Cultural Politics of Rural Education Reform and Research

• In Event: 60.072 - Toward Ethnoracial, Linguistic, and Geopolitical Justice: Heritage Communities, Cultural Politics, and Community-Engaged Research

Abstract

This article will explore the cultural politics of past and present rural education reform. Drawing upon historical studies and current ethnographic data, it will examine the history of rural education policy--which, with a report of a National Education Association-appointed commission, first framed a "rural school problem" in 1896--and the marginal position today's rural schools occupy in education debate and policymaking. These dynamics have given "outsider" professionals power over rural schools and communities, contributing to rural outmigration, school closure, and the economic and social unraveling of many rural communities. Traditional approaches to research--in which research is conducted "on" rather than "with" rural communities--reinforce these power dynamics; community-engaged research, on the other hand, offers a method of exposing and disrupting these dynamics.

Author

• Mara Casey Tieken, Bates College