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 article aims to analyze inter-provincial disparities of rural education and the convergence rate, and to discuss the effects of compulsory education reform after 2001. Design/methodology/approach: The article estimates the rural average education years and education Gini coefficients of China's 31 provinces (municipalities) beside…

Based on an ethnographic study in a rural middle school in Northwest China, the author explores how the transition of the rural countryside, specifically townization, has challenged the urban-rural dichotomy being reproduced in and by formal schooling. Rural students express criticism of the chaos, pollution, and corruption they have experienced…

Drawing on recent research with NGO-driven projects in rural Cajamarca, Peru, we examine the paradoxes of relying on wind, solar and micro-hydro generation of electricity for rural community development. In spite of cost, vagaries of these energy resources and limited material benefits, especially with wind and solar systems, villagers are eagerly…

This study analyzed challenges faced by teachers in rural and Indigenous schools, and the impact of pedagogical mentorship in contributing towards more culturally and linguistically relevant education. Using a case from Guatemala, this article explored pedagogical mentorship as an in-service teacher training resource for multi-lingual and…

The theme of the 2016 National Conference of the Australian College of Educators (ACE), "Challenges and changes: The power of education to build the world to which we aspire," provided a unique opportunity for education professionals to carefully consider and propose papers, workshops, and poster sessions to stimulate discussion and…

This article explores factors influencing values management and in particular the way in which teachers and principals perceive their role in the inculcation of democratic values and moral principles with a view to managing schools more effectively within a democratic dispensation. In a small scale qualitative study, it was found that educators…

While Ghanaians in urban and rural settings are multilingual, English is the language of Ghanaian newspapers, politicians, the courts, much of television and radio in the metropolitan centres of the country. Indeed, urban Ghanaian adolescents have expanding opportunities to use English, the only official language of Ghana, even when not in school.…

Over the past two decades, Russia has been characterized by a demographic slump, a drastic decline in the number of school students, and, accordingly, a shrinkage of the system of education. The magnitude of shrinkage in rural areas is not 5-10 percent, something education could adapt to, but is about 30 percent, which requires systemic changes.…

This study investigated the influence of retraining programme on self-esteem of primary school teachers in Ebonyi State of Nigeria. The study was guided by one research question and a null hypothesis. A purposively selected sample of 775 primary school teachers who attended capacity building retraining programme provided the data collected using…

This paper reports on outcomes of Phases One and Two of the ALTC Competitive Research and Development Project "Developing Strategies at the Pre-Service Level to Address Critical Teacher Attraction and Retention Issues in Australian Rural, Regional and Remote Schools". This project funded over two years aims to strengthen the capacity and…

This article describes an innovative approach, developed by North Carolina State University, to prepare leaders specifically for work in rural schools in high poverty districts. Operating with Race-to-the-Top funding, the Northeast Leadership Academy is a selective program with embedded practice and focused summer community internships. The…

This article reports on a study that was conducted with 41 rural teachers drawn from a larger sample of 691 teachers who were enrolled for an in-service programme at a South African university. As part of the assessment of a research component of the programme, teachers were asked to report on how they designed and carried out an intervention to…

This article features St. Lawrence University's Adirondack Semester, a small program, with enrollment limited to twelve students. The participants of the program are composed of a small group of students with shared interests and serious purpose, living harmoniously and mostly free from the temptations and distractions of the larger world,…

This paper reports on the outcomes of a two year ALTC Competitive Research and Development Project that aimed to "Develop Strategies at the Pre-Service Level to Address Critical Teacher Attraction and Retention Issues in Australian Rural, Regional and Remote Schools". As well as developing a "training framework" and teaching…