This paper presents some of the findings and experiences of the research project "Training Titlrd World Educational Administrators - Methods and Materials" which is funded by the Overseas Development Administration (hereafter ODA), UK. The ODA-funded research project originated out of a concern for the severe shortage of appropriate materials for use in the training of third world educational administrators. The original project aims were to survey the provision of training in educational administration in a number of developing countries and its quality in relation to identified training needs; to study the nature of this provision particularly the alternative strategies, training methods and materials which are employed; and to develop, in collaboration with third world trainers, materials for use in future training programmes. In the course of time we recognised that a key role the project could also be playing, and one which we have seen increasingly as a major objective, is to stimulate institutional materials development processes and the adoption of more diverse training methodologies by third world trainers. 
The purposes of this paper therefore are to outline some of the findings, impressions and experiences from the past three and a half years of the project's life. We look first at the present preoccupation with the training of educational administrators, suggesting a number of problem areas that will need to be tackled if new training initiatives are to have a significant impact in the future. One critical issue is lack of training materials, and we provide an overview of methods and materials used in training and examine questions concerning materials development, dissemination and utilisation. We then describe the materials we have developed and discuss some of the findings from the field trials and our initial conclusions. Finally we attempt to synthesize these various strands in order to present for discussion some more generalizable conclusions concerning learning resources for the professional development of educational administrators in the third world.