Small rural schools in many countries have historically been viewed as less desirable than their larger urban counterparts, being treated less favourably in the policy arena and facing a risk of closure or amalgamation. Within Europe, they have been the focus of a range of research studies and have been defined in different ways, based mostly on the number of pupils enrolled (typically around 100), but also their geographical isolation or small number of staff. However, the last notable attempt to review the literature in this area was carried out over 10 years ago. Since then, there has been a large volume of research conducted in many European countries. This rigorous scoping review has brought together what we know from research (published in English since 2000) on small rural schools in Europe. The most common themes identified were school leadership, the importance of context (including education policy and school closures/amalgamations), and school-community relationships. Case studies and ethnographic qualitative methods were the most popular, with a stronger use made of theoretical frameworks since the previous review. Nonetheless, the current review found still significant gaps in the literature including an under-theorization of certain topics and a lack of research with children.

许多国家的小型农村学校历来被认为不如大型城市学校理想，在政策领域受到的待遇较差，并面临关闭或合并的风险。在欧洲，它们一直是一系列研究的重点，并以不同的方式定义，主要基于注册学生的数量（通常约为 100 人），但也基于地理位置的孤立或员工人数较少。然而，最后一次对该领域文献进行回顾的显着尝试是在 10 多年前进行的。从那时起，在许多欧洲国家进行了大量研究。这项严格的范围界定审查汇集了我们从欧洲小型农村学校的研究（自 2000 年以来以英文发表）中了解到的信息。确定的最常见主题是学校领导力、环境的重要性（包括教育政策和学校关闭/合并）以及学校与社区的关系。案例研究和民族志定性方法是最受欢迎的，自上次审查以来，更多地使用了理论框架。尽管如此，当前的审查发现文献中仍然存在重大差距，包括某些主题的理论化不足以及缺乏对儿童的研究。