In many school districts, rural life in British Columbia continues to be a geographic and economic fact. Delivering equal school services and ensuring equal educational opportunities to areas with thinly scattered populations continues to be a challenge for the provincial government and school districts. Rural schools offer many positive benefits…

In this article, we report perceived professional development (PD) needs, interests, and challenges of ESL instructors in rural Alberta from the perspectives of instructors and administrators. We collected questionnaire responses from instructors who taught in programs offered in five rural locations with a large recent influx of newcomers…

Purpose: This paper draws on research which began in 2006 with students in a graduate course on rural education. Its purpose was to find out what graduate students saw as current issues of rural education, how that compared to the literature, and what they thought supporting agencies such as government and universities needed to be doing to…

To produce more rural physicians, the College of Family Physicians of Canada recommends providing earlier and more extensive rural medicine experience for all undergraduate medical students, developing rural postgraduate training programs, providing third-year optional special and advanced rural family-medicine skills training, and making advanced…

A critique of recommendations by the Local Government Boundaries Commission (LGBC) related to improvement of rural education in Manitoba, Canada, is provided. Backed by footnotes and 12 appendices, the paper contends that the LGBC Report "fails to meet its technocratic objectives and also ignores a broad role for education in social…

Canada Natives have experienced many educational changes. Their traditional education and culture were negated by Euro-Western schooling, leaving Aboriginal people in a deficit position without a strong voice for many years. Only recently have Aboriginal people strengthened their voice in calling for their cultural values and beliefs to be the…

A proposed university in the circumpolar North would have undergraduate and graduate programs, be interdisciplinary, collaborate with other Northern countries and universities, and offer a circumpolar course to develop understanding of the Arctic. After many false starts, most components are already in place; all that is needed is determination,…

Canadians identify education as key to economic opportunity and advancement, yet rural areas experience teacher shortages, school closings, and extended transportation times. A growing native population in the North needs teachers with cultural and linguistic qualifications. Advantages of rural areas are close communities, good school-community…

The unique position of the MicMac (American Indian) student in his efforts to cope with both the learning experiences from his MicMac background and those new experiences which are thrust upon him by non-Indian persons in either Federal or non-Federal schools is described. The study also outlines (1) the jurisdictional aspects of Indian education;…

A great deal of experimentation with telecommunications technologies is occurring in both New Zealand and Atlantic Canadian rural schools. New Zealand has developed a National Information and Communications Technology Strategy, the objectives and initiatives of which are described. On both the North and South Islands, small rural schools have…

Describes the development of native culture and the role of the church in Fort Chipewyan, Alberta. Describes the history of the schools, the school program for grades K-10, and the challenges of teaching in the northern community. Discusses seven educational concerns and interests of the local community. (SB)

A survey of 121 rural teachers in British Columbia examined their knowledge about and attitudes toward the inclusion of special needs students. In addition, the study examined rural teachers' knowledge of and ability to access resources in the school district and their individual schools. The survey questionnaire consisted of 114 questions related…

A qualitative study examined the experiences of 10 mostly inexperienced, female teachers working in two isolated Native communities in northern Ontario. Findings focus on teachers' uncertainties about appropriate pedagogical goals, the relationship of teachers to First Nations communities, living in the North, cross-cultural and multicultural…

This book contains the personal narratives of six Canadian workplace education instructors. The opening article (Mary Ellen Belfiore) discusses the remaining narratives within the context of the theme that the essence of workplace education is teaching and learning in distinct cultures. "Math Works!" (Brian Nicholson) relates how…

Sage Institute of Canada, Inc. measured the priorities for improving education that are held by professional staff, the boards, and the public in the Alberta counties of Newell, Vulcan, and Warner. Over 1,800 people participated in identifying issues, conditions, and suggestions for improvement. They then assisted in validating the information and…