Educational Access in Rural and Remote Communities: A Comparative Analysis of Local Delivery, Boundary Navigation, and Educational Progression
Keywords:
rural education, educational access, remote communities, non-formal education, place-based learning, boundary spanning, educational progression, analysisAbstract
Educational access in rural and remote communities is not exhausted by the presence of a school or by an enrolment count. Learners must be able to reach provision, understand and trust the institutions involved, encounter instruction that is workable in local conditions, and move from local participation into recognised educational progression. This article examines those linked requirements through a comparative analysis of four education initiatives: Oregon State University's Juntos/Open Campus work in Oregon, permaculture school gardens incorporated into primary education in Timor-Leste, Accelerated Education Programme centres in Punjab, Pakistan, and BRAC boat schools in the haor regions of Bangladesh. Documents were appraised for producer, purpose, completeness, evidential basis, and independence, then analysed with structured extraction and hybrid directed--inductive coding. Claims were separated into documented activities, reported outcomes, and evidence capable of supporting causal attribution. The comparison identifies four analytically distinct links in an educational access chain: physical and temporal reachability; institutional navigability and relational trust; instructional fit with local conditions; and recognised progression and continuity. The cases intervene at different links rather than representing interchangeable programme models. Oregon provides the clearest example of boundary navigation and family-centred postsecondary guidance; Timor-Leste demonstrates institutionalised place-responsive curriculum; Punjab relocates accelerated primary provision into communities with high levels of out-of-school children; and Bangladesh physically moves the classroom to flood-prone settlements.
References
UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report Team. (2020). Global Education Monitoring Report 2020: Inclusion and Education—All Means All. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373718
Halsey, J. (2018). Independent Review into Regional, Rural and Remote Education: Final Report. Australian Government Department of Education and Training. https://www.education.gov.au/recurrent-funding-schools/resources/independent-review-regional-rural-and-remote-education-final-report
OECD. (2020). Rural Well-being: Geography of Opportunities. OECD Rural Studies. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/d25cef80-en
OECD. (2021). Delivering Quality Education and Health Care to All: Preparing Regions for Demographic Change. OECD Rural Studies. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/83025c02-en
Moynihan, D., Herd, P., & Harvey, H. (2015). Administrative burden: Learning, psychological, and compliance costs in citizen–state interactions. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 25(1), 43–69. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muu009
Weerts, D. J., & Sandmann, L. R. (2010). Community engagement and boundary-spanning roles at research universities. The Journal of Higher Education, 81(6), 632–657. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2010.11779075
Gruenewald, D. A. (2003). The best of both worlds: A critical pedagogy of place. Educational Researcher, 32(4), 3–12. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X032004003
Moore, J. E., Mascarenhas, A., Bain, J., & Straus, S. E. (2017). Developing a comprehensive definition of sustainability. Implementation Science, 12, 110. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13012-017-0637-1
Bowen, G. A. (2009). Document analysis as a qualitative research method. Qualitative Research Journal, 9(2), 27–40. https://doi.org/10.3316/QRJ0902027
Hsieh, H.-F., & Shannon, S. E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research, 15(9), 1277–1288. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732305276687
Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission. (2023). 2022 University Evaluation: Oregon State University. State of Oregon. https://www.oregon.gov/highered/strategy-research/Documents/Reports/OSU-2022-HECC-Evaluation.pdf
García, J. R. (2022, July). JUNTOS. Oregon State University Extension Service. https://extension.oregonstate.edu/video/juntos
Lemos, E. (2016). Permaculture/Agroecology System in Timor-Leste National School Curriculum for Basic Education. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Family Farming Knowledge Platform. https://www.fao.org/family-farming/detail/en/c/425624/
Stodulka, T. (2020). Worlding permaculture school gardens: Translocal connectivities and minor utopias in Timor Leste. American Behavioral Scientist, 64(10), 1512–1525. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764220947755
AAN Associates. (2022). Formative Evaluation of Provincial ALP Models and Centres: Final Evaluation Report. UNICEF Pakistan Country Office. https://www.unicef.org/pakistan/media/5221/file/Formative%20Evaluation%20of%20Provincial%20ALP%20Models%20and%20Centres.pdf
Malik, A. S. (2022, April 8). Non-formal Education Centres Help Out-of-School Girls Learn in Pakistan's Punjab. UNICEF Pakistan. https://www.unicef.org/pakistan/stories/non-formal-education-centres-help-out-school-girls-learn-pakistans-punjab
Ahmed, J. U., Ashikuzzaman, N. M., & Mahmud, A. S. M. (2017). Social innovation in education: BRAC boat schools in Bangladesh. Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, 7, 20. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40497-017-0077-z
Nasreen, M., Islam, M. A., & Chisty, M. A. (2019). Floating the Light of Education in Haor: Innovative Solutions to Remove Barriers to Education. BRAC Education Programme. https://www.educationaboveall.org/sites/default/files/research/attachments/Boat%20School_final.pdf
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Articles published in Learning Communities — International Journal of Learning in Social Contexts are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
This license allows users to copy, share, distribute, adapt, and build upon the published material for any lawful purpose, including commercial use, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and source, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made are clearly indicated.
Authors retain copyright in their published work and grant the journal the right of first publication.
