사회자본 구축을 통한 농어촌 학생의 학업격차 개선방향　

A strategic direction for the decrease of differences in academic achievement of rural students

One of the critical issues among educators in Korea is the educational differences between rural and urban students. In general, academic achievement of the rural students was lower than their counterpart(urban students). The previous researches and literatures have articulated their low achievement based on poor input variables, process variables, and consequently low academic outcomes. The purpose of the study is to explore the realities and reasons for low academic achievement of rural elementary school students, and to find a strategic direction for the decrease of differences in academic achievement of rural students. For the accomplishment of the purpose, the study has utilized the literature review research methodology. Especially the study has been heavily relied on social capital theory suggested by Coleman to explain the low academic achievement of rural students. The related literatures have revealed that the lack of social capital at home, school, and community leads to the low academic achievement of rural students. Thus, to increase the academic outcome, it is a sine qua none to create a strong network among family members, and parents involvement into their child educational activities. To build a functional society in school is the other strategy to increase the academic achievement of rural students. For the construct of rich community, it is necessary to form a strong network among parents, to have a mutual communication among members, to build a strong trust, to share the information of child education, to have a keen tie between generations, and to participate in the educational activities. Consequently these activities increase the amount of social capital at home, in school and community. Ideologically, two directions for the construction of social capital has been suggested. One is to imitate the rural educational model to supplement the social capital of rural students. The other is to implement place-based education or community-based educational practices. Since the socio-cultural contexts of rural students in Korea do not appropriate to adopt the local educational model, it is suggested the first, i.e., to make educational environment of rural schools to the urban area.