Full Description
This definitive look at teaching English in rural secondary schools contests current definitions and discussions of rural education, examines their ideological and cultural foundations, and presents an alternative perspective that conceptualizes rural communities as diverse, unique, and conducive to pedagogical and personal growth in teaching and learning. Authentic narratives document individual teachers' moments of struggle and success in learning to understand, value, and incorporate rural literacies and sensibilities into their curricula. The teachers' stories and the scholarly analysis of issues raised through them illuminate the unique challenges and rewards of teaching English in a rural school and offer helpful insights and knowledge for navigating the pedagogical landscape.
Contents
Foreword
Preface
1 Introduction: Literacy Teaching and Learning in Rural Communities: Problematizing Stereotypes, Challenging Myths
Lisa Schade Eckert and Janet Alsup
Part I
2 From Stranger to Native: Early Career Teacher Narratives
Lisa Schade Eckert and Janet Alsup
3 A Rural Education: From Stranger to Strangerer
Taylor Norman
4 Crossing the Tracks, or The Bacon of Despair: The Story of One Teacher's Story . . . of One Teacher's Story . . . of Teaching in a Rural School
Jeff Spanke
5 Falling Through the Rabbit Hole and Teaching Through the Looking Glass: Experiences of a New Teacher in a Rural School
Kendra McPheeters-Neal
6 Is There Such a Thing as Caring Too Much? A Farm Girl Swims with Sharks
Chea Parton
Part II
7 Teaching Through Place: Mid to Late Career Teacher Narratives
Lisa Schade Eckert and Janet Alsup
8 Lessons From the Inside Out: Poetry, Epiphanies, and Creative Literary Culture in a Rural Montana High School
Jeffrey B. Ross
9 Bridging Divides Through Place-based Research, Or What I Didn't Know about Hunting in the Northern Rockies
Hali Kirby-Ertel
10 Whose Kids Are They, Anyway? Balancing Personal and Professional Identities in a Rural School
Kari Patterson
11 Teaching and Learning at Nay Ah Shing School
Gregg Rutter, Roger Nieboer, Govinda Budrow, Bambi O'Hern
12 Teaching in my Own Voice: A 30-year Pedagogical Journey
Sharon Bishop
Contributors
Index
