A summary of educational planning methodologies tested in Argentina, Guatemala, Brazil, Ecuador, and Bolivia, the document offers opinions and proposals about integrated rural development. Integrated rural development is seen as a social, economic, political, and cultural process in rural areas, designed to improve living conditions. Chapters address: (1) the present situation, new approaches, and trends for education and the socio-economic context in rural areas of Latin America and the Caribbean; (2) elements to consider in the characterization of rural areas (such as ecology, population composition and dynamics, structure of property and power, work and income, social organization, communications, and levels of welfare) and options of response by the education sector in depressed and modernized areas; (3) the role, levels, and limitations of educational planning and their integration with other sectors responsible for rural development; (4) conditions and characteristics of the educational planning process including community participation and consultation; (5) main components of the educational planning process (component identification, program area pre-diagnosis, global and sectoral plan study, sectoral objective formulation, education structure determination, programming, implementation, project formulation, evaluation, and control); (6) elements for formulation of educational strategy. The document concludes with an extensive multilingual bibliography. (NEC)