‘I’ll Appreciate It Later’: Taking Rural Capitals to College and Beyond

• In Event: Negotiating Belonging and Mobility in Rural Education: Family, Community, and Context

Abstract

As educators design curricula and programs with the intention of preparing rural youth for participation in their communities – wherever they may find them – designing with mobility and the portability of rural ways of knowing and being in mind may benefit not only the youth, but the broader global community. This qualitative study, employing semi-structured interviews and fuzzy cognitive mapping, considers the value of spatial capital (Lévy, 1994) as well as other forms of community capitals (Emery & Flora, 2006) and wealth (Crumb et al., 2023; Yosso, 2005) for rural students participating in an Upward Bound program sited in Mississippi’s Delta region, concluding with recommendations for postsecondary opportunity program (PSOP) design and for further research.

Author

• Wendy Pfrenger, University of Mississippi