Full Description
Showcasing the voices, perspectives, and experiences of rural English teachers and students, Teaching English in Rural Communities promotes equity, diversity, and inclusivity within rural education. Specifically, this book develops a Critical Rural English Pedagogy (CREP), which draws attention to issues of power, representation, and justice related to rurality. Based on the assumption that "rurality" is a social construct, CREP critiques deficit-laden stereotypes and renderings of rural places and people that circulate in media, popular discourse, and even education at times. In doing so, CREP opens up possibilities for educators and students to use the English classroom as a space to better understand the complex issues they face as rural people and ways to promote more nuanced and comprehensive representations of rurality. In particular, this book highlights English rural classrooms whereby students examine representations of rurality in literary and media texts; decenter dominant settler-colonist narratives of rural spaces, places, and people; develop understandings of Indigenous perspectives and cultural practices, particularly related to land stewardship; and engage in local outreach to promote inclusivity within rural communities. This book also gives special attention to ways race and racism may factor into literacy education in rural contexts and possibilities for rural educators to attend to these issues.
Contents
Foreword: Valerie Kinloch, PhD
Acknowledgements
Preface: Robert Petrone & Allison Wynhoff Olsen
Part One: Why a Critical Rural English Pedagogy?
Chapter One—Moving Toward a Critical Rural English Pedagogy
Robert Petrone & Allison Wynhoff Olsen
Part Two: Inside Rural English Classrooms
Chapter Two—We Ain't Much to Look At: Teaching about Rurality through Literary Texts
Alli Behrens, Robert Petrone, & Allison Wynhoff Olsen
Chapter Three—Who has a "Place" in Place-Based Pedagogy?: Indigenizing Rural English
Education
Melissa Horner, Robert Petrone, & Allison Wynhoff Olsen
Chapter Four—Linking Local Communities to Critical Rural English Pedagogies
Elizabeth Reierson, Catherine Dorian, Robert Petrone, & Allison Wynhoff Olsen
Part Three: Moving Forward
Chapter Five—Re-thinking Race/ism & Rurality in English Education
Robert Petrone, Melissa Horner, & Allison Wynhoff Olsen
Chapter Six—Opportunities & Challenges in Moving Toward a Critical Rural English Pedagogy
Robert Petrone & Allison Wynhoff Olsen
Appendix A: Assignment Sheet for Textbook Entry
Appendix B: Student Sample
Index
