The Carnegie Council Report seeks the reform of educational institutions and the amelioration of conditions faced by disadvantaged and deprived youth. Its guiding principles to achieve reform are to equalize educational opportunity and to increase available options and choices for disadvantaged youth. The 44 recommendations of the report are…

Critiques Colin Ward's "The Child in the Country," which illuminates the personal geographies of children in rural Britain, as structured from without and experienced from within; augments sociocultural geography concerns about the importance of space and place in "other" people's lives; and provides new possibilities for rural…

Describes an ethnographic dissertation that portrays how patterns of culture and history in a rural community in Maine negatively influence many rural students' academic aspirations. Consolidated schools exacerbate the effect by separating students from their parents and communities and alienating them in school. (TD)

Describes research methods used and problems encountered in fieldwork with rural English youth. Discusses the researcher's positionality and self, making local connections and finding "gatekeepers," building trust with young people, issues of youth safety versus confidentiality, types of communication and parental consent, the…

With the ultimate goal of articulating a research agenda, a November 1999 conference of researchers and educators examined the educational, social, and economic factors affecting rural adolescents' transition to the workforce. The first section of this white paper discusses the need to clarify research questions about adolescence to include a…

Interviews with 33 teenagers from three small rural Midwest towns examined how they saw themselves, their families, friends, communities, and futures. Interview excerpts illustrate ambivalence about rural experiences, desire to move elsewhere, and Hispanic students' experiences with racism, but also convey positive attitudes about family, friends,…

Small rural social systems tend to have great impact on the social behavior and performance of rural youth in higher education. The issue is the degree to which rural youth from a social environment requiring active and continuous social involvement can exist in a larger social system which may require more passive and observational modes of…

Surveys of 158 West Virginia Governor's Honors Academy (GHA) students and 644 seniors in rural West Virginia high schools suggest that, compared to the latter, GHA students are less alienated; are not more eager to leave their community; exhibit stronger modern dispositions, but not weaker rustic dispositions; and are equally satisfied with their…

In interviews, the 16 graduating seniors in Meadville, Missouri, expressed a preference for a small-town lifestyle, but had doubts about their town's viability. Discusses their educational and occupational aspirations. An insert describes youth programs sponsored by the Farmers Electric Co-op. (JAT)

Although the situation is changing, rural America has been the scene of declining opportunity for 50 years. For the many rural females left behind in communities depleted by outmigration, there are limited opportunities and few role models besides that of wife, mother, and farm woman. The role of farm woman is demanding, self satisfying, and…

U.S. agriculture has built its reputation on the best agricultural education system in the world. However, its greatness only provides a solid foundation on which to build an even better future. Some things that must be done to meet the challenge of the future are the following: (1) change the stereotypes of what farming is; vocational agriculture…

Despite the current attention directed at rural education, rural minority youth may be in some danger of becoming invisible. A lack of specific and detailed knowledge of minority conditions and potential opportunities at regional, sub-regional, state, and local levels has inhibited the development of sound programs and policies for the redress of…

Demographic, economic, and educational indicators, especially as shown in the Marion County Youth Study, suggest that strategies that deal with the problems of rural youth and which assume mobility to metropolitan areas may be outmoded and inadequate. Outmigration is, however, faced by many rural youth and its success is dependent upon formal…

Identifies core of India's illiteracy problem and describes use of educational technology to educate rural children. Highlights include descriptions of the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) project; motivation behind low-cost educational aids development in rural areas; an educational radio pilot project; and development and…

An investigation of effects of community change on children's lives explored the proposition that, in both rural and urban Kentucky since the Second World War, children have lost shared multigenerational activities, freedom to roam, and open unstructured time. Data included oral histories from residents born 1895-1950, archival research, and…