1st Edition

Literacy Teaching and Learning in Rural Communities Problematizing Stereotypes, Challenging Myths

Edited By Lisa Schade Eckert, Janet Alsup Copyright 2015
    164 Pages
    by Routledge

    164 Pages
    by Routledge

    This definitive look at teaching English in rural secondary schools contests current definitions and discussions of rural education, examines their ideological and cultural foundations, and presents an alternative perspective that conceptualizes rural communities as diverse, unique, and conducive to pedagogical and personal growth in teaching and learning. Authentic narratives document individual teachers’ moments of struggle and success in learning to understand, value, and incorporate rural literacies and sensibilities into their curricula. The teachers‘ stories and the scholarly analysis of issues raised through them illuminate the unique challenges and rewards of teaching English in a rural school and offer helpful insights and knowledge for navigating the pedagogical landscape.

    Foreword

    Preface

    1 Introduction: Literacy Teaching and Learning in Rural Communities: Problematizing Stereotypes, Challenging Myths

    Lisa Schade Eckert and Janet Alsup

    Part I

    2 From Stranger to Native: Early Career Teacher Narratives

    Lisa Schade Eckert and Janet Alsup

    3 A Rural Education: From Stranger to Strangerer

    Taylor Norman

    4 Crossing the Tracks, or The Bacon of Despair: The Story of One Teacher’s Story . . . of One Teacher’s Story . . . of Teaching in a Rural School

    Jeff Spanke

    5 Falling Through the Rabbit Hole and Teaching Through the Looking Glass: Experiences of a New Teacher in a Rural School

    Kendra McPheeters-Neal

    6 Is There Such a Thing as Caring Too Much? A Farm Girl Swims with Sharks
    Chea Parton

    Part II

    7 Teaching Through Place: Mid to Late Career Teacher Narratives

    Lisa Schade Eckert and Janet Alsup

    8 Lessons From the Inside Out: Poetry, Epiphanies, and Creative Literary Culture in a Rural Montana High School

    Jeffrey B. Ross

    9 Bridging Divides Through Place-based Research, Or What I Didn’t Know about Hunting in the Northern Rockies

    Hali Kirby-Ertel

    10 Whose Kids Are They, Anyway? Balancing Personal and Professional Identities in a Rural School

    Kari Patterson

    11 Teaching and Learning at Nay Ah Shing School

    Gregg Rutter, Roger Nieboer, Govinda Budrow, Bambi O’Hern

    12 Teaching in my Own Voice: A 30-year Pedagogical Journey

    Sharon Bishop

    Contributors

    Index

    Biography

    Lisa Schade Eckert is Associate Professor of English at Northern Michigan University, USA.

    Janet Alsup is Professor of English Education at the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, Purdue University, USA.

    "This book provides a clear and compelling window into the realities of rural teaching. The writers make it possible to imagine rural teaching as a rewarding professional career. I wish I’d had this book when I was a young teacher!"

    Robert Brooke, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, USA