ABSTRACT
ATTITUDES OF SELECTED PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS

TOWARD COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN
SCHOOL AFFAIRS

BY

Alma Louise Seniors

Purpose of the Study

 

The attitudes of prospective teachers toward community
involvement in schools reflect, in part, the attitudes they
have about the community in general. The effect of these
attitudes may have import on the quality of education im-
ported to pupils. Therefore, the thoughts of prospective
teachers on the kinds of community participation in education
is needed as they may greatly influence future trends of
school-community relations. More specifically, the basic
purpose of the study was to describe the attitudes of selected
prospective teachers toward the broad range of community

participation.

Methodology

 

The method of research used in this study was the
descriptive survey. The intent was to gain a measure of
prospective teacher attitudes toward lay involvement in the

broad range of school affairs.

1?) Alma L. Seniors
r; .

Three instruments were used to solicit the data re-
levant to the study. A survey of demographic variables was
taken prior to the administration of the two scales,

Community Attitude Scale and the Teacher Attitude Scale of

 

Community Participation to solicit categoric data.

The Community Attitude Scale was designed to measure
the subjects' degree of progressive attitudes on community
life in such areas as community improvement, living con-

1 The Teacher-Attitude Scale Toward

ditions, and business.
Community Participation was used to solicit prospective
teachers' attitudes toward the following areas of community
involvement in school:

1. advisory roles

2. decision-making roles

3. social participation

4. educational participation

5. employee participation

The TASTCP was not pre-administered. Developed by the
writer, the instrument was used for the first time with the
subjects in this study. However, the variables under inquiry

do seem important and the items show good wording and in-

terpretation.

Significant involvements based on attitudes were
statistically analyzed by the Chi-square test of significance

and the Pearson Product Moment of Correlation.

 

Alma L. Seniors

‘Major Findings

 

There are no areas of minimum community parti-
pation in school affairs as indicated by the
responses of the selected prospective teachers.
The mean score indicate that each of the seven
areas of community involvement is one of signi-
ficant maximum participation.

The selected prospective teachers' attitudes
toward the community are inversely related to

the choices of the areas of community partici-
pation.

The responses of the selected-prospective teachers
do reflect significant involvement at the local
school level of the school organization in all
areas except the selection of the district super-
intendent.

The expected teaching levels of the selected
prospective teachers reflect desired community
participation in areas of advisory participation
with regards to working conditions (teaching load
and transfer policy), and in social participation
with community committee membership as the only
significant sub-area.

The relationship between the selected prospective
teachers' attitudes toward the community and the
expected community of employed as measured by

the CAS reveal that only three of the items denote

 

Alma L. Seniors

a relationship. (See Table 13)

The selected prospective teachers' responses
connote unacceptable relationships between their
future teaching residences and the kinds of
community participation indicated on the TASQP,
(Teacher Attitude Scale of Community Participation).
The relationship between the selected prospective
teachers' regional location of rearing and the
kinds of community attitudes they have as measured
on the QAS reveal that only five items have a
definite relationship to the regional location

of rearing. (See Table 21)

ATTITUDES OF SELECTED PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS
TOWARD COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN

SCHOOL AFFAIRS

A THESIS
SUBMITTED TO MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY IN
PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

BY

ALMA L. SENIORS

DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATION

AND HIGHER EDUCATION

1974

Copyright by
ALMA LOUISE SENIORS

1974

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To Dr. Richard Featherstone, who served as chairman
of the dissertation committee, I am most thankful for his
suggestions and criticisms. My appreciation of their under-
standing and patience is extended to Dr. James McKee,

Dr. Lawrence Lezotte, and Dr. Lloyd Cofer who were members
of the committee.

A special thanks to Dr. Robert Smothers for his
assistance with the statistical analysis of the data used
in this study.

Finally, a deep appreciation to Dr. Clyde M. Campbell
and the Mott Leadership Program staff for making this

experience possible.

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 0

LIST OF TABLES O C O O O O O O O C O O O ‘ O O O .

Chapter

I.

II.

III.

INTRODUCTION 0 o o o o o o o o o o o o o 0

Statement of the Problem. . . . . .
Rationale and Purposes for the Study. .
Research Questions. . . . . . . . . . .
Limitations of the Study. . . . . . . .
Definition of Terms . . . . . . . . . .
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Summary and Overview. . . . . . . . . .

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE. . . . . . . . .

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Developing Meaningful School-Community.
Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Teacher Attitudes and Community
Participation . . . . . . . . . . . .
Community Participation in Community
Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Improving Living in School and
Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

METHODOLOGY 0 O 0 O O O O O O O O O O O 0

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Identification and Description of
Subjects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Restatement of Research Questions . . .
Instrumentation and Data Collection . .

Demographic Data Form

Community Attitude Scale

Teacher Attitude Scale Toward
Community Participation

iii

Page

ii

26
34
43
43
43

44
45

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS (Cont'd)

Method of Analysis . . . . . . .
IV. PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA.

IntrOduction O I O O O O O O O 0
Research Questions . . . . . . .
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . .

V. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS. . . .

Introduction . . . . . . . . . .
Review of the Findings . . . . .
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . .
Implications . . . . . . .

Recommendations for Further Study.

APPENDICES O O O C O O O O O O O O O O O O
A. Demographic Data Form. . . .
B. Teacher Attitude Scale of
Community Participation. .
C. Community Attitude Scale . .

BIBLIOGRAPHY O O O O I O O O O O O O O O 0

iv

Page
47
49
49
49
7O
75
76
78
80
83
84
85

86
90

95

Table

l.

10.

11.

12.

13.

LIST OF TABLES

Distribution of Respondents According to

Sex and Age . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Distribution of Respondents According to

Sex and Marital Status . . . . . . .

Statistical Analysis of Areas of Minimum

and Maximum Community Participation .

Statistical Correlations on Attitudes
Toward the Community and Community
Participation . . . . . . . . . . . .

Chi-Square Values of Community Participation
at the District-Wide and Local School Levels

Percents of Expected Teaching Levels.

Chi-Square Values of Responses to
Advisory Participation. . . . . . . .

Chi-Square Values of Responses to Decision-
Making Roles at the District-Wide Level

of Participation. . . . . . . . . . .

Chi-Square Values of Responses to Decision-
Making Roles at the Local School Level

of Participation. . . . . . . . . . .

Chi-Square Values of the Responses to
Social Participation. . . . . . . . .

Chi-Square Values of the Responses to
Educational Participation . . . . . .

Chi-Square Values of the Responses to
Employee Participation. . . . . . . .

Statistical Analysis of the Selected

Prospective Teachers' Attitudes Toward the

Community in General and the Expected
Community of Employment . . . . . . .

V

Page

50

50

51

53

55

55

57

58

59

60

60

61

62

Table
14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

LIST OF TABLES (Cont'd)

Percents of Future Teaching Residents. . .

Chi-Square Values of Responses to Advisory
Participation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Chi-Square Values of Responses to Decision-
Making Roles at the District—Wide Level
Of PartiCipatj-on O O O O O O I O O O O O O

Chi-Square Values of Responses to Decision—
Making Roles at the Local School Level of
Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Chi-Square Values of Responses to Social
PartiCipation O O O O O I O O O O O 0 O O

Chi-Square Values of Responses to
Educational Participation. . . . . . . . .

Chi—Square Values of Responses to Employee
Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Statistical Analysis of the Regional
Location of Rearing and Community
AttitUdeSo O O O O O I O O O O O O O O O 0

vi

Page

64

65

66

67

67

67

68

70

INTRODUCTION

One of the most salient aspects of community partici-
pation is that the school actively reaches out to involve
peOple by creating opportunities for them to become
knowledgeable and creative and to give them a real sense of
community. According to Dr. Ernest O. Melby, we must have
an education that helps the individual to know himself as
well as the world in which he lives. Education must seek
the fullest development of the individual but give equal
emphasis to the growth of his social responsibility. We
must help each individual become all that he is capable of
becoming.1 In many communities throughout the country,
the recent focus in public education, the community school
concept, stresses this kind of involvement with the idea
that what a child becomes depends on all with whom he comes
into contact--his family, friends, neighborhood, school, etc.

Community schools are most often characterized by the
kinds of communities they serve which directly affect the
kinds of programs and community involvement therein. In
other words, a community school program in an inner-city

area would tend to differ somewhat from that of a suburban

 

Ernest O. Melby, Administering Community Education
(New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1955T, p. 16.

 

1

area or a rural community. This difference may be due to
the felt or expressed needs of each community; the avail-
ability of community resources; and/or most important the
availability of an appropriate physical setting. In the
city, the school has many rivals for the attention of
children and adults. There are well-staffed churches,
Scouts, YMCA, YWCA, settlement houses, libraries, and etc.
Especially in middle-class neighborhoods the city school is
likely to find itself limited to more traditional practices.1

The community school aims to meet the needs of the
whole community.2 As such, the community school becomes an
educational center where the entire community motivates,
interacts, and shares in that most important process of in-
ducting youth into society. Fantini adds a new dimension
to the community school and school participation by the
community as he asserts:

The most advanced concept of the community

school includes all the foregoing elements but

features a fundamental change in the role of the

community. The community participates not only

as a client, not only in an advisory role, but
also as a decision maker.

 

1Robert J. Havighurst and Bernice L. Neugarten, Societ
and Education (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1964), p. 314.

 

2
Milton Schwebel, Who Can Be Educated? (New York:
Grove Press, Inc., 1968), p. 240.

 

3Mario D. Fantini, "Quality Education in Urban Schools,"
Community Control of Schools, ed. Henry M. Levin (New
York: Simon and Schuster, 1970), p. 48.

3

The building of creative communities through community
school participation is more than involving individuals in
well-worn adult basic education courses or the forming of
advisory councils. Rather, it is a composite of cooperative
socio-cultural, recreational, educational, and economic
programs designed to ease the tensions of everyday living
and to elevate the aspirational levels of the community
inhabitants. The school, as a catalytic agent of change
can, with the cooperation of parents and community agents,
meet the educational needs of the whole community.

John K. Galbraith in The Affluent Society states:

 

The effect of education and related invest-
ment in individuals is to help them overcome the
restraints that are imposed by their environ-
ments.

Thus, community involvement in school affairs tend to run
the gamut of preparation for life. The community schools
include not only children and youth but also adults involved
in day and evening activities covering a multiplicity of
areas.

Once when the head count was taken, 96,611
children, youth, and adults in Flint were parti-
cipating in some phase of the community school
program during a single week. This indicates
that these people were voluntarily striving to
learn new means of self-improvement in one or
more of the areas of the academic, economic,
vocational, social, cultural recreational,
aesthetic, or health fields.é

 

1John K. Galbraith, The Affluent Society (New York:
New American Library, 1970), p. 251.

2W. Fred Totten, The Power of Community Education
(Michigan: Pendell Publishers, 1970), p. 89.

 

 

4

In New York City, Washington, D. C. and elsewhere
community people are involved in school affairs as
governants in such substantive matters as budgeting,
personnel, and curriculum.

Community participation in school programs may not be
a panacea for all the ills of a non-creative or unproductive
community, but is is a step in the right direction. With
the c00peration of existing community agencies and the
active support and participation of the peOple, education
can bring about the fullest development of each individual

thus forming the basis for a creative community.

Statement of the Problem

Community participation usually connotes community
involvement. Thus, using the terms interchangeably, the
thrust of this participation is community influence in
school affairs and the varying forms it may take. The
involvement of individuals in all facets of the school is
an indication of both the community acceptance of citizen
interest and participation. This type of school-community
relations should reflect the process as a two-way venture.
The current literature reveals that citizens are eager and
willing to take part in this two-way process. However,
educators have not been as vocal. Therefore, the writer is
concerned with soliciting some measure of the attitudes of

selected prospective teachers toward community participation

in school affairs.

Rationale and Purposes for the Study

A significantly dramatic and relatively recent de—
velopment in public education is the debate over community
involvement in schools. There are as many forms of community
involvement ranging from adult participation in personal
interest programs to local control of schools as there are
debates over whether this input is needed. Consequently,
there are as many definitions of community participation
as there are definers, but among the least vocal of these
definers and debaters are teachers and prospective
teachers.

If education is to provide a total and creative
learning experience for all pupils, the implementers of
this experience should not, as most believe, be only

1 postulates, it is the

educators. If, as Ernest O. Melby
whole community that educates the child, then a first re-
sponsibility of educational administration is to exercise
creative community leadership. To do this is not to stand
idly by and let the lay population dictate change, but to
be an integral part of that change.

In recent years educators have emphasized the im-

portance of educational development being an integral part

of the community setting. Community schools are being

 

1Melby, Op. cit., p. 16.

6
organized with community concerns and citizen in-put as a
frame of reference. Teachers are increasingly becoming
aware of home and environmental influences on learning and
pupil behavior. Many writers feel that the schools without
substantial community involvement have shown little
evidence of being able to fulfill the educational needs of
the "whole" child. The same may be true of those schools
with parental and community involvement, but to a lesser
degree.

James Garrett, former director of Black Studies at
the Federal College in Washington, D. C., challenges the
legitimacy of the present system:

In a situation in which there are thousands

of dropouts from elementary schools and junior

high schools, the questions that must be raised

are not whether there is something wrong with the

children or their mothers or fathers, but whether

there is something wrong with the educational

system.

The attitudes of prospective teachers (and of in-
service teachers) toward community participation in schools
is significant in terms of the effective merging of school
and community resources. Whether prospective teachers are
to be content with past and present forms of lay involvement
or if they are willing to accept newer forms lay much of
the trend of community involvement. Again, school-community

relations must be a give and take affair and the rejection

of community involvement in the wake of community demands to

 

1Henry M. Levin, Community Control of Schools (New
York: Simon and Schuster, 1970), p. 106.

 

7
be involved does not necessarily indicate that the strife
between the school and community will be resolved.

What does this mean in educational terms? What are
the implications for the education of all pupils? The key
is a recognition of the failure/success to educate for
humanism and it is imperative that teachers not fail to
respond to this crisis. The implication is that a re-
ordering of values is necessary. Schools should provide
students and parents alike the Opportunity to select,
design, and articulate their own values and to not allow
them to be "fitted in" some prescribed pattern of behavior.

Individuals, of course, have projections of them-
selves in the present and into the future. If the school
intends to have import on these projections, it becomes,
then, imperative that educators seek ways to include lay
people in aspects of educational planning and organi-
zation, The how of this involvement would be dependent
upon the school and the community it serves. It is at this
point where the debate over the forms of community involve—
ment should be settled.

For education to help each individual to become all
that he is capable of bedoming is to be cognizant of and to
utilize resources of that individual's environment. Lay
peOple are asking that, in this process, they, too, as
educators of children should have a voice in this develop-

ment. As Robert Strom stresses the point:

8
School is not alone in providing an educa-

tional experience for children; the home, the

community and society also provide inputs of

ideas and learning exper1ences.

Students in training to be future teachers and, perhaps,
administrators should be aware of this crisis in education
and should be able to articulate their concerns and opinions.
These future teachers should further be informed about com-
munity resources and ways in which lay people can be
actively involved in the education of their children.

The attitudes of prospective teachers toward community
involvement in schools reflect, in part, the attitudes they
have about the community in general. The effect of these
attitudes may have import on the quality of education im-
parted to pupils. Therefore, the thoughts of prospective
teachers on the kinds of community participation in educa—
tion is needed as they may greatly influence future trends
of school-community relations. More specifically, the basic
purpose of the study is to describe the attitudes of

selected prospective teachers toward the broad range of

community participation.

Research Questions
The writer will attempt to respond to the following
questions as being most pertinent to the study:

1. Are there areas of minimum or maximum community

 

1Robert Strom, Teaching in the Slum School (Ohio:
Merrill Books, 1965), pp. 30—47.

 

9
participation as indicated by the responses
of the selected prospective teachers?
How do the attitudes of the selected prospective
teachers toward the community relate to their
choices of the areas of community participation?
Will the responses of the selected prospective
teachers toward community participation reflect
involvement of the community at the district-wide
and the local school levels of the school
organization?
Will the expected teaching levels of the selected
prospective teachers reflect the kind of com-
munity participation desired?
Is there a relationship between the selected
prospective teachers' attitudes toward the
community and the expected community of em-
ployment?
Is there a relationship between the selected
prospective teachers' future teaching resident
and the kinds of community participation indicated?
Is there a relationship between the selected
prospective teachers' regional location of rearing

and the kinds of community attitudes they have?

Limitations of the Study

The study is limited to a selected group of students

10
enrolled in the College of Education at Michigan State
University. Other limitations are:
1. No attempt is made to state ideal prospective
teacher attitudes.
2. No attempt is made to postulate ideal or de—
sirable forms of community participation.
3. No attempt is made to postulate desirable forms
of community participation in relation to school-

community relations.

Definition of Terms
The following terms are Operationally defined for the
sake of clarity:

Community school.--The sustaining cohesiveness which

 

involves the community in the everyday activity of the
school life, which encourages parents to return to school
for refresher courses, recreation, and the acquisition of
1

new skills.

Community.--Those residents in the geographic area of

 

Specific school with interdependent relationships.

Community participation.--Citizens sharing in or at-
tempting to influence and/or benefit from educational
programming.

Attitude.--A disposition or manner with regard to a

 

1John W. Porter, "The Community School As I See It,"
The Community School and Its Administration, Vol. VIII,
No. 9 TMay, 1970)}

11
person or thing.

Prospective teachers.--Students in training to become

 

teachers.

Creative community.--A community characterized by

 

educational and economic productivity and contributes to

the social life of the group.

Methodology
The method of research used in this study is the de-

scriptive survey. The Community Attitude Scale and the

 

Teacher Attitude Scale of Community participation are used

 

to obtain the information needed for the study.

The study is designed to analyze the attitudes of
selected prospective teachers toward community partici-
pation in schools with the assumption that these attitudes
are related to attitudes toward the community in general.

The Pearson Product Moment of Correlation is used to de-

 

termine the relationships of general community attitudes to

 

attitudes toward community participation. The Chi Square
Contingency Analysis is used to determine the relationships
of demographic variables to community attitudes in general.
The procedural steps employed are described as follows:
1. Identification and description of subjects
2. Restatement of research questions
3. Instrumentation and data collection

4. Explanation of the method of analysis used

12

Summary and Overview

The focus in Chapter I is to introduce the study. The
research concerns are identified and discussed on the basis
of the observations of the writer, who intends to examine
the literature and previous studies concerned with com—
munity participation and teacher attitudes therein.

In Chapter II a review of the literature and previous
studies is discussed as it relates to the research questions
posed. In Chapter III the proceudres are defined dealing
with the basis of the selected population. Chapter IV
contains an analysis and interpretation of the results as
they relate to the research questions.

In Chapter V the study is summarized; conclusions and

recommendations are given.

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Introduction
The review of the literature is primarily directed at
the following areas:
1. Developing Meaningful School-Community Relations
2. Teacher Attitudes and Community Participation
3. Community Participation in Community Schools
4. Improving Living in School and Community
Developing Meaningful School-
Community Relations
The literature suggests that there is increasing
concern‘on the part of educators and laymen alike for more
meaningful kinds of school-community relations. Interaction
must be the theme that dominates the relations between
schools and communities. Already leadership is being de-
veloped, tested, evaluated, and improved in this area. People
who have done much to develop the techniques of school-com-
munity relations still point to the vast potentialities which

1

remain untapped. These practices are not yet crystallized

but are in a continuous process of development and improvement.

 

1Education for All Americas Children (Washington, D. C.:
NBA and AASA, 19517, p. 240.

 

13

14
Olson, et, al., say it more directly:

Educators now generally recognize that lay
peOple may be immensely valuable to their school
program in the role of resource persons, that com-
munity groups may serve as important two-way
channels of communication between school and
community, that education is a community-wide as
well as school function, and that people care when
they share.1

Community people and school officials working side by
side to help the child, to improve the school and community
environments, and to involve adults in school affairs re-
presents the true essence of a meaningful partnership
between the two groups. Lonsdale in discussing the school
in metropolitan development crystallizes the concept by
stating:

School-community relations should be a two-way
process of interaction between school and community,
not a one-way process of school development only.
Just as the community should work with the school

in school improvement, the school should also work
with other agencies in community development.

Hymes extends the concept further:

Home-school relations must mean a two-way
process. The flow of ideas, energies, creativity,
and leadership must be in both directions at all
times. Effective relationships demand a free and
easy give and take between the family and the
school.3

 

1E. G. Olson (ed.), School and Community (New York:
Prentice-Hall, 1954), p. 428.

 

2R. C. Lonsdale, The School's Role in MetrOpolitan—Area
Deve10pment (New York: Syracuse University Press, 1960),
p. 371

 

3J. L. Hymes, Jr., Effective Home—School Relations
(New York: Prentice-Hall, 1954), p. 8.

15

The joint report of the National Education Association
and the American Association of School Administrators1 in
agreement with Olson, Lonsdale, and Hymes indicate that the
school belongs to all of the community not just to those who
have children in it. They adhere to the belief that ways
are being found to bring the lay-public into the schools.
The effort is not merely to develop comradeship--but also
to acquaint the public with what the schools are doing and
why they're doing it. The report continues with the
thought that when the people know these things the school's
work will be more effectively supported from the outside of
the school.

The literature related to school-community interaction
suggests that to improve the quality of life one important
ingredient is the sense of participation perceived by the
community at large. This sense of participation includes
being aware of, involved in, and to a degree deciding what's
going on in the school and the community.

Bright2 speaks of school-community relations in a
different perspective in theorizing that communities must
develop holistically. He believes that no longer can we
separate plan for education, health, social services, and

economic develOpment. An extension of this theory is given

 

1Education for All Americas Children, p. 246.

2William Bright, "Community Education Is A Process,"
Community Education Journal, II, No. 1 (February, 1972), 18.

16
by Seayl who believes that in reality it is the whole com-
munity that educates the child. He calls for a community
that provides the climate for learning. Consequently,
education must concern itself with the whole community,
seeking constantly to involve its resources and improve
the whole environment.

2 the school as

According to Havighurst and Neugarten
an agent of community change and betterment involves all
who live in the community. They affirm that people who
think about education in broad terms as a process of
teaching children the concepts and attitudes of their
society, and of teaching them how to behave in their social,
civic, and economic relations, tend to think of the whole
community as an educative agent.

Thus, in support of the evidence provided by the fore-

going contributions, Kerensky3

reports that community
education strives to mobolize the vast array of human and
physical resources that are available in each community but
often work in an independent, self-serving manner. In this
connection he explains that community education calls for

all agencies to work together for the common benefit of each

individual in the community.

 

1M. F. Seay, "Threads Running Through the Community
School Movement," Community Education Journal, II, No. 1
(February, 1972), 18.

 

2Havighurst and Neugarten, op. cit., p. 310.

3V. M. Kerensky, "Correcting Some Misconceptions About
Community Education," Phi Delta Kappan, LIV, No. 3
(November, 1972), 160.

 

17

As all agencies in the community and the school bring
resources together, they contribute to the quality of life
in that community. Cooperating agencies, in some instances,
work out of the school plant. Therefore, community schools
need to be specifically designed, both program and building
wise. Quiel calls for planning that involves the local
parks and recreation agency, community health leaders,
social service personnel, and others. He, also, emphasizes
the fact that parents of children and all adults interested
in education should have an input.

Campbell summarizes this concept by asserting:

If the community education movement is to be

relevant to the grave issue of our day, such as

drug addiction, juvenile delinquency, crime,

poverty, unemployment, there needs to be close

c00peration with other community agencies.

Levin, et. al., in an expose on legitimizing affective
objectives of the curriculum states:

In order for these objectives to be realized

the communities will begin to expand the con-

ception of the classroom to include the entire

community. Thus the talents of a social worker,

assemblyman, merchant, industrialist, will be

utilized, not as speakers in the schools but as

clinical teachers in the actual setting in the
community.

 

1A. H. Quie, "The Challenge of Lifelong Learning,"
Adult Leadership, XXI, No. 6 (December, 1972), 208.

2C. M. Campbell, "Contributions of the Mott Foundation
to the Community Education Movement," Phi Delta Kappan,
LIV, No. 3 (November, 1972), 197.

3H. Levin (ed.), Community Control of Schools (New
York: Simon & Schuster, 1970), P. 65.

18
Wayward,l in agreement with others, view the concept of
the school as a community center as a positive manifestation
of a current educational philosophy in the United States.

Olson2

sees the community school as a physical plant Open
sixteen hours every weekday, and Often on Sundays throughout
the entire year. He further sees the plant as a compre-
hensive community center serving the varied interests of
adults and of youth as well as educating in superior fashion
the students who come there.
Quie in discussing the school building as a community
facility states:
It should be used by all age groups for all
kinds Of educational programs, at all times
of the day, twelve months every year.
Punke extends the thought as he comments:
The community school which is equipped and
available for rendering several types Of services
to the community generally might well become as
increasingly an imporzant institution in the
nation's development.
Increasingly community schools are being designed and

built as full service schools. Atlanta's John F. Kennedy

Center is one such school. The design is to use the school

 

18. R. Wsyward, "The School As A Community Center,"
Public Education in America, ed. George Z. Bereday and Luigi
VOIpiceIIiITNew York: Harper and Brothers, 1958), p. 161.

2Olson, Op. cit., p. 407.

3Quie, op. cit.

H. H. Punke, Community Uses Of Public School Facili-
ties (London: Oxford University Press, 1951). P. 24.

 

l9
plant as a community service agency that brings together and
coordinates an array of forces serving the total population.
Thus "education" is seen in a general, encompassing sense,

relating not to formal training but to helping the indi-

vidual improve his lot and attain a more satisfying life.1

Another example Of a full service community school is
the Whitmer Human Resources Center in Pontiac, Michigan.

The Whitmer Human Resources Center is seen as
a means to the regenration of the central city as
well as a focal point for activities designed to
improve life chances of citizens of all ages.
Through programs and services offered at the
Whitmer Human Resources Center, residents should be
able to enhance their economic ability, health,
housing, education, community participation and
family functioning.

New Haven's Opening Opportunities Program is yet
another example:

Community schools, Operating twelve to fifteen
hours a day on a year-round basis, serving all
races, creeds, and classes, will be the instruments
for an integrated and total approach to neighbor-
hood needs. The school's basic roles will multiply
becoming those of an educational institution for
children and adults; a neighborhood center for
leisure and recreational activities; headquarters
for community services such as health clinics, family
and welfare services, legal aid and other social and
employment counseling; and a focus of neighborhood
life for confronting and resolving problems.

 

1J. R. Routh, “Atlanta's Educational Grab Bag," American
Education, VIII, NO. 6 (July, 1972), 33.

 

2Prospectus of Community School and Adult Services Of
the Human Resources Center (Pontiac, Michigan):

3A. H. Passow, "Education in Depressed Areas," Education
of the Disadvantaged, ed. A. H. Passow, M. Goldberg, and’A.J.
Tannebaum (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc.,
1967), p. 340.

 

 

 

20
As education seeks to become more committed to im-
proving the quality Of life, schools become the focal point
Of community activity and betterment. The United States

1 defines

Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
education in its broadest sense as a social enterprise
which demands for its achievement a general mobilization of
the energy, intelligence, idealism, and courage of the entire
community. Believing that the school can play a major role
in this enterprise, it is reported that schools can become
and should become the center of the educational, civic,
and social activities of the community. It is a unique
social agency because it occupies a strategic position in
the life of the community.

Whitelaw in accordance with HEW contends:

It will be the aim of the school to become so
functional in the life of the community that its
evolution as a community center will be a natural
by-product of its normal program. As it becomes
a recreation center for children, a center for
parents meetings and for participation in the
school's program and for projects in youth educa-
tion, there will be revealed increasing possibilities
for essential work Of this kind in the community.2
Nelson, et. al., pinpoint the strategic position of the

school in the following principles:

1. The means used by the educational institution
are more Open to community consideration than

 

1U. S. Department Of Health, Education, and Welfare,
Education for Better Living: The Role of the School in
Community Improvement, Bulletin 1956, NO. 9—(1957), 195.

2J. B. Whitelaw, The School and Its Community (New
York: Brockport, 1940), p. 34.

21
are those means of other institutions.

2. The educational institution is placed in the
structure of the community in varying relations
with other institutions and with formal
organizations.

3. In most small communities the school is the
largest single enterprise in the community, both
in terms of the budget and number of people in-
volved.

4. The original function of the educational institu-
tion, that of training in basic skills Of communi-
cations, has been supplemented by functions ex-
tending into almost every phase of the individual's
life.

5. The school's function in social change is poorly
defined in the structure of the community.

6. The authority to make school-related decisions
is carefully defined, with certain decisions
resting with the school and some with the
community.

7. The educational institution is not well inte-
grated at the post-school level with many re-
latively independent and specialized organi-
zations performing overlapping functions.

Historically it has been the belief education is

the stepping'stonetOISocial and economic upward mobility.
Beck, et. al.,2 have concluded that the school is the agency
which may best serve to liberate the individuals involun-
tarily enslaved by economic deprivation, but unfortunately,

it includes elements which inhibit its attempt to success-

fully accomplish the task Of assimilating these individuals.

 

1L. Nelson, Charles E. Ramsey, and C. Verner, Community
Structure and Changg (New York: MacMillan CO., 1964), p. 343.

 

2Bernier Beck, Walton McDonald, and Willers, Education
for Relevance (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin CO., 1968), p. 118.

 

 

22
They continue by declaring that the school has been remise
in this endeavor. The way in which the school has tackled
its task in the past has been generally reactive rather
than initiative; it has usually awaited cues from the
society.

G. S. Counts2

takes the position that as a result of
the above, other elements in the society continue to inter-
vene in the lives of people and that these intervening
factors have import on the developing student. He asserts
that if we now assume that the child will be imposed upon
in some fashion by the various elements in the environment,
the real question is not whether imposition will take place,
but rather from what source it will come. Therefore, he
believes, educational administrators have the task of
assuming some responsibility for what he calls the more
fundamental forms of imposition which, cannot be avoided.

Continuing in the same vein, Counts further postulates:

Because of forces already released, whether in

the field of economics, politics, morals, religion,

or art, the Old molds are being broken. If life

were peaceful and quiet and undisturbed by great

issues, we might with some show of wisdom center

our attention on the nature Of the child. But with

the world as it is, we cannot for a single instant

remove our eyes from the social scene or shift our
attention from the peculiar needs of our age.

 

lIbid., 123.

2G. S. Counts, Dare the School Build A New Social Order?
(New York: Arno Press, 1969), p. 28.

3Ibid., 31-32.

23

Teacher Attitudes and Community Participation

It is extremely difficult to write about or to make
generalizations about attitudes. The underlying reasoning
is that attitudes tend to fluctuate under the impact of
concrete social events and issues. It is possible that ex-
pressed attitudes reflect temporary reactions tO specific
cases or problems rather than to permanent feelings about
situations.

Given this, this portion of the review of literature
is a report of student teacher and teacher attitudes about
community involvement in schools. In terms of attitudinal
research on student teachers, Talmadge and Ornstein report
that:

Student teachers are more positive in

their perceptions of mutual decision making

roles than are inservice or preservice

teachers.l

Breer and Lock on task experience as a source of
attitudes suggest a significant correlation between One of
the job dimensions and one of attitude dimensions. They
believe this correlation can be explained in either of two
ways:

1. The attitudes were developed in response to the
job, or

 

lH. Talmadge and A. C. Ornstein, "Teachers' Perceptions
of Decision Making Roles and Responsibilities in Defining
Accountability," The Journal of NegrO'Education, XLII,
No. 2 (Spring, 1973), 219.

 

24

2. The job was chosen because Of its attractiveness

in the light of attitudes that were there to
begin with.

Sullivan conducted a survey of social attitudes and
information about public problems on a group of women
teachers in secondary schools and this is what he found:

The public school group in the Western States

seems to be somewhat more liberal than the total

public school group, while the public school group

in the Southern States seem to be somewhat more

conservative and less well informed. The group

in the New England States, while showing substan-

tially more information than the total public school

group, does not very significantly from the total
public school group in information means.2

While sullivan placed emphasis on the section of the
country in which one liveS' as a prime factor in influencing
ones attitudinal develOpment, Crespi tends to stress the
problem or issue as the influencing factor. Crespi3
contends that the individual attitudes that are held toward
anything tend to cluster together in defineable patterns.

In such a manner, attitudes are not discreet and unconnected;
rather, they exist across such factors as regional boundaries.

The current crisis in education, that of the failure

of most public school systems, is closely related to the

failure of teachers to become sensitive to the possible

 

1P. E. Breer and E. A. Locke, Task Experience as a
Source of Attitudes (Illinois: The Dorsey Press, 1965), p.268.

 

2J. C. Sullivan, A Study of the Social Attitudes and In-
formation on Public Problems Of—Women Teachers in Secondary
SEBOOls TNew York: Teachers COIIege, 1940), p. 32.

31. CreSpi, Attitude Research (New York: American
Marketing Association, 1965), p. 11.

 

25
effects Of the students' emotional lives upon their potential
learning. It appears that until most recently the conse-
quences of such an awareness of individual needs and Of com-
munity involvement have received little consideration in
terms of teacher training. CalthrOp and Owens in the book

Teachers for Tomorrow hold this belief and assert:

 

In the first place, it should be clear to all
that the knowledge Of children and their families
which teachers will acquire as a result of com-
munity links, will affect the kind of teaching
they do and perhaps their whole attitude as to
what they consider it right to do for children.

Expounding further on community links to education
Fantini emphasizes the process of participation in decision
making as basic tools of a democracy. He states:

Professionals, including researchers, are
referring more and more to the drive for self-
determination as the 'fate control' variable.
Preliminary findings indicate that fate control
fundamentally affects human motivation essential
to achievement in all areas.

In support of Fantini's statement, Handler in dis-
cussing teacher-parent relations reports:

The changing role of the public school is re-
flected in the 'Balance theory' of school-community
coordination. This theory describes a variety of
mechanisms whereby schools attempt to optimize
relations with parents by increasing social distance
with middle-class, highly involved parents. This
theory indicates that schools recognize the im-
portance of gaining the cooperation Of uninvolved

 

lCalthrop and Owens (eds.), Teachers for Tomorrow
(London: Heinnemann Educational Books Ltd.,“1970), pp. 118—19.

 

2M. D. Fantini, The Reform of Urban Schools (Washington:
National Education AssoEiation, 1970), p. 56f

 

26

parents in order to enhance the achievement
motivation of their students.

The increasing numbers of community oriented schools
coupled with educational rhetoric on community participation
in schools all suggest that educators, and teachers in
particular, have a vital role to play in translating this
vocal intent into conclusive action. Dr. John van Willigen,
et. al.,2 suggest that a professional should have a commit-
ment to the encouragement of community participation in
schools.

Community Participation in
Community Schools

Programs Of community involvement should be the goal
Of community schools. These programs should involve all
in the community working side-by-side with teachers and
other school personnel either as students or helpers. The
essence Of this involvement is a true partnership between
the home and the school. In support of this theory,
Wayward3 is of the persuasion that the recent concept of
the school as a community center has included attention to
both the curriculum for the child and activities by adults.
He carries the point further by implying that the educational

resources of the school are seen as available to all in the

 

lE. Handler, "Teacher-Parent Relations in Preschool,"
Urban Education (July/October, 1971), 218.

 

Dr. J. van Willigen, et. al., "Parents and Schools:
Participation," School and Community, LIX, NO. 3
(November, 1972), 78.

3

 

Wayward, op. cit., p. 166.

27

community and the sc0pe of activities as limited only by
the interests of the people concerned.

Lifton, et. al.,1 expand this point of view as they
declare that, as in the past, many still believe the schools
offer the best opportunity for creating the attitudes that
will form the basis for a better community climate. To be
truly effective and beneficial the authors believe that only
through constructive involvement of parents and students,
with technical assistance from staff can this emerge.

The Educational Policies Commission of the NBA and
AASA states:

As adults work with school people on school
problems, they frequently are taught by the skill-

ful guidance of well-prepared school staff members

and by other adults the skills of group action,

the problem solving attitudes so necessary in a

democracy, and the indisposition to tackle jobs

in co-Operating fashion. They are proving that
schools can help citizens build better communities.

3 calls for the entire community to educate its

Hymes
children; the teacher should not be alone in this re-
sponsibility. Taking this concept further to include com-
munity participation in education, Burgess has devised a

list of reasons for adult participation in education; they

are:

 

1W. M. Lifton (ed.), Educating for Tomorrow (New York:
Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1970), p.—37.

 

2Education Policies Commission, Strengthening Community
Life: Schools Can Help_(Washington, D.C.: National Education
Association & American Association of School Administrators,
1956), p. 24.

3

 

 

J. L. Hymes, Jr., Op. cit., p. 171.

28

The desire to know;

. The desire to reach a personal goal;

. The desire to reach a social goal;

The desire to reach a religious goal;

The desire to escape;

. The desire to take part in an activity' and

. The desire to comply with formal requirements.

\lONUlnwal-J
0

Conversely, Nelson, et. al., in discussing the func-
tions of the school as it relates to community members assert:

1. Learning is organized more around problems and
situations in the community itself than know—
ledge in isolation.

2. Groups and individuals from the community become
more deeply involved in the learning process as
educational resources and as advisory planning
groups.

3. Closer communication between school and com-
munity is affected.

4. Educational opportunities for adults are made
a normal part of the schools' function so that
adults can continue learning.

5. School facilities become generally available to
the community at large, becoming the cenSer for
the active social life of the community.

Fantini gives an example of relevant involvement:
Through involvement, parents and students can

learn about the complexities of teaching and

learning and relate these understandings to their

own values as teachers of others.

Why is parental involvement in schools valuable? Some

answers by John V. Willigen:

 

lP. BurgeSS, "Reasons for Adult Participation in Group
Educational Activities," Adult Leadership, XXII, No. 1
(Fall, 1971), 3.

2

 

Nelson, Ramsey, and Verner, Op. cit., p. 329.

3Fantini, Op. cit., p. 55.

29
1. Parental involvement can make schools and their
programs more appropriate to the needs Of the
community.

2. Parental involvement increases the sharing Of
responsibility in school administration.

3. Parental involvement yields increased resources
for school activities.

4. Parental involvement increases community inde-
pendence.

5. Parental involvement increases community com-
petence.

6. Increased parental participation makes the school
more approachable to other members of the com-
munity.

On the advantages of parental involvement in East

Harlem schools, the Great Atlantic and Pacific School

2 believe that the benefits are more concrete,

ConSpiracy
involving adult education, family health, and day care.
The more parents become integrated into these schools, the
more family services develop. The conspiracy continues by
suggesting that parent participation is facilitated when
they have ordinary daily contact with one another on the

3 concludes

block or in the neighborhood. The Conspiracy
that as a result of these findings the cooperative relation-
ships with other institutions (clinics, service agencies,

government) may be easier to establish, problems to which the

 

1J. V. Willigen, Op. cit., p. 21.

2Doing Your Own School: The Great Atlantic and Pacific
School Conspiracy (Boston: Beacon Press, 1972), p. 33}

 

3Ibid., p. 36.

30
school itself may become a cohesive force in the neigh-
borhOOd.

Quie1

in discussing adult involvement in schools is of
the opinion that more than any other factor, getting a much
broader range of people directly involved in their own
public school can improve American education. He further
suggests more adults in the school environment is what
children need and that parents also need Opportunities to
learn side-by—side with their children. He speculates that
this kind of involvement makes learning fun at a school
which caters to the many educational needs of the community.

Deshler and Erlich in speaking of governants and com-
munity control add this to community participation:

It appears that involvement of the community

in the life of the school is fundamental and

urgently needed if education is to begin to move

toward ltS max1mum potential.

Minzey speaks of community involvement as the nature
of the challenge of community education....Schools must,
he speculates extend their traditional services to all
members of the community, not only the student population.3

Jonnie Barnett, coordinator of parent activities in a

Tuskegee, Alabama school says of this involvement:

 

l . .
Qu1e, Op. Cit.

2B. Deshler and J. L. Erlich, "Citizens Involvement:
Evolution in the Revolution," Phi Delta Kappan, LIV, NO. 3
(November, 1972), 174.

 

3J. Minzey, "Community Education: An Example of Many
Ideas," Phi Delta Kappan, LIV, No. 3 (November, 1972), 174.

 

31

The meetings help parents become more verbal,
more articulate members of the community. They
are learning about the social, health, and re—
creational facilities that are available to them
and their families. And as they talk to me and
other staff members, they become more aware of
what school means to their children.1

Gundry furthers this concept by stating:

Besides participating in the recreational
programs, many of our residents have taken ad—
vantage of the basic education program, shop,
typing, and training for types of occupational
skills that lead to better jobs.

The literature also suggests that community involvement
can take many postures. Most importantly, Minzey and

LeTarte3

theorize that from class activities, adults can
become involved in helping plan their educational programs,
that of their children, and finally become involved in
working toward a better community for both themselves and
their neighbors as well. The dimension community education
adds is one of concern for the betterment of all people.

Weinberg takes the concept of involvement further:

The rehabilitation functions of the school may

be expressed in terms of adult educational and

counseling programs and these indeed may somehow

be linked to helping the disadvantaged child. In

this context the attempt is to involve the parents
in the one goal of helping the child develop

 

lJ. Reed, "Following Through in Macon County," American
Education, VII, No. 9 (November, 1971), 12.

 

2D. Gundry, "Now They're Somebody from Somewhere,"
Community Education, II, No. 4 (August, 1972), 35.

3J. Minzey and C. LeTarte, "Community Education — From
Program to Progress," Community Education Journal, I,
No. 3 (August, 1971), 8.

32

attitudes and aspirations which will motivate
him to take advantage of educational Opportunities.

Bass reports on general adult attitudes toward con—
tinuing education:

Urban adults whose ages were similar to those

of college students, twenty-four years or less

appeared to favor continuing education since

nearly two-thirds, 65 percent, of their responses

on the rating scale were strongly favorable or

favorable ones.

The United States Department of Health, Education, and
Welfare3 reports on adult education as an implement to en-
courage community develOpment through cooperative societies,
with insistence on study and planning together for action.
The results of a joint students and adults project at an
East Harlem High School reports that when the people were
given the responsibility for managing their own affairs
and an Opportunity to show their capacity for initiative
and leadership in carrying out a social enterprise, they
went through a process which could lead only to one result-
4

experience in better living.

Another posture community involvement takes is that

 

1C. Weinberg, Education and Social Problems (New York:
The Free Press, 1971), p. 62.

 

2F. L. Bass, "Impact of the Black Experience on At-
titudes Toward Continuing Education," Adult Education, XXII,
No. 3 (Spring, 1972), 211.

 

3U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare,
Op. cit.

4
Ibid., p. 197.

33
of community control of schools. This posture is a result
of a lack of an effective input into the educational
decision-making process. Reed1 contends that community
control of schools can and should result in improved
student academic performance. He continues by asserting:

While this improvement may not be immediate,
the community board can ensure, through its
selection criteria, that all school personnel
create a climate of individual respect, have
high pupil expectations, are committed to and
possess an understanding of and sensitivity to
the students served. Collectively, these factors
can lead to improved student academic performance.
In addition, the involvement of parents in the
schools and the educational process, a likely
outcome of community control of schools, shows a
positive relationship with school achievement.

Green in discussing decentralization of schools concurs
with Reed in suggesting that community control of schools
provides for positive relationships with school achieve-

ment. However, Green adds a different slant to the concept
as he postulates:

Decentralization is meaningless unless ac-
companied by community control, the process
whereby parents play an active role in decision-
making in the schools which their children attend.
Demands for community control of black schools
stem from the unresponsiveness of school ad-
ministratgrs and teachers to the needs of black
children.

Decentralization of schools coupled with the necessary

 

1R. J. Reed, "The Community School Board," School
Review, XXXLI, No. 3 (May, 1973), 360.

21bid.

3R. L. Green, "Community Control and Desegregation,"
School Review, XXXLI, No. 3 (May, 1973), 349.

 

34
community control of schools is working in some big—city
systems, according to Fantini:

Under political decentralization in big-city
systems for example, parents and community
residents share certain decisions and not others
with a central school board.

The parent role has been emphasized in such
participatory community centered programs as the
Morgan School and the Anacostia Community School
Experimentation in Washington, D. C. and in the
three demonstration districts of New York
(Scarsdale, Newton, and Harlem CORE).

Levin reports that school reform under community parti—
cipation should - and evidence is beginning to accumulate
that it does - take three main paths. These are:

First, it will add new hands and minds to the
task, from the parents and the community-at-large.
The new participants will come to know the educa-
tional enterprise from their own experience rather
than simply accepting its established goals and
procedures as virtues as pronounced by its pro-
fessional managers.

Second, it will encourage innovation and flexi-
bility on the part of professionals and will ex-
pand the base of professional recruitment. Finally

it will promote the developmenE of a more human-
istically oriented curriculum.

Improving Living in School
and Community
Community develOpment represents in a broad sense com-
munity improvement. When one speaks of community improvement
the implication of action programs come into focus. In the

context of this writing, action programs become joint efforts

 

1Fantini, Op. cit., pp. 59-60.

2Levin, Op. cit., p. 45.

.35

between the school and the community and other community
agencies. Olson,l in this connection, suggests that the
school must do more than merely make its buildings and
equipment available. If the school is to be viable and to
serve its larger function as a community center, Levin2
speculates that it must actually help community groups to
identify, define, and solve community problems. The
school, in short, must realize and accept its twin responsi-
bility for helping meet community needs as well as serving
individual needs.

The idea of school-community action programs is not
new. Years ago Glueck postulated:

Every schoolhouse is a potential neighborhood

center. Within its hospitable walls prejudices

can be more readily abandoned; local problems can

be impartially presented, discussed, and acted upon

by 'the neighbors,‘ recreational expression through

singing, pageants, clubs, and dances can contribute

much to the resolution of divisiveness, and in the

meeting together of the people of the neighborhood

on common ground a true spirit of cooperation can

be developed.3

The school, as an educational component of the com-
munity, must become an integral part of the individual in

his total environment. The Educational Policies Commission

of NBA and AASA4 on strengthening community life sees the

 

lOlson, Op. cit.

2Levin, op. cit.

3E. T. Glueck, Community Uses of Schools (Baltimore:
The Williams and Wilkins CO., 1927).

 

4 . . . . . .
Educational Pol1c1es Comm1531on, op. c1t., p. 14.

36
task of building better local communities in America as a
stupendous one. The Commission concludes that the peOple of
America and their educational leaders need to take a fresh
look at their public schools as tools for community im-
provement.
1

Passow further defines the role of the school as he
stresses the point that the school may choose from several
courses of action making drastic internal improvements to
enable itself to function as a lever for upgrading the
standards of the area as a whole or serving as the catalyst
for social urban renewal.

Lonsdale believes in a general sense, public education
has two kinds of broad objectives:

1. Those concerned with the development of

the individuals to the limits of their capacities,

and 2. those concerned with the development of the

community to improve the quality of living therein.

The two Objectives are interdependent: the develop-

ment of individuals assuredly contributes to the

betterment of the community, but one of the important

experiences through involvement in programs for

improving the community. The better community

stimulates the development of better individuals.

Lonsdale further emphasizes the point by saying:

Therefore, it behooves the school to make every

reasonable contribution it can to the improvement
of the quality of living in the metropolitan

 

1A. H. Passow, "Education in Depressed Areas," Education
of the Disadvantaged, eds. A. H. Passow, M. Goldberg, and
A. J. Tannebaum (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc.,

1967), p. 339.

 

2Lonsdale, op. cit., p. 38.

37
1

areas.

Community people are now saying the time has come for
active, organized community betterment and the place to
start is in the school. Throughout the country community
councils of varying descriptions are being formed demanding
school leadership in solving individuals and environmental
problems. Beck, et. al., lend support to these groups by
asserting:

In the flexible, pluralistic society it is the

task of the schools to encourage the development of

the kind of intelligence that will refuse merely

to accept the existing facts but will, rather,

devise practical measures of dealing with those

facts, thereby creating new facts that will speak

less harshly to human needs and desires.

There are many approaches to community development,
involving the points of view of the layman, the professional
community, and the educator. Some view the process of
community development as a means of solving group problems
and achieving common goals. Others place emphasis on de-
veloping leadership to construct learning experiences to aid
individuals in becoming intelligent participating members Of
society.

Weinberg on humanism and education suggests:

The humanistic school will be concerned with
knowledge, interpersonal relations, human

 

lIbid., p. 39.

2Beck, Bernier, MacDonald, Walton, and Willers,

op. cit., p. 170.

38

potentialities, and social problems. Students will
have an opportunity to be involved with all parts
of their humanity in effecting change within the
school and within the society. Education will be
relevant because it will bring, in a meaningful way,
the cognitive and affective processes together;

and resistance to activities which prevent persons
from being productive will become a commitment of
students.

The National Education Association and the American
Association of School Administrators emphasize a multi-
purpose approach to community develOpment as they postulate:

Through adult education, the school can help to
raise the intellectual and spiritual level of the
environment in which the schools' children live.

Through recreation the school can help improve the

physical and mental health of the community.

Through leadership in group activities the school

can help to improve the ecgnomic welfare of the

families of the community.

Fantini3 concurs with NEA and AASA and summarizes the
concept in terms of a process involving parents, students,
and professionals together in the common pursuit of reform.
The process itself serves to cement new relationships among
them. Olson4 speaks of youth and their perceptions of
relevancy in the curriculum. He maintains that youth know

the school alone can't solve all the problems Of life and

society. However, they also know that since the school is

 

1Weinberg, Op. cit., p. 16.

2Education for All Americas Children, op. cit., p. 273.
3Fantini, Op. cit., p. 58.

4E. G. Olson, "Dare We DevelOp A Relevant Curriculum,"
Community Education Journal, II, No. 1 (February, 1972), 8.

39
society's chief formal agency of education, it should
directly prepare them for their present and future living.

Dodson supports this theory and adds to it the
following:

Those outside the pale of power usually press
for an education which embodies more of the re-
construction role. That is to say, they hOpe that
the schools will help change the system so they
will get a better break.l
On community education and the future Dodson states:

If it can secure involvement around common
concerns and can monitor the process sufficiently
that the encounters of those of divergent heritages
becomes creative and fulfilling rather than
destructive, if it can pull these heterogeneous
communities into a new consensus, its contribution
may well be our solution.

Salt Lake City school principal Gundry3 says his
community school program has made the peOple feel that
they are important. Now they're somebody from somewhere.
Feedback shows they can accomplish something, do something
worthwhile. Gundry senses that now they have a spirit, a
real feeling for their school.

Totten speaks of community education as a feasible
reform for communities:

By bringing into concert all of the learning

forces and factors in the community, we have a
good chance of realizing community education:

 

1D. W. Dodson, "Intergroup Relations: The Curriculum
and Community Education," Community Education Journal,
II, No. 3 (May, 1972), ll.

2

 

Education for All Americas Children, op. cit., p. 273.

3Fantini, Op. cit., p. 58.

40

1. To improve the circumstances of life for
people here and now, and

2. To wprk toward eliminating the causes of
social ills.

Marland carries the idea further:

Community education brings together peOple of
all ages from diverse social and economic back-
grounds and gives them an opportunity to learn in
the geographic area in which they live. As a
Spirit of cooperation and an eagerness to learn
develops the barriers of prejudice begin to be
broken down. Out of this kind of an atmosphere,
solutions to 30mg of the problems of the community
begin to evolve.

Dan Dodson on factors of population and what they say
about the population served states:

Schools will need to intervene in the lives
of many of these children to the end that cir-
cumstances of birth does not deprive them of
their chance. Schools must come to terms with
the people in these neighborhoods in order that
they may work for the good of the children in
harmony and confidence.

Olson on education and economics asserts:

What is happening is that education is now
being thought of as part of a general problem
of social action for raising the socio—economic
level of the poor. We have discovered that good
education is good business, because the level of
education is as important a factor in determining
the per capita income as the possession of natural
resources.

 

1W. F. Totten, "Editorial - Community Education: The
Feasible Reform," Phi Delta Kappan, LIV, NO. 3 (November,
1972), 148-49.

 

2S. P. Marland, Jr., “The Federal Role in Community Edu-
cation," Phi Delta Kappan, LIV, NO. 3 (November, 1972), 146.

3Lifton, Educating for Tomorrow, p. 24.

 

4J. Olson, "Needed: A New Kind of School for the Slums,"
Changing Education, II, Nos. 1 and 2 (Summer, 1967), 7.

 

41

Education, then, is a needed prerequisite to raising
economic levels. Elam and‘McLurel report that by 1975,
according to the 0.8. Department of Labor estimates, 60
percent of the civilian labor force will have completed
four years of high school or more. For workers in the
twenty-five to thirty-four year age group, this pro-
portion is projected to reach 70 percent.

As a result of these predictions, they ask the question:

Will schools be graduating enough educated and

trained people to fill the growing needs in the

white collar occupations and especially, in the

professional and technical fields.

Ryan and Lewis report on one school-community response:

The format of training for employment was the

basis of a WIN Program (Work Incentive Program)

initiated in a northeastern community in 1969.

At the time the program was instituted, nearly

12,000 persons in the community were receiving

welfare payments. From this population, fifteen

enrollees were foundj and five successfully com-

pleted this program.

The sense of welfare and a minimum standard of living
are part of what people need out of life. The schools are

still the most important and viable instrument toward

reaching these ends. Beck, et. al., concur with this point

 

18. Elam and W. P. McLure (eds.), Educational Require-
ments for the 70's (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Pub.,
1967) I p0 1420

2Ibid., p. 137.

3M. N. Ryan and L. S. Lewis, "The Theory and Practice
of Educating the Disadvantaged: A Case Study," Education
and Urban Society, IV, No. 2 (February, 1972), 155-57.

 

42
of view and add a different dimension. This dimension
states:

The road to advancement within the societal
milieu increasingly depends upon the school's
capacity to provide the maximum educational
Opportunity for all its students.1
Thus, in accordance with Manvell2 the aim of civil-

ization should be to enable as many people as possible
throughout the world to discover their capabilities and

use them creatively for their own good and the good of

the society in which they live.

 

1Bernier Beck, Walton MacDonald, and Willers, Education
for Relevance, p. 118.

 

 

2R. Manvell, "The Fulfillment of Private Relationships,"
Peace-Happiness-Prosperity, No. 17 (February, 1972), 20.

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

Introduction

The method of research used in this study is the
descriptive survey. The Community Attitude Scale and the
Teacher Attitude Scale of Community Participation are used
to obtain the information needed for the study.

The procedural steps employed are described as
follows: 1) identification and description of subjects,
2) restatement of research questions, 3) instrumentation
and data collection, and 4) explanation of the method of

analysis used.

Identification and Description of Subjects

The subjects used in this study were sixty-eight full-
time students enrolled in the course Education 450 of the
College of Education at Michigan State University. Each
student had completed student teaching experiences and were
completing final requirements for the bachelor's degree in
either elementary or secondary education.

Of these sixty-eight students, fourteen were male and
fifty-four were female. In terms of age, the majority, 76
percent, were in the twenty-two to twenty-five year age

43

44
group, 18 percent were twenty—one years old or younger,
and .005 percent over twenty—five.

A further breakdown of students' marital status revealed
that twenty-one were married, forty-six were single and one
divorced. The proportion of minority students to majority
(white) students was too small to warrant separate con-
sideration.

The students were selected because each has spent a
prescribed length of time in internships as student teachers
in public schools, each plans to become a public school
teacher, and each has certain beliefs about the role of the
school in the community and the corresponding roles, if
any, of lay people in the planning and implementation of

school programs.

Restatement of Research Questions

The basic purpose of this study is to describe the
attitudes of selected prospective teachers toward the broad
range of community participation in school affairs. In
order to determine the above, the following research
questions were posed:

Question 1. Are there areas of minimum or maximum
community participation as indicated by

the responses Of the selected pros-
pective teachers?

 

Question 2. How do the attitudes of the selected
prospective teachers toward the com-
munity relate to their choices of the
areas of community participation?

 

45

Question 3. Will the responses of the selected pros-
pective teachers toward community parti-
cipation reflect involvement of the
community at the district-wide and the
local levels of the school organization?

 

Question 4. Will the expected teaching levels of the
selected prospective teachers reflect the
kind of community participation desired?

 

Question 5. Is there a relationship between the se-
lected prOSpective teachers' attitudes
toward the community and the expected
community of employment?

 

Question 6. Is there a relationship between the
selected prOSpective teachers' future
teaching resident and the kinds of com-
munity participation indicated?

 

Question 7. Is there a relationship between the
selected prospective teachers' regional.
location of rearing and the kinds of
community attitudes they have?

 

Instrumentaion and Data Collection

The Community Attitude Scale (Appendix A) develOped by

 

C. Bosworth was designed to measure an individual's degree
of progressive attitudes on community life in such areas as
community improvement, living conditions, and business.1

The CAS consists of sixty items to be responded to in
Likert-like responses of "Strongly Agree," "Agree," "Un-
certain," "Disagree," "Strongly Disagree." In terms of
attitudinal responses, Mr. Bosworth assumes that an individ-

ual scoring positively has a progressive attitude towards the

 

lC. Bosworth, "A Study of the Development and the
Validation of a Measure of Citizens' Attitudes Toward Pro-
gress and Game Variables Related Thereto" (unpublished
Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1954).

46
community; this score is reflected at the low end Of the
scale. Conversely, a high scoring individual will have a
negative attitude towards the community.

According to Bosworth,l the variables under investi-
gation do seem important and the items do show good wording
and high geneity, even though item content seems quite
heterogeneous. Based on the foregoing, this instrument is
used to collect the neceSSary data on which to derive con-
clusions on attitudes toward the community in general.

The Teacher Attitude Scale Toward Community Partici-

 

pation (Appendix B) was develOped by the writer. The scale
was designed to solicit teachers' attitudes toward five
types of community involvement in schools. These areas of
involvement are:

1. advisory roles

2. decision-making roles

3. social participation

4. educational participation

5. employee participation

A counter—balancing list of nineteen items covering
each of the five areas was included to indicate continuity of
responses. All items required Likert-like reSponses of
"Strongly Agree," "Agree," "Uncertain," "Disagree," and

"Strongly Disagree." High scores on the scale are indicative

- mfi—g—

 

1W. E. Roberson, "Selected Personal Attitudes of Inner-
City Teachers Toward Low—Income Communities in Relation to
Disadvantaged Children" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,
1972).

47
of favorable attitudes toward community participation and
the reverse is true of low scores. There was no pre-
administering of the instrument. The instrument was used
for the first time with the subjects in this study.

Based on the inputs and appraisal of Michigan State
University researcher Dr. Lawrence Lezotte and the writer,
the variables under inquiry do seem important and the items
show good wording and interpretation.

The sixty-eight selected prospective teachers re-
sponded to the instrument in three separate sittings. They
were divided into three groups of twenty-four each for
ease Of administering the instrument. In each instance, the
demographic data were collected prior to the administering

of the two attitudinal scales.

Method of Analysis

Analysis of the responses of the subjects is reported
in terms of the Pearson Product Moment of Correlation and
the Chi Square Contingency Analysis.

The Pearson Product Moment of Correlation is used to
determine the relationships of community attitudes in
general to attitudes toward the five areas of community par-
ticipation in schools. This measure is also used to de-
termine relationships between community attitudes in general
to attitudes toward community decision-making at the
district-wide and local levels of the school organization.

The reason is to show that there is a relationship between

these ideas.

48

The Chi Square Contingency Analysis is used to determine
the relationships of demographic variables to community
attitudes in general. The categorical variables used are:

age range

sex

marital status

expected residential location

expected teaching level
The measure is further used because it tests for signi—
ficance of association between two attributes. These

findings are reported in Chapter IV in the Presentation

and Analysis of Data.

CHAPTER IV
PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

Introduction

The basic purpose of the study is to describe the
attitudes of selected prospective teachers toward the
broad range Of community participation in school affairs.
These attitudes will be described here as they relate to
the areas of community participation in school affairs at
the district-wide and local school levels of the school
organization.

The selected prospective teachers, as surveyed, are
sixty-eight senior undergraduates at Michigan State
University who were enrolled in a course called Education
450. As such, they number (Table l) fourteen males and
fifty-four females. The subjects are further divided into
groups according to marital status, and as such, are
(Table 2) married males 10.3 percent, single males, 10.3
percent, married females, 22.1 percent, single females,

54.4 percent, and divorced females 2.9 percent. Accordingly,
the majority of the selected prospective teachers are single

females between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-five years.

Research Questions

Question 1. Are there areas of minimum or maximum

 

49

50

TABLE 1

DISTRIBUTION OF RESPONDENTS ACCORDING TO SEX AND AGE

 

 

 

 

Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent
Sex ,Of Total. AF, Under.21...22~25 . Over 25 .Total
Male 20.6 14 0 16.2 4.4 20.6
Female 79.4 54 17.6 60.3 1.5 79.4
Total 100.0 68 17.6 76.5 5.9 100.0
TABLE 2

DISTRIBUTION OF RESPONDENTS ACCORDING TO SEX AND
MARITAL STATUS

 

 

 

Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent
Sex of Total Married Single Divorced Total
Male 20.6 14 10.3 10.3 0 20.6
Female 79.4 54 22.1 54.4 2.9 79.4
Total 100.0 68 32.4 64.7 2.9 100.0

 

participation as indicated by the re-
sponses of the selected prospective

teachers?

As depicted in Table 3, each area of community parti-

cipation is significant as viewed by the selected prospective

teachers indicating that all areas are considered worthy of

maximum community participation.

The T and F of the mean

indicate that all areas are significant at the .0005 level

51

 

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52
maximum community participation. The T and F of the mean
indicate that all areas are significant at the .0005 level
of significance. Therefore, there are no areas Of minimum
participation.

There are variations in the deviations of each area
from the mean. The data in Table 3 indicate that areas
one, two, three, and seven are similar in terms of
variations and areas four, five, and six are similar based
on the standard deviations from the mean.

The .0005 outcome (level of significance) may be in-
dicative of the effect community education has in the
community or the exposure of the students through course
work in community education. These results are of a
Specific group of prospective teachers and readers are
cautioned not to generalize beyond this select group.

Question 2. Iknvdo the attitudes of the selected
prospective teachers toward the com-

munity relate to their choices of the
areas Of community participation?

 

The degree of relationship between community attitudes
and areas of community participation is significant at the
alpha level of .05 which indicates a correlation coefficient
of .25. This correlation suggests a definite, but small,
relationship between the variables under investigation.

According to Guilford'sl analysis of the magnitude of

the coefficient and the degree of relationship, any

 

1J. P. Guilford, Fundamental Statistics in Psychology
and Education (2nd ed.) New York: McGraw-HiiI_Book CO.,
I950), p0 165.

 

53
coefficient less than .20 indicates a Slight, almost
negligible relationship. Therefore, as shown in Table 4,
the attitudes of the selected prospective teachers suggest
a definite relationship to the areas of community partici-

pation in educational participation, employee participation

TABLE 4

STATISTICAL CORRELATIONS ON ATTITUDES TOWARD THE
COMMUNITY AND COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

 

 

 

 

Variable Simple Correlation
1. Advisory Roles -.0186
2. Decision-making

District-wide .0877
3. Decision-making

Local School —.0643
4. Social Participation -.0653
5. Educational Participation —.3249
6. Employee Participation -.2820
7. General Participation -.3360

N - 68 a — .05 r - .25

 

and in general participation to the community at-large.
These relationships are negatively correlated. Thus imply-

ing that the selected prospective teachers' community

54
attitudes are inversely related to the choices of the areas
of community participation.

Question 3. Will the responses of the selected
prospective teachers toward community
participation reflect involvement of
the community at the district-wide and
local school levels of the school
organization?

 

When the ten individuals sub-areas of both variables
(district-wide and local school) were used as independent
variables, the correlation is significant at the .05 level
of confidence as indicated by Table 5. To be significant,
each variable must have a Chi-square value at the respective
degree of freedom.

The responses of the selected prOSpective teachers
do reflect Significant involvement at the local school
level of the school organization. With five and/or four
degrees of freedom the observed Chi-square values allow
for acceptable involvement at the .05 level at only one
decision-making level, the local school; with one ex-
ception, that of the selection of the district super—
intendent. This area would only be significant at the .20
level with five degrees of freedom.

None of the ten variables under the district-wide
level of participation was considered significant at the
.05 level of confidence with either four or five degrees
of freedom. To be significant with four or five degrees

Of freedom, each variable should have received a Chi-square

55

 

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56
value of at least 9.49 or 11.07 at the .05 level.

Question 4. Will the expected teaching levels of
the selected prospective teachers
reflect the kind of community par-
ticipation desired?

 

The expected teaching levels of the selected pros-
pective teachers and the percents of respondents in each
are reflected in Table 6. Of these teaching levels, the
majority of the respondents, 58.8 percent, fall into the
category of elementary education. The junior high school

level is lowest with 8.8 percent.

TABLE 6

PERCENTS OF EXPECTED TEACHING LEVELS

 

 

 

 

Variable Percent of Total Frequency
Elementary 58.8 40
Junior High 8.8 6
Senior High 32.4 22
Total 100.0 68

 

The categories of community participation are given
in six facets. They are:

1. Advisory participation

2. Decision—making roles at the district-wide level

3. Decision-making roles at the local school level

4. SOOial participation

57

5. Educational participation

6. Employee participation

Table 7 indicates the responses Of the selected pros—
pective teachers in advisory participation. This category
is divided into three areas: (1) Salary and fringe benefits,
(2) Working conditions, and (3) Instructional program.
Each area has related sub-areas on which Chi-square values

are computed. At the .05 level of significance, only one

 

 

 

TABLE 7
CHI-SQUARE VALUES OF RESPONSES TO ADVISORY PARTICI-
PATION
Variable X2 DF
1. Salary and fringe benefits
a. Salary schedule 5.062
b. Extra pay 1.097 8
2. Working conditions
a. Teaching load 15,470 8
b. Transfer policy 14.231 8
c. Reprimands 8.772 6
d. Evaluation 10.780 8
3. Instructional program
a. Curriculum 10.951 8
b. Textbook selection 8.272 8
c. Class size 8.503 8
d. Teacher-aides 6.296 8

 

sub-area reflects desired participation. This sub-area is
Item 2a of Table 7 - Working conditions with regards to

teaching load. Item 2b on transfer policy comes close to

58
significance at 12.231. To be significant at the .05
level, this item should have a Chi—square value of 15.51.
Table 8 denotes the Chi-square values of responses to
category two, Decision—making roles at the district-wide
level of participation. With 10 degrees of freedom at the
.05 level of significance none of the sub—areas reflect

community participation. To have been significant, each

TABLE 8

CHI-SQUARE VALUES OF RESPONSES TO DECISION-MAKING
ROLES AT THE DISTRICT-WIDE LEVEL OF PARTI-
CIPATION

 

 

Variable X2 DF

 

1. Procedures for disciplining

students 8.253 10
2. Use of school facilities 5.080 10
3. Evaluating teachers 10.256 10
4. Teacher qualifications 6.461 10
5. Teacher-aide selection 3.921 10
6. Curriculum 11.514 10
7. Educational Objectives 10.027 10
8. Hiring of teachers 5.824 10
9. Selection of principal 7.386 10

10. Selection of district
superintendent ' ' ‘ ‘ 6.201 ' 10

area should have a Chi—square value of 18.81 with ten

59
degrees of freedom at the .05 level of significance.

The same kind of community participation at the local
school level was also depicted as insignificant. Table 9
denotes the Chi-square values of the responses of this
level of community participation. None of the sub-areas

were viewed as significant at the .05 level of significance.

TABLE 9

CHI-SQUARE VALUES OF RESPONSES TO DECISION-
MAKING ROLES AT THE LOCAL SCHOOL LEVEL
OF PARTICIPATION

 

 

Variable X DF

*4—

1. Prededures for disciplining

students 7.710 10
2. Use of school facilities 7.815 8
3. Evaluating teachers 7.580 10
4. Teacher qualifications 4.289 10
5. Teacher-aide selection 9.517 8
6. Curriculum 7.602 10
7. Educational objectives 11.256 10
8. Hiring of teachers 10.389 10
9. Selection of principal 11.173 10

10. Selection Of district
superintendent -- ~ 38.256 10

 

The Chi—square values Of responses to the category on

social participation are given in Table 10. The data

6O
connote that only one subwarea, committee membership, is

significant based on four degrees of freedom at the ,05

level.

TABLE 10

CHI-SQUARE VALUES OF THE RESPONSES TO SOCIAL

 

 

PARTICIPATION
Variable X2 DF
Advisory council membership 8.276 4
Advisory council decision—making 6.148 6
Financial activities 9.994 6
Committee membership 12.823 4

 

The data in Table 11 indicate reSponses of the
selected prospective teachers to the category of educa-

tional participation. Of the four sub-areas of

TABLE 11

CHI-SQUARE VALUES OF THE RESPONSES TO EDUCA-
TIONAL PARTICIPATION

 

 

 

Variable X2 DF
Adult education 4.821 4
Personal interest courses 3.201 6
Recreation and games 2.005 4

Resource persons 7.914 6

 

61
participation, none are given as significant areas of com-
munity participation at the .05 level with the reSpective
degree of freedom.

This trend is repeated in Table 12 reflecting no
significant participation in the category of employee par-
ticipation. No sub-area received a Chi-square value that
was significant at the respective degree of freedom, thus
reflecting community involvement in terms of employee

participation as undesirable.

 

 

 

TABLE 12
CHI-SWUARE VALUES OF THE RESPONSES TO EMPLOYEE
PARTICIPATION
. 2
Variable X DF
Teacher-aides 5.996 6
Custodial 8.037 6
Food service 9.504 6
Clerical 9.171 8

 

Question 5. Is there a relationship between the
selected prospective teachers' attitudes
toward the community and the expected
community of employment?

 

The data in Table 13 denote the relationship between
the selected prospective teachers' attitudes toward the
community and the expected community of employment. Of the

expected communities given, suburban areas rank highest,

62
TABLE 13

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE SELECTED PROSPECTIVE
TEACHERS' ATTITUDES TOWARD THE COMMUNITY
IN GENERAL AND THE EXPECTED COMMUNITY
OF EMPLOYMENT

 

 

 

 

 

 

NO
Urban Suburban ' Rural Preference Sum
Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent
T F T F T F T F T F
19.1 13 30.9 21 7.4 5 42.6 29 100.0 68
Variable Correlation Variable Correlation Variable Corre-
lation
l. .1074 21. .0446 41. -.0443
2. .1285 22. -.0292 42. .0651
3. .6072* 23. .0239 43. .2041
4. .1031 24. .1123 44. .1181
5. .0829 25. .1195 45. .0075
6. -.0010 26. .2170 46. -.0659
7. .0793 27. .0826 47. -.1370
8. .0243 28. .1265 48. .1717
9. -.0125 29. .1016 49. .0147
10. .0158 30. .0297 50. .1580
11. .0491 31. .0266 51. .0480
12. -.2500* 32. -.1716 52. -.0045
13. .1109 33. -.0898 53. .0296
14. .0193 - 34. .0108 54. .0679
15. .0078 35. .0616 55. .1188
16. -.0249 36. -.2289 56. .0085
17. -.0493 37. -.0139 57. -.1199
18. .0539 38. .0540 58. -.l409
19. -.0319 39. -.0443 59. .1968
20. -.2500 40. -.0275 60. -.0862
a = .05 r=.24 N=68(68-2) *p .05

 

*
WOrding Of the variables are to be found in the Appendix.

63
30.9 percent, among the selected prospective teachers with
an even higher percent, 42.6, having no preference. Table

13 indicates the sixty items on the Community Attitude Scale

 

and the corresponding correlation coefficient for each item
at the Alpha level of .05. The data reveal that only three

of the items connote a definite relationship to the ex-

Item 3. Every community Should encourage more

pected community of employment. These items are:
music and lecture programs. I

Item 12. Adult education should be an essential
part of the school program.

Item 20. Churches should be expanded and located
in accordance with population growth.

Of these three items, item three gives a moderate
correlation coefficient (between 40-70) of .6072 indicating
a substantial direct relationship. Item twelve and twenty
are indicative of direct relationships that are inversely
related.

Item thirty-six reflects a correlation coefficient of
-.2289 indicating a low correlation with a small but definite
inverse relationship. This item states:

Item 26. The good citizens encourage widespread

circulation of all views including that
which may be unfavorable to them and
their organizations.

Question 6. Is there a relationship between the
selected prospective teachers' future

teaching resident and the kinds of com-
munity participation indicated?

 

The selected prospective teachers' future teaching

64
residents and the percents of respondents in each given area
are reflected in Table 14. Of the three choices given,
suburban areas rank highest with 30.9 percent and even
higher still are the 42.6 percent of respondents with no

preference.

TABLE 14

PERCENTS OF FUTURE TEACHING RESIDENTS

4—

 

 

Variable Percent of Total Frequency

 

 

Urban 19.1 13
Suburban 30.9 21
Rural 7.4 5
No Preference 42.6 29
Total 100.0 68

 

Tables 15 through 20 denote the statistical analysis of
the respondents toward the kinds Of community participation
viewed as significant as they relate to future teaching
residents. Each table presents a category of involvement
with selected sub-areas on which Chi—square values were taken
and significance measured at the .05 level.

None of the sub-areas was indicated as having signi-

finance by the responses of the selected prospective teachers.

65
Therefore, the future teaching residents reflect negative
involvement of the community when related to the kinds of

community participation desired.

TABLE 15

CHI-SQUARE VALUES OF RESPONSES TO ADVISORY PARTICIPATION

 

 

 

Variable X2 DF
1. Salary and fringe benefits
a. Salary schedule 7.960 12
b. Extra pay 13.076 12
2. Working conditions
a. Teaching load 18.265 12
b. Transfer policy 18.565 12
c. Reprimands 9.946 9
d. Evaluation 7.078 12
3. Instructional program
a. Curriculum 6.975 12
b. Textbook selection 5.869 12
c. Class size 11.652 12
d. Teacher-aides 5.259 12

 

TABLE 16

CHI-SQUARE VALUES OF RESPONSES TO DECISION MAKING
ROLES AT THE DISTRICT-WIDE LEVEL OF PARTICIPATION

 

 

Variable x2 DF

 

1. Procedures for disciplining
students 15.363 15

2. Use of school facilities 7.495 15

 

66

TABLE 16 (Continued)

 

 

 

 

Variable-p.-~ _ . X2.. DF
3. Evaluating teachers 12.632 15
4. Teacher qualifications 11.846 15
5. Teacher-aide selection 14.310 15
6. Curriculum 12.098 15
7. Educational objectives 18.562 15
8. Hiring of teachers 16.320 15
9. Selection of principal 12.714 15
10. Selection of district
superintendent 10.674 15
TABLE 17

CHI-SQUARE VALUES OF RESPONSES TO DECISION-MAKING
ROLES AT THE LOCAL SCHOOL LEVEL PARTICIPATION

 

 

Variable x2 DF

 

1. Procedures for disciplining

students 9.105 15
2. Use of school facilities 8.616 12
3. Evaluating teachers 10.341 15
4. Teacher qualifications 9.952 15
5. Teacher—aide selection 8.638 12

6. Curriculum 6.663 15

 

67

TABLE 17 (Continued)

 

 

 

Variable .2. .X‘.. DF
7. Educational Objectives 10.776 15
8. Hiring of teachers 10.039 15
9. Selection of principal 11.542 15
10. Selection of district
.isuperintendentppp- .7..,. .___5°266 15

 

TABLE 18

CHI-SQUARE VALUES OF RESPONSES TO SOCIAL PARTICIPATION

 

 

 

 

2

Variable X DF
1. Advisory council membership 7.694 6
2. Advisory council decision-

making 7.041 9
3. Financial activities 7.318 9
4. Committee membership 4.965 6

TABLE 19

CHI-SQUARE VALUES OF RESPONSES TO EDUCATIONAL PAR-
TICIPATION

 

 

Variab1e~ X DF'

 

68

TABLE 19 (Continued)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Variable .XZ DF
1. Adult education 7.626 6
2. Personal interest courses 10.404 9
3. Recreation and games 5.800 6
4. Resource persons 8.782 9
TABLE 20
CHI-SQUARE VALUES OF RESPONSES TO EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION
. 2
Variable X DF
1. Teacher-aides 7.002 9
2. Custodial 11.094 9
3. Food service 9.807 9
4. Clerical 12.855 12

 

Question 7. Is there a relationship between the

 

selected prospective teahcers' regional

location of rearing and the kinds of
community attitudes they have?

The data in Table 21 connote the relationship between

the selected prospective teachers' regional location of

rearing and the kinds of community attitudes they have. The

five locations are listed as Northeast, Northwest, Southeast,

69

Southwest, and Mid—west.

The statistical analysis of these locations is given
in terms of percents and frequencies. AS given (Table 21)
they are 11.8 percent from the Northeast, 5.9 percent from
the Northwest, 2.9 percent from the Southeast, 2.9 percent
from the Southwest, and the majority, 76.5 percent from
the Midewest. All sixty-eight subjects responded to this
question.

Table 21 indicates the sixty items on the Community

 

Attitude Scale and the CorreSponding correlation coeffi-

 

cient for each item at the Alpha level of .05 as related to
the regional location of rearing. The data depict five
items as having a definite relationship between the
variables under consideration. These five items are:

Item 11. Too much time is usually Spent on the
planning phases of community projects.

Item 17. In order to grow, a community must pro-
vide additional recreation facilities.

Item 51. Only those who have the most time should
assume the responsibility for civic
programs.

Item 52. Living conditions in a community should
be improved.

Item 56. The paved streets and roads in most
communities are good enough.

Of these five items, two items, seventeen and fifty-
two, Show direct relationship and items eleven, fifty-one

and fifty-two denote an inverse relationship.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE REGIONAL LOCATION
REARING AND COMMUNITY ATTITUDES

70

TABLE 21

OF

 

r

 

 

 

 

 

Northeast Northwest Southeast. Southwest Mid-West
Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent
T ‘ ' F ' T " ' F‘ 'T F T ’ F T F
N=66(68-2) . r=-24 a=-05.. *P t .05
Variable Corre- Variable Corre- Variable Corre—
,1ation_,__,.,., ,.1ation , lation
1. —.0334 21. .1433 41. -.1474
2. -.0250 22. .0381 42. -.l704
3. .0336 23. -.1384 43. .0359
4. .1283 24. .0898 44. -.1138
5. .1261 25. .0003 45. -.0063
6. .0917 26. .0638 46. -.1321
7. -.0350 27. -.0800 47. .0583
8. -.1223 28. .1168 48. -.0954
9. .0466 29. —.0498 49. -.1078
10. -.1507 30. .0326 50. -.0729
11. -.2844* 31. .0747 51. -.2448*
12. .0891 32. .0235 52. -.2780*
13. .0329 33. -.1237 53. .2214
14. -.0329 34. .0879 54. -.1131
15. .0233 35. -.l364 55. -.2078
16. .1592 36. -.1225 56. -.2524*
17. .2971* 37. .0383 57. .0541
18. .1032 38. .0843 58. -.l900
19. -.1282 39. -.0622 59. .0046
20. .0182 40. .0602 60. .1434
*
Wording of the variables is to be found in the Appendix.

Summary
The responses of the selected prospective teachers to
community participation indicated that in terms of the areas

of minimum and maximum participation, each area is

71
significant. Thus, the data (Table 3) connote that all
areas are considered worthy of maximum community involve-
ment. Conversely, there are no areas of minimum partici—
pation.

The reader is reminded that these and the following
results are of a specific group of prospective teachers
and are cautioned not to generalize beyond this select
group.

As depicted in Table 4, the attitudes of the selected
prospective teachers toward the community in general suggest
a definite relationship to the areas of community partici-
pation in educational participation, employee participation,
and in general participation in school affairs. These re-
lationships are negatively correlated; thus implying an
inverse relationship.

The categories of community participation in school
affairs are:

1. Advisory participation

2. Decision-making roles at the district-wide level

3. Decision-making roles at the local school level

4. Social participation

5. Educational participation, and

6. Employee participation

Each category has related sub-areas of participation
on which Chiesquare values of the reSponses to desired in-
volvement were taken. The results suggest that when paired

with the expected teaching levels, the responses to

72
advisory participation in school affairs only one sub-area
reflects desired involvement. This sub—area is Item 2a
of Table 7 — Working conditions with regard to teaching load.
Item 2b of Table 7 on transfer policy comes close to sig-
nificance.

In terms of decision-making roles by the community at
both the district-wide and local school levels Of the school
organization, none of the areas of participation reflect
desired involvement. Conversely, the responses reflect
involvement at the local school level in decision-making
roles when the responses were categoric (Table 5) with
only one exception; that of the selection of the district
superintendent.

The latter categories of involvement, educational and
employee participation, indicate no significant community
input based on the Chi—square values at the .05 level Of
significance. Thus, the expected teaching levels of the
selected prospective teachers reflect desired community
[participation in school affairs in terms of input through
working conditions (teaching load) and committee membership
only. All other suggested categories of involvement were
rejected by the respondents.

When the same categories of community participation
were related to the future teaching residents (Urban subur-
ban, rural) of the selected prospective teachers, none Of

the sub-areas Of participation were indicated as having

73

significance. This may suggest that neither teacher levels
(whether elementary, junior high, or senior high) nor
future teaching residents are not supportive of compre-
hensive community involvement. Yet, the same respondents
reported that all areas of involvement are significant when
it is a question of minimum or maximum participation re-
gardless of the expected teaching levels or future teaching
residents.

The attitudes of the selected prospective teachers
toward the community in general and the expected community
of employment connote that only three items Of the

Community Attitude Scale reflect a definite relationship

 

to the expected community of employment. Of these three
expected communities (urban, suburban, rural), suburban

areas rank highest (30.9 percent) among the respondents

with an even higher number (42.5 percent) having no pre-
ference (Table 13).

The Community Attitude Scale was again used to determine

 

if a relationship existed between the selected prospective
teachers' regional location of rearing and the kinds of
community attitudes they held. The data (Table 21) indicate
that only five items reflect a definite relationship between
the variables under consideration. The regional locations
given were Northwest, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and

Mid—west. Most respondents were reared in the Mid—west

(76.5 percent).

74

Of the items on the EAS indicating a definite relation-
ship between the community in_genera1 and the two categoric
variables (expected community of employment and regional
location of rearing), none are the same. The results sug-
gest that when community attitudes were related to regional
location of rearing, the respondents showed concern for
those items relating to community improvement and citizen
involvement in city planning. On the other hand, when
community attitudes were related to an expected community
of employment, the respondents showed concern for those

items relating to self—improvement through education.

CHAPTER V
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Introduction
The basic purpose of this investigation is to describe
the attitudes Of selected prospective teachers toward the
broad range of community participation in school affairs.
The investigation focused on sixty—eight senior undergrad-
uates enrolled in a course called Education 450 of the
College of Education at Michigan State University.

The Community Attitude Scale and the Teacher Attitude

 

 

Scale of Community Participation were used to assess the

 

attitudes of the selected prospective teachers. A survey
of demographic variables was taken prior to the adminis-
tration Of the two scales to solicit categoric data. Sig-
nificant involvements based on attitudes were statistically

analyzed by the Chi-square test of significance and the

 

Pearson Product Moment of Correlation.

A review of the literature and related studies is given
to present community and educators' views on community
participation in school affairs. The review also dealt with
school-community relations and how these relations contribute
to improving living in the school and the community. It was

'75

76
established that educators are now realizing the importance
of community in-put in the various aSpects of school affairs.
Community people are also saying that they want to be a part
of the formal education of their children and are demanding

this right of involvement.

Review of the Findings

The research findings of this investigation support
the following conclusions indicated by the responses of
the selected prospective teachers: There are no areas of
minimum community participation. Rather, it is generally
agreed that community participation is desirable in all
areas surveyed. The T and F of the mean (Table 3) indicate
that all areas are significant at the .0005 level. The
reader is cautioned that these responses are of community
participation in six broad areas of the school organization.
When each area was sub-divided into smaller areas of in-
volvement, the reSponses denote variations in responses to
community participation.

The categories of community participation in school
affairs are defined as:

1. Advisory participation

2. Decision—making roles at the district-wide level

3. Decision—making roles at the local school level

4. Social participation

5. Educational participation, and

6. Employee participation

77
When asked to indicate.their expected community of em—
ployment, suburban areas ranked highest, 30.9 percent,
among the selected prospective teachers. An even higher
number, 42.6 percent, indicated no preference. Based on
this information, attitudes toward the community in general
were measured. The data revealed that only three of the

items on the Community Attitude Scale connote a definite re—

 

lationship to the expected community of employment. These
items dealt with attitudes on self-improvement through
education.

In the same frame of reference, when community attitudes
were related to the regional location of rearing, the data
depict five items on the CAS as having a definite relation-
ship. These items dealt with attitudes on community improve-3
ment and citizen involvement in city planning. The majority
of the selected prospective teachers (76.5 percent) were
from Mid-western suburbia. These results suggest that there
are variations in attitudinal relationships based on com-
munities of rearing and projected future residents.

The attitudes of the selected prospective teachers
toward the community in general as related to their choices
of the areas of community participation suggest a definite
relationship to the areas of educational participation,
employee participation, and in general involvement. The
negative correlation (Table 4) imply that these attitudes
are inversely related to the choices of community parti—

cipation.

78

The expected teaching residents, as chosen by the
selected prospective teachers, connote negative involvement
of the community in all areas of school affairs. Yet, when
paired with the expected teaching levels, community involve-
ment was desirable in advisory roles and social participation
only in terms of input into the sub—areas of teaching load
(Table 7) and committee membership (Table 10).

As to decision making roles by community members, the
data reflect acceptable involvement at the local school
level of the school organization. The one exception at this
level of decision making is that of the selection of the
district superintendent which was indicated as unacceptable

involvement.

Conclusions

The following conclusions are given:

1. There are no areas of minimum community
participation in school affairs as indicated
by the responses of the selected prospective
teachers. The mean score indicate that each
of the seven areas of community involvement
is one of the significant maximum participation.

2. The selected prospective teachers' attitudes
toward the community are inversely related to
the choices of the areas of community parti—
cipation.

3. The responses of the selected-prospective

79

teachers do reflect significant involvement at
the local school level of the school organi-
zation in all areas except the selection of the
district superintendent.

The expected teaching levels of the selected
prospective teachers reflect desired community
participation in areas of advisory participation
with regards to working conditions (teaching load
and transfer policy), and in social participation
with community committee membership as the only
significant sub—area.

The relationship between the selected prospective
teachers' attitudes toward the community and the
expected community of employed as measured by

the EAS reveal that only three of the items denote
a relationship. (See Table 13)

The selected prospective teachers' responses
connote unacceptable relationships between their
future teaching residences and the kinds of
community participation indicated on the TASEP,
(Teacher Attitude Scale of Community Partici-
pation).

The relationship between the selected prospective
teachers' regional location of rearing and the
kinds of community attitudes they have as measured

on the CAS reveal that only five items have a de—

finite relationship to the regional location

80

of rearing (See Table 21).

Implications

The attitudes of the selected prospective teachers

toward community participation in school have the

following implications:

1.

In terms of the successful merging of school

and community relations within the framework

of current demands of lay people for direct
involvement in school affairs, the attitudes
teachers present and the subsequent follow-up

may well determine the amount, type, and
significance of any community invOlvement.

To bring about direct and positive community
participation in schools, especially those
exposing the community education philosophy,
teacher attitudes toward this involvement must

be favorable, especially at the local school
levels of the school organization.

The attitudes of teachers toward the community

are significant if they are to actively seek

and support community involvement in decision-
making on school policy and Operational details.
The literature suggests that school administrators
are becoming increasingly concerned with community

inputs; therefore, it is necessary that this

81
concern permeates all school personnel units
and community involvement is intensified. In
so doing, not only is the optimum of prospective
teachers maintained, but in-service personnel may
also find that their attitudes toward the com-
munity are changing.
With increased community participation, com—
munity life improves; people become more in-
terested and involved in other aspects of their
lives; they become more adept in finding solutions
to social and economic problems; and they become
more proficient in articulating their needs and
concerns. This, then, approaches the essence of
community education. Likewise, teachers begin
to see communities in a new light.
The school must become more approachable to
other members of the community. It is at this
point where teachers and other school personnel
must contribute to the quality of life in a com-
munity. In this connection, the school must, in
some communities, be a catalytic agent in change.
This calls for school personnel with positive
community attitudes and a willingness to share in
the development of creative communities.
Since it is the whole community that educates

the child, there are also implications for

82
teacher—training institutions in terms of the
kinds of community experiences the students
receive and the kinds of courses they take
relative to school—community interactions.
It becomes a partial responsibility of higher
education to insure the involvement of students
in the life of the community. By failing to
integrate students into the life of the com-
munity institutions of higher education are
overlooking a vast storehouse of creativity and
talent. They are also failing to prepare pros-
pective teachers to respond to community affairs
in an active and responsible fashion. Students
in such an atmosphere fail to develop positive
attitudes toward the community.
School and community relations must be a give
and take affair. Just as the school expects the
community to support and take interest in its
projects, so must the school support and take
interest in community concerns.
The advantages Of community participation in
school affairs are many. The more community
people become involved in schools, the more im-
proved education can become. Community involve-
ment can make learning fun at a school which

caters to the needs of the community. Children

10.

The

study.
1.

83
become more interested.in learning as they
observe their parents working side-by—side with
school personnel.
Community participation increases community
independence and competence and encourages more
professionalism and accountability on the part
of the school staff. Involvement of the com-
munity is urgently needed if education is to
resolve its current crisis in learning and begin

to move toward its maximum potential.

Recommendations for Further Study

following recommendations ade made for further

This study should be replicated on all
prospective teachers.

This study should be replicated on tenured
or in-service teachers.

A longitudinal study should be conducted to
determine any change in attitudes once the
prospective teachers become members of the
teaching profession.

The study should be replicated on an ethnic
group basis.

A study should be made to compare teacher at-
titudes with those of school administrators

on community participation.

APPENDIX

84

DEMOGRAPHIC DATA FORM

 

INSTRUCTIONS: Check the appropriate answer for each question.

 

1.

What is your sex?

Male Female

What is your age?

Under 21 _____ 22 to 25 Over 25

What is your present marital status?

Married Single Divorced Widowed

Separated

 

What is your ethnic group?
Black White Other
How would you characterize the community from which you

came?

 

Region Urban Suburban Rural

 

Northeast
Northwest
Southeast

 

SautHWest

 

Mid-west

 

What grade level would you prefer to teach?
Elementary Junior High Senior High
What type of school district would you prefer to teach in?

Urban Suburban Rural NO preference

85

 

TEACHER ATTITUDE SCALE OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

INSTRUCTIONS: Please check only one answer for each item.

 

SA - Strongly Agree U - Undecided D - Disagree
A - Agree or undecided SD - Strongly
Disagree

1. Community advisory roles in relation to teachers.

Topic SA A U D SD

 

Salary and Fringe Benefits

 

salary schedule
extra pay for special
activities

 

 

WOrking Conditions

 

teaching load
transfer policy
reprimands
evaluation

 

 

 

 

Instructional Program

 

curriculum
textbook selection
class size

teacher aides

 

 

 

 

2. Community roles in decision making.

 

Topic SA A U D SD SA A U D SD

 

Procedure for disci-
plining students

Use of school facilities
Evaluating teachers
Teacher qualifications
Teacher-aide selection

Curriculum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

86

87

 

Topic

SA A U D SD

SA A U D SD

 

Educational Objectivies
Hiring of teachers
Selection of principal
Selection of district
superintendent

 

 

 

 

Social participation of the community.

 

Topic

SA A U D SD

 

Advisory Council member-
ship

Advisory Council
decision-making

Financial activities

Committee membership

Educational participation

 

 

 

 

of the community.

 

Topic

Adult education

Personal interest courses
Recreation and games
Resource persons

Employee participation of

SA A U D SD

 

 

 

 

the community.

 

Topic
Teacher aide
Custodial
Food service
Clerical

Parents should be used as

SA A U D

SA A U D SD

 

 

 

 

volunteers in school programming.

SD

 

 

 

H 'II .'n- .
. f'a!
.-r.'{r .rrr
. ' 0. '
)lr r0 4'
. f " ".v\'-\ p .9. r .
.\ 351‘ - x- 1...... O JJ—j‘t '
l | .‘ -
. 5 v
"E" ;_}f .0.
.-
T"--
'11 .
‘u-4-—-l-

fiif.-7‘

f..LllZ

"'f

.5

ll---

 

.' v-H'InI' { -‘ "

‘ . .1114........ .’[-. .Ls
L

I O

| p I /-

‘u‘AaoAAo-I.\'\ 5‘ v

r» ~ 9 p—

, ,

Q - a» .‘b

A _..L -----4..- I... .

to

I".

u-..

v

.‘c

:£:‘-I!‘."
'ag: 1 f i .
of}: {.a-t

'10‘.
naulx
‘..\!'\|I"

‘_:.”.-

c..JI:-. .1 a- 'I

10.

ll.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

88
Parents should have a voice in textbook selection.
SA A U D SD

Disciplinary measures used should be COOperatively
established by both the school staff and the community.

SA A U D SD

Among those having in-put in the evaluation of teachers
and parents.

SA A U D SD

Teacher qualifications should be jointly defined by school
personnel and community people.

SA A U D SD

The establishment of educational Objectivies should be
community-wide, including school Officials and lay

people.
SA A U D SD

Parents should never be expected to have in-put into
the selection of a school principal.

SA A U D SD

Parents and other lay people should never be used as
resource persons in the school.

SA A U D SD

Community people are only useful as promoters of current
school policy.

SA ‘ A U D SD

Schools do not necessarily need community advisory
groups.

SA A U D SD

 

Community pe0ple do not make good decision makers of
school policy.

SA A U D SD

 

.;I\)111)"1".T .5n~wil;.1 n:

1'! H.1'vgcwr'» ‘uf i.le..:'

\r>~'v .,' a
a . - .

‘/lif'Hf'H::H'v w“? inn. ll:.}- 1.....2‘

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

89

Parents have no business asking questions about a
teacher's class size.

SA A U D SD

 

Community people have much to Offer in deciding
teacher's salary scales.

SA A U D SD

 

Community participation in schools should be limited
to salaried positions only.

SA A U D SD

 

Schools should not provide adult personal interest
courses.

SA A U D SD

 

Community participation in schools should be limited
to the local school level.

SA' A ' ‘ U D SD

 

Teacher reprimands and/or dismissals is of interest
only to school officials.

SA A U D SD

 

Teachers should not be concerned with community
involvement.

SA A U- D SD

 

Schools should provide recreational activities for all
members of the community.

SA A U D SD

 

 

COMMUNITY ATTITUDE SCALE

INSTRUCTIONS: Please circle only one answer for each question.

 

SA - Strongly Agree A - Agree U - Undecided
D - Disagree SD - Strongly Disagree

1. The school should stick to the 3 R's
and forget about most of the other
courses being Offered today. sa a

'0
Q:

sd

2. Most communities are good enough
as they are without starting any

new community improvement problems. sa a sd

'0
m

3. Every community should encourage
more music and lecture programs. sa a

'0
Q;

sd

4. This used to be a better community
to live in. ' sa a

'0
0;

ed

5. Long-term progress is more im-
portant than immediate benefits. sa a

'0
Q;

sd

6. we have too many organizations for
doing good in the community. sa a ? d sd

7. The home and the church Should have
all the responsibility for preparing
young people for marriage and
parenthood. ‘ sa a

w
o.

Sd

8 The responsibility for Older people
should be confined to themselves and
their families instead of the
community. sa a

'0
DJ

sd

9. Communities have too many youth
programs. sa a ? d sd

10. Schools are good enough as they are
in most communities. sa a

w
0.:

sd

11. Too much time is usually spent on
the planning phases of community
projects. sa a ? d sd

12. Adult education should be an
essential part of the local school
program. sa a ? d sd

90

 

Y'i'l/Rnia

DITO

r
or -v
‘--C)

0133.0 ~u

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26

91

Only the doctors should have the responsi-

bility for the health program in
the community.

Mental illness is not a responsibility
for the whole community.

A modern community should have the
Service of social agencies.

The Spiritual needs of the citizens
are adequately met by the churches.

In order to grow, a community must
provide additional recreation
facilities.

In general, church members are
better citizens.

The social needs of the citizens are
the responsibility of themselves

and their families and not Of the
community.

Churches should be expanded and
located in accordance with
pOpulation growth.

No community improvement program
should be carried on that is
injurious to a business.

Industrial develOpment should include
the interest in assisting local
industry.

The first and major responsibility
of each citizen should be to earn
dollars for his own pocket.

More Industry in town lowers the
living standards.

The responsibility Of citizens who are
not actively participating in a
community improvement prOgram is to
criticize those who are active.

What is good for the community is

Igood for me.

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27.

28

29.

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

35.

36.

37.

38.

39.

40.

92

Each one should handle his own
business as he pleases and let the
other businessmen handle theirs as
they please.

A strong Chamber of Commerce is
beneficial to any community.

Leaders of the Chamber of Commerce
are against the welfare of the
majority of the citizens in the
community.

A community would get along better if
each one would mind his own business
and let others take care of theirs.

Members of any community organization
should be expected to attend only
those meetings that affect him
personally.

Each of us can make real progress only
when the group as a whole makes
progress.

The person who pays no attention to
the complaints of the persons work-
ing for him is a poor citizen.

It would be better if we would have
the farmer look after his own busi-
ness and we look after ours.

All unions are full of communists.

The good citizens encourage the wide-
spread circulation of all news in-
cluding that which may be unfavorable
to them and their organizations.

The good citizen should help minority
groups with their problems.

The farmer has too prominent a
place in our society.

A citizen should join only those
organizations that will promote his
own interests.

Everyone is out for himself at the
expense of everyone else.

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41.

42.

43.

44.

45.

46.

47.

48.

49

50

51.

52.

53.

54.

55.

56.

93

Busy people should not have the
responsibility for civic programs. sa

The main reSponsibility for keeping
the community clean is up to the
city officials. sa

Community improvements are fine if
they don't increase taxes. sa

The younger element have too much
to say about our community affairs. sa

A progressive community must provide
adequate parking facilities. sa

Government Officials should get
public sentiment before acting on
major municipal projects. sa

A good citizen should be willing to
assume leadership in a civic im-
provement organization. sa

Progress can best be accomplished by
having only a few peOple involved. sa

Community improvement should be the
concern of only a few leaders in the
community. sa

A community would be better if less
people would spend time on community
improvement projects. sa

Only those who have the most time should
assume the responsibility for civic
programs. sa

Living conditions in a community
should be improved. sa

A good citizen should sign petitions
for community improvement. sa

Improving slum areas is a waste of
money. sa

The police force should be especially
strict with outsiders. sa

The paved streets and roads in most
communities are good enough. sa

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57.

58.

59.

60.

94

The sewage system of a community
must be expanded as it grows even
though it is necessary to increase
taxes.

Some people just want to live in
slum areas.

The main problem we face is high
taxes.

Modern methods and equipment should be
provided for all phases of city
government.

Bosworth, C.
Ph.D. dissertation
University of Michigan, 1954

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. t.

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