4.6 The Nature of Rural, Isolated and Small Communities
There is a perception, associated with the rural idyll, that villages are friendly places with good community support. Yet there are aspects of some small and rural communities that may provide barriers to learning [30]. • Lack of anonymity may prove a powerful disincentive for people seeking further education or training.
• Divisions within rural communities may mean that if one grouping adopts a learning opportunity, others will avoid it
• An enrolment sub-culture where some, often small, groups of residents may participate in every learning opportunity, which means that others, not part of a particular group, may feel, or actually are, excluded.
• Community gatekeepers are influential individuals who, often unintentionally, may recruit people only from their own networks; or they may have limited ideas of what learning opportunities ought to be offered or pursued.
4.7 A Rural Mindset?
There has been debate on whether a rural mindset exists, acting as a barrier to participation in learning [31]. The conclusion seems to be that social changes over the past 15 years have altered perceptions of gender roles and lessened insularity. So there no longer appears to be any general rural predisposition not to pursue adult learning [32]. (Anecdotal evidence from the Rural Life and Faith project survey suggests that there are some rural areas where local habits of thought may still exert a profound and negative influence on attitudes to adult learning – within both church and wider community. This appears to combine rural identity with innate conservatism and parochialism.)
5. Barriers to Adult Learning within the Church
Most studies of Christian education focus on the formal context (e.g. residential theological training), but helpful work has been published on broader non-formal and informal education within, or in relation to, local churches [33]. This broader learning relates mostly to the mission or ministry of the local churches and the faith development of their members – involving both members and leaders, whether independently or in combination.
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