2. Sigurjón Mýrdal Iceland University of Education Reconstructing the Field of Rural Educational Research; reflections from the LATIRA- project Paper delivered at the NERACongress TALLINN, ESTONIA 7-9 March 2002

4. Compulsory schools in Iceland; Age grades 6 - 16 Size schools% < 25 2312 25 - 492312 50 - 752011 75 - 99 9 5 100-149 9 5 150-19912 6 >2009449 Sum 190

5. Changing Rural Economic Regression

6. The new Rural Condition Globalization Demographic changes Cultural turmoil Multiculturalism New technologies Changing infrastructures and occupational changes in communities.

7. Pupils in compulsory schools with mother language other than Icelandic Total CapitalRural 1.201 57,4 42,6 English 175 66,3 33,7 Polish 15032,068,0 Thai10749,550,5 Philippine 9457,442,6 Serbo-Croatian 8448,851,2 Vietnamese 5889,710,3 Danish 5251,948,1 Spanish 4854,245,8 Swedish 4647,852,2 Norwegian 4245,2 54,8 Russian 4273,826,2 Albanian 3372,727,3 German 2857,142,9 Portuguese 2568,032,0 Faeroese 2330,469,6 Lithuanian 2085,015,0 Chinese 2085,015,0 Dutch 1637,562,5 Hungarian 1513,386,7 French 1471,428,6 Other10979,820,2

9. “Rural” Conditions PAST Small “Pure” Multi-grade Remote Neglected Inferior FUTURE Desired ? Multicultural ? Advanced ? Affluent ? Proud ? ??

10. Number of pupils in Icelandic Elementary Schools 1997/98 Size of No. of No. of No. of Average Proportion schools schools classes pupils in classes of pupils 192 227242153 19100% < 25 23 47 326 7 1% 25-49 29 134 1095 8 3% 50-74 17 119 1020 9 2% 75-99 12 114 1069 9 3% 100-149 22 194 2702 14 6% 150-199 10 103 1737 17 4% > 200 79156134204 22 81%

11. Rural Education; Teaching and learning in Rural schools; Teacher Education; Current state of research into rural education;