Theory & Practice in Rural Education

Introduction

2024-12-05T16:36:12+00:00

Building a High-Quality Rural Teacher Pipeline through a Partnership-Based Residency and Induction Model

2024-08-08T15:37:59+00:00

One of the most pressing issues facing rural school districts is the shortage of teachers, tied in part to higher levels of turnover as compared to urban and suburban districts (Ingersoll & Tran, 2023). A key strategy for addressing nationwide teacher workforce needs, including rural teacher workforce needs, is teacher residencies. This article presents the case of a sustainably-funded residency program co-designed as part of a partnership between a university-based teacher preparation program based at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and a rural school district, Fabens ISD. The university is a large, public Hispanic Serving Institution with a student population that is more than 80% Hispanic/Latinx, more than 70% Pell-eligible, and approximately 50% first-generation college-going. The rural school district partner is made up of nearly 2,000 PK-12 students, more than 95% of whom are Hispanic/Latinx and 92% of whom are categorized as economically-disadvantaged. In the paper, we present the key design features of this residency model, with a particular focus on asset-based recruitment strategies, faculty coaching support in the district, and district-based innovations aimed at sustaining paid pathways for residents across undergraduate and graduate levels. We also situate our partnership-based residency and induction efforts within larger region-wide collective impact efforts focused on strengthening and diversifying the teacher pipeline. Finally, we present emerging impact findings of the residency on teacher candidates and on the district employment outlook. This multivocal piece represents a burgeoning research-practice partnership (Coburn & Penuel, 2016), and we as co-authors outline our findings from the perspectives of the university preparation program, on-the-ground faculty support, and school district leadership.

Project edPIRATE

2024-07-18T14:24:51+00:00

Rural educational justice demands reconstructing educational structures, including
teacher preparation programs. With federal funding from a Teacher Quality
Partnership grant, we rebuilt a Master of Arts in Teaching pathway program from
the ground up, using a co-teaching residency model and a core framework of rural
educational justice practices. With goals of establishing a healthy racial climate,
building the racial literacy and culturally responsive teaching capacity of the
teaching resident and mentor teacher teams, and fostering rural humanizing
community spaces designed to cultivate genius, joy, love, intellect, and criticality
(Muhammad, 2023), the first two years of the five-year grant are the subject of this
theory-to-practice analysis. Utilizing a school-university-community collaboration
approach, we identified, placed, supported, and mentored teacher residents in a
place-conscious approach to the rural, racialized communities and contexts in
which they teach. The purpose of this article is three-fold: (a) to contextualize the
educational inequities and opportunities that exist in the rural Southeast Black
Belt, (b) to present our rural educational justice teacher education framework,
curriculum, and processes to members of the field of rural education, and (c) to
share emerging themes from our experiences creating a teacher education
program for rural educational justice. What we offer is not yet an exemplar.
However, it provides theoretical foundations, an ambitious curricular framework for
rural teacher education, and an analysis of lessons learned.

Crossing Cultural and Linguistic Boundaries: An Innovative Transnational Teacher Residency Model for Rural Schools

2024-05-03T15:18:45+00:00

Throughout the United States, rural communities have employed innovative strategies to tackle the escalating shortage of teachers. Studies indicate that various models, including grow-your-own initiatives and financial incentives, enable rural areas to optimize their resources to address the shortfall. Despite these endeavors, the demand for teachers persists. Moreover, with the increasing racial and ethnic diversity in rural demographics, there is a growing need for culturally and linguistically diverse teachers. This article explores a teacher preparation program’s effort in devising a residency model for modern language teaching, aiming to connect international teacher candidates with rural communities across the state.

Editorial Board 14 (2)

2024-12-11T13:50:58+00:00

“Hidden Gems” and “Rough Mannerisms”: Examining Preservice Teachers’ Discourses of Place and Rurality

2024-05-20T13:13:17+00:00

While research has examined preservice teachers' perceptions toward rural schools, there is limited research on how they navigate their own discourses of rural communities, particularly for preservice teachers embedded in the rural communities in which they teach. In this exploratory qualitative study, we examine the discourses of place and rurality of four preservice teachers (residents) while enrolled in a rural teacher residency program in the northeastern United States. Findings suggest that rural residents' discourses oscillated between place "as it is" and place as it "ought to be" as they identified strengths and challenges of generalized and specific rural communities. Additionally, findings suggest that preservice teachers engaged with and resisted idyllic and deficit discourses of place and rurality, drawing on their experiences living in and engaging with the unique contexts of their rural communities. We offer implications of this work for our responsibility as teacher educators who prepare teachers for schools and the rural contexts in which they will teach.

Journaling as a Reflective Tool in a Rural Teacher Residency Experience

2024-06-17T15:27:09+00:00

Reflection is necessary for teachers to review and adjust their practice. Journaling is a learned skill and can become a viable reflective practice during teachers’ preparation. In this qualitative study, researchers examined the reflective journaling endeavors of one HBCU’s Rural Teacher Residency Program during the participants’ rural residency experience. Findings center around the participants’ positive experiences, areas of continued improvement, work-life balance, and professional development, all of which highlight the participants’ successes and stressors of their residency experiences.

A Teacher Residency Program at the “Crossroads of Texas”

2024-07-30T12:25:38+00:00

Located at the literal and figurative crossroads of Texas, Hearne Independent School District (Hearne ISD) and its leadership are faced with the choice to either continue their yearlong teacher residency program (TRP) for novice teachers or suspend it altogether. To aid in their decision-making process, the authors ask: Is the yearlong TRP implemented by Hearne ISD worth the investment? First, in applying the human capital theory, this article ties tangible (financial) and intangible (non-financial) investments and returns for teachers to talent development. Next, a quick review of the related literature supports the discussion and buttresses this paper's return-on-investment (ROI) investigation. Third, a qualitative case study methodology leverages a unique district-level data set and allows an examination of the net return relative to the overall cost of Hearne ISD's investment of its TRP. Finally, a more nuanced understanding of Hearne ISD's specific investments and returns for a resident teacher candidate, compared to a non-resident teacher candidate, simultaneously surfaces alongside an ROI model for TRPs. Consequently, two emergent findings, folded into a discussion on teacher residency-ROI and rural school leadership, are presented herein.

Call for Manuscripts

2024-12-03T17:00:16+00:00