This study is constructed of life course profiles of the educational trajectories of a cohort of rural girls from a village in the mountains of western China during critical educational reform years. Observational date were collected annually from 2000-2022. Findings show that even in remote mountainous region of China, village girls attained…

Drawing on a larger study of the current state of affairs of English language teaching (ELT) in rural Colombia, this paper interrogates the social impact which education policies promoting English have been associated with. Informed mainly by Nancy Fraser's theory of social justice, I analyse teachers' narratives (obtained through interviews and…

In this descriptive and comparative study, we present results highlighting the complexity and scope of the challenges facing rural districts as they navigate the changing demographics of the students and families they serve. Rapid increases in the number and concentration of racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse students in rural areas…

The history of arts education in Brazil is summarised, based on its contradictions. Some aspects of the Brazilian educational system and the National Curriculum Parameters are presented, in order to identify the predominant approach to theatre education. Three situations of the theatre education landscape in the state of Santa Catarina, southern…

This chapter examines 100 years of rural education research in the context of the demographic, migratory, economic, and social changes that have affected rural America in the past century. The authors conducted a systematic review of the literature on rural teacher recruitment, retention, and training as a case study to examine the constancy and…

In every state in the South, the percentage of residents with bachelor's degrees or higher who were born outside the state exceed the percentage born in-state, reflecting their dependence on imported talent over building their own talent-development systems. In Virginia, the Southern state with the highest percentage of residents with a B.A. or…

Social movements have initiated both academic programs and disciplines. I present ethnographic data that I gathered during 17 months of fieldwork with the Brazilian Landless Workers' Movement (MST) in southeastern Pará, Brazil, to explore the MST's role in creating agroecological education opportunities. My analysis highlights three factors in…

Many have argued that, despite the meritocratic ideals of equal access and social mobility that underpin examination-governed education hierarchies, the rural majority are typically excluded or eliminated in the early stages of the competition. The scholastic nature of the uniform curricula, much of which has little relevance to rural life,…

In 1899, Katherine Pettit and May Stone established the first social settlement in the Kentucky mountains. In Chautauqua-like fashion, the women pitched tents in and around the vicinity of Knott County, Kentucky for three consecutive summers. The primary purposes of the social settlement were social justice and community uplift. While the women…

Rural education reform manifest in the U.S. "Country Life Movement" of the early 1900's centered on the doctrine of economic efficiency. Rural education reformers believed that high food prices were due to the inefficiency of farmers and the general discontent of rural peoples exemplified by the rural to urban migration. The rural…

A survey of 1,105 Ontario farmers examined perceived quality of life as a function of social class, sex, age, education, income, and off-farm employment. Most farmers, especially highly educated and wealthy ones, felt their quality of life was high, but also believed they had been adversely affected by recent rural social change. (LP)

Describes the building, curriculum, students, teacher, and instructional methods of an Old Order Mennonite one-room school in Pennsylvania. Data indicate that students spend most of their time on individual assignments, Mennonite heritage permeates the school, and school is an important sociocultural instrument to socialize Mennonite children and…

This paper draws on qualitative research in mountainous, rural areas of Tajikistan to reveal the complex and contradictory effects of the Soviet collapse on the life and work of teachers. While within the former USSR, Tajikistan experienced comparative modernization, but the Soviet collapse and 6 years of civil war left the republic with a ruined…

Dunlap, Kansas, identified as a stereotypical dying small town in a 1962 study, was restudied in 1974-75 in an effort to test the dying small town hypothesis (supported only by aggregate census data and casual observation rather than by specific studies). Researchers using unobtrusive observation of Dunlap and seven nearby unincorporated villages,…

The process of economic reforms in Russia has been accompanied by drastic and negative phenomena in rural education, by a worsening of the already large difference in levels of schooling of young people in the countryside and in the cities. The present study is one of the first attempts at a comprehensive approach, from the standpoint of sociology…