This project builds on phenomena of rural education, performance of (EEC*) teachers’ role as well as collaboration between school and local community. Rural communities present special challenges to teachers, including: large territorial distances, isolation from colleagues/professional environment, and limited access to resources for support, as well as unique community expectations and role conflicts.
Much of current teaching practice seems to be based on models derived from urban contexts which have little in common with the demands of rural areas. Only a very limited research literature is available, that documents or analyses the unique approaches and challenges of rural teaching.
Aim of the project is to reconstruct unique qualities of educational work at schools and kindergartens situated in rural, sparsely populated areas, and thereby to reconstruct unique contributions to rural-community well-being, that can be introduced to teacher education.
Methods we see as relevant to our questions are (narrative) interviews with teachers and kindergarten teachers. We are going to conduct 20 of them in three different socio-cultural contexts: Norway, Germany and Poland.
Results will suggest improvements for (EEC*) teacher education
*EEC – Early Education and Care – nor. barnehage