Organizational training and relationship building for increasing public participation in a public school district

From the early twentieth century to the present, citizen participation in U.S. public institutions--particularly schools--has continually decreased. The trend has been linked to the bureaucratization of public schools and their increasing reliance on expert knowledge for solutions to school- and education-related problems. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a parent training program designed to increase a school district's capacity for public participation. The program--known as Leadership St. Vrain--provided citizens knowledge about school district operations and management (know-how) and relationship-building opportunities with key decision makers (know-who). The mixed-methods study was designed to include two original survey instruments, follow-up interviews, and archival documents to evaluate the effect of the training on participants. Participants reported strong growth in domains for knowledge, relationship, willingness, efficacy, and action. Follow-up interviews with training participants and parents who served as school Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) presidents, as well as an analysis of archival documents indicated a secondary ripple-effect among PTO members who did not take the training, as well as with other citizens and the larger community.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor dc:publisher

Colorado State University. Libraries

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Authors dc:creator

• Poynton, John, author
• Venneberg, Donald, advisor
• Makela, Carole, committee member
• Wallner, Barbara, committee member
• Carcasson, Martin, committee member

• civic engagement
• parent engagement
• public deliberation
• public education
• public participation
• social capital

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.

Language dc:language.iso

eng, English

Identifier URI

https://doi.org/10.25675/3.018574

Identifier

ETDF2012400351EDUC

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:mountainscholar.org:10217/68196