital), entrepreneurship, physical infrastructure, and social infrastructure. Part II examines analytic methods of measuring rural development efforts,…

The impact of Brown University on the economic base of Providence, Rhode Island and on the state was studied. Data are based on 1978 university and public records and results of a 1976 university survey, adjusted by Consumer Price Indexes. A set of mathematical models was used to measure effects of the university on three major sections of the…

An award winning program, the Teacher-Research Institute of the Maryland Writing Project at Towson State University, is described, along with six other state college programs that received special commendations by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). Towson State University won AASCU's G. Theodore Mitau Award for…