Widening opportunities? A case study of school-to-school collaboration in a rural district

Abstract

In recent years, the principle of networking and collaboration has become more prevalent and more widely studied in education. Most research to date has been carried out in urban contexts. However, it can be argued that, for school improvement in rural areas, their specific circumstances make collaboration imperative. In this article, we discuss a Federation of rural schools as a case study of collaboration in rural areas. Collaboration was found to have major advantages in terms of widening provision and opportunities for learners and allowing schools to address vulnerable groups more effectively. However, some troublesome issues of power and equity remain in the collaborative and its relations to the broader area.