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K-State Today

June 14, 2021

Johnson and Harmon win award for rural school project

Submitted by Patrice Scott

Faculty in the College of Education won an award in Australia for their work with rural communities.

Jerry Johnson, chair of the department of educational leadership and Lydia E. Skeen endowed professor, and Hobart Harmon, senior research associate, were presented with the award May 24 at the 2021 Australian National Conference for Regional, Rural and Remote Education's virtual symposium. They were recognized in the category of projects based in or benefiting, rural, regional, and/or remote international settings.

Working with Australian colleagues, Johnson and Harmon implemented a collaborative leadership forum that brought together rural school principals and superintendents from Kansas, Pennsylvania and Queensland, Australia, to discuss challenges, successes and lessons learned from leading during the crisis.

"Dr. Harmon and I are honored to accept this award on behalf of K-State," Johnson said. "In collaboration with our partners in the U.S. and Australia, our work on this project not only created an opportunity for rural school leaders in Kansas, Pennsylvania and Queensland to share and learn from one another but also allowed us to celebrate the amazing work those leaders did serving their schools and communities during the pandemic."

The College of Education produced the documentary "International Rural School Leadership Project" about Johnson and Harmon's project.