Reviews of research on rural schools and their communities in British and Nordic countries: Analytical perspectives and cultural meaning

This introduction presents the case, and sets the scene, for five reviews of research on rural schools and their communities, arguing that educational research in this field is relatively rare, and decreasingly visible despite the significant population of the world's children who live in rural communities and attend rural schools. After considering various interpretations of ‘rural’, of the purpose and function of rural schooling, and of the relationship between school and community, we present three basic research questions with relevance for researchers of schools and communities, rural and urban, the world over, and raise more specific questions which are addressed in the reviews themselves and pursued in the closing chapter. Finally we introduce the research reviews and justify our selection of British and Nordic countries, where, despite geographical proximity, there are wide thematic and methodological disparities in rural schools’ research.     

Respect and responsibility: Review of research on small rural schools in England

This paper reviews 25 years of research on small rural schools in England, in a period of unprecedented educational reform, and shift in government policy on small schools from persistent threat of closure through a period of a centrally funded ‘presumption against closure’ in the early 2000s. It notes a dearth of funded or peer-reviewed research since that time, but reports new research on the status of teachers in small rural schools who feel greater responsibility towards, and sense greater respect from people inside and outside schools than do their large urban school counterparts. A call for theory-led, well-designed, comparative and large-scale studies, the application of the new definition of rurality, and research which seeks pupil and community voices is expressed.     

Digital inclusion in Chile: Internet in rural schools

This paper analyzes the teacher's contribution to improving digital inclusion in Chilean rural schools, using a multidimensional definition of the digital divide. Data was obtained from interviews and surveys applied to teachers and students from 145 rural schools. Results show that teachers function as gatekeepers. They do not teach students how to use ICT explicitly, but when teachers have high expectations, skills and technology access, this leads to conditions for students learning how to use ICT. Finally, the data contributes to a better understanding of the new role that teachers and schools play in rural areas in terms of social and symbolic integration.     

新农村社区建设中学校布局调整的机遇与选择

自2001年开始的大规模的农村中小学布局调整进行到现在已有十年时间,取得了很大成绩。目前,新农村社区建设在各地陆续展开,这对农村中小学布局调整提出了新的要求,并提供了新的机遇。为了合理布局中小学校,应该把农村中小学布局调整纳入新农村社区建设中统筹安排,使农村教育与农村社会协调发展。     

Placement schools as professional learning communities in teacher education

This article investigates how schoolteachers’, school leaders’ and college teachers’ involvement affects placement schools as professional learning communities. Norwegian teacher education is used as a case. The first part builds on a survey among schoolteachers and mentors at 111 placement schools in Norway. It documents great variety in the level of engagement. Interviews with mentors, school leaders and college teachers reveal how cooperation between colleges and placement schools, as well as the school leaders’ commitment, influences the quality of placement. The school leaders’ role proves to be important in developing the schools as professional learning communities, and they seem to have a significant impact on the work of the mentors. The data also show that there is a need for a more substantial cooperation between college teachers and mentors about the student teachers’ professional development as well as a need for a more systematic integration of learning in the two learning contexts.     

Changes and challenges: Key issues for Scottish rural schools and communities

Education in rural Scottish schools has changed rapidly over the past 15 years. These changes include the implementation of national curriculum and assessment guidelines, increased parental influence and a shift from local authority based management to more locally based schemes. During the 1990s, research in the field focused largely on learning and teaching, on the role of the head teacher as curriculum and professional leader, and schools’ responses to changes through interschool collaboration. More recently, research has commented on rural schools’ involvement in nationally implemented programmes with a social focus, such as New Community Schools, and in health education. Preparation for rural headship and for teaching in rural schools provide opportunities for further research at this time.     

Distance teaching in small rural primary schools: a participatory action research project

ABSTRACT

The aim of the study is to identify and examine the distance teaching practices of four teachers in three small, rural primary schools in Finland – small in the sense that the schools consists of between 20–50 pupils and between 3–12 teachers. The schools have experienced a decline in pupil numbers, thus, they are not able to employ teachers full-time. The participating teachers imagined distance education as one solution to extend the classroom and faculty. Practice architectures is used as a theoretical and analytical framework to answer the question ‘What cultural, material, and social discourses constitute the development of the practice around distance education in small, rural primary schools?’ The data consists of interviews with and video blogs by the teachers recorded during 2016–2017. The implications are that cultural-discursive, material-economic, and social-political arrangements surrounding distance education are intertwined in small schools. Architectural arrangements enabled flexible solutions when developing distance education. The same arrangements proved to be material and cultural constraints as the teachers had many responsibilities in their everyday practice and support from the faculty was sometimes lacking. The teachers felt constrained by the technology and communicating with pupils at a distance meant they had to develop new teaching strategies.     

河南农村中小学教师结构性问题分析及对策

教师队伍结构问题,是教师队伍建设的核心问题。当前,河南农村地区中小学教师队伍结构正处于重要的转型时期。从整体上看,河南农村教师队伍呈现出结构层次不断提升和结构关系不断优化的良好发展态势,但同时也存在中小学教师编制过剩和实际短缺、教师年龄结构不合理、学科结构失衡及职称结构偏低等问题,加强河南农村地区中小学教师队伍建设仍任重而道远。     

Making a difference in poor communities: relations among actors in Mexican schools

Even in marginalized towns it is possible to find school communities that have developed relationships that encourage the construction of institutional cultures and management structures prone to superior academic performance compared to others within the same context. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative research project conducted in 8 towns and 16 schools in Mexico. The analytical framework is based on Kenneth Gergen’s social constructionism. The paper highlights the role of the school’s principal in the construction of relationships in the school community and the build-up of practices leading to shared meaning and goals. The desire and ability of the principal to promote dialogue and provide spaces for it are central, as well as her or his ability to interpret and translate the needs of parents and community, and the systemic norms from the Ministry of Education, to the reality of the community and the parents.     

Student differences and environment perceptions: How they contribute to student motivation in rural high schools

This research investigated relationships among characteristics of students and learning environments influencing variables related to motivation for learning and achievement in rural high schools. Participants were 625 students in all four grades, in 19 rural, public high schools. Questionnaires assessed two environmental factors, three self-perceptual characteristics, two motivational outcomes and three achievement-related outcomes. Regression analyses were utilized to identify differential predictive relationships. Overall, teacher characteristics appeared to more strongly predict students' positive self-perceptions and motivation than did peer characteristics. Perceived ability and valuing most strongly predicted learning and future goals, which, in turn, most strongly predicted motivation. Motivational outcomes strongly predicted grade in class, but not intention to complete high school or postsecondary aspirations. Important differences emerged by subject area. Implications for research and classroom practice are discussed.     

Social hierarchy and enrolment in government and private schools in rural India: longitudinal evidence from a Rajasthan village

With reference to a village in a predominantly tribal part of Rajasthan, this paper illustrates the increasing heterogeneity of the rural educational landscape and examines different patterns of enrolment within this. While the findings confirm those of more macro-level studies using the four official social categories, intra-category differences are shown to be equally, if not more, important in helping to explain variations in the types and locations of schools chosen by parents. The social composition of government schools in the village has greatly narrowed and the majority of pupils in local private schools now come from tribal households. The expansion in size and number of commutable schools has moved the frontier of private schooling away from the village and provided new and increasingly exclusive contexts for both old and new forms of social division to be manifested.     

Science education: innovation in rural and remote Queensland schools

Outside its heavily-populated south-eastern corner, Queensland is a huge administrative area with many small, remote communities that can be separated by hundreds of kilometres of dirt road, or, in other areas, not accessible by road. In this study, parents, students and teachers in nine schools from rural and regional Queensland were interviewed about their perceptions of school science. Teachers, parents and students defined remoteness by reference to their social ties, as well as the social capital and resources they drew on to teach science meaning that not only did different groups differ in their interpretations of remoteness; different teachers in similar circumstances also responded differently. Science teachers’ responses to remoteness were related to their perceptions of school-community communication and their perceptions of their freedom to innovate. Teachers who felt that remoteness gave them more freedom and recognised opportunities to utilise their environment created innovative and relevant science programmes. Teachers who felt their remoteness gave them less freedom felt isolated from the community were less likely to innovate.     

Examining the legitimacy of unrecognised low-fee private schools in India: comparing different perspectives

Studies to date show how low-fee private (LFP) schools, including unrecognised ones, have gained practical legitimacy and continue to increase in number. However, little explanation is offered regarding the legal legitimacy of such unrecognised LFP schools. This paper intends to fill this gap by examining the legal legitimacy of unrecognised schools in Delhi whose actual existence was challenged by the Delhi High Court and the Right to Education Act, 2009. The paper also illustrates the practical legitimacy of unrecognised schools by comparing perspectives of different actors (the government, NGOs and managers, teachers and parents at nine unrecognised schools in Delhi) based primarily on the author’s interviews with these actors.     

A review of research into stakeholder perspectives on inclusion of students with autism in mainstream schools

Increasing numbers of students with autism are being educated in mainstream schools. However, outcomes for students with autism are poor when compared to typical students and students with other developmental disabilities. In order to better understand facilitators and barriers to success at school for students with autism, research into the attitudes of key stakeholders, educators, parents, people with autism, to inclusion in mainstream schools for students with autism, was reviewed. Key themes emerging included attitudes to inclusion, the characteristics of autism and social communication in particular and interaction with the school environment, and consequent student problem behaviour. Level of knowledge and understanding of school staff emerged as the primary issue with all stakeholders identifying the need for more training. Other support needs identified included the need for structural support, resources and funding. Parents, in particular, identified the need for a collaborative approach to the education process. The findings highlight the need to translate theory into practice to increase capacity in schools to provide effective educational programmes for students with autism.     

School context and instructional capacity: A comparative study of professional learning communities in rural and urban schools in China

This study examines the teaching gap between rural and urban schools in China from the perspective of teacher professional learning communities (PLCs). Drawing on in-depth interviews with 36 primary school teachers, the study finds striking disparities between rural and urban schools in the working of Teaching and Research Groups (TRGs). These disparities in TRGs result in divergent patterns of instructional capacity building in rural and urban schools. The evidence shows that teaching and teachers are strongly shaped by the school organizational context. It suggests that strengthening school-wide PLCs is an important way of narrowing the rural-urban teaching and learning gaps.     

Outdoor education in rural primary schools in New Zealand: a narrative inquiry

ABSTRACT

This research examines teaching outdoor education in two rural primary schools in Aotearoa New Zealand. The aim was to give ‘voice’ to how outdoor education is taught, programmed and understood. Underpinning the research was the question: what factors enable/constrain teachers’ ability to implement outdoor education? The findings suggest: confusion about outdoor education terminology and the educative purpose of school ‘camps’; schools ‘do what they have always done’, particularly when decisions about outdoor education contexts are dominated by senior management; financial restrictions; and teachers feeling ill-prepared in terms of safety management because of their limited pre-service and post-service teacher education. This research highlights that what to teach, how to teach and where to teach outdoor education needs more consideration and attention for teachers to be better informed about safe outdoor practices and quality pedagogy in, for and about the outdoors.     

Higher education and its communities: Interconnections, interdependencies and a research agenda

Universities everywhere are being forced to carefully reconsider their role in society and to evaluate the relationships with their various constituencies, stakeholders, and communities. In this article, stakeholder analysis is put forward as a tool to assist universities in classifying stakeholders and determining stakeholder salience. Increasingly universities are expected to assume a third mission and to engage in interactions with industrial and regional partners. While incentive schemes and government programmes try to encourage universities to reach out more to external communities, some important barriers to such linkages still remain. To fulfil their obligation towards being a socially accountable institution and to prevent mission overload, universities will have to carefully select their stakeholders and identify the ‘right’ degree of differentiation. For the university, thinking in terms of partnerships with key stakeholders has important implications for its governance and accountability arrangements. For the future of the universities we foresee a change towards networked governance and arrangements to ensure accountability along the lines of corporate social responsibility. In order to further explore some of these concepts and to empirically investigate the tendencies suggested here, this article proposes an ambitious research agenda for tackling the emerging issues of governance, stakeholder management and higher education’s interaction with society.     

Multigrade teaching: towards an international research and policy agenda

Despite its prevalence in many educational systems, multigrade teaching remains invisible. In the global effort to achieve education for all in the post-Dakar decade the needs of multigrade teachers, classes and schools must be addressed. The paper (i) explores the meaning of the term multigrade teaching in developing and industrialised countries and identifies a range of conditions under which it arises; (ii) synthesises knowledge of the practice of and research on multigrade teaching; and (iii) proposes an international agenda for future research on and dissemination of policy and practice. The agenda underlines the need for context-specific questions and comparisons, more awareness of the prevalence and challenges of multigrade teaching, more research on the practices and training needs of multigrade teaching and the exploration of synergies between teachers, curriculum, assessment and classroom organisation. It is suggested that knowledge of multigrade teaching strategies is needed by all teachers and not simply those in classes designated as ‘multigrade’.     

The relationship between departments as professional communities and student achievement in secondary schools

Secondary school teaching is organized in departments and effective departments functioning as collaborative teams have been associated with effective schools. Therefore, this study investigates the relationship of mathematics departments perceived as professional communities and student achievement in Dutch secondary schools. Cluster analysis and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) were used on a sample of around 3000 students, 130 schools, and 130 teachers that participated in this study (TIMSS-2003 data). The significant effects found (effect size >.20) show that those departments that focus on reflective dialogue, collaborative activity, shared vision and student achievement are associated with successful schools and higher student achievement.