Theory & Practice in Rural Education is an online open-access peer-reviewed journal published in partnership with ECU Library services and ECU Rural Education Institute. It is published twice a year, spring and fall. Originally titled the Journal of Curriculum and Instruction, Theory & Practice in Rural Education has evolved into a journal focusing on the needs of rural students, educators, community partners, and schools. Research Forum and Practice Forum are the two major sections of the journal. ISBN 2641-7170
Rural Education Institute, East Carolina University
Copyright Notice Articles will be published using a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Sharealike license. (For more information on this license, please visit the Creative Commons license page.) Please also note that the authors are explicitly granting permission for Academic Library Services to store a copy of the article in The ScholarShip, ECU's Institutional Repository under the terms of the current ScholarShip license. As a North Carolina agency, ECU contributes copies of all publications to the North Carolina State Archives.
Copyright (c) 2025 Robert Quinn https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 Jenn Williams https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The project investigated and documented oral histories, with the goal of preserving and understanding the experiences, perspectives, and cultural heritage of individuals living in rural areas. It addresses the potential loss of valuable narratives and insights due to the changing landscape of the region. Existing knowledge about rural communities often focuses on statistical data, economic indicators, and policy analyses, providing limited insight into the lived experiences and personal stories of rural residents. Oral histories offer a unique and invaluable source of information, allowing researchers to capture the nuanced narratives, traditions, and challenges faced by rural people groups in their own words. While there have been studies examining various aspects of rural life, including economic challenges, social dynamics, and cultural transformations, there is a dearth of comprehensive oral history projects that center specifically on the lived experiences of rural people. By filling this gap, the project contributes to a more holistic understanding of rural communities, shedding light on their rich cultural heritage, community dynamics, and the impacts of societal changes. Making use of digital presentations and tools, oral history interviewers examine and analyze the rural narratives collected, focusing on what makes communities and neighborhoods in rural areas truly great, i.e., stories of their people.
Copyright (c) 2025 Melissa Comer, Kristen Trent https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Rural School Counselors’ Experiences Responding to the Rural Youth Mental Health Crisis
In response to a gap in the literature and the growing mental health needs of rural youth, the authors conducted a phenomenological investigation comprised of fifteen rural school counselors nationwide exploring the rural youth mental health crisis’s impact on their students, schools, and roles. The following themes emerged: rising youth mental health needs, protective and risk factors, pandemic impacts, and school counselors’ changing roles. Implications for rural school counselors, school districts, and counselor preparation are discussed, along with limitations and future research.
Copyright (c) 2025 Rawn Boulden, Sarah Henry https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Rural Teachers’ Experiences with a Place-Based Gifted Curriculum
This qualitative case study examined teachers’ experiences with a language arts curriculum implemented with gifted students in a high-poverty rural school district. The study focused on one rural Appalachian school district where 16 elementary teachers working in eight schools implemented a place-based language arts curriculum designed for gifted third- and fourth-grade students. Data sources included fidelity logs, classroom observations, questionnaires, and an interview. Drawn from analytic induction and thematic coding, findings suggest that existing barriers in rural schools can influence curricular implementation and can impede students from accessing the curriculum in its entirety. Insights from this case study offer implications for practitioners, administrators, policymakers, community members, and researchers to mitigate instructional challenges and increase students’ access to place-based gifted curriculum.
Copyright (c) 2025 Michelle Rasheed, Rachelle Kuehl, Amy Price Azano, Carolyn M. Callahan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Rural school and district leaders often have distinctive viewpoints about education, their local communities, and the effectiveness of their schools. Using a modified survey instrument, more than 100 rural school leaders from one Rocky Mountain State provided input on the critical issues impacting their schools and students and the future of public schools in the United States. A statistical review and the utilization of a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) found that most rural school and district leaders expressed their immediate concerns about budgetary shortfalls and a lack of educators to serve as teachers in their schools. In addition, many leaders see their schools as capable of working with students who perform above and below grade level. Recommendations for future research include an examination of how rural leaders support LGBTQ+ students, particularly those who are academically at or below grade level, and implementing new efforts to promote innovative solutions to persistent rural school challenges.
Copyright (c) 2025 Robert Mitchell, Evelyn Adams, Kriselda Craven https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Sustaining Engineering Education for Rural Contexts: Implications from a Multi-year Study
We studied how three rural teachers continued to apply locally relevant engineering practices after a five-year nationally funded project ended, despite lacking formal support. Our research aimed to identify key factors that either aided or hindered the ongoing use of these practices in their classrooms. While the initial adoption of the practices was successful, sustaining them without formal support proved challenging. Our findings highlight that administrative support, teacher agency, and resource availability were essential factors. Furthermore, the specific rural contexts of each teacher presented unique obstacles to maintaining the benefits gained during the project. We conclude that achieving sustainable change in engineering teaching practices requires a collaborative approach that considers the differences across school and classroom environments.
Copyright (c) 2025 Tugba Boz, Rebekah Hammack, Stephanie Oudghiri, Nicholas Lux, Paul Gannon https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Rural High School Chemistry Teachers’ Views and Implementation of Inquiry-Based Laboratory Instruction as Set Forth in the Georgia Standards of Excellence
Inquiry-based instruction within science has been a growing field for decades. The foundation of inquiry is constructivism; that students must do science in order to understand it. Instruction using inquiry is something that has been written into the Next Generation Science Standards along with many state standards, like the Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE). Teaching inquiry within a rural public high school chemistry setting has its own set of challenges unique to the rural context. Research is needed to give those educators a voice regarding teaching inquiry. This study utilized a mixed-methods design of survey and interviews to allow these rural public high school chemistry teachers a platform to weigh in on the feasibility of teaching standards through inquiry, planning, and professional development required to teach an inquiry-based unit including laboratory activities. Almost two-thirds of Georgia’s rural public high schools had at least one participant who completed the survey. Participants from the survey were then chosen to complete an interview to further discuss their experiences. The survey data showed that the majority of participants used inquiry in their classrooms in some form but desired more time and resources to implement inquiry-based instruction. Methods used to integrate inquiry in the classroom and lab varied, as expected. One finding showed that many interview participants seemed to perceive students planning and carrying out investigations as reserved for wet labs. Interview data also emphasized how much time and personal funds teachers spend on their classrooms for labs and professional development. A desire for chemistry-specific professional development resonated among survey and interview participants. The findings brought forth in this dissertation can be used to inform policies regarding professional development and continued support for rural public high school teachers. Georgia Department of Education can also use the data to help meet the expressed needs of teachers in the state. Additionally, other states can use the data presented here to begin discussions about their own rural teachers and how they can best be supported to teach chemistry using inquiry-based instruction.
Copyright (c) 2025 Robert Bice, Kimberly Cortes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Transferability of Critical Thinking in Rural Pre-Service Teachers’ Classrooms
This qualitative study explored how pre-service teachers transferred critical thinking skills into practicums and classrooms in rural settings. Additionally, how pre-service teachers fostered critical thinking was examined. Pre-service teachers understood the reasoning behind why it was crucial to enact critical thinking in classrooms with early learners. The nurturing of human skills such as problem-solving and collaborative work was imperative in the younger years. Most participants found that, through observation and learning experiences, they were able to refine their pedagogical strategies. Therefore, the study found four themes that were produced through semi-structured interviews. Finally, how pre-service teachers fostered critical thinking by engaging their young students in active learning was seen. Thus, this study provided insight into how critical thinking is transferred from pre-service teachers to young students, and the means through which this occurs, specifically within rural settings. These findings clarify how pre-service teachers work to foster skills in young students during practicums and student teaching in rural areas.
Copyright (c) 2025 Tiffany Shonerd, Vassa Grichko, Erin Lehmann https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Copyright (c) 2024 Jenn Williams https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Copyright (c) 2024 Kristen Cuthrell https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Building a High-Quality Rural Teacher Pipeline through a Partnership-Based Residency and Induction Model
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.
Copyright (c) 2024 Erika Mein, Patricia Ocaña, Michele Gonzalez https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
A Teacher Residency Program at the “Crossroads of Texas”
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.
Copyright (c) 2024 Valerie Hill-Jackson, Cassidy CAldwell, Dr. Delic Loyde, Judy Waight https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Teaching Principals in Rural, Remote, and Northern Schools in Canada: An Empirical Analysis of Workload, Roles, and Instructional Leadership
This paper reports on findings of a study that examined the role of teaching principals in rural, remote and northern schools in Canada. A teaching principal is a principal who has a “double load” or dual roles in teaching and administration. The objectives of this study are: 1) to describe the role of the teaching principal in northern, rural, and remote school districts in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba; 2) to characterize the practices of teaching principals in rural, remote and northern school contexts in terms; and 3) to delineate implications of the above findings for leadership theory, practice and preparation. As part of a larger multi-methods study, we conducted a survey of 70 teaching principals in three Canadian provinces (Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan) related to school and community contexts, workloads, and leadership, administrative and teaching responsibilities. This paper reports on the findings of the survey that demonstrate:1) the difficulties teaching principals face with respect to balancing administrative, teaching, and personal responsibilities; 2) belief that holding a teaching role while serving as a principal improves leadership capabilities; and 3) instructional leadership practices for teaching principals may be significantly different from those identified in the literature on instructional leadership.
Copyright (c) 2025 Dr., Dr., Dr. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The Invisible Aches of Being a Black Rural Principal in a Predominantly White School
This autoethnographic study addresses a critical gap in research regarding the experiences of Black principals, particularly those operating outside of urban settings. While there is extensive literature on Black urban principals, their counterparts in rural areas remain strikingly understudied. In response to this absence of scholarship, this autoethnographic research, grounded in W.E.B. DuBois’s double consciousness, served two purposes: (a) to understand my experiences as a rural principal in a predominantly White school and (b) to understand how those experiences informed my leadership practices and self-view. Through personal vignettes, I provide a glimpse into and an examination of pivotal moments of how I experienced rural principalship by shedding light on the intersection of race, locale, and leadership. I provide a voice to the lived experiences of rural principalship, which contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of educational leadership. From this (re)examination, I illuminate how those experiences created a template for my work as a principal beyond a rural context.
Copyright (c) 2025 Jamon Flowers https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
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.
Copyright (c) 2024 Angela Novak, Jenni https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Copyright (c) 2024 Jenn Williams; Sheresa Blanchard , Arleth Medal https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Journaling as a Reflective Tool in a Rural Teacher Residency Experience
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.
Copyright (c) 2024 Nichole Smith, Kimberly Erwin, Alisa Taliaferro, Cailisha Petty https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
“Hidden Gems” and “Rough Mannerisms”: Examining Preservice Teachers’ Discourses of Place and Rurality
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.
Copyright (c) 2024 Emilie Reagan, Emilie Coppinger, Bryan Mascio, Allie Tompkins, Beth Fornauf https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Crossing Cultural and Linguistic Boundaries: An Innovative Transnational Teacher Residency Model for Rural Schools
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.
Copyright (c) 2024 Eileen Wertzberger, Todd Goodson https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Novice Teacher Recruitment and Retention in a Midwestern State: An Exploration of Contextual Factors
Teacher recruitment and retention consistently emerged as problematic in research and practice. This was particularly true in difficult-to-staff areas, such as rural school districts in the United States. As the teacher pipeline continued to decrease and various challenges plagued the field, this problem quickly became a crisis. The present study aimed to lift novice teachers' voices in rural and remote rural areas of a Midwestern State better to understand individuals' experiences in a rural setting and contribute to the current knowledge base of rural teacher recruitment and retention. Eleven participants in this qualitative phenomenological study aimed to uncover the specific contextual factors that influenced their experiences as novice teachers in a rural Midwestern State. Interviews revealed the need for direct support from administrators and colleagues to create a sense of belonging, which was imperative to positive novice teacher experiences. The need for appropriate preparedness within their preservice experiences and coursework, as well as solid induction and mentoring programs once hired, surfaced during the interviews. Rural-specific field experiences paired with comprehensive induction and mentoring programs focused on specific feedback prepare preservice teachers and novice teachers for successful rural teaching and living. Intentional recruitment efforts, including grow-your-own programs for future teachers and partnerships between rural school districts and teacher preparation programs, boosted the pipeline of novice teachers for rural areas.
Copyright (c) 2024 Nicole D. Schutter, Dr. Erin Lehmann https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
TPRE Editorial Board for Volume 14, Issue 1
Copyright (c) 2024 Arleth Medal https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
There are few times in the history of education that yield circumstances so unique that the impacts have the potential to resonate for years, if not decades. The fall of the 2020 school year was just such an historical moment. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many brick and mortar school buildings were closed forcing schools and families to reexamine traditional school instruction. This article will describe the quantitative results of an online survey completed during the critical timeframe of fall 2020. Rural educational leaders who participated in the survey provided insights on access to teaching and learning technologies that affected students with and without disabilities. Impacts of the digital divide on rural schools are examined, including broadband access and reliability. The article will also provide an update on relevant changes to the digital divide that have taken place since the deployment of the survey.
Copyright (c) 2024 Todd Sundeen, Lena Kisner https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Hope mediates the relationship between childhood adversity and academic resilience among Appalachian young adults.
The impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on health and academic outcomes is well-supported in the research since Felitti, et al.’s (1998) research. Less is known about the interactions of positive supports that promote academic resilience (AR) among rural young adults who have experienced ACEs. This cross-sectional, moderated mediation study explored the factors that predict AR among young adults in rural Appalachia. We established the negative relationship between ACEs and AR, and we tested the degree to which hope and perceived social support (PSS) interact to influence that relationship. The study revealed the mediating role of hope but did not support the proposed role of PSS in moderating the relationship between ACEs and hope. We discuss this finding in the context of other research and provide recommendations for K12 educational leaders and for future research.
Copyright (c) 2024 Dr. Dan Gottron, Dr. Peter Williams, Dr. Mei Jiang https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The Influence of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania Rural Schools' Due Process Hearing Decisions
During the COVID-19 Pandemic, rural Pennsylvania Local Education Agencies (LEAs) were found to have failed to properly offer special education services in alignment with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ranks among the most litigated states in disputes over the proper facilitation of services as mandated by IDEA. Despite this high volume of litigation, there was no analysis of how being defined as a rural LEA influenced due process hearing officer decisions after the COVID-19 Pandemic. The current study addresses this research gap by reviewing special education due process hearing activity for rural LEAs and comparing activity for the two years before and after the COVID-19 pandemic-mandated office closures. Findings offer guidance on problematic practices by analyzing the relationship between the pandemic and hearing officer ruling outcome, activity frequency before and after the pandemic, and remedies owed by rural LEAs from post-COVID decisions.
Copyright (c) 2024 David Rush https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
A Mixed Methods Exploration of Students' Experiences of Taking Part in a Tuition Assistance Program in Rural Alberta, Canada
This paper reports on the experiences of rural students taking part in the Zero Fee Tuition program—a postsecondary tuition assistance program providing up to $5,000 in tuition subsidies for students residing in Drayton Valley, Alberta, Canada. Zero Fee Tuition was introduced by the Town of Drayton Valley in 2019 as a rural development initiative focused on attracting and retaining postsecondary education students. Here, we present a qualitatively-oriented mixed methods study of interview, focus group, and survey data collected with 24 Zero Fee Tuition students in 2021-2022 as part of a broader community-based participatory research project. In this paper, we explore two overarching themes: (a) facing opportunities and challenges throughout zero-fee tuition education, and (b) shifting the culture of education and training in Drayton Valley. Our results suggest that students' experiences were heavily shaped by the gendered care work they undertake in addition to, and as part of, their paid work and studies. Further, the Zero Fee Tuition program provided many students the first opportunity to attend a postsecondary education program. In this way, our findings suggest that Zero Fee Tuition is working towards its goal of expanding educational opportunities for residents of Drayton Valley. We discuss our findings within a rural oil-based town shaped by a boom-bust economy. Despite the positive contributions of the Zero Fee Tuition program, our analysis demonstrates the persistence of social structural conditions that impact the challenges faced by participants in this study.
Copyright (c) 2024 Alexa Ferdinands, Matt Ormandy, Maria Mayan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Forming networks between rural schools and their local areas: shared projects and their impact in the Asturian context
Rural schools play an important role in their local areas, helping stimulate the community and promoting activities with economic, social, and cultural impact on the area. This study aimed to identify the projects undertaken by 44 rural schools in Asturias (Spain) in collaboration with local agents and organizations by consulting the school management teams. It also sought their opinions about the impact of these projects. The study used a mixed methodology: quantitative, analyzing the data collected from a semi-open questionnaire, and qualitative, listing and describing the projects. The questionnaire included questions about the organizations the schools collaborated with, the goals and subjects of the shared projects, and funding sources, and it asked for their opinions about their impact. The results indicate that rural schools in Asturias have undertaken projects covering various subjects in collaboration with local authorities, cultural centers, libraries, public health centers, small businesses, and On-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). The respondents were very satisfied with the activities. They viewed their schools as a stimulus for their areas, stating that the projects encouraged a sense of belonging to the area and helped construct a collective identity. They also felt that they responded to shared needs, offered services to the community, allowed people to settle or remain in the area, and, to a lesser extent, helped local businesses and the local economy. Finally, the study concludes that these schools play an active role in their local areas, and highlights the importance of external support to implement initiatives that benefit the rural population.
Copyright (c) 2024 M. Esther del-Moral-Pérez, Nerea L´`ópez-Bouzas, Jonathan Castañeda-Fernández , María del Rosario Neira-Piñeiro https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0