Education

This article, which combines research with lived experience, discusses how youth entrepreneurship education stands as a promising pedagogy in rural contexts. The author situates the research by sharing experiences teaching in rural schools at a time of declining enrollment and rampant outmigration. The article then explores educational pathways, through entrepreneurship education, that rural educators may follow to contribute to the cause of rural sustainability. Entrepreneurialism is positioned as a useful set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that rural youth can use to better dictate the terms of their future, and schools are envisioned as entrepreneurship incubators.

This systematic literature review focuses on the experiences of rural Black men attending four-year colleges and universities within the US. The review addresses three research questions: How is rurality defined within the literature reviewed? What characteristics (e.g., identity dimensions) are included within the literature? What does the available research say about the experiences of rural Black students, mainly rural Black men, specific to factors explored and identified to foster success? These research questions were answered by reviewing literature published in academic journals from 2002–2023. Findings from the data collection, extraction, and analysis process are relevant to how rurality is discussed within the literature; the characteristics represented within the literature; the experiences of rural Black collegians, including Black men; and the factors contributing to this population’s success in college, while reflecting on gaps within the available research literature. The article concludes with implications for future research and practice.

Extending and challenging existing research about LGBTQIA+ life in rural educational contexts, this ethnographically informed qualitative study describes how Lulu—a white, cisgender, queer secondary English language arts teacher in a rural, public school in the Midwest—discursively constructed the functions of her humor with respect to teaching, queerness, and their interrelations. Drawing on social theorizations of humor, particularly queer theorizations of humor, this article argues that Lulu described her humor as having three functions: building relationships, facilitating learning, and opening possibilities for queerness. These findings illustrate tensions in that Lulu leveraged humor to build a livable, joyous career in which she was able to thrive as an out, queer person and teacher. However, her humor reinforced hetero- and homonormativities with respect to whiteness and assimilationism. These findings suggest that a queered understanding of normativity and humor can offer multiple paths forward for queer educators in and beyond rural English language arts classrooms.

The use of program quality indicators (QIs) for teaching students with an intellectual disability (ID) is essential in meeting student needs and accessing curriculum. Principals who oversee and evaluate teachers of students with ID play a critical role in the implementation of QIs. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to investigate rural school district principals’ perceptions of the importance, teacher implementation, and principal ability to provide feedback on QIs for students with ID. Results indicate differences between principal perception of importance of indicators and reported confidence in ability to provide feedback on indicators. More specialized QIs received lower ratings of perception of importance and lower ratings in perceptions of confidence to provide feedback. Differences existed between principal perception of importance of QIs and reported observance of teacher implementation. Several QIs were reported as important, as implemented, and that principals are confident in giving feedback.

Both superintendents and principals create a foundation for student achievement, school culture, and the vision of a school building or district. When combined, these two similar yet distinct administrative roles become one unique position with less time and resources to fulfill individual job responsibilities. A dual-role administrator is defined as an individual serving as a superintendent and principal simultaneously. Using a comparative case design, rural dual-role administrators’ roles, responsibilities, and experiences are explored. By interviewing and observing two rural practitioners and reviewing public documents, an in-depth investigation of the cases developed. Results from this study indicate that dual-role administrators had time constraints in completing their job responsibilities; valued relationships with students, staff, and school board members; and used a team approach to manage rural school districts. Further, supportive leadership behaviors aligned with principal responsibilities, while directive leadership behaviors aligned with superintendent responsibilities. This research provides an increased understanding of the day-to-day operations of rural dual-role administrators and how their unique identities are situated within their situational leadership approaches. These findings may help with dual-role administrator retention in rural settings.

This study makes use of a data set detailing instances of public school superintendent turnover in the commonwealth of Kentucky between 2014 and 2023. A quantitative research design was used to analyze descriptive statistics and salary changes based on a set of demographic and descriptive variables in the sample of 205 superintendent turnovers occurring during the identified decade. The research demonstrates that superintendent turnover in Appalachian and non-Appalachian school districts is proportionally consistent. Within the Appalachian region of Kentucky, the analysis reveals that salaries for superintendents hired during the study period were lower than the salaries paid to their predecessors, at a rate comparable to the commonwealth as a whole. That trend did not hold when a male replaced a female as superintendent as, on average, the new hire saw a salary increase over the incumbent. The analysis reveals a disparity between females and males selected to fill superintendent vacancies, with 71 males and 18 females hired into the role during the decade reviewed, most often with males replacing males. The findings demonstrate that applicants for superintendent positions serving as assistant superintendents or in other central office positions are selected for the superintendency nearly 60% of the time. The findings demonstrate that sitting superintendents and, to a lesser extent, internal hires, were likely to receive a starting salary higher than the incumbent compared to external hires other than sitting superintendents and/or those from other school or district leadership positions or those hired from outside agencies. Suggestions for future research, including assembling and analyzing comparable data sets in other states, are provided. Given the implications of the findings in this study, additional research with the assembled data set also holds promise.

In this article, we discuss the teaching of Indigenous land sovereignty, history, and culture, commonly referred to as Act 31, in the School District of Bayfield in Bayfield, Wisconsin. Since the legislative mandate in 1991, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has strongly recommended that Wisconsin students receive instruction related to Act 31 twice in elementary school and once in high school. However, because Act 31 is not strictly enforced, there is uneven implementation throughout the state. At the School District of Bayfield, teaching Act 31 is mainstreamed in the curriculum. Here, five teachers offer their vignette, or story, on infusing Act 31 into their instruction. This scholarship emerged from a collaboration between the School District of Bayfield and the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s School of Education.

In December 2024, Dr. Allen Pratt stepped down as Executive Director of the National Rural Education Association (NREA). During his eight years as executive director, the membership of NREA grew, and the organization became increasingly visible in state and national rural education policy. Policy Brief editor Devon Brenner sat down with Dr. Pratt to learn more about the advocacy work of NREA and key issues facing rural schools. Below is an excerpted transcript of that conversation.

This article presents findings on how preservice teachers navigate teaching and learning in a multilingual rural environment as English learners (ELs) during their teacher preparation program. The study used a qualitative research design to collect and analyze data. The conceptual framework of the study was based on culturally responsive pedagogy and place-based education theory. In this study, preservice teachers from multilingual rural backgrounds who wished to teach in multilingual rural settings illustrated their coping strategies for rural realities and how the rural context affected their commitment to their studies. The findings revealed preservice teachers’ narratives under the categories of culturally responsive strategies for English language learning, strengths and weaknesses of English language use, rural experiences and commitment to studies, and teacher educators’ perspectives. The rural location of studies presented some challenges, such as living far away from home; lack of amenities, including an inadequate library facility; no internet; and having to adjust without families. The rural context also offered some benefits for studies, including low-cost accommodation, feeling safe, and peer learning opportunities. Further research is recommended on a larger scale across university campuses to find out how teacher educators may address the needs of preservice teachers through a revised curriculum for English language learning within multilingual contexts.