Portraits of Teacher Dedication in Vermont.
The authors of this study have concluded, after an extensive review of the literature and the testimony of numerous Vermont teachers, that dedication and commitment are useful terms to apply when discussing teacher outstandingness and teacher excellence, especially in rural context, and that there are measures which can be quantified of these attributes. It may be that higher levels of teacher dedication or commitment are present in either end of the population spectrum among the very rural and the very urban. It is believed that measures of teacher commitment and dedication could include teacher time and teacher wealth. Outstanding or excellent teachers in Vermont over time have spent their own money and have given great quantities of discretionary time to their students in support of improving education. The authors of this paper became interested several years ago in teacher motivation, teacher commitment, and teacher dedication. Several literature searches spaced throughout the 80's up into the early 90's showed that, although there was some interest in teacher commitment, no work had been done in the area of teacher dedication, especially as it related to teacher quality, teacher effectiveness, and teacher excellence. In spite of the lack of research, words like commitment and dedication are often used in research on teaching and teacher motivation. The authors ccncluded that this phenomena was worthy of further investigation and set out to develop a design. Vermont, which at the time that field research was completed, was the most rural state in the nation. It seemed an excellent place to begin for several reasons. There was a readily identifiable population of teachers who had been labeled by their peers and administrators as excellent or of high quality. These teachers were those who had been selected for recognition by the University of Vermont through its Outstanding Teacher program run annually since 1981. By 1990, almost 800 Vermont teachers had been singled out for this accolade. A search of archival sources led to several diaries and previously unpublished works related to teachers and teaching in Vermont and Northern New England housed at both the Wilbur Collection at the University of Vermont and the Vermont Historical Society Museum in Montpelier. The existence of the second pool of information stimulated the researchers to develop a two-stage case study using the archival data for the first set of cases and eighteen purposefully selected teachers as the second set of cases. Thus, a qualitative design emerged using the two-stage case study mentioned above and incorporating purposive sampling techniques. Among the descriptors associated with rurality are remoteness, loneliness, scarcity, and lack of opportunity (Matthes and Carlson, 1987).
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF RURAL ENVIRONMENTS: A FRAME OF REFERENCE FOR MENTAL HEALTH PRACTICE
The expanding literature on the delivery of health and human services in rural environments is replete with assertions about the "differences" between rural and urban practice [ 1-6]. Researchers, service providers, and policymakers have all assailed the urban bias of the dominant models, structures, and strategies for service delivery and have testified to their inappropriateness for a rural environment. It has been argued that successful practice in small towns and rural communities requires a unique set of skills and knowledge (or at least a reordering of skills). Further, it has been maintained that traditional preservice programs for mental health providers have an urban bias. Much of this rhetoric, however, has been ambiguous and abstract and has not led to a clear articulation of those aspects of rural practice that are unique. Most work in this area to date has been speculative or based on the personal observations of individual practitioners. Empirical verification of any "differences" remains, for the most part, a goal to be achieved.
Transition from Urban to Rural Mental Health Practice
The process of adjustment, during the first year or longer, included a number of identifiable stages which could be called euphoria, depression, and adaptation