Education Commons^™

Rural Parent's Experiences Of Stress And Resilience During The Covid-19 Pandemic And School Closure, Emily Wilson, Jungwon Eum, Yuenjung Joo, Martinique A. Sealy, Jentry Stoneman Barrett, Gwen C. Nugent, Joan Carraher, Angela G. Hinrichs

Online Journal of Rural Research & Policy

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated social and economic disruptions, resulting in cascading effects on the health and well-being of global citizens. However, little research has focused on how COVID-19 has affected rural regions, despite rurality being a critical factor for understanding community impact and response to the pandemic. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the experiences of rural Nebraskan parents with young children during the COVID-19 pandemic and school shutdown, and the strategies they used to support their families during that time. We conducted individual and group interviews with 22 white, non-Hispanic mothers living in rural towns, …

Uncovering Rural Educators' Secret Agency, Jennifer Karnopp

The Rural Educator

School change efforts often rely on formal organizational structures to support educator knowledge of new instructional practices. Rural districts face challenges accessing the resources necessary for robust structures, but informal relationships among educators are often strong. Using structuration theory as a lens, this paper examines the knowledge-building behaviors of educators in one rural school district regarding new instructional practices related to a recent initiative. A thematic analysis of interviews with a purposive sample of district educators reveals that, in the absence of robust formal supports, educator agency was critical for establishing informal knowledge-building structures that supported knowledge-sharing within district schools. …

Revisiting The Revolving Door Of Rural Superintendent Turnover, Barry Kamrath

The Rural Educator

This qualitative multiple case study is a follow-up to a study completed in 2007 that examined characteristics of rural school districts experiencing a high rate of superintendent turnover. The original study design incorporated extensive interviews with participants across four rural school districts; triangulating interview results with information found in school board minutes and published media articles. The four case districts had employed a total of 19 superintendents in the ten-year period leading up to the original study. However, since then, three of the districts have experienced a drastic change in their turnover trend. This study revisits the four rural districts …

Literacy In Place: Creating Community By Reading And Writing Rural Stories, Chea L. Parton

The Rural Educator

No abstract provided.

Allyship For The Rural Health Care Workforce, Nancy D. Spector, Barbara Overholser

Marshall Journal of Medicine

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed a lot about the American impressive yet fragile and overtaxed health care system. Our support systems – both institutional and human- were taxed. Building our network through a variety of methods can help to strengthen our support system while also helping to dismantle the structural inequities that have negative consequences for our workforce and for patient care. Seeking allies in medicine has become an integral component of building one’s network and becoming an ally for those communities that are isolated or under resourced and for those who are underrepresented in medicine has become an important way …

Serving Students With Disabilities Who Are Culturally And Linguistically Diverse In Rural Communities: Technology Access Is Essential, Benjamin Gallegos, Lisa A. Dieker, Rebecca Smith, Nicole C. Ralston

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

Before the COVID-19 pandemic changed the educational landscape, students with disabilities, especially those who are culturally and linguistically diverse, and their special education teachers who worked and attended schools located in rural communities faced barriers most schools and communities experienced nationwide. As schools shifted to remote virtual learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, rural schools were already at a disadvantage with the lack of resources with technology access. The call for addressing shortcomings in the various digital technology supports towards enhancing the teachers’ delivery of content and the students’ academic outcomes has been a continual challenge to address. This paper …

Who’S ‘Ere?: Identifying And Addressing Rural Erasure In Ela Classrooms, Chea L. Parton

Virginia English Journal

This article briefly discusses research on the role of rural out-migrant ELA teachers' place-connected identities on rural erasure through text selection and instructional practice. Based on the research findings, it provides resources such as an equity audit for course syllabi and classroom libraries as well as tools for finding and selecting rural young adult literature to combat rural erasure and support teachers' inclusion of critical rural perspectives in their teaching.

Promising Practices In African American Rural Education College Transitions And Postsecondary Experiences, Loni Crumb, Crystal R. Chambers

The Rural Educator

No abstract provided.

Race, Repair, And Youth Participatory Action Research In One Rural School, Carol Thompson, Felicia Crockett

The Rural Educator

This qualitative study examines the progress of a rural New Jersey school in addressing longstanding racial conflict after implementing a Youth Participatory Action Research project two years prior. Here we take up the thread as students continued to develop activities meant to increase awareness of ongoing issues, and as adults used professional development time to model best practices in managing racialized interactions. Eight teachers and staff not originally involved and nine students who had been directly involved were interviewed and a student focus group conducted. All participants agreed that progress had been made though issues around curriculum and discipline remained. …

Over At The College, F. Todd Goodson

Educational Considerations

Today, rural America is complex and layered, and it deserves the attention of those who have spent far too many years flying over it only to occasionally see through the clouds and wonder what those big circles are below dotting the landscape.

The manuscripts in this issue chart several ways a spirit of new dialogue with rural America can begin. Authors discuss the embedded qualities of higher education demonstrates well how it is possible to anchor the work of post-secondary education in contemporary rural locations, and other perspectives on that which is possible if we engage productively with rural communities …

Grasses, Groves, And Gardens: Aphra Behn Goes Green, Heidi Laudien

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830

Laudien argues in “Grasses, Groves and Gardens: Aphra Behn Goes Green” that Behn moves beyond the stylized and artificial backdrops of most pastoral to explore the unique ways the landscape can be manipulated to investigate gender difference and the dynamics of desire and representation. Laudien suggests that in prioritizing the pastoral as political allegory in Behn, we overlook the descriptions of nature and the importance she places on the natural environments she creates. Through close readings of several of her pastoral poems, Laudien reveals that Behn’s landscapes destabilize existing notions of the pastoral space as an idealized and organized place …

Pivoting Rural Community-Based Fine Arts Programs For Youth Due To A Global Pandemic, Heather Olson Beal, Cc Conn, Lauren Burrow, Amber Wagnon, Chrissy Cross Ph.D.

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

This personal experience essay features five women professors who, as engaged scholars, seek to continuously respond to the needs of their local community by volunteering their time and expertise to offer educational programs that focus on creative arts and academic assistance for K–12 students. This piece explores the opportunities and obstacles we experienced in using virtual platforms, during the 2020 global pandemic, in order to re-envision our civic responsibilities to engage communities beyond our previous place-based programs.

More Than Just An Internship: One University’S Collaboration With A Rural School District To Attract, Develop, And Retain School Counselors, Rawn Boulden, Christine Schimmel

The Rural Educator

This promising practice describes an innovative collaboration between West Virginia University, a land grant institution situated in the middle of rural Appalachia, and Kanawha County Schools, located in Charleston, WV. The partnership aimed to assist the rural school district by supporting children in three elementary schools and by providing the university’s school counseling students an immersion experience in rural schools, with the hope of retaining them in the school district following graduation. The collaboration fulfilled the original mission of the program in two ways; first, the school district retained one-third of the school counseling students who participated. Secondly, the collaboration …

A National Rural Postsecondary Research Agenda, National Rural Postsecondary Research Agenda Working Group

The Rural Educator

No abstract provided.

Will They Stay Or Will They Go? Leadership Behaviors That Increase Teacher Retention In Rural Schools, Matthew Frahm, Marie Cianca

The Rural Educator

Hard-to-staff rural schools often struggle to attract and retain promising educators. Experts have consistently identified administrative support in rural schools to be of unique importance for recruitment and retention, yet a lack of clarity continues to surround the specific leadership behaviors that new teachers interpret as supportive. This qualitative study collected data from three focus groups; including superintendents, principals, and teachers in a program for aspiring administrators; and found that rural schools have to try much harder and in more active ways to retain new teachers because of the constraints existing within rural education. Rural school support for new teachers …

Process Evaluation Of The Early Implementation Stages Of Thenational Diabetes Prevention Program Through Kentucky Cooperative Extension: Perceptions Of Adopters And Potential Adopters, Nicole Breazeale, Heather Norman-Burgdolf, Katherine Counts, Lovoria B. Williams

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

With the growing demand for lifestyle change programs that prevent or delay Type 2 diabetes onset, community organizations with broad reach should be explored for national dissemination of the National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP). This study evaluates the early implementation of the NDPP through Cooperative Extension in four Kentucky counties and explores the feasibility of scaling up the program to additional counties. Using a qualitative approach, semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with 12 Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) Agents – four who were participating in the pilot (adopters) and eight who had no experience with the NDPP (potential adopters). Five …

The Advantages Of A Rural Resident Rotation In Otolaryngology Training: Comparing Surgical Case Volumes Of A Rural Rotation With A University Rotation, Mark Miller, Paul J. Brosnihan, Christie Barnes, Jayme Dowdall

Graduate Medical Education Research Journal

Objective: Rural residency rotations have played a significant role in encouraging surgical residents to pursue a career in a rural community. This study reviews the resident caseload of an otolaryngology residency rural rotation in comparison with a traditional primary university-based urban location.

Methods: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) case log system was used to review cases logged by residents during their rural rotations from July 2017 to December 2018. Case log data were compared with a matched resident of similar training experience on the university service during the same time period.

Results: Rural residents reported more cases …

This Old House, Anthony Olson

The Rural Educator

In this essay, I explain how I switched the lens of my sophomore research unit to one that focuses on rural issues. This essay follows the unit from beginning to end. I explain what I do to raise awareness through the use of daily articles along with providing models for their own research. The essay then details the writing portion and how it has changed over time. The essay ends with a reflection of my work and choices.

A Substance Misuse Prevention Program To Youth In Rural Utah, Stacey Macarthur, Timothy Keady, Paige Wray, Christine Jensen, Mary Sorenson, Claire Warnick, Lendel Narine

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

A major issue in rural counties is substance misuse. USU Extension implemented a substance prevention program with youth in rural counties. The program included family- and school-based education activities to promote youth resilience and development. Evaluation results showed youth exhibited strong anti-drug attitudes after the program.

#Black Boy Joy: The College Aspirations Of Rural Black Male Students, Loni Crumb, Crystal R. Chambers, Jessica Chittum

The Rural Educator

Too often research on Black boys emanate from deficit orientations and take a problem centered approach which overemphasizes stereotypes or pathologizes Black male students, overlooking their aspirations and successes. Utilizing the High School Longitudinal Survey of 2009 (HSLS: 09), we examine the postsecondary goals of Black male ninth graders as well as the relationships among their educational aspirations, college knowledge, and supportive school personnel using Community Cultural Wealth as the conceptual framework. We found that the educational aspirations of Black male ninth graders are high; however, their knowledge of college falls short of their educational aspirations and their relationships with …

How Professional Development In Co-Teaching Impacts Self-Efficacy Among Rural High School Teachers, Tori Colson, Yajuan Xiang, Moriah Smothers

The Rural Educator

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of professional development in co-teaching on teacher self-efficacy among general and special education rural high school teachers. A causal-comparative research design was used to survey 256 rural high school teachers from the South and Midwest regions of the U.S. to measure their self-efficacy in student engagement, instructional practices, and classroom management. One-way analysis and independent samples t-test was used to analyze these data using SPSS statistical software. The results indicated a significant difference between teachers with and without experience in a co-teaching classroom regarding their efficacy in using instructional practices. …

Identifying Rural Salience In The 2020 Whippoorwill Book Award Winners, Jennifer Sanders, Jill Bindewald, Devon Brenner, Karen Eppley, Kate Kedley, Nick Kleese, Natalie Newsom, Stephanie Short

The Rural Educator

About the winners of the 2020 Whipporwill Award.

“We Acted Because It's What Needs To Be Done: An Interview With West Virginia Teachers, Erin Mchenry-Sorber, Jay O'Neal, Sam Nelson

The Rural Educator

In 2018, West Virginia teachers staged a statewide strike which lasted almost two weeks and included schools across all 55 countywide districts. The main reported strike issues for West Virginia teachers included cuts to their healthcare coverage by the state and relatively low salaries. Prior to the strike, West Virginia teachers ranked 48th in the nation in terms of pay. The West Virginia strike sparked a year-long wave of teacher labor protests across the country, in both predominately rural states and large urban centers. In 2019, West Virginia teachers went on strike again, bringing the movement full circle. In November, …

The Value Of Education Between Two African American Male Populations In A Rural Southern Community, Quentin R. Tyler, Stacy K. Vincent, Tiffany C. Monroe

Journal of Research in Technical Careers

This study identified perceptions of education by low performing and college track African American males in a rural town in Southern Kentucky. Through the lens of Critical Race Theory and Symbolic Interactionism, the researchers explored how 16 young men value a secondary and postsecondary education. Selected by their administrator at two high schools, the males were identified as college track or low performing. The findings revealed that both groups identify racial relations as a barrier to educational achievement; however, college track males believed education would assist in overcoming racial divides. Additional findings highlight a difference in perception based upon the …

A Rural Educator Responds To The Assault On The Capitol, Jesse Longhurst

The Rural Educator

Editors’ Note: On January 6, 2021 many of us watched as rioters, some of them armed, climbed over walls, broke windows, and burst through barriers to enter the U.S. Capitol to disrupt the review and counting of electoral votes leading to the certification of the 2020 presidential election. For over three hours, the Capitol building was occupied while Members of Congress and capitol staff took shelter. Social media and news outlets showed images of rioters in congressional offices, armed police defending the door to the Senate floor, and participants, some in clothes celebrating the Holocaust or waiving the Confederate flag, …

Supporting Urban-Oriented Teacher Candidates To Value Rural Schooling: The Story Of A Virtual Adapted Practicum, Joanne Pattison-Meek

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In the fall of 2020, due to the institutional impacts of COVID-19, the Master of Teaching Program in the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto (Canada) transitioned to a modified practicum program. In this article, I draw on self-study (Kitchen et al., 2020) to examine and share my experiences as a Practicum Advisor tasked to design and deliver a four-week virtual practicum program for 30 teacher candidates, without access to high school classrooms. I reflect on how my rural teacher and researcher selves informed my practicum design in one of Canada’s largest urban faculties of education, including …

Teaching Science In Rural Elementary Schools: Affordances And Constraints In The Age Of Ngss, Doron Zinger, Judith Haymore Sandholtz, Cathy Ringstaff

The Rural Educator

Providing science instruction is an ongoing priority and challenge in elementary grades, especially in high-need rural schools. Nonetheless, few studies have investigated the factors that facilitate or limit teachers’ science instruction in these settings, particularly since the introduction of the Next Generation Science Standards. In this study we investigated affordances and constraints to elementary science instruction in high-need rural schools. Data sources included semi-structured interviews and survey responses from 49 teachers from 30 different rural schools. Through a primarily qualitative analysis, we identified four teacher reported categories of affordances and four categories of constraints to teaching science. One category of …

Leveraging The Perspectives Of Rural Educators To Develop Realistic Job Previews For Rural Teacher Recruitment And Retention, Henry Tran, Suzy Hardie, Simone Gause, Peter Moyi, Rose Ylimaki

The Rural Educator

Rurality is perceived by many to be a deficit or challenge when it comes to teacher recruitment and retention. However, recently, some have argued that moving away from a deficit model and treating rurality as an asset may hold promise for teacher staffing. Drawing on Person-organization (P-O) fit theory, we extend this argument in our study by investigating the perceptions of teachers from the rural Lowcountry of South Carolina, a region with documented severe teacher shortages, concerning rural teaching advantages and challenges. These reflections provide the data necessary to develop realistic job previews (RJP) that can be highlighted in the …

Making Summer Learning Equitable For Students In A Rural, Title I School District: Turning On The Faucet Of Resources, Kathrina M. O'Connell

The Interactive Journal of Global Leadership and Learning

This research explores summer learning loss and the effect of summer resources on students’ literacy growth. Using the faucet theory, this mixed methods sequential explanatory study was designed to provide equitable resources and educational support for students in grades five through eight in a rural, socioeconomically disadvantaged school district. Transportation, breakfast, lunch, books, and a literacy-focused enrichment program were coordinated and provided for all participants in an effort to reduce learning loss during summer break. The pragmatic approach to inquiry incorporated both quantitative (e.g., literacy outputs, registration, and attendance data) and qualitative data (e.g., parent open-ended question responses). Convenience sampling …

Rural Field Experiences: Promising Practices, Janet K. Stramel, Paul Adams

The Advocate

A Rural Field Experience, in which pre-service teachers are totally immersed in the rural school setting and rural life, has been successful in attracting and retaining mathematics and science teachers in rural schools. The week-long Rural Field Experience is having a lasting effect on recruiting and retaining teachers. Responses from teacher education candidates indicate that successful strategies for building partnerships support this program and approach. Funded by an NSF Robert Noyce Scholarship grant, this program includes unique courses focused on issues related to teaching in a rural community.