Rethinking the Rural and Urban School Closure Research: Closure as a Mechanism of Spatial Inequality

• In Event: 45.054 - The Politics of School Closures, Gentrification, and Displacement: Examining Resistance and Engagement

Abstract

Rural students and communities have long experienced—and opposed—the closure of their schools. Recently, though, closure has affected urban students and communities, and they, too, have resisted. However, the extensive bodies of research covering rural and urban school closures are mostly separate, addressing different questions and making different arguments, and these closures are rarely seen as linked. Encompassing 150 sources, this literature review brings together these extensive bodies of research, looking specifically for convergences and divergences, to better understand school closure and its effects on rural and urban communities. Our analysis shows that both rural and urban closures may further spatial inequality, and we identify key questions for further research.

Authors

• Trevor Auldridge, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Mara Casey Tieken, Bates College