In their recent article, "Motives for Dissertation Research at the Intersection between Rural Education and Curriculum and Instruction," Howley, Howley, and Yahn (2014) (see ERIC Document: EJ1040785) describe a rigorous and time-consuming study examining rural education dissertations written over the last 25 years. Howley, Howley, and…

The three rejoinders that follow engage ideas in Amy Azano's critique (q.v.) (see ERIC Document: EJ1048750) of the study of dissertations with a dual focus on rural education and curriculum and instruction (C&I). Considering the issues Amy raises about authors and authority, the allusion to Luigi Pirandello's great twentieth century…

In this paper, I argue that aesthetic music education philosophy, which undergirds many current music teacher education programs, textbooks, practices, and networks, fosters assumptions that are not applicable to rural settings. I outline and critique the main principles of this philosophy and demonstrate the ways in which music teachers'…

This narrative literature analysis examines the storylines of rural teachers told through published research on rural teachers. Using a narrative analysis approach, we investigated research published between 1970 and 2010--four decades of rural-oriented education research and policy work. Four storylines emerged from our coding of rural-related…

Rural communities contain a largely unacknowledged innovative capacity founded on improvisational traditions. These traditions may be rooted in work practices in agriculture and other rurally-based productive activities but today they have expanded into other lifeworld locations, particularly virtual spaces that accelerate time-space compression.…

Using data from the 2005 NAEP High School Transcript Study, this paper examines the mathematics course-taking of rural high school students. Although several studies indicate rural high school students' mathematics achievement is comparable to that of students in non-rural high schools, the mathematics course-taking patterns of rural and non-rural…

This study analyzes videotaped interviews and 407 photographs taken by 20 grade 5 and 6 students in rural New York State to document their science and engineering learning. Aristotle's concept of phronesis or practical wisdom frames the findings and their implications. Key findings indicate that: (1) All 20 children found examples of science and…

This paper focuses on American Indian college students and uses transculturation theory to examine factors related to self-reported plans to live on a reservation following completion of college. Transculturation theory assumes a strong cultural identity is fundamental to academic success. The author uses the basic premise of this perspective to…

The challenges novice teachers face as they adjust to inservice teaching are well documented. However, relatively little attention has been given to beginning teachers in rural schools who have had previous careers in other professions. We used qualitative methods to examine the professional experiences and perceptions of four career-changing…

Within the city-state of South Australia, the problem of attracting teachers to teach in rural schools is of long standing. We propose that "metrocentricity" can be viewed as a personal trait inhibiting teachers from considering country positions. In this project, 148 preservice teachers responded to an online survey concerning their desire to…

While there is a growing body of work that considers the implications of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) for rural schools, literature that critically examines the policy itself is lacking in rural educational research. This critical policy analysis focuses on the highly qualified teacher provision of NCLB as it relates to rural schools. The…

This paper explores two seemingly disparate areas of social inquiry: teacher education and the sustainability of rural communities in Australia. It suggests that these may be usefully understood in close connection with each other, and that healthy rural communities may be supported via reform of the ways in which teacher education prepares…

This article reports on an exploratory study of the factors perceived by school personnel to contribute to success in high-performing, high-needs (HPHN) rural schools. It is based on earlier research in HPHN schools that identified 4 key components of success (leadership, instruction, professional community, and school environment) and explored…

The self-esteem of children in small towns was assessed. Comparing these children's self-rated competencies to extant norms suggests that rural children's self-perceptions are not distinctly different from suburban and urban children. Rural children's feelings of self-worth and self-assessments of scholastic competence are comparable to or higher…

Schools that fail to make "adequate yearly progress" under NCLB face sanctions and may lose students to other schools. In smaller schools, random yearly variation in innate student ability and behavior can cause changes in scores that are beyond the influence of teachers. This study examines changes in reading and math scores across Pennsylvania's…