RES 6101 Report: Analyzing Mothers' Views on School Closure Impact

This report analyzes an interview with a mother, Janice, regarding the potential closure of her children's rural school and the perceived impact on the community. The analysis identifies key concepts such as conservativeness, socialization, and morality, highlighting the community's desire to maintain its values and protect its children from the perceived negative influences of a larger, more diverse school in town. The report argues that closing the rural school would lead to a loss of community, deterioration of moral standards, and increased travel distances for students, ultimately disrupting the close-knit social fabric and cultural identity of the community. The analysis uses the interview transcript to support these claims, emphasizing the mothers' concerns about bullying, drug abuse, and the erosion of traditional values if their children were to attend the town school. The report suggests that the closure decision overlooks the importance of the school as a central pillar of the community's social and moral well-being.

RESEARCH METHODS
[Author Name(s), First M. Last, Omit Titles and Degrees]
[Institutional Affiliation(s)]

Interview Question: I was wondering if you could tell me what you feel are the strengths of
your school, your local school for primary students and also for the secondary students.
I mean a lot of the kids in the school are related and people might laugh at that hillbilly aspect
but it is really nice that they are with people that you know well. The other thing is with the
High School, I means the High School in town, in the bigger town, have got lots of problems,
and it is a really big High School. Other schools have been closed down, the kids are bused in,
they have got really big bullying problems, they've got, well there is drugs and I mean we know
if anything, I mean it might sound like we don't, but we are parents we know if something is
happening in the school that is untoward or if there is any strangers hanging around, we know, so
I really like that sort of, you can keep your kids not cotton wool balled, but just protected and I
just would hate to see them pushed off.
Janice, one of the mothers whose children attend the school, demonstrates how out rightly wrong
it worked be to close down the school for whatever reason. Throughout the interview, she
attempts to share her pain and opinions on why she thinks the school should remain that any
group of person imagining to close the school any soon need to think again about it. Among the
concepts that can be lifted from the coding includes conservativeness and socialization.
In her defense, Janice finds it very wrong for her children to go school in town as the school in
town is a very big school that has a very large population and thus the kids are not known to each
other. This is contrary to their school in which every kid is familiar with and is known to the
other and to the members of their families. The family members are also known to each other.
This enhances cooperation among the children both at the same level of learning and at different
levels as per the argument by Janice (Salter, 2013). The end result of such cooperation is

improved social interaction among the children which is the expectation of the community. The
community expects that the children are able to identify each other single handedly and they can
share freely on any platform without the fear of integration with those perceived to be intruders
or foreigners in the community (Salter, 2013). The country being occupied by a large number of
Aboriginal people, the members of the community feel by having their children go to school in
town, the quality of their interaction would significantly deteriorate.
The community does not want strange cultures introduced to their children as can be evident
from the interview. Janice says the community loves the school as it contains only children from
the community and thus sharing the same values. On the same note, she notes that parents have
the opportunity to come in and offer assistance to the children in case the teachers are
overwhelmed. This facilitates parting of the community needs into the children (Bernard, 2011).
An alternative theme that may be considered by martin is morality. As can be noticed in the
interview, the school in town fails to meet the test for moral standards and thus the parents are
reluctant to have their children go to such schools. They feel that the children who learn in the
town school are not moral and may thus introduce into their children obscene morals that they
would not wish to see in their kids. By having their children learning in the school in the village,
parents have the opportunity to go the school and train their children on the anticipated moral
standards (Reis, 2014). This serves to promote the development of the expected morals. Still, this
can be observed by the fact that Janice feels the kids should only interact with kids from the
village both in the same level and higher levels for the ones in the higher levels would teach their
juniors the expected morals.

Summary and Justification of Selected Evidence
The idea to close the school is something that is beyond the imagination of the mothers from the
community. It is one of the ideas that they harshly critique and hope that even though a decision
has been made, one time things will change in their favor. Janice, in her submission claims that is
as much as a decision has been arrived at, it can still be changed as it is not very late already.
This represented a feeling by the majority of the members of the community (Smith M. F.,
2017). The community members found it important and necessary to keep the school without
having it closed that would make their children have to seek education from the schools of the
town which they attach numerous challenges and problems.
The main impact of the closure of the school is loss in the sense of a community. The school is
situated in the community in which the kids that seek education from there are mainly if not
purely from the same community (Veal, 2017). The children are therefore known to each other
and to the parents of their schoolmates and classmates very well. This gives the community a
sense of ownership of the community in which the school identifies with the community as the
community identifies with the school on the other hand as well. The parents of the children who
learn in the school know everyone in the school and are able to easily identify any stranger who
might have got access into the school and the necessary measures should there need be are taken
against the stranger.
With all these perceptions from the parents, it is deductible and can be observed of how much
value parents attach to the school. Still, it can be noticed that the parents identify a lot with the
school and are up to date with any meaningful information about the school. This is possible due
to the relatively small number as well as the geographical confinement of the school that make it

only easily accessible to the children from the community (Giles, 2013). By closing the school,
the children will have to move longer distances all the way to town to get education. The school
in town has a very large population with kids drawn from across the various communities. The
parents would thus lose touch with the ongoing in the school and may not be able to have access
to as much freedom and access to the school as it was the case with the initial school.
As a result of the large population of the kids in the school in the town, the kids will not be aim a
position to easily identify each other as it was in the rural school. There will be hundreds of
children all of who do not come from the same community. By bringing kids from numerous
communities together, the school loses the sense of community as no community would
dominate the others. The school would instead be a metropolitan, addressing the needs of each
and every community and kids. The community will thus lose the grip of its conservation thereby
foreign and strange cultures finding their ways into their culture. As from the responses to the
interview questions by Janice, the community was very conservative and could not allow any
culture different from their own to sneak in as they thought such would be the avenues of
introducing immoral activities and behaviors among their children (Hammond, 2013).
Deterioration in Morality
The closure of the school would mean all the kids would have to seek education from the school
in the town. Janice describes life in the town as being problematic. Children learning in the town
school have poor moral behavior and engage in such activities as taking drugs while in the rural
school, the parents took part in shaping the morals of their children especially in cases where
their teachers were too busy (Groot, 2017). The children on the other hand only interacted with
fellow children who were from the same community. By being members of the same community,

these children shared a lot in common including moral values. This interaction is one of the
strengths of the school as proposed by Janice. Janice said that the interaction between the various
kids both those at the same level and at different level allowed transfer and circulation of these
moral behaviors among their children.
By taking the children to the town school, they would be subjected to such vices as bullying and
drug abuse as is the common trends with the city dwellers. Due to the big nature of the school,
nobody will always be there to ascertain that the children remain to be doing the right thing all
the times. This poses a major threat to the future life of the children. By bringing on board
children from the bigger Aboriginal population, various cultures are mixed up and what might be
perceived to be good in one culture may be found to be unacceptable in the other culture. This
may further confuse the children especially the young ones further as they will have to deal with
a mix of unique sets of practices (Gomez, 2010).
The parents had the opportunity to come to the rural school and teach their children the moral
values as they know them very well. This served as one of the ways of promoting moral conduct
and ethics among the children (Groat, 2016). If parents saw anything wrong or messy in any
children, they could correct the child instantly and ensure that the child is back to the right track.
In the school in the town, nobody seems to care on the direction the children are taking and no
one is there to offer them guidance on the right path to follow. This leaves them at risk of being
salvaged by their seniors who in turn introduce them to the various vices among them drugs.
On the same note are the kids being bullied by their seniors in school, a situation which is
facilitated by the large human population in the city school that makes it challenging to follow up
all the activities in the school (Hewson, 2015). This subjects the kids to very inhuman treatment

that may serve to be a permanent harm to their lives besides discouraging them from pursuing
their main course in the school which is education. Bullying may lead to psychological damages
to the kids leaving them with permanent scars of memories of their encounter during their time
of schooling.
Long distances of travel
The closure of the school would see children either walk or commute over long distances to get
access to education (Giles, 2013). Whereas the rural school was located just within the
community at a place that was easily reachable by all the children who were learnt from there,
the school in town is a distance away and most of the children have to brace relatively longer
distances of travel in order to get to the learning institutions. In other cases, the kids may use a
bus to school, which is only one bus against the inflated population of the school. This makes it
challenging since the bus makes just a single trip a day. It means that any kid who by the time
the bus passes is not ready to be picked has to make own arrangements with the parents on how
to get to school especially for the young kids who may not be able to walk the relatively long
distance (Creswell, 2014).
This is not only unconvincing the learning programs of the children but also tends to make the
education process quite expensive due to the additional costs that need to be incurred. Being a
farming community, the returns from the farming activity of the community is very and not
suffices to support the high charges of the bus fare to school. Janice admits that the bus charges
to town where the school is located are relatively higher than the normal charges. This makes it
literary more expensive on a trip making the parents to undergo further costs. By closing the
school, the parents of the kids would need to make financial arrangements that would ensure that

their kids are able to attend school every day besides meeting the other financial obligations
(McNabb, 2015).
Conclusion
The above pieces of evidence offer a justification and summary of the impacts of the closure of
the school on the community as presented in the interview by Janice. These challenges among
them long travel distances, immorality and loss of sense of community have a very great impact
on the society ranging from social to economic implications. Whereas Janice offers hopes that
things may change at a later date despite a decision having been made, as things as the paints of
the kids need to make the necessary arrangements to see the kids adapt and learn in the new
environment which is the school in the town.
The success of the education among the children in schools in town is a factor of how much a
child braces the challenges. It is a question of how the kid will be responsive to the prevailing
circumstances including social evil activities such as bullying and the use of drugs that will see a
kid gain the best out of the sophisticated learning environment. The young kids risk being
victims due to their ignorance and loyalty to the instructions they may receive from their seniors
some of which could be misleading.
It was thus of utmost importance to factor the safety of these children from rural school before a
conclusion to shut down the school could be reached. The interests of the divergent human
demographics helps in developing strategies that are beneficial rather than harmful and making
life unbearable to the occupants of a geographical location (Russell, 2012). The interests of the
children would adequately be presented by their parents who always act in good faith on behalf

of their children. The submissions by Janice paint a picture of the state of push and pull that the
various authorities and the parents find themselves in as a result of failure to cooperate and share
ideas on how to resolve issues that are importance to the members of a community.
References
Bernard, H. R. (2011). Research Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and Quantitative
Approaches. Chicago: Rowman Altamira.
Bernard, H. R. (2012). Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches.
London: SAGE.
Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods
Approaches. London: SAGE.
Giles, D. (2013). Advanced Research Methods in Psychology. Kansas: Routledge.
Gomez, B. (2010). Research Methods in Geography: A Critical Introduction. New York: John
Wiley & Sons.
Groat, L. N. (2016). Architectural Research Methods. Moscow: John Wiley & Sons.
Groot, A. M. (2017). Research Methods in Psycholinguistics and the Neurobiology of Language:
A Practical Guide. London: John Wiley & Sons.
Hammond, M. (2013). Research Methods: The Key Concepts. Oxford: Routledge.
Hewson, C. (2015). Internet Research Methods. London: SAGE.

Kothari, C. R. (2014). Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques. London: New Age
International.
McNabb, D. E. (2015). Research Methods for Political Science: Quantitative and Qualitative
Methods. Toronto: Routledge,.
Reis, H. T. (2014). Handbook of Research Methods in Social and Personality Psychology.
Dallas: Cambridge University Press.
Salter, M. B. (2013). Research Methods in Critical Security Studies: An Introduction. Salt Lake:
Routledge.
Smith, M. (2011). Research Methods in Accounting. New York: SAGE.
Smith, M. F. (2017). Research Methods in Sport. Ne York: Learning Matters.
Veal, A. (2017). Research Methods for Leisure and Tourism. London: Pearson UK.

Appendix A
Conceptual model of how mothers feel about closure of school
Q You obviously feel very strongly about this closure. Kindly elaborate
A Oh. Well I can tell you why it has happened. Some bean counter sitting down
in Perth who has done his numbers, we don't fit into the right little box so he
has rubbed us out.
Q They are in for a surprise?
A Oh, absolutely. I mean as they say we are slow to the boil but once we get

there. I mean the whole town feels strongly about this, it is not just the parents
that send their children to the school, it is probably the old peoples home who
go there for afternoon tea every now and then, into the High School, I mean it is
just everybody who radiates around the school and to take it away, the High
School part of it, it is just not on, it really isn't.
Q What aspects of country schooling and country family life do you think might
have been misunderstood by the people who made the decision for this closure.
A We have got from Year 7 to Year 10 in together and we are able to, I mean it
had all the research in that article of why Middle schooling is really a good
thing and I think it really pertains to our school here. I mean it is really close,
they do lots of peer tutoring across the grades and I don't think those sorts of
concepts get out into the wider community, especially to accountants and bean
counters in Perth who just do the economics of it.
Q You obviously think that the school is worth fighting for.
A Absolutely.
Q Tell me what you feel are the strengths of your school, your local school for
primary students and also for the secondary students.
A I mean it is really close like that so they know them. I mean a lot of the kids in
the school are related and people might laugh at that hillbilly aspect but it is
really nice that they are with people that you know well. The other thing is with
the High School, I mean the High School in town, in the bigger town, has got