In this paper, we suggest strength-based approaches for the creation of sustainable rural learning ecologies. We have framed the creation of rural learning ecologies with appreciative inquiry (AI) as a framework and argue that it begins from understanding rurality from positive psychology. The premise within AI has been seen to be the shift from…

Supported by funds from the Federal Extension Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, staff members of West Virginia University's Appalachian Center designed and implemented a 5-year experimental program designed to improve the economic conditions and the quality of living in 2 Appalachian communities. The approach was that of community and…

Discusses the use of video and local television for community development in developing nations, taken from his report, "Television for Development: The African Experience." Highlights include the use of media by untrained people, the importance of communication, the need for political support, and the advantages and disadvantages of…

Papers in this publication deal with the needs of local communities for answers to their development questions, the needs of action agencies for assistance in determining appropriate development strategies, the ability of universities to respond to these needs, and problems in responding to community and agency needs. Tony Byrne, mayor of Natchez,…

Communications is critical to community development, especially rural communities that are poor, immobile and at a distance from a major metropolitan area. The isolation of these communities comes out of a need for cohesiveness within a system that functions for them. There is some mutual support between their economic, political, and social…

Governments and change agents have assumed that people spontaneously would come forward and take part in development activities. But people have not come forward. It is now time that they be asked. Therefore, any project, program, or proposal involving a behavioral change should build in a mobilization strategy and resources for monitoring…

At the White House Consultation with Rural Women held in June 1980, over 250 women from all walks of rural life and from 12 other nations responded to the Carter Administration's rural policy on small farms, health, employment, communications, education, housing, food, agriculture, and land and energy issues and made recommendations for action for…

For the people of Bangladesh, mostly in rural areas, a new disaster is emerging. Two-thirds of the deep tube wells installed over the last three decades--roughly 3 million in total--contain arsenic concentrations above the permissible levels set by the WHO. These wells were installed to contribute to a secure and reliable drinking water supply,…

Derived from ERIC and Dissertation Abstracts International (DAI) files, this bibliography is in three sections. Extensively indexed, it contains 739 citations of work published between 1965-75. "Community Involvement and Rural Education Planning" (ERIC) yields 109 citations on a community based approach to educational planning and…

One in a series of studies of lifelong learning, this paper discusses the cultural and educational needs of selected urban and rural communities in Senegal and Ghana, emphasizing grassroots initiative and the community's analysis of its own needs. Information is drawn in part from surveys, public meetings, and interviews in three communities:…