Cultivating Connections to Local Community: A Case Study of Critical Rural English Pedagogy

• In Event: Making Learning Accessible to Rural Students: Critical Approaches to Access and Pedagogy

Abstract

Researchers describe a qualitative case study of one secondary teacher and her students reading Zenter’s The Serpent King in the rural Northwest. Situating the work theoretically in culturally responsive teaching as Critical Rural English Pedagogies, presenters describe data collection (e.g. lesson plans, ethnographic observations, interviews, student work). Through open and thematic coding, they discerned how the teacher constructed a culturally affirming unit that honored students’ lives and allowed for validation and storytelling. Two outstanding pedagogies emerged: 1) providing relevant texts and writing activities, and 2) engaging students in open dialogue centered on weekly themes. Implications for practice are shared, including this illustration as a model for creating culturally responsive curriculum for rural students, a group often missing from the scholarship.

Authors

• Ashley Summer Boyd, Washington State University - Pullman

• Janine J. Darragh, University of Idaho