In this article we present and discuss experiences developed through a dialogue conference which we organised as part of a three-year participatory action research project related to primary education and agricultural education in Tanzania. We explore how dialogue conference as a research method can fill a gap between traditional ways of mutual…

Three Rural Education Conferences sponsored during 1977 by the National Institute of Education proposed to find ways to strengthen the capacity of people at the local level to identify and solve their own education problems. The first conference focused on the nature of rural communities and the political, social, economic, and geographic…

This paper overviews the evolution of rural society in Ontario (Canada) from the author's personal experience and research. The paper defines "rural" and "culture" and discusses how these concepts are relevant to social change and the resulting effects on technology, demographics, social organization, and community beliefs and…

This paper examines the imbalance in representation of native-born Mainers on the school board in Mount Desert Island, Maine. Mount Desert Island is the location of Acadia, the second most visited national park in the United States. In this community, native-born Mainers represent 68 percent of the year-round population, but 80 percent of people…

This paper explores changes needed in the focus and commitment of educational research to better reflect issues relevant to rural schools and their communities. Historically, educational researchers have focused on national or cosmopolitan concerns in efforts to develop widely applicable procedures for school improvement. However, improving rural…