Engaging Critical Postsecondary Theoretical Frameworks to Illuminate Rural Students' Experiences and Development in Higher Education

• In Event: Applications of Emerging Research in Rural Education

Abstract

Critical frameworks in education research focus on students with identities that have been oppressed and marginalized by inequitable educational systems, thereby working to dismantle such systems. These frameworks have been applied in higher education research on postsecondary student populations but not applied to rural students, although they are underrepresented and subjugated within postsecondary spaces. Through qualitative interviews with 11 rural college students around the U.S., this study engaged critical postsecondary student development theory to illuminate rurality as a student identity and to understand rural students’ higher education experiences. In doing so, the authors encourage researchers and educators to recognize rurality as a student identity in higher education and to be inclusive of rural populations within research, practice, and policy.

Authors

• Ty C. McNamee, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Sonja Ardoin, Appalachian State University

• Vanessa A. Sansone, The University of Texas - San Antonio

• Nikki Cooper