In January 2003, the Northwest Area Foundation (NWAF) contacted land grant universities in Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Washington to involve them in a program initiative to address rural poverty. After a strategic planning process, NWAF had shifted from traditional grant making to operating programs that…

Drawing on experiences from a project conducted in the "Drentsche Aa" area in the Netherlands, this article discusses the concept of the "rural atelier" as a form of problem-based learning. The rural atelier principle was used originally in rural development planning and described as such by Foorthuis (2005) and Elerie and…

The Rural Entrepreneurship Teaching Unit (RETU) is designed to acquaint university retailing and hospitality majors with rural entrepreneurship opportunities. The unit is an outcome of a federal grant focused on the contribution of the local retail sector to rural community resilience. The RETU integrates knowledge regarding rural development,…

This paper sets forth a model of regional stewardship developed and implemented at a post-compulsory institution serving rural communities in central Appalachia, a region that is among the most impoverished in the United States. The model, termed place-conscious capacity-building, emphasises culturally-responsive methodologies and the strategic…

This article is essentially written as two linked parts. The first part considers how space, spatiality and history can contribute to understanding and "doing something about" the sustainability of rural communities. This is done by extensive reference to Soja's (1989 & 1996) space and spatial theorising and selective perspectives of…

REEFGAME is a computer-assisted role-playing game that explores the interactions among management strategies, livelihood options, and ecological degradation in subsistence fishing communities. The tool has been successfully used in the Philippines and a variety of student workshops. In the field, REEFGAME operated as a two-way learning tool,…

Most university students in China have their sights firmly set on future job and study opportunities in urban cities and abroad. However, a network of student volunteers felt compelled to join the cause of rural development and villager empowerment, reminiscent of efforts promoted forty years ago by Chairman Mao who sent "educated youth"…

Agricultural Engineering has transformed agricultural practices from subsistence level to medium and large-scale production via mechanisation in the developed nations. This has reduced the labour force requirements in agriculture; increased production levels and efficiency, product shelf life and product quality; and resulted into…

This paper puts higher agricultural English education how to serve for "Sannong" construction as priority, combining the actual market demand, based on teaching reform in the past few years, tries to explore English nurturing model and curriculum system for real delivery the agriculture-related qualified foreign language professionals.…

The topic of this paper has emerged from the work of Shelton (2000, 2003), Bernhardt, Kawagley and Hill (2000), Boylan and McSwan (1998), Bryden and Boylan (2004) and others on "place-based" and "consequential" education in rural areas, prompting the question: if place-based and consequential education is "good" for…

This article challenges faculties of the arts in South African institutions of higher education to place arts education at the centre of academic inquiry, scholarship discovery and broaden their narrow understanding of "arts education". I argue for the recognition of a broad-based "arts education" or "faculties of the…

High-level agricultural manpower training in Ethiopian institutions of higher education (AIHE)specializing in agriculture and related fields was studied. The study reveals that high-level agricultural manpower training began in the early 1950s and that, at present, the country has seven institutions of higher learning, which train students in…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on how two rural-based universities in South Africa can contribute towards sustainable development especially in their immediate rural communities. It addresses the following questions what conditions or policy frameworks exist that can engender a sustainable development trajectory? How can…

In 1994 the Ford Foundation launched the Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI) as a "national demonstration project to help community colleges in distressed regions move their people and communities toward prosperity. It challenged community colleges to become catalysts for economic development and supported aggressive efforts to increase…

Changes in education and agriculture in South Africa indicate that agricultural extension practitioners should facilitate continuous learning among farmers. This requires that extension practitioners acquire new skills. To provide these skills requires a critical examination of agricultural extension curricula in the light of South Africa's…