Educational leadership for equity in rural schools: systematic literature review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5944/educxx1.42756Keywords:
educational equity, rural school, leadershipAbstract
Rural schools play an essential role in their contexts, in which social cohesion stands out (Abascal et al., 2023; Abós et al., 2021; Leiva-Guerrero et al., 2022), and they have a great influence on these contexts. Educational leadership is aimed at educational quality (Hsieh et al., 2023) and is the second most influential factor in student learning (Leithwood et al., 2008). Educational equity is a fundamental element in the improvement of education, since educational quality cannot be understood without equity. For this reason, the aim of this paper is to analyse the international scientific production on educational leadership for equity in rural schools, based on a systematic review of the literature, taking the PRISMA 2020 standards as a reference. After applying the search equation and eligibility criteria in the Web Of Science and Scopus databases, selecting results that constituted articles between 2014 and 2023, 51 results were found. These results show strong links between the rural school and its community, and a deep sense of identity and belonging. Similarly, all members of the educational community are fundamental and capable of promoting educational equity in their schools, highlighting a horizontal and shared educational leadership. In addition, intercultural, technological, gender and territorial inequities are observed. It is possible to conclude that the researchers agree on the importance of rural schools, guaranteeing access to education in rural areas. In addition, there is a need to continue to deepen the interrelationship between these three themes, given the lack of research on them, and to develop specific equitable policies for the rural world at the international level.
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