Teaching in Rural Places: Thriving in Classrooms, Schools, and Communities

This fully updated teacher education textbook invites preservice and new teachers to think critically about the impact of rurality on their work and provides an overview of what it means to live, teach, learn, and thrive in rural communities. It underscores the importance of teaching in rural schools as an act of social justice―work that dismantles spatial barriers to economic, social, and political justice. Teaching in Rural Places, 2nd Edition provides concrete strategies for understanding rural communities, valuing rural ways of being, and teaching in rural schools by addressing topics such as working with families, building professional networks, teaching in multi-grade classrooms, and planning place-conscious instruction.

New features to this edition include:

• New vignettes, visuals, and boxes throughout the book to aid accessibility and comprehension;
• A new chapter on student and teacher well-being;
• An updated chapter on the unique structures of rural schools, which addresses multi-grade teaching, itinerant teaching, and rural careers and technical education (CTE) teaching;
• A fully updated chapter on technology, which now includes discussions of the challenges and opportunities of AI and other innovations for rural teaching and learning.

This comprehensive textbook for rural teacher education is targeted toward preservice and new teachers in traditional and alternative teacher education programs, as well as new rural teachers participating in induction and mentoring programs. Teaching in Rural Places, 2nd Edition will help ensure that rural students have the well-prepared teachers they deserve.

Devon Brenner transplanted from Michigan to Mississippi over 25 years ago. She is director of the Social Science Research Center, coordinator of Rural Education Research and Initiatives, and professor of teacher education at Mississippi State University, where she engages in research that focuses on rural education policy and practice.

Jayne Downey is a professor at Montana State University and directs the Center for Research on Rural Education. Born and raised on a farm on the prairies, her research and service are dedicated to working with and for rural schools and communities around the world.

Karen Eppley is a first-generation college graduate, former rural K-12 student and rural fifth-grade teacher in Northern Appalachia. She currently is an associate professor of rural education at Kansas State University, where she directs the Rural Education Center.

Ann K. Schulte grew up in Yankton, South Dakota, where she was a teacher and high school debate coach for several years in nearby small towns. She has retired from California State University, Chico, after 24 years where she prepared teachers and mentored first-generation college students like herself.

Amy Price Azano is a first-generation college student and eighth-generation Appalachian from Luray, Virginia. She is a professor of rural education and the founding director of the Center for Rural Education at Virginia Tech, where her scholarship focuses on educational equity for rural learners.