The Influence of Rural Bias on Rural STEM Preservice Teacher Preparation Program Leaders

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Preparing Teachers for Rural Contexts: Well-Being, Justice, and Place-Based Education (Table 8)

Abstract

In 2021, the National Science Foundation funded a research grant called “Investigating STEM Teacher Preparation and Rural Teacher Persistence and Retention (TPR2)” with 14 different universities in rural areas to investigate persistence and retention within rural STEM teacher preparation. When some language evoking a potential negative perception of rural peoples started surfacing in some of the data sources for the TPR2 project, the researchers were inspired to determine why and how potential rural bias was impacting the function and leadership within the rural STEM Educator Preparation Programs (EPPs). Researchers developed and implemented a qualitative study to investigate the research question “What perceptions, language, and experiences about rurality are present within rural STEM EPP leadership?”

Authors

• Chrissy J Cross, Stephen F. Austin State University

• Dana P. Franz, Mississippi State University