This paper offers a general approach to and the first results of the international study “Efficiency and quality in the acquisition of skills characterize the rural school, is this model transferable to other types of schools?". This three year study is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation[1], within the grant program for I+D+I Non-Fundamental Research Projects -2009 (EDU2009-13460, sub-program EDUC). Here we discuss the work completed during the two first years of the project’s implementation, during which time the sample was selected and some results were obtained. This project, which is being carried out in Latin America and Europe, analyses rural schools equivalent to primary schools, located in Latin America (Chile, Uruguay) and Europe (France, Portugal and Spain).

The project reflects on the process of acquiring competences in the rural school, to learn how these competences situated within the framework of a participative-active methodology, and which give special attention to cultural and social diversity, could have transferable didactic and organizational components for ordinary (urban and suburban) schools. To this end, we will analyse how a participative methodology is linked to the acquisition of competences that is being carried out in some countries in Latin America and Europe. By reflecting on and learning from these countries' experiences, we hope to contribute new knowledge about multigrade schools, the acquisition of competences, and the attention paid to the vast cultural and social diversity in which we are globally immersed.  

The main objectives that arise in the present research are:

1.- Study and compare the methods of teaching and learning in rural schools in Chile, Spain, France, Portugal and Uruguay.

2. Design a proposal for teaching components that can be transferred to other types of schools, in order to improve learning in other schools.

In an attempt to generate new knowledge about multi-grade schooling we have undertaken research into rural education in countries with diverse regional organizations, as well as different educational systems and traditions. Here in lies much of the motivation to implement the study, since there is not enough research on multi-grade schooling, especially in didactics. In this manner, this project seeks to allocate an importance to rural education research that it has yet to receive in academic studies or in the teaching field (both university and non-university). International journals we consulted in our literature review that make reference to the limited research on rural education have continued to denounce this imbalance (Little, 1995, 2001; Coladarci, 2007). The current state of the research proposes a challenge for us who intend to advance and improve this area, since we are not able to locate enough relevant references in the scientific literature.

[1]              Members of the Research Project: Roser Boix (principal investigator), Carlos Moreno, Limber Santos, Antonio Pereira, Pierre Champollion, Antonio Bustos, Pilar Abós, Marta Ramo, Virginia Domingo, Marta Ramo, Laura Domingo, Fernando Leiva, Fernando Mandujano, Esther del Moral, Jean-Luc Fauguet, Gladys Villaroel, René Flores, Alain Legardez, Yves Alpe and Thierry May-Carle.

Bandy, H (1980): “The identification of skills and characteristics needed by country schoolteachers”, Education reports, Canada. Coladarci, T. (2007). Improving the yield of rural education research: an editor’s Swan Song. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 22 (3). Little, A.W. (1995). Multigrade teaching: a review of research and practice. En Education Research, serial nº 12. Londres: Overseas Development Administration. Marland, P (2004): Preparing teachers for multigrade classrooms: Some questions and answers. University of Southern Queensland. OERI (1990). Teaching combined grade classes: Real problems and promising practices. Virginia: Appalachia Educational Laboratory. Taylor, S. J.; Bogdan, R. (1986). Introducción a los métodos cualitativos de investigación. Buenos Aires: Paidós.