Abstract:
The purposes of this study were: - (1) to examine the community development roles of primary school teachers in the poverty areas, (2) to explore the problems of and obstacles to the community development practices of primary school teachers in those rural poverty areas, and finally, (3) to compare the community development roles of primary school teachers who were and were not affiliated with the Project for Village Development in poverty Areas. This study was the survey research, the sample consisted of 399 primary school teachers who were and were not attached to the Project for Village Development in the eleventh educational region was selected as the population group. The instrument employed in this study was the researcher constructed questionnaire. The questionnaire was composed of items on personal data, roles of primary school teachers in poverty areas in community development, the problems and suggestions. The collected data were then analyzed by means of percentage, mean, standard deviation and t-test. The research findings were: 1. Primary school teachers in poverty areas undertook the community development roles at the mediocre level. Considering every aspect of the teachers roles, it was found that the community development roles were merely concentrated on the emphasis included socio and cultural development, including public health, politics, education and economics and vocation which were ranked respectively at the moderate poverty level. 2. The four critical problems and obstacles faced by the primary school teachers in their community development operations within the poverty areas were ranked respectively as followers; (1) a shortage of an appropriate budget to support the teachers to go out for rural development and a lack of equipment and tools to promote Vocational careers within the community. (2) an impoverished or low-income population. (3) an inappropriate allocation of budget in community development. (4) a resource-deficient area, e.g. unreplenished water or soil resources suitable for agricultural farming or forestry etc. There were seven other moderate problems in the following sequence, namely: (1) contrasting educational levels among the people. (2) inconvenient transportation routes. (3) ill - provided cooperation and support from the community development workers. (4) public's lack of attention concerning the school services. (5) insufficient time offered by teachers to public services. (6) the lack of coordination. among the govern¬ment agencies in harmonizing plans, activities and working times for the community development projects. (7) the teachers lack of knowledge and capability to give academic services to the community members. 3. On the average, the community development roles of the primary school teachers who did and did not belong to the Project for Village Development in the Rural Poverty Areas differed statistically significant at the .01 level, specifically, the teachers who belonged to the Project participated in more roles than those who did not when considering each community development aspect, it was found that there was the statistically significant differences at .01 level, i.e. primary school teachers who were attached to the Project, played more roles than those who were not in the following development areas: education, economics and vocation society and culture, public health and politics.