Efficiency in Catalan rural schools: contextual characteristics

Abstract

The following study is situated in the framework of an international project that aims to identify French, Spanish and Portuguese characteristics of different contexts (socio-cultural, institutional and territorial) which are factors that influence the performance of students attending rural schools. The specific objectives focus on an analysis of descriptive dimensions (school context and characteristics of the center) and on the dimensions involving the view that the students of the school have in relation to their efficiency, the expectations they have in relation to their professional future, the after-school activities carried out and their vision of the territory where they live. This article presents some of the references on which the analysis is based, relating to both the concepts of rural territory and the school performance linked to the territory. It also describes the methodology of the research employed in the study, the most important results and the main conclusions, all focused on Catalonia and in particular on rural areas located near the Catalan coastal plain, where the chosen rural schools lie close to the regional capital.

Keywords
Rural areas; school; learning; performance;rural school zones.