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Abstract Running rural small schools (RSS) effectively is crucial for the modernization of education in China as well as the development of powerful education system, which is also a key mission in promoting the rural revitalization strategy and achieving education-driven common prosperity in the new era. However, the current study proposes that there are widespread weaknesses in Chinese RSS space with four major problems, including unclear positioning of spatial construction, insufficient investment, deviation in construction concepts, and inadequate guidance in practice. In light of these challenges, this study utilizes comprehensive theoretical studies and action-based inquiry to explore the construction of RSS spaces from three perspectives: value objectives, key mechanisms and practical pathways.
Firstly, it is urgently needed to optimize the value objectives of RSS space by, positioning it as a hub for “integrating multiple social planning” and “collaborative development and construction” to facilitate the common revitalization of rural villages and RSS”. Positioning it as a “minimum guarantee of RSS conditions” and “space empowering education for common prosperity” can facilitate the shared prosperity in urban and rural education, allowing the space to be a pioneer of advocating education equity. Positioning it as a “complete space functional sequences” and “spaces more conducive to education” for the better growth of rural students, allowing the space to serve the comprehensive and personalized development of the students. Positioning it as a “beautiful and high-quality campus” and “space with appropriate characteristics” for RSS development, which requires the space to support the sustainable development of RSS. Secondly, in order to promote the “small and beautiful” construction of RSS space, the key is to clarify the elements of school site network planning, the performance of spatial structure relationships, the design of spatial function realization, and the governance of jointly space well construction from a mechanistic perspective. For the improvement of the constituent elements of rural society, it is important to focus on the social integrity to achieve the perfection and functional symbiosis of rural society and RSS site network. For the enhanced performance of RSS spatial structure, it is important to focus on the school development to realize the endogenous empowerment of RSS spatial performance that will help lay a strong foundation for the schools. To improve the spatial function, it is important to focus on the pedagogy to create space that integrates school culture and educational knowledge, which will enrich the value of the space and better nurture the rural students. To improve spatial construction governance, it is important to focus on the practicality to activate the whole society to collaborate and form a united force for joint construction. Finally, RSS space construction should be carried out in a concerted manner on six pathways. The first pathway is space standardization, ensuring consistent school conditions through the “same benchmark”. The second pathway is space educationalization, adopting the “PST design approach” to promote the space integrated with educational ideas and technology. The third pathway is space humanization, creating a “child-friendly” environment to highlight the warm campus. The fourth pathway is space digitization, developing soft and hard information technology to strengthen the foundation of intelligent education. The fifth pathway is space localization, using “local design” to emphasize the unique rural character of schools. The last pathway is space openness, promoting the revitalization of rural communities and schools together with the concept of “integrity, orderliness, co-construction and sharing”.
The study enriches the theoretical discussions on the value and mechanism of RSS space constructions, and also providing scientific and feasible suggestions from the practical level, which can help to promote the strategy of rural revitalization and the promotion of common wealth through education from a unique and new perspective. Thus the study could better promote the Chinese path to educational modernization and the construction of a powerful nation of education.
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Published: 26 May 2024
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