Empowering Rural Education Revitalization with Data-Intelligent Technologies in the Context of Building a Leading Educational Power: Theoretical Underpinnings, Critical Barriers, and Practical Pathways

Abstract

The persistent urban-rural education gap remains a critical challenge for achieving educational equity and sustainable development in developing countries. Within the framework of building a leading educational power, revitalizing rural education is not merely a policy priority but a fundamental pathway to interrupting intergenerational poverty and fostering social mobility. Against the backdrop of building a leading education power and advancing rural revitalization, data-intelligent technologies serve as both a bridge narrowing the urban-rural educational divide and a critical engine for propelling rural education revitalization. This empowerment process is underpinned by a four-dimensional theoretical framework that provides essential support for its development. However, in the transitional journey from a large education country to a leading education power, the application of these technologies confronts four critical barriers: the misalignment between technological adaptation and rural contextual needs, the imbalance between cost investment and resource distribution, the deficiency in digital literacy and competence, and the fragmentation between digital resources and indigenous rural ecosystems. To tackle these challenges, this study proposes corresponding strategies—namely, precision adaptation to resolve the technology-need mismatch, balanced investment to alleviate cost-resource disparities, capacity building to compensate for digital literacy and competence shortages, and localized resource development to remedy the disconnection between digital assets and rural settings. Collectively, these measures are intended to unlock broader possibilities for empowering rural education revitalization and thereby contribute meaningfully to the ultimate realization of the leading education power objectives.

Keywords: leading educational power, data-intelligent technologies, rural education, educational revitalization; educational equity

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/17-8-01

Publication date: August 30th 2026