Abstract
Due to the change of population structure, it caused the decline of the birth-rates and resulted in the effect of urbanization. Therefore, the faraway elementary schools in rural area are now under the pressure of being cut down or merged into other schools. With the aim of exploring the possibility and the developing methods to help the faraway elementary schools overcome the crisis, the researcher conducted the large-scale study in order to analyze the factors influencing the idea and behavior of these faraway elementary schools. In order to gain a holistic understanding, some research methods were considered in this study, which are 1) analysis of literature regarding the development of faraway elementary schools in East Asia, such as Japan, Korea, and China 2) questionnaire / survey of 835 faraway elementary schools' principal 3) questionnaire / survey of Educational Bureau of 25 County and City Governments 4) in-depth interviews of 12 schools in addition to the process of the creative development 5) regional focus-group interviews. Based on the analysis and the findings, the researcher proposed the viewpoints of "subjectivity value" as the orientation and outlook of the development of faraway elementary schools. Besides, related policies were reviewed and future suggestions regarding personnel structure, school expenditures, curricula and instruction, and schoolcommunity partnership were also provided.