Early Achievement Gains and Poverty-Linked Social Distress: The Case of Post-Head Start Transition

Public policymakers in West Virginia have an intense interest in early and continuing educational intervention for the poor. In this view, interventions such as Head Start are a good idea, but they start too late and end too soon. Properly executed, early and continuing intervention is expected to provide a basis for later achievement-driven improvements in occupational and income attainments. Rural poverty and its correlates, which manifest and cause social distress in a variety of forms, is then diminished. We report on an evaluation of the West Virginia site of a federally-funded program intended to maintain early achievement gains viewed as crucial in alleviating poverty-linked social distress. Results of the evaluation of Post-Head Start Transition show no achievement gains. This undercuts the rationale for the program. Furthermore, it provides no support for a general policy of early and continuing educational intervention to foster achievement-driven diminution of poverty. It seems reasonable to consider the possibility that achievement rises and falls in response to the prevalence and intensity of social distress. Context determines educational outcomes, not the other way around. Reasons are suggested for this.     

农村宗教研究述评

文章针对当前农村宗教问题研究的现有成果,进行系统地回顾和梳理,择要论述了农村宗教活动发生的原因、农村宗教活动的特点、农村宗教活动的影响及对策问题,并指出了当前研究中存在的不足,目的在于帮助人们了解农村宗教问题研究的状况和有关研究动态。     

All kinds of potential: Women and out-migration in an Atlantic Canadian coastal community

Rural researchers have found that women leave rural communities at a higher rate than men. Rural education researchers have also found that young women are significantly more successful in formal education than their male counterparts. Few studies though attempt to explain why this is so. This work presents data and analysis from two studies of education and out-migration from a rural-coastal community in Nova Scotia Canada. The questions I investigate in this session are: (1) why are women more likely to leave rural communities? (2) how have contemporary change forces like globalization and network society influenced the gender balance regarding rural out-migration? and (3) how has young rural women's relative success in formal education related to their higher rates of out-migration? Given the recent concern about boy's education, I raise some critical questions about the parallel notion that girls are doing just fine.     

Rurality and Social Inclusion: A Case of Preschool Education

This paper begins by reviewing several of the ways in which social inclusion has been conceptualized in the literature. The paper then explores these approaches in the context of the provision of preschool education in rural Scotland. Preschool education is viewed by government as a powerful weapon in the fight against social exclusion, but higher per capita costs in rural areas as well as the availability and cost of transport are major problems, raising questions in turn about inclusive models of provision. Moreover, many parents are sceptical about their ability to access preschool education for their children while also continuing their own engagement in the labour market (a central pillar of social inclusion policy). Issues of choice, quality and governance arise and these are discussed in depth. The paper concludes with some reflections on the concept of social inclusion in the light of this case study.     

农村社会的崩解? 当代台湾农村新发展的启示

文章透过台湾目前农村(包括原住民及汉人)的新发展,包括强调文化与地方产业的达娜伊谷生态公园、布农部落屋等个案,以及强调新文化形成的阿美族两地社会、新头港村的两地社会、陈有兰溪流域的区域体系、会灵山运动、东埔社的文化再创造等个案,来检讨“台湾农村是否还是个农村社会的问题,还是已是个新文化的问题?”“新资本主义经济的性质为何?”“新文化只是新资本主义经济的过渡,还是资本主义经济之外的另一种可能?”等问题。     

论农村教育与新型农民的培育

农村教育是培育新型农民最基本的阵地。目前,我国农村教育有严重的"离农"倾向,这有悖于新型农民培育和社会主义新农村建设的大局。因此,要从社会主义现代化建设的全局着眼,从适应社会主义新农村建设、培育新型农民的需要出发对农村教育进行创新发展。     

丘陵经济发展的主要因素分析

丘陵地区在我国地域经济中占有重要的一席之地,本文以三台县为例,通过对影响丘区农村经济发展的几个主要因素——耕地、劳力、物质投入等的分析,得出了如下结论:从耕地经营转向非耕地的开发利用;实行劳力的合理配置与转移;增加物资投入。总之,丘陵地区的农业发展在于走生态农业之路。     

2003 年中国农村若干重大问题的回顾

文章对2003年的农村状况进行了系统的回顾,内容涉及农民收入、农村政策及其影响、农村社会发展与社会保障、农民失地、农民工、城乡壁垒、农产品市场与价格等8个方面,并对2004年的农村情况进行了展望。作者认为2003年的农村情况表现出稳定发展的态势。     

刍议农村留守儿童的社会支持

农村留守儿童问题引起了社会的广泛关注。本文对农村留守儿童的社会支持的现状和问题进行了分析,提出一个由政府、群体和个体组成的农村留守儿童的社会支持体系,对于缓解农村留守儿童问题具有非常重要的意义。     

浅谈云南农村建设小康社会的不平衡性问题

没有农村的小康 ,全面建设小康社会就不可能实现。农村进入小康是整个中国全面进入小康的重要标志。本文从云南历史和现实的角度出发 ,分析了云南农村与全国、云南城乡以及云南各地区农村之间在迈向小康社会的过程中 ,呈现出经济社会发展的极大的不平衡性 ,提出建设云南农村小康社会的对策和建议