Why Do Rural Schools Matter? Social Justice and Rural Education

• In Event: Teaching With Purpose in Rural Places

Abstract

This conceptual piece argues for a (re)conceptualization of rural education as a project of social justice that seeks full participatory parity for rural citizens. While a critical pedagogy of place offers an explicit emphasis on the role of education in the transformation of rural places (Greunewald, 2008), Fraser’s (2005; 2009) framework enables analysis more specifically about the barriers to the transformation of rural places into just spaces where rural people exercise their human rights to parity of participation. An example of a place-based watershed unit works as an example to consider the potential of Fraser’s (2005; 2009) frames of social justice in rural communities and schools.

Authors

• Karen Eppley, The Pennsylvania State University

• Heather Toomey Zimmerman, The Pennsylvania State University

• Jennifer Lynn Weible, Central Michigan University