Rural communities -- as well as other marginalized communities -- see their access to legal infrastructure declining, so much so that they feel disconnected from the rule of law. Current complex law and legal infrastructure focus on big "I" innovation, which is hyper-transactional and benefits the few. Rural communities, and others,…

While they're often overlooked in education policy debates, district central office staff can play critical role in improving schools. In this interview, Meredith Honig, professor of Education Policy, Organizations, and Leadership at the University of Washington and founder of the District Leadership Lab, explains what her research and experience…

This article is a response to Kassam, Avery, and Ruelle's insights as presented in this forum on rural science education. Topics considered include troubling the urban/rural divide in the context of Indigenous knowledge and expanding to include the common Canadian notion of the "remote," a designation rooted in our national colonial…

Exploring the lives of rural lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth and their identity work, Mary Gray's "Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America" offers one of the first ethnographic studies of queer rural life in the United States and their use of new media. Throughout, Gray provides…

This article comments on several features of the rate of return (ROR) to educational investment in China: first, the ROR to educational investment has increased with the expansion of educational provision since the 1980s. Second, the greater the educational provision, the greater the ROR. Third, the ROR in urban areas is more than that in rural…

For a socially just community to occur, decision-making must employ respectful procedures that value input from representatives of all economic contexts. By considering philosophical roots of Western societal development, it is possible to gain insight into the systemic processes underlying these circumstances. By understanding these bases,…

Few people, great distances, and deep-rooted values in rural areas place constraints on goals and methods of vocational education and make uniform national policies difficult. Conventional solutions applicable to cities do not always work in rural areas. Vocational education planning and economic development planning need to be combined. (JOW)

Addresses the challenge of placing mathematics knowledge in context through a critical interpretation of math teaching and learning, discussion of what constitutes math knowledge, and examination of the effect of rural context. Presents principles for rural math education research, related to knowledge and context, the institution of schooling,…

During the last decade, since the break-up of the Soviet Union into a number of independent countries, Kyrgyzstan has experienced major political, social and economic transformation. This has resulted in increased democratization and decentralization. Educational systems have been transformed too. In Kyrgyzstan, the number and size of universities…

The author discusses the evolution of ideas about the relationship between national and international development and educational change since World War II. He critically reviews relevant literature in comparative and international education, focusing on the concept of teachers' work. The analyses draw on theories of postcolonialism. The author…

Identifies the many subgroups within the African-American population and suggests guidelines for career counseling with different subcultures: rural and urban lower class, middle class, and underclass. (SK)

Presents a brief overview of four sociological theories concerning rural-urban differences: classical, determinist, compositional, and subcultural. Draws implications and applications for social workers and human service personnel. Suggests development of a typology which would include such components as theoretical orientation, roles of workers,…

A study of physician distribution in Illinois counties from 1969-1979 showed smallest increases in low-population counties and largest in middle-sized cities. The major result of establishment of regional medical education centers is not a general diffusion of physicians but concentration in tertiary care centers with the new educational programs.…

Social urbanization denotes the socioeconomic transformation of space and the ideological extension of the urban system to former hinterlands. Social urbanization has occurred on the basis of large scale internal migration and has had a similar impact throughout Latin America. (Author/GC)

Early political struggles over principles of governance culminated in our "commercially competitive civil society" in which numbers equate with power, resulting in disempowerment of rural people, decreasing rural influence on public policy, and consequent irrelevant education in rural communities. Education can provide the basis for a…