Can reading a book about a boy and a hen in Ghana make a difference to fifth graders in their Michigan community? Indeed, it can, and in myriad ways. At a suburban elementary school in Michigan, the authors introduced fifth graders to economic concepts in a project-based learning (PBL) unit. They began by reading aloud and discussing the picture…

Drawing on experiences from a project conducted in the "Drentsche Aa" area in the Netherlands, this article discusses the concept of the "rural atelier" as a form of problem-based learning. The rural atelier principle was used originally in rural development planning and described as such by Foorthuis (2005) and Elerie and…

REAL Enterprises (Rural Entrepreneurship through Action Learning) brings classes in "school-based enterprise" to rural high schools in North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Washington State. Jonathan Sher, the founder of REAL Enterprises, believes that children learn better by doing, and that successful rural economic development requires an…

The author discusses the Rural Development Degree Program (village-based, experientially oriented degree courses at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks), which is aimed at developing local leadership to mediate the impact of the dominant external forces and to maintain a modicum of social and cultural integrity. (CT)

Achievements of the Building Our American Communities Program (BOAC), initiated in 1971 to provide a vehicle for Future Farmers of America members to make direct contributions to their communities and to practice good citizenship and develop leadership skills, are summarized in this 1985 annual report. the report begins with messages from…

In western North Carolina, 24 summer camps, business leaders, and a local community arts council collaborated on a project celebrating the visual and performing arts created by campers. Campers' art in every media was displayed in Hendersonville to highlight the benefits of summer camps to the community, including their economic, educational,…

In Appalachian Alabama, AlabamaREAL helps individuals, schools, and rural communities grow through hands-on entrepreneurship education. School-based businesses teach students to recognize business opportunities; encourage participatory learning; and meet the needs of small, rural communities. The Appalachian Regional Commission provides schools…

Discusses three simulation games focusing on social and economic interaction that can be used to enhance understanding and sensitivity in development studies training: the Green Revolution Game (rural development in India), Exaction (a whole national society game commissioned by the World Bank), and Africulture (a new game about labor-scarce…

The Rural Entrepreneurship through Action Learning (REAL) program is a network of teachers from 150 high schools, colleges, and universities in 23 states and 2 foreign countries. The program uses experiential learning to link rural schools with rural development by drawing on schools' resources to revitalize the community, while using the…

Indian educational policy is based on the Gandhian philosophy that personality development and social transformation result from education based on Socially Useful Productive Work; that is, meaningful manual work resulting in goods or services useful to the community. Decentralized work programs plus a core curriculum are basic to secondary…

Social capital helps communities respond positively to change. Research into managing change through learning in communities and in small businesses, particularly farm businesses, has highlighted the importance of relationships between people and the formal and informal structure of communities to the quality of outcomes experienced by…

The objective of the two week long 1972 Dag Hammarskjold Seminar was to break away from traditional and theoretical concepts of information work in order to gain a practical insight into communication, especially as it applies to social and economic development. Fifty participants and lecturers from developed and developing countries in Europe and…

Opened in 1963, the Swaneng Hill School in Serowe, Botswana, was an experiment for its untrained founders whose objectives were to reduce the exclusiveness of secondary education, equip students with skills and knowledge needed for development, make the school a focal point for community development, and instill a sense of social justice in the…