Distributing leadership within rural schools : Sharing responsibility for diverse students needs

Along with the immigration throughout the US, rural schools have experienced changes in demographics and need to adapt to meet the needs of diverse students. Addressing this issue, this chapter argues that rural schools in the US might benefit from distributed leadership (DLS) to meet the needs of school personnel and better understand emergent bilingual (EB) students. The authors highlight that DLS is likely to promote student-centered pedagogy (SCP) when the values of democratic education are adhered to. They first map out the recent research on rural schools with EB students and address the common challenges through big ideas from DLS. Then, they argue why DLS is functional in grappling with these challenges and discuss how rural schools can implement DLS efficiently. Lastly, they present pedagogical implications for professional development with a focus on deliberative democracy and share recommendations for future research

Using Theory-Based Research in Supporting Creative Learning Environment for Young Children

A supportive creative environment for young children is viewed as an essential element toward facilitating their creative thinking. Creativity requires imagination, insight, problem solving, divergent thinking, the ability to express emotions and to be able to make choices, thus we created a supportive learning environment to nurture creativity in three to four year olds. In this chapter creativity theory is discussed and how to apply to the early childhood educational setting. The Reggio Approach and creativity-provoking methods are discussed. Application of the theory relates to how children are immersed into activities encourages problem-solving, exploration, creativity and the learning supported by play based experiences for children. Examples are given as to how one child development center has provided curriculum, arranged the indoor and outdoor spaces, and integrated the artist in residence concept into the setting