Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Place-Based Civic Education And The Rural Leadership Crisis In Nebraska, Christie L. Maloyed, J. Kelton Williams

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

The Great Plains is facing a pending leadership crisis as rural depopulation decreases the number of residents who are available to serve in civic and government positions. This problem is compounded by the loss of youth populations in rural areas. In this essay, we offer a cross-disciplinary analysis of avenues for addressing the rural leadership crisis. We bring together work from rural demography, education policy, and civic studies to argue that civic education in rural areas needs to be reformed specifically to train and retain rural youth for leadership positions. We use Nebraska as a case study as it has …