Full Description
In this work the various ways that social, economic, and cultural factors influence the identities and educational aspirations of rural working-class Appalachian learners are explored. The objectives are to highlight the cultural obstacles that impact the intellectual development of such students and to address how these cultural roadblocks make transitioning into college difficult. Throughout the book, the author draws upon his personal experiences as a first-generation college student from a small coalmining town in rural West Virginia. Both scholarly and personal, the book blends critical theory, ethnographic research, and personal narrative to demonstrate how family work histories and community expectations both shape and limit the academic goals of potential Appalachian college students.
Contents
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Prelude: The Hillbilly Speaks of Rhetoric
Introduction: The Ethical Appeal to Authority
Part I. Appalachia and the American Imagination: Critical Theory
1. The Hillbilly
2. Hillbilly Learnin'
Part II. Material Reality and Appalachian Identity: Personal Experience
3. Work
4. Leaving Holme
Part III. Appalachia and the Academy: Ethnographic Research
5. Family Rhetoric
6. College Rhetoric
Part IV. Critical Consciousness and the College Diploma: Critical Pedagogy
7. Critical Educators
8. Critical Pedagogy
Postlude: The College-Educated Hillbilly
Chapter Notes
References
Index
