To Shape Charges or Change Agents? The Moral Dilemma of the Rural Schoolteacher

• In Event: Teacher Thinking, Knowing, and Action

Abstract

This paper explores a moral dilemma facing rural schoolteachers today. By doing their job well, they risk harming the communities they serve by contributing to a rural brain drain. First, we explain how this problem is a question about whether to treat students as moral actors or charges, a framing with democratic implications. Next, we draw parallels between this quandary and a broader struggle to teach difficult truths. Using data from CRT controversies in the U.S. and German Holocaust education, we argue that civic goods can and should be pursued through education which trusts youth with difficult truths. Lastly, we suggest how this rural dilemma may be resolved through incorporating critical civic education into rural curriculum.

Authors

• Parker D. Rose, University of California - Los Angeles
  Presenting Author

• Kathleen M. Sellers, Duke University
  Presenting Author