This qualitative case study examines how board members make sense of federal accountability policies and how their sensemaking shapes their use of assessment data as a policy instrument. Deviating from previous work on practitioner sensemaking, the participants' interpretations of assessments did not align with their ensuing use of the data.…

Over the past decades, educational reform has been one of the centerpieces of transition in Central and Eastern Europe. A huge degree of variability among countries exists, from sudden liberalization to securing the status quo previous to revolutionary political change. Reforms have ranged from institutional to instrumental changes. We argue that…

We argue here that critical educational scholarship is crucial to developing educational analysis attuned to the nuances of place, mobility, and change in rural locations. Critical sociological analysis, we argue, can also nuance and complicate simplistic portrayals of rural communities and their social, economic, and cultural character. Two…

Rural depopulation, decreasing numbers of children, and general centralization, combined with high expectations for education, are factors that challenge rural communities and school structures in both Latvia and Norway. The aim of this article is to compare the role of the municipality and other levels of governance in making decisions on school…

This paper presents a case study of the microeconomy of a typical underdeveloped village in southwest China and the role of elementary education in the village economy. The paper begins with a brief review of relevant theories on the economics of education and the current social conditions and state of education in the village under study, and…

Market principles now dominate the education and social policies of many Anglophone countries, including Australia, but articulate differentially within specific contexts. Existing historical legacies, local economic and social conditions, and geographical settings interact with federal and state funding and transport policies to shape the nature…

Parents of Cherokee children with disabilities encounter educational agencies from their child's birth to adulthood. Living rurally within the Cherokee Nation's jurisdictional boundaries, these indigenous families engage with a myriad of special education agencies and subsequent policies. This qualitative study explores parental involvement with…

Many reports on rural education give little attention to digital learning. At most, they tend to note either infrastructure needs or the potential of remote course access, with little focus on instruction, outcomes, or exemplars. This report intends to begin correcting that imbalance by connecting the dots between rural regions, rural education,…

This study explores the use of constructivist pedagogy promoting learner-centered teaching in Kenya's rural primary schools. It explores both the school-based as well as bureaucratic hurdles to the success of constructivist pedagogy. Teacher ideologies, issues of diverse cultures and traditional beliefs, the rural context characterized by…

This paper examines the Australian government's Indigenous policy by interrogating the concept of partnership between governments and Indigenous communities through three examples. Increasingly, the Australian federal government is focusing attention on the poor literacy and numeracy outcomes for Indigenous children in remote and very remote…

Employing data from three encounters, during 1996, 2001, and 2010, with students and teachers in Huining, gansu, China's "Gaokao county," known for its striking contrast between poverty and the remarkable achievements of its College Entrance Examination (CEE) candidates, we explore the lived experiences of Huining students and teachers…

The widely reported economic divide between the richer eastern provinces and the poorer western provinces in China has an exact parallel in the development of basic education. As a result of geographical, historical and social factors the quality and management of the education system lags considerably behind the east coast. A pioneering project…

This article explores school and community leaders' beliefs about standards-based reform and the purposes of local schooling in a single rural community in the western United States. The study used interviews of 11 community and school leaders in the community. Participants engage in a balancing act between serving local interests and satisfying…

The application of ICT in education in rural and remote contexts is rapidly evolving and is actively being pursued as a solution to educational issues. ICT in education involves technological as well as pedagogical and social dimensions. This paper examines approaches being taken in developing ICT usage in Northern Territory schools for teaching…

In this paper, we investigate the gender gap in education in rural northwest China. We first discuss parental perceptions of abilities and appropriate roles for girls and boys; parental concerns about old-age support; and parental perceptions of different labor market outcomes for girls' and boys' education. We then investigate gender disparities…