This paper accounts for the recent Remote and Rural Schools (RARS) project led by UNESCO in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The purpose of the RARS project was to enable teachers to develop practice to address the challenge of teaching in remote and rural schools. Knowledge would be created through analysis of the teachers’ narratives and analysis of the impact of the RARS project as a whole. The team included researchers from two universities in Kazakhstan and one from Cambridge, UK and staff from Teachers Lab, an NGO based in Kazakhstan. The challenges faced by remote and rural schools in Kazakhstan are similar to those experienced in many parts of the world (Billmayer et al., 2020; Shikalepo, 2020; Tajik, Shamatov & Fillipova, 2022). Challenges include mixed-age classes in very small schools, students from disadvantaged families, cultural traditions and ways of life which do not fit well with school life, inadequate buildings, a lack of equipment and amenities, recruitment and retention of teachers and the lack of cultural infrastructure such as museums and art galleries. Online learning becomes important for such schools, but internet connectivity can be a problem. Moreover, there is considerable difference in school and teacher quality, as well as overall economic conditions between urban and rural areas. This is clearly reflected in the substantial difference in learning outcomes by geographic location and is evidenced in results from national tests and international assessments such as PISA (UNESCO, 2021). There was an urgent need to address such difficulties, so the team chose to draw on the idea of non-positional teacher leadership which and already been developed in the Teacher Leadership in Kazakhstan project (Qanay & Frost, 2020). The RARS project enabled experienced teachers in each school to become facilitators supporting a group of 10-12 colleagues. School principals were introduced to transformational leadership strategies to help to cultivate the organisational conditions that favour teacher-led change. Facilitators conducted workshop sessions and one-to-one tutorials for their colleagues. Staff from Teachers Lab and one of the universities acted as Link Facilitators whose role was to support the school-based facilitators, monitor the activity and collect data about teachers’ participation in the project.

Billmayer, J., From. J., Lindberg, J. O. and Petterson, F. (2020) Editorial: Remote teaching to ensure equal access to education in rural schools. Education in the North, 27(2), 1-6 Qanay, G. and Frost, D. (2020) The Teacher Leadership in Kazakhstan initiative: professional learning and leadership, Professional Development in Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2020.1850507 Shikalepo, E. E. (2020) Challenges Facing Teaching at Rural Schools: A Review of Related Literature, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science IV (V) May 2020. Tajik, M.A., Shamatov, D. A. and Fillipova, L.N. (2022) Teachers’ Quality in Kazakhstani Rural Schools Вестник Казахского национального женского университета No 3(91). DOI: 10.52512/2306-5079-2022-91-3-6-16 UNESCO (2021) Promoting technology-enabled education and skills development in rural and remote areas of Central Asia, Issue Note. Paris: UNESCO & UNESCO Almaty Office