Examination and Redesign of Inclusive Special Education Service Delivery in a Rural School

In this article, we describe the self-directed change made by a rural elementary school in response to a data-based examination of its service-delivery model that revealed its lowest performing students were spending most of their time with the school’s least qualified staff. This mixed-method case study describes (a) why and how the school shifted personnel deployment and utilization, (b) factors that facilitated the shifts in service delivery, and (c) perceived effects of the changes. Findings demonstrate how implementing data-based decision-making through strong collaborative leadership led to recognizing, exploring, and modifying the school’s overreliance on paraprofessionals by increasing the availability of more highly skilled personnel to facilitate more inclusive instruction and collaboration. Participants also described challenges and perceived negative aspects related to change. We conclude with implications for practice, including how this study could inform similar change efforts in small rural schools, and suggestions for future research.

Identity-related attitude in the child development centres for protecting educational asylum of early childhoods: From rural communities to schooling cities

The global identities of parents’ popularity in rural communities to make-decision effects of their attitudes to transfer their Early Childhood from Child Development Centres and Local Primary School for moving study into the schooling cities that looks like children’ asylum of their educational conditions, problems, administration’ school directors, teachers, and schools’ environments to protect that described. The involving CDCs’ perceptions got using the 25-item My CDC Identity Inventory (MCDCII) in five scales, three options. Teacher and Caregiver-Early Childhood interactions have assessed with the 30-item Questionnaires on Teacher Identity Interaction (QTII) in five scales on five options. The 10-item Local Identity-Related Attitude (LIRA) has been associated with a sample of 300 children’s parents, teachers, and caregivers. The determination of efficient predictive value (R2) shows that 30% of accepted the identities on cohesiveness, competitiveness, physical indoor and outdoor environmental development, satisfaction, and strong-sense identity. 74% of their CDCs can protect the educational asylum of early childhoods from rural communities. The R2 value shows 49% of the variance in children’s parents’ perceptions was because of the MCDCII have associated. Despite Thailand’s success in expanding educational access, new empirical evidence suggests that much more needs to be done to maximize the potential of its students. The performance gaps among schools have disadvantaged and poorer-performing students have concentrated in small rural village schools. The Thai pre-primary school system is dramatically lacking in qualified the CDCs’ learning environments and achievements, and teachers. It allocated small rural schools teachers with lower qualifications and teaching experience.

Sustaining Successful ICT Integration in Remote Rural Schools

This paper aims to provide insights into how teachers can sustain ICT integration practices in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas. A mixed-method case study design was used for the study. Data were collected through interviews, questionnaires, classroom observation, and document examination. Qualitative analysis and descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. For data validity, triangulation of responses and member checking was carried out. The study identified successful technology integration factors in geographically isolated and disadvantaged schools: a strong community of practice, an adequate support system, and contextual ICT integration practices. It suggests that teachers’ pedagogical practices related to ICT toned to undergo a continuous process of review and reflection to ensure that ICT-related practices remain pedagogically effective and relevant to changing needs and contexts. The account of the teachers in this study, focusing on their teaching experiences in a school in a remote, low-income area, creates a paradigm for comparative research on education in challenging contexts. Comparative studies on ICT integration practices in poverty-stricken, post-disaster, and conflict-affected areas, could provide inputs for formulating context-specific policy recommendations that could support successful ICT integration in small rural schools in the Philippines and other developing countries.

Training Primary School Teachers to Organize Collective Forms of Work in Small Rural Schools

There appears to be an urgent need to improve the system of training qualified specialists for small schools who can respond to modern changes in education, meet socio-economic needs of the village, follow the major trends in the development of school theory and practice and creatively implement the acquired professional knowledge and skills under the conditions of small different age groups. The paper aims to determine pedagogical conditions, develop and theoretically justify a methodology for training future primary school teachers to organize collective forms of work in small rural schools and experimentally verify its effectiveness. The methodology for training future primary school teachers to organize collective forms of work in small rural schools involves acquiring the content of professional training in a specially modelled pedagogical environment by students during the whole period of university study. The following empirical methods were used: observations, surveys, expert assessment, an analysis of products of students’ creative activity, pedagogical experiment, methods of mathematical statistics (a chi-square (c2)) statistic). An analysis of the results obtained from the control experiment shows some positive dynamics in the readiness of future primary school teachers for this activity (the percentage of students with a creative-and-interpretive level has increased by 16%, whereas the number of students with a fragmentary-and-formal level has decreased by 17.1%), which proves the effectiveness of the developed methodology. The experimental work has significantly enriched the axiological potential of future teachers from small rural schools and developed their system of psycho-pedagogical knowledge about the organization of collective activities of pupils from different age groups, as well as their skills needed to plan, design and organize inter-age interaction in its various forms and conduct a reflective analysis of their pedagogical activity.

Is small beautiful? A scoping review of 21st-century research on small rural schools in Europe

Small rural schools in many countries have historically been viewed as less desirable than their larger urban counterparts, being treated less favourably in the policy arena and facing a risk of closure or amalgamation. Within Europe, they have been the focus of a range of research studies and have been defined in different ways, based mostly on the number of pupils enrolled (typically around 100), but also their geographical isolation or small number of staff. However, the last notable attempt to review the literature in this area was carried out over 10 years ago. Since then, there has been a large volume of research conducted in many European countries. This rigorous scoping review has brought together what we know from research (published in English since 2000) on small rural schools in Europe. The most common themes identified were school leadership, the importance of context (including education policy and school closures/amalgamations), and school-community relationships. Case studies and ethnographic qualitative methods were the most popular, with a stronger use made of theoretical frameworks since the previous review. Nonetheless, the current review found still significant gaps in the literature including an under-theorization of certain topics and a lack of research with children.

Small Rural Schools: Unique Challenges, Unequal Treatment -- A Policy Analysis

The problems and challenges of rural education, made yet more challenging by the persistence of rural poverty, remain largely out the public eye but in need of policy solutions. Rural schools face inequities in the form of discrimination under current Title I funding allocation formulas, and school reform efforts to date have been a poor fit for rural districts. Nevertheless, students in rural schools achieve high test scores and a graduation rate approaching that of suburban schools, but attend college at much lower rates. Rural areas, and hence rural schools, face challenges of declining population and school enrollment, consolidation pressures, and an eroding economic base that is both a cause and an effect of youth out-migration. The problems of rural areas and rural schools are stereotyped, ignored, or exploited by policymakers. Consequently, rural schools are under-served by current education policies and initiatives, and their students left behind. This policy analysis concludes with recommendations aimed at multiple stakeholders to work toward revitalizing rural schools and communities.

Is the grass really greener? A qualitative study of teacher reflections on their decision to migrate from small rural districts to larger school districts

Teacher retention in rural schools continues to be an area of concern. This qualitative study examines why teachers migrate from small, rural school districts to teach in larger districts by interviewing teachers who have already made the move and who have taught in both environments. It also shares the perceptions of teachers as they reflect on their experience in the small district as well as how they now feel about their decision to leave the small rural district. Findings indicate that teachers look back fondly at their time in small rural schools and, while they do not regret their decision to leave, they do think more teachers should have that experience. Teachers discussed the similarities and differences of the district sizes and gave their personal reasons for leaving. Findings reveal teachers primarily leave small rural districts for financial concerns and enjoy a smaller workload at the secondary level in the larger districts. Workload at the elementary level seemed to be similar. Recommendations for small rural school district leaders are presented.

Poverty and Inequality in Rural Education: Evidence from China

In 1998, the People’s Republic of China implemented an education policy, the “School Consolidation Policy”, which entailed merging small rural schools with larger ones. It has had a massive effect on rural people across China, and as a result of it, over 60% of schools in outlying areas have closed. The policy’s implementation and effects have received little scholarly attention, despite its scale and consequences. This article investigates the policy, drawing on the nexus between critical discourse analysis and an ethnographical study conducted from 2007 to 2018. The article reviews trajectories and critical junctures shaping educational change in one rural community in north-western China, as an example of broader changes that have been occurring across the country. This is presented through four thematically interrelated episodes, over a 10-year period, illustrating the conception of the policy, its local interpretation and implementation, and its consequences as perceived by stakeholders. The recontextualisation of rural education is part of the policy, as expressed in political discourse, and is examined together with its wider impacts. Attention is paid to the local adoption of the policy at different levels of government and the challenges faced by villagers in rural China in their efforts to capitalise on educational opportunities and secure a measure of social mobility. Consequences of the policy’s implementation are analysed and include rising educational inequality, social marginalisation and a lack of social mobility prospects for families affected.

Project Accelerate (3-Year Review): Closing the Access Gap to Physical Science Careers and Academic Programs

Project Accelerate is a National Science Foundation funded program providing access to a rigorous introductory college level College Board Advanced Placement physics course to students attending high schools where this opportunity is not part of the regular high school program of study. High schools in the United States not offering this opportunity in general are either small rural schools or high schools in districts serving a larger than average proportion of economically disadvantaged families. Students in Project Accelerate do as well on the AP exam as their peer groups enrolled in traditional AP® Physics 1 classrooms. In addition, students in Project Accelerate show a marked increase in interest in pursuing post high school academic programs in science.

“I’m Not Where I Want to Be”: Teaching Principals’ Instructional Leadership Practices

This paper reports on the ways in which teaching principals in rural schools in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, Canada enact instructional leadership within the five leadership domains conceptualized by Robinson, Lloyd, and Rowe (2008). Although participants suggested that they were “not where they wanted to be” in their efforts to enact instructional leadership, their actions demonstrate exemplary practice in this regard. The nature of the discourse perpetuated by leadership groups and teachers’ associations that equates instructional leadership with classroom visits only has the effect of decreasing teaching principals’ self-efficacy as instructional leaders. We argue for recognition of these leaders’ efforts to support learning, and a reconstitution of the role of the teaching principal such that instructional leadership expectations are realistically manageable for leaders in small rural schools.