The Reality of Language Teacher Needs in Rural Education

Rural depopulation and the state of education in rural areas are characterized to provide a contextualization for the role of second language teachers there. Subsequently, results are presented from a needs analysis of the Spanish provinces that have suffered the greatest demographic decline and associated problems over the last half-century. Based on these results, a series of training macrostrategies are proposed as part of the AGORA (Technological and methodological innovation for lAnguage teaching and GeneratiOn of synergies in Rural Areas) research project. Such an approach will provide tailored training that meets the needs of rural teachers and, at the same time, enable them to support the students they have. Results of these strategies will facilitate the transfer of knowledge to society and are envisaged to inspire other researchers and educational authorities, given the transversality and scalability that can be expected from the outputs of the project.