The Role of Resources in Pedagogical Practices and Professional Development of Rural Montana English Teachers

• In Event: Teaching With Purpose in Rural Places

Abstract

This paper reports findings from a study that seeks to understand relationships between institutional, sociocultural, and geographic features of rural educational contexts and the various resources educators in these contexts do (or not) draw upon, utilize, and/or create as part of their instructional practices and own professional development. Through ethnographic case studies of three rural English teachers in Montana, this paper foregrounds interplay between rural/remote educational contexts and English teachers’ access to, development of, and utilization of resources and pedagogies. This baseline data will help ground subsequent discussions of rural English Education, as well as more concretely provide the foundation for developing and examining interventions to facilitate the development of pre-service English teacher education and in-service English teacher professional development.

Authors

• Allison S. Wynhoff Olsen, Montana State University

• Robert Petrone, Montana State University