RUR-ED Spatial inequalities and spatial justice in education

Focus for the RUR-ED-project is geographical education differences and the significance of space when it comes to educational inequalities. Statistics and other empirical findings show spatial differences in school achievements and school experiences. In Norway, 1 out of 5 primary school children reside in rural areas. As a group these students achieve worse in school than students residing in more urban environments. There are for example regional differences in 5th and 8th graders' test scores on standardized national tests in mathematics, reading and English. Also, regional differences in educational attainment in upper secondary education have been well documented, both when it comes to attainments and throughput. This creates uneven opportunities for individuals depending on where they live. RUR-ED has investigated the causes behind spatial variations in educational achievements through three main foci; firstly, the project has focused on weather space and geography is taken into consideration in national and regional educational policy, secondly, on how this is expressed in the practices of schools, and thirdly, whether to graphical educational differences have to do with a distance between the processes and practices taking place in school and rural students' social and cultural resources. The analyses in RUR-ED build on several different forms of empirical data; field studies and observation data, qualitative interviews, survey data and register data. The focus on education policy has proven to be important in order to understand geographical education differences. In many ways this goes as a red thread through the results of the project. Education policy provides a structural foundation for how schools and teachers are able to execute their tasks. It is also decisive how locational education structures are formed. Findings from the project make it clear that education policy is a key factor in order to understand educational processes and that it also plays a critical part when it comes to creating differences in educational quality and educational achievements. This has been a focus that needed more thorough investigation and it is therefore an important contribution from RUR-ED. The project shows that lack of resources in rural and remote schools have made teachers? work more challenging and influenced the quality of the education provided to students in all three countries. This it is played out differently according to national and local contexts. Even though teachers in general view delivering education of high quality and ensuring students welfare as main tasks, these targets are challenged due to different conditions connected to geography. This has to do with lack of economic resources, lack of support functions and cultural institutions, spatial differences in how school owners participate and get involved as school owners and differences when it comes to access to qualified teachers. The processes students and their families find themselves in when it comes to education is influenced by their spatial attachment. For rural students this to a large degree has to do with the geographic mobility that is presupposed and expected of them as they grow older. Local school structures, local labor markets, experiences of being new in the place, and lack of local social capital, or factors that are significant for the transitional processes of the young. The project has shown the importance of directing attention towards the heterogenous character of rurality and towards how rurality is played out when in reality there are considerable differences between places or municipalities that can be characterized as rural. The differences may be greater within municipalities than among municipalities, pointing towards the importance of place sensitive policies on the educational field. This leads to questioning the often standardized solutions that dominates in centralized education systems. In some instances, there are bigger differences within than between municipalities, which points to the importance of place sensitive measures and policies in the education field, questioning the one shoe fits all-approach dominant in centralized education systems, such as in Norway. We have discovered that demographic classifications can clarify some aspects of spatial educational inequality while obscuring others, illustrating both the importance of place-sensitive qualitative and quantitative analysis. The findings also contribute to the ongoing debate when it comes to centralized versus decentralized educational systems, curricula and pedagogy, as well as the consequences of educational policy and governance for the learning processes of children.

RUR-ED har vært med på å skape oppmerksomhet omkring geografiske utdanningsforskjeller; i de områdene vi har gjort vårt empiriske arbeid og gjennom å presenter i fora som når ut til stakeholders. Det gir mulighet til å påvirke praksis og politikk på utdanningsfeltet. Spesielt viktig er deltagelse i debattene om skolenedleggelser. I et videre perspektiv kan våre forskningsbaserte innspill bidra til at sted og geografi, blir selvfølgelige kategorier å inkludere i utdanningspolitiske diskusjoner. Prosjektet har bidratt til å styrke internasjonalt forskningssamarbeid gjennom deltagelse i internasjonale fora. RUR-EDs interdisiplinære tilnærming til forskningsfeltet har gitt viktige bidrag i kunnskapsutviklingen på feltet.

This project will contribute to ensuring a spatially just education system based on knowledge about the interconnections between social practices of schools and rural students' social and cultural resources. The main rationale for focusing on spatial inequalities in education in rural areas is that educational outcomes of students residing in rural areas are lower than for students residing elsewhere, which creates uneven opportunities for individuals depending on where they live. We therefore need to know how space is taken into consideration in national and regional educational policy and in practices in schools. We also need to know if teachers in rural contexts have other work experiences from teachers in urban contexts that affect the learning environments of students. Furthermore, we need to know if a disconnect between the cultural resources of rural students and families and the social practices of schools is a cause of spatial inequalities in education. The problem of spatial inequalities in education is addressed through a comparative multiple case study design, including Norway, Finland and Canada, and will entail between-nations and within-nations comparisons. The project will include a review and critical policy analysis, which will provide knowledge about the way space is, or is not, taken into consideration in national and regional educational policy and in practices in schools, and as such can be a cause of spatial inequalities in education. The project will also include sociological case studies including multi method approaches, that will tell us whether and how there is a disconnect between social practices of schools and rural individuals' and families' cultural resources, which will provide an understanding of whether such a disconnect is a cause of spatial inequalities in education. Furthermore, the project will develop and test research based innovations.