Prioritization of rural youth in Nova Scotia: understanding rural school success with policy gaps

Fancy-Landry, Jessica (2020) Prioritization of rural youth in Nova Scotia: understanding rural school success with policy gaps. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This study describes a qualitative exploration into rural school success in Nova Scotia and the prioritization of its rural youth in educational policy. Case study methodology was used to conduct research using interview and text analysis methods. Factors of success and their key components that rural school personnel perceive as priorities in their buildings and the representation that rural school youth in Nova Scotia receive were explored from a developed conceptual framework using High-Performing High-Needs (HPHN) rural schools (Barely & Beesley, 2007; McREL, 2005a; Canada Without Poverty, 2019). This thesis describes the important roles that key components such as community support, student well-being, teacher and student retainment, performance pressures and lack of policy play in the future of rural school success in Nova Scotia. The study concludes that the lack of Canadian, more narrowly Nova Scotian, rural education policy puts rural youth at a disadvantage in their quest to obtain a quality and equitable education. Recommendations are provided to narrow this policy gap, and strategies that rural school personnel deemed effective are shared. These strategies are recommended as guidelines into best practices in policy development to ensure that youth in rural Nova Scotia, and indeed other jurisdictions, have an equitable voice in their pursuit of an equitable and quality education.

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