This paper examines questions concerning political and social change in communities and its implications for educational administration. Issues that underlie these questions include the distinction between internal and external changes, and the tension among representativeness, technical competence, and leadership. Evolutionary patterns in…

The United States government has no true national rural policy toward education and rural community development. The need exists for the federal government to assume a different role in these areas from what it has traditionally played. In the past the federal education enterprise has failed to relate the design, purpose, or implementation of its…

American rural communities are decaying, the underlying causes being chronic unemployment and inadequate infrastructure. The information age can cause the ultimate demise of rural America by further eroding local institutions or it can be its savior by revitalizing the sense of community. The link between community development and the information…

Empowering grassroots efforts in literacy is paramount in the literacy education movement. Six issues face literacy work, research, and policy in the United States today: (1) although there are many exciting and innovative literacy projects being conducted, their lessons are unexamined and they are not part of a larger organizing strategy; (2)…

This paper discusses the use of gender analysis to ensure that economic development policy has equitable consequences for women and men, and describes the role of nonprofit community organizations in promoting such analysis. Gender analysis assumes that role differences between men and women are socially defined and therefore open to change.…

In October 1999, the Regional Australia Summit was held in Canberra to allow people from regional, rural, and remote areas to contribute their perspectives on the challenges facing rural Australia. The Summit aimed to develop a national appreciation of those challenges, gather ideas on meeting the challenges, establish goals, and identify roles…

There are clear signs that community learning is the way to a more sustainable future for Australian communities, especially rural ones. There are also indications that policymakers now recognize that the people who live in communities should play an important role in determining the future of their own communities. Policy must use the best…

This paper lays out a rationale for building local rural development policies that focus on potential strengths of school-community relationships, while empowering local citizens. Rural communities and their schools are caught up in trends that complicate policy at all levels. These trends include changes related to national and global economic…

An analysis of community development in British state policy during the post-war period identifies these four discourses of citizenship implicit within successive phases of policy development: social democracy and the problem of the inactive citizen; structuralist critique and the problem of citizen action; marketization and the problem of citizen…

The diminishing role of the federal government in rural development has created an opportunity for new initiatives in this area. One potentially useful response is the creation of a state-rural policy center. Such centers can combine the efforts of land grant institutions, extension services, and state universities in the development and…

A distillation of hundreds of speeches, working papers, panel sessions, informal discussions, and formal resolutions, this report is derived from the First National Conference on Rural America (April 1975) and reflects emergence of a rural political platform. Attended by approximately 1,500 people from 49 States, Puerto Rico, and Canada, the…

Examines problems in coordination between nonformal adult education and national development programs in India and suggests management structures for institutionalizing coordination. Notes the difficulty with which influential political and administrative groups will allow changes in the system and suggests possible alternative development and…

In response to the growing need to provide health and social services to rural America, the conference addressed the political, economic, and social issues involved in providing appropriate health and social services to rural residents. A cadre of individuals from various disciplines presented alternatives and solutions to these issues. This…

Public deliberation, sometimes called deliberative democracy, offers alternatives to what are often adversarial governmental debates and hearings. This paper provides a case example of applying the deliberative democracy process to development issues and an analysis of data comparing the effectiveness of the process for creating a consensus for…

This research study sought to determine the impact of an agricultural leadership program on rural community development beyond self-report survey data typically collected for program evaluation. Two hundred-ninety graduates of a program that taught leadership skills to impact policy at local, state, and national levels to adults aged 25-45 who…