Environmental sustainability is one of the most pressing concerns of the twenty-first century, and working toward sustainability will require broad lifestyle and cultural shifts, particularly in industrialized societies. Yet despite a growing recognition of the importance of issues such as climate change, food security, transportation, and…

Last year at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), President Robert Martin (Cherokee) led the faculty, staff, students, alumni, board members, and donors though a strategic planning process that resulted in a number of important new directions. Among these was a new mission statement to guide their work. Like most tribal educational…

The post-Apartheid community history is a male-constructed space, narrated into present-day consciousness by male community leaders and history writers. The patriarchal worldview disparages women's contributions and activisms. This article reports on how Muslim women from a small fishing village in South Africa in the early 1900s strategized to…

Decades of studies show that children's behavior is shaped by relationships in the "social ecology" of family, peers, school, and community. But in recent decades the prevailing scientific dogma was that genes determine destiny. Now it is clear that experience changes genes. For better or worse, environmental experiences including nutrition,…

Background: Escalation of youth violence within a large geographic school-complex area in southeastern rural Hawaii became a major problem in 2006. How cultural forces impact the problem was an impetus to examine youth violence from perspectives of adults and children in rural communities. Gathering these data was an essential first step toward…

This article explores school and community leaders' beliefs about standards-based reform and the purposes of local schooling in a single rural community in the western United States. The study used interviews of 11 community and school leaders in the community. Participants engage in a balancing act between serving local interests and satisfying…

One of the great concerns of the business community involves the workforce pipeline: employers want to be sure that new entries into the labor pool, whether from the K-12 or postsecondary systems, are prepared for the jobs that await them. In Philadelphia, business and community leaders have joined forces to give students workplace learning…

Effective, efficient, and sustainable ID/DD organizations: are they possible in today's world of dwindling resources and mounting demands for more and better services? Yes--with the practical tools and strategies in this lifeline for ID/DD leaders. Developed by two of the most trusted authorities in the disability field, this innovative business…

Students calling themselves the Las Vegas Activist Crew shut down the city's famed Strip on May 1, 2006, with an immigrant rights protest that was one of the largest demonstrations in Nevada's history. This research analyzes the ways that students engage in activism to improve their own social conditions and those of their communities. The…

This bibliography contains 126 entries of written materials available from the National Agricultural Library's (NAL) AGRICOLA database pertaining to agricultural or rural leadership. Each entry includes bibliographical information and the NAL call number, while some also include abstracts. All the listed materials, including books, reports,…

Training effectiveness is a function of trainee characteristics, training design and contextual factors. Social exchanges in the work environment have received less attention compared with other training effectiveness predictors. We focus on the extent to which leaders (through their relationships and exchanges with followers) influence skill…

This study examined community leadership education programs employed in rural communities and organizations of several states to empower both local leaders and residents. In particular, the study investigated the relationships between community leadership education program design and structure (contact hours and content) and six outcome indices of…

The purpose of the manual is to assist adult advisors to Vocational Industrial Clubs of America (VICA) is providing leadership and character development opportunities for the individual participants in the program. The manual is divided into 24 detailed lessons, each one explaining the objective, the preparation, the presentation, the application,…

The article highlights five leaders in special education who are themselves handicapped: one deaf, another blind, a third arthritic, and two who had contacted polio in childhood. (SBH)