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Understandings of teacher expertise in the US have transformed over the past 40 years, arguably being "narrowed" and "numericized" due to high-stakes accountability and neoliberal education reform movements. While this trend has been thoroughly studied under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and Race to the Top regimes, less consideration has been given since the Every Study Succeeds Act (ESSA) replaced NCLB in 2015, which notably pivoted away from some of the most stringent accountability practices of the previous era. This paper begins a new line of inquiry into teacher expertise in our current federal policy context, especially considering how understandings of expertise are constructed in school districts that never adopted the most high-stakes evaluation measures. By relying on Jessica Holloway's (2021) technologies of risk management, this paper explores how teachers in one school understand expertise, focusing specifically on how evaluation and assessment technologies engage with and influence these understandings. Ultimately, it was found that teachers in fact held a plurality of understandings, yet complex and sometimes conflicting influences of assessment and evaluation practices also emerged. This paper argues that although risk management technologies have become commonplace, scholars and practitioners alike should continue to scrutinize their use under ESSA, particularly considering how they are being used, who they primarily benefit, and what consequences come from our reliance upon them.

Teachers in rural areas should receive equal support and professional development training as those in urban areas. It is a strategy to promote education equity for the students in the former area. This study takes the learning experience and teaching practice experience of rural teachers who participated in the Rural Teacher Replacement Training Program (RTRTP) in Guangdong Province, China, as a case. Seventeen rural teachers who participated in the blended training program were chosen as a research sample. The effect of blended training was evaluated at four levels: participants' reaction, participants' learning, behavior, and learning results. A model of influencing factors for rural teachers' blended training was developed. The results showed that rural teachers' overall satisfaction with the blended training program was relatively high. Teachers reported a greater increase in knowledge skills, but the translation into practical knowledge and the impact on the organization was not as high as expected. Four dimensions and 14 main categories influence the blended training effect of rural teachers. This study provides a reference for improving the efficiency of rural teacher blended training, especially for promoting the teaching practice after teacher training.

Rural adult schools, implemented by Community Learning Centers (CLCs) as part of the Capacity Building Project, face inadequate and irregular funding in China. Moreover, these schools lack technical guidelines for project implementation, posing additional challenges. This study employed the "entrepreneurship-impact" matrix conceptual framework to conduct a case study and identify best practices related to CLC operation. Revealed through the study is an educational entrepreneurship model for implementing CLC projects. Resources, regulations, and outsider technical support shape educational entrepreneurship, with all factors influencing project implementation through the mediation of entrepreneurship. However, this influence is conditioned by loosened regulation. This study concludes that best practices emerge only when external conditions favor entrepreneurship and suggests that greater attention should be directed toward fostering circumstances conducive to educational entrepreneurship.

This article describes a hands-on geometric tiling art activity used in two third-grade classes and four fifth-grade classes in a rural public elementary school with class sizes of around 20 students each. The lesson investigates concepts in geometry, number sense, and probability. Examples of student work and takeaways for other teachers interested in implementing the tasks in their own classrooms are also shared.

This article reflects on the connection between education, development, and social capital through the example of a specific type of rural school called Family Education Alternating Cycle Centers (CEFFA, the acronym for Centros Educativos Familiares de Formación en Alternancia). CEFFA schools are based on the concept of a cycle that alternates between learning periods spent in the socio-professional environment of the students and periods spent in school. Driven by family-run associations and other local actors, these schools pursue personal and local development, with a bottom-up approach based on the protagonism of the beneficiaries, especially in rural areas. To achieve this development through education, the schools provide young people with a comprehensive education associated with vocational training and introduce the needs of the territorial context into the curriculum. In this way, they ensure the relevance of learning. This article examines how these schools maintain a strong associative life that is strengthened by the social capital created around them. After defining the school associations, we describe their specific characteristics and some requirements for their adequate functioning. The CEFFA results suggest that we can reimagine a more people-centered education in which families and other community actors are committed to sustainable local development and transformative learning through the use of the power of social capital.

Indigenous Australian students generally attain poorer educational outcomes compared to non-Indigenous students. However, some remote schools are challenging the status quo by providing schooling experiences where Indigenous students thrive. Using an Indigenous research paradigm and a comparative case study methodology, we conducted interviews with stakeholders from two different remote community schools where students were predominantly Indigenous. Recognising the limitations of assessing student success solely on westernised concepts of success, we adopted a strengths-based approach. Using thematic analysis, qualitative data were analysed to yield themes that were sorted using a model of Indigenous wellbeing comprising five dimensions (academic, cultural, physical, psychological and social wellbeing). Responses from stakeholders (teachers, community leaders and students) show that success can be achieved when local culture is respected and incorporated into the curriculum by dedicated staff who maintain open communication with community. While both schools shared a largely common approach to Indigenous education, a hallmark was their responsiveness to local needs.

Teaching is one of the most stressful occupations in the United States. This is especially true for teachers who are responsible for meeting the complex needs of students with disabilities, particularly those with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). In fact, EBD teachers have a higher risk of experiencing burnout than their special education and general education colleagues. This burnout leads EBD teachers to leave the specialization of EBD, leave the field of special education, or leave the teaching profession as a whole. One way to mitigate this exodus of EBD teachers is to provide a broader pedagogical opportunity. Project-based learning (PBL) is a pedagogical methodology that is not often used by EBD teachers. The current study examines the use of PBL teaching to support students behaviorally and its impact on EBD teacher stress and job satisfaction. PBL was shown to improve student classroom and personal behaviors as well as increase job satisfaction for EBD teachers.

In the proposed work, studies of supporting rural teachers were analysed and the main directions of professional self-development of a village teacher were identified. The program aims to assist village teachers in professional self-development. A program to support the self-development of rural teachers was proposed, which was experimentally tested on 246 teachers in primary and secondary schools in Hebei and Shandong provinces (China). The results of the application of the program were determined using a survey to identify the development of various components of the professional development of teachers themselves. The objective results of an increase in the academic success of students were also checked. These data show the effectiveness of the program we have developed in improving all components of the professional development of teachers and the possibility of its application to a large audience of teachers in rural areas. The practical significance of this work is the possibility of applying the proposed system of support for the self-development of teachers. The practical application of the study is to further develop and actualize the issue of the connection between the academic and professional performance of students in schools and the level of creative thinking of teachers in rural areas.

Deficit ideologies permeate urban spaces particularly when mostly Black and Brown students attend neighborhood schools. Wealth concentrated in suburban areas further perpetuates stereotypes of urban as deficient, but empirical data has yet to interrogate these ideas. Using the National Household Education Survey and regression analysis of variance, this research determines the relationship between parents' satisfaction with their child's school and school location (rural, suburban, urban). Then, using race as a moderator, this study aims to ascertain if there is a relationship between parental satisfaction by race and urbanicity of the school their child attends. Implications address the systemic and structural components that contribute to deficit ideologies.

The relationship between Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and academic performance is a controversial issue that has attracted increasing attention from administrators, policymakers, and researchers. The relationship between perceived ICT competence and the academic performance of rural students deserves particular attention. Although a small but growing body of research has examined the relationship between perceived ICT competence and student academic performance, few studies have viewed perceived ICT competence as a multilevel construct. This study aimed to fill this gap by examining the relationship between multilevel perceived ICT competence (i.e., student- and school-level perceived ICT competence) and student academic performance using a sample of 5530 students from 156 schools in rural China. Two-level hierarchical linear modeling results indicated that student- and school-level perceived ICT competence could predict academic performance. Furthermore, school-level perceived ICT competence could moderate the relationship between student-level ICT competence and academic outcomes. Specifically, the role of student-level perceived ICT competence showed heterogeneity across schools. Academic performance was strongly correlated with student-level perceived ICT competence in schools with a low level of perceived ICT competence; in contrast, this outcome was not observed in schools with a high level of perceived ICT competence. The findings suggest that administrators and policymakers in China should pay special attention to rural schools where perceived ICT competence is low and consider providing services for students in these schools to promote educational equity.

Psychological safety is a psychosocial construct that reflects an individual's perception of social risk in the work environment, and is related to employee performance and well-being, including job satisfaction and burnout. Psychological safety remains relatively understudied among educators, including its patterns over time and relationships with other aspects of the school environment. This study explored patterns of psychological safety over 4 years among 769 staff at 20 rural K-12 schools, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the associations of these patterns with work-associated well-being and organizational context outcomes. Repeated measures latent profile analyses identified a 3-class solution of stable-high (51.0%), stable-medium (44.8%), and dynamic-low (4.2%) psychological safety classes. Those in the stable-high class had consistently better outcomes, including less burnout and greater self-efficacy, and better perceived organizational context and climate, compared to other classes. Among educators, psychological safety is generally stable, and reliably differentiates other important outcomes. Interventions fostering greater psychological safety may improve perceptions of the school environment and reduce burnout.

Schools in the rural context of Limpopo Province, South Africa have a plethora of challenges, which have a negative impact on learner achievement. This paper argues that for schools to triumph over the obstacles, effective school leaders are necessary. Such leaders must define and communicate a clear vision and mission and work with stakeholders to achieve them. With these assumptions, this paper explores how members of the school management team (SMT) of a rural school in the Limpopo Province define and communicate their school's vision and mission. Through the qualitative research method underpinned by the interpretive paradigm, a case research design was adopted and a single high school sampled to participate. Data were generated from semi-structured interviews with seven SMT members, a focus-group discussion with six teachers, and an observation of the research site. The findings revealed that most participants could not articulate the school's vision and mission. In addition, stakeholders were not involved in the processes of defining the vision and mission and communication methods in this regard were also ineffective. Lastly, the SMT viewed the vision and mission as fixed and did not review them. Based on these findings, I conclude that SMT members must understand that the vision and mission could serve more than a visual purpose when designed as guiding principles to direct smaller objectives within the organisation.

In this article, we describe the exploration of the content and quality of annual goals included in the Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) of students with disabilities in one rural U.S. school district. We utilized content analysis to understand the district's service delivery model comprehensively. Findings revealed disparities between inclusive placements and special education service delivery, suggesting that, despite high rates of inclusive placements noted on IEPs, most services occurred outside general education classrooms, especially for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). We evaluated the quality and rigor of 546 annual goals using a rubric adapted from Kurth et al. Only 37.7% of goals were rated as rigorous, highlighting a need for clearer, more specific, and applicable goals. Notably, communication goals for students with IDD were largely absent, raising concerns about support for meaningful participation in general education settings. In addition, special factors related to communication and assistive technology were not consistently addressed in IEPs. We discuss implications for improving educational experiences for students who qualify for special education services under IDD in rural schools and highlight the value of further research and actions in this area.

Professionals and communication partners report experiencing challenges with regard to developing the knowledge and skills needed to support individuals with complex communication needs who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). These challenges can be exacerbated in rural and remote areas where access to resources and training may be limited. This practitioner-focused article provides evidence-based strategies for addressing the knowledge and skill needs experienced by professionals and communication partners in rural communities, including strategies for (a) identifying AAC knowledge and skill needs, (b) accessing AAC resources, (c) using principles of instructional design and instructional coaching to address identified areas of need, (d) considering contexts for instruction, and (e) examining contextual fit.

Augmented reality (AR) technology can enhance picture book reading experience. The present study aimed to explore the influence of reading AR picture books on primary school students' reading comprehension, story retelling, and reading motivation. Eighty second graders, who were from two classes at a rural primary school in a coastal city in East China, were recruited through convenience sampling to participate in this quasi-experimental study. The two classes were randomly assigned to be either the experimental group (AR picture book reading) or control group (print picture book reading), and both groups read three traditional Chinese picture books during reading classes throughout three weeks. T-test analyses revealed that, before the study began, the two groups did not have significant differences in reading comprehension, story retelling, or reading motivation. However, after the three weeks of instructional intervention, the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in all three aspects. Furthermore, MANCOVA analysis showed that reading AR picture books was more effective in boosting participants' performance on implicit questions during the reading comprehension tests. They also performed significantly higher on story retelling tests, especially when it came to story structures regarding settings and plots. In addition, AR picture book reading was more conducive to improving participants' level of attention and confidence in reading. This work adds to the ongoing endeavors in incorporating AR picture books into classroom settings, and will inform future development of original Chinese picture books with AR technology.

South Africa has low literacy levels and teachers face multiple challenges in their endeavours to elevate levels of literacy. This is especially prevalent in rural and township schools where teachers face the additional challenges of isolation, limited resources and access to professional development. This article reports on the findings and learning from a preliminary research study which piloted a handheld mobile phone App. This collaborative project, between a university in KwaZulu-Natal and one in England, aimed to support in-service and preservice teachers in rural and township settings to use the App to assess and match books to learners' (aged 9-12) stage of reading development in order to facilitate their independent reading and provide teachers with a range of strategies for teaching comprehension that could supplement other professional development available. In-service teachers (n = 120) and preservice teachers (n = 93) took part in this mixed-methods study. The main finding from the study was that whilst participants were positive about the App, many did not access the App independently. This article discusses the broader issues, including participants' foundational knowledge and literacy research participation considerations, that may have underpinned this finding in this collaborative Global North and South research.

Adolescence is often positioned as a particularly vulnerable period for reading motivation and engagement, both for academic reading and reading for pleasure. However, closer scrutiny of the literature reveals a much more nuanced pattern of changing interest, attitude, and motivation for reading during adolescence. Despite this, there is a distinct lack of research that explores the barriers adolescents' face to reading for pleasure from the perspectives of adolescents themselves. Working with a Young People's Advisory Panel, peer- and adult-led interviews were carried out with 46 adolescents (13-15 years old) from six high schools. Six themes were identified from the thematic analysis, reflecting adolescents' perceptions of the barriers to their reading for pleasure: (1) access; (2) mismatch between provision and needs; (3) social factors; (4) reading experiences in school; (5) reading affect; and (6) time and competing activities. This article makes a novel and significant contribution to the limited literature on reading for pleasure during adolescence and provides important qualitative insights for researchers and educational practitioners interested in supporting adolescents' reading motivation.

Technology-enhanced education can potentially enhance teaching and learning outcomes for rural educators since they face limited educational resources and low job satisfaction. Recently, there has been a surge in extended reality (XR) as an immersive learning technology to improve teaching and learning in rural areas, but without focusing on rural educators' perspectives. This study aims to bridge this gap by investigating rural educators' interactions with XR educational applications and exhibiting their insights on using XR education to improve education quality in rural areas. After educators' hands-on experiences in a pre-designed XR education workshop, qualitative data was collected from their discussions in focus groups. As a result, educators believed that XR could transform traditional educational practices and create opportunities for new patterns of rural education (e.g., public engagement with rurality and rural vocational education). Limitations include a lack of school infrastructure to apply XR and an absence of well-structured curriculum design to use XR in the classroom setting. We suggest that future studies explore the integration of effective XR practices into primary and elementary education in those areas with limited educational resources.

By paying attention to what Peruvian and Bolivian students in schools say about how they are seen and treated by their native-born peers, this article aims to analyze the ways in which symbolic boundaries are produced, eventually giving way to social boundaries between natives and migrants. The methodology is based on in-depth interviews with students, parents, and educators of rural and urban schools in the region of Arica y Parinacota, the northernmost region of Chile, by the borders with Peru and Bolivia. We conclude that the production of symbolic boundaries among students emerges as discourses about nationality, skin color, ethnicity, and history. Peruvian and Bolivian migrant students describe being teased by their native-born peers because of their country of origin, for being darker-skinned, for being Aymara, and for having lost the War of the Pacific (and, in the case of Bolivians, for having lost access to the coastline). Some migrant students perceive these discourses as discrimination and consider them harmful; however, many others accept them as normal school stuff -- as long as there is no physical violence. Moreover, teachers and parents do not see these interactions as problematic. The article concludes that the normalization of stigmatizing and discriminatory dynamics against migrant students complicates their inclusion in Chilean schools.

The study examined how L2 engagement is associated with students' general life satisfaction, a core element of well-being. A total of 1,109 seventh-grade EFL learners from a rural secondary school in China completed a measure of life satisfaction (family satisfaction, environment satisfaction, academic satisfaction, school satisfaction, freedom satisfaction, and friendship satisfaction) and a measure of foreign language engagement (cognitive engagement, emotional engagement, behavioural engagement, and social engagement). Path analysis shows that life satisfaction generally predicted L2 engagement positively. Variations were found in the associations between six life satisfaction dimensions and four L2 engagement dimensions. A positive psychology lens is adopted to interpret the findings and make concrete suggestions about how to enhance learner engagement. The findings imply that a proactive preventative stance on bolstering engagement could be encouraged such as fostering learners' positive perceptions and beliefs of self, family, school, environment, study, and friends.

In the form of distance, video broadcast interactive courses, rural distance video classes enable rural schools with struggling art education teachers to share high-quality art education resources retrieved from urban-area schools. This study aims to investigate and explore teaching strategies that effectively enhance pupils' concentration in distance music classes. The descriptive survey method was employed to collect, analyze, and interpret the data to meet the study's objectives. Students' (N = 45) behavior in thirteen (13) distance music classes in Changsha County China was tracked and observed, and two rural school assistant teachers (N = 2) were interviewed. Text data recorded from observations and interviews were analyzed and categorized qualitatively. The research results indicated that the visual and audio support, incorporation of music games, and progressive learning of rhythms et al. can effectively improve students' concentration in distance music classes. The article also suggests: (1) conducting clear and engaging classroom tasks; (2) mixing body rhythm participation; (3) building a harmonious teacher-student relationship; (4) creating sustainable online learning environments; and (5) utilizing ChatGPT assistance in future distance music teaching practice.

Many evaluation systems feel like a series of hoops to jump through. Some require goal setting, some require elaborate data collection, and some are a little of both. Regardless of role, it often becomes a box-checking exercise and not a reflective, meaningful process that engenders growth for those engaged in it. In the small rural district of South Summit School District in Kamas, Utah, the authors hoped to go about principal evaluation in an entirely different way. They envisioned something more useful and grounded in principals' work, specifically in the area of instructional leadership that would also promote growth. This article is an account of how the authors used survey results, formed a professional learning community (PLC) with principals, and built a framework of the four themes that emerged that function together for a meaningful process of collaborative inquiry and evaluation.

Concerns about a strong positive correlation between leadership and student success (Wood et al., 2013) coupled with community input around hiring from outside an organization, as opposed to hiring from within, contributes to the complexity of filling superintendent vacancies The limited research available on this issue is amplified due to the concern around the shortage of highly qualified superintendent candidates available to fill those top roles (Grissom & Andersen, 2012; Grissom & Mitani, 2016; Kamrath & Brunner, 2014). The role of district superintendent can be cumbersome, yet, it can be a role worth pursuing. The information gathered for this ethnographic study was derived from the responses from various stakeholders' opinions, feelings, and experiences as they related to the superintendent position and 'grow your own' hiring practices in rural districts. This study revealed there are both advantages and disadvantages to implementing the GYO approach. Limiting the pool of qualified applicants, and contributing to gender-bias in candidate selection were challenges shared by the participants while the building of a culture of leadership and shortening the learning curve were identified as advantages of a GYO hiring approach.

In this paper, an application of open-ended textual feedback is presented as a tool to evaluate the perceptions and needs of teachers tasked with implementing computational thinking in the K-12 curriculum. Semantic analysis tools, including sentiment analysis and thematic analysis, facilitated the identification of common themes in openended textual feedback. Results show that semantic analysis techniques can be useful in evaluating formative assessment data or open-ended feedback to discover response patterns, which may aid in determining actionable insights related to adult learner perceptions, interests, and self-efficacy. Formative assessment data were collected from a unique professional development workshop to promote computational thinking and curriculum integration in core subjects, including writing, math, science, and social studies, with the goal of discovering the barriers that rural teachers face in developing and implementing lesson plans for grades 3-8 teachers in a rural midwestern state in the USA to promote computational thinking and curriculum integration in core subjects, including writing, math, science, and social studies, with the goal of discovering the barriers that rural teachers face in developing and implementing lesson plans.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching impacts in the lives of American students and educators. Educators faced an upheaval and adjustment to a "new normal" as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, involving extensive use of technology and remote learning. During the pandemic, I was employed as both a sixth grade English language arts teacher in rural New England and a remote adjunct instructor for a higher education institution with over 30,000 students. These positions were starkly different in their academic scope, population demographics, and response to the country-wide shut down, yet the students faced many of the same obstacles as they progressed in their education. The COVID-19 pandemic caused teachers and staff to rally together to support students, brought to light great gaps in the education of the children in the K-12 school system, and necessitated shifts in educational platforms and curriculum to ensure the health and safety of our students and educators. With all of the lost classroom time, something more damaging was present as well: the loss of social and emotional readiness for learning. With proper social supports integrated into the education system at all levels moving forward, students may begin to regain their motivation and success in academia and in life outside of school.

Discussing the topic of special education teacher shortages across the United States has become commonplace. Although more widespread, special education teacher shortages in rural areas have gained less attention. Teachers in these areas face unique challenges such as overcoming geographic barriers to providing high-quality services, the isolation endemic to rural poverty, and having limited access to resources in schools. Additionally, students with disabilities living in rural areas are more likely to be supported by teachers who are ill-prepared, lack experience, and/or fail to possess the qualifications necessary to meet diverse learning needs. Addressing these challenges requires innovative partnerships between national, state, and university personnel to create systemic change to recruit and retain special educators. The purpose of this article is to describe a partnership between The Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform (CEEDAR) Center, the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE), Education Preparation Programs (EPPs), including Delta State University, and a cross-section of special education directors in the Mississippi Delta and other regions that utilized The Educator Shortages in Special Education Toolkit (Hayes et al., 2019) as a guide, which resulted in the development of the Special Educator Mentoring Framework. This article will explore the Special Educator Mentoring Framework that engaged stakeholders in purposeful activities through the four-step cyclical process to plan, design, implement, and evaluate efforts to address the special educator shortages in rural regions of Mississippi. This unique collaboration highlights promising practices to promote special education teacher preparation and strengthen teaching practice.

This invited article comprises three parts that document the history of distance and flexible learning in New Zealand and the professional association DEANZ/FLANZ (Distance Education Association of New Zealand, later known as the Flexible Learning Association of New Zealand), which serves this community. The first part was originally published in the "DEANZ Magazine" in July 2015 as "DEANZ: A Brief History". The second part was originally published in the "FLANZ Magazine" in July 2016 as "DEANZ Foundation". The third, newly written, part brings the history of DEANZ/FLANZ up to date, and is published for the first time here. FLANZ (formerly DEANZ) is a professional association. The "Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning" is the Association's flagship journal.

This qualitative study focuses on the intersectionality of race and rurality by looking at the responses of Wyoming principals and superintendents to the issues of diversity and social justice within Wyoming. The responses are presented and analyzed through a new framework called Cowboy Epistemology, and the Cultural Competency Continuum (Lindsey et al., 2009). It appears that despite double-digit increases in diversity between 2010 and 2018, some Wyoming school and district administrators continue to demonstrate actions and practices congruent with the demographic divide, cultural homophily, and Whiteness along with cultural worldviews that suggest a failure to: (1) value diversity; (2) engage political organizations and individuals in a manner that advocates for the needs of diverse students; (3) implement multicultural instruction beyond superficial means; and (4) engage the community in tolerance for others who are different from the traditional White Wyoming ranching, conservative, materials extraction, isolationist way of life. While outliers and standards for social justice and diversity exist in Wyoming among and for administrators, more needs to be done to prepare and train administrators to engage in culturally proficient and sustaining instructional leadership so that administrators can serve all students, engage in community leadership, and resist the negative influences of Cowboy Epistemology, demographic divide, cultural homophily, and Whiteness. Chief among the more needs to be done for Wyoming administrators is the adoption of culturally responsive school and culturally sustaining instructional leadership practices and training on the culturally proficient continuum.

In March 2020, COVID-19 resulted in school closures for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year across the nation. Because of the pandemic predictions regarding the 20202021 school year, concerns regarding curricular offerings and delivery surfaced quickly. A non-experimental quantitative comparative study was conducted in two neighboring Midwestern states with different directives for the 2020-2021 school year. The attribute of rurality became important to this study regarding curricular offerings and delivery because of challenges related to the access of technological resources in rural areas. This non-experimental quantitative comparative study focused on Illinois, where 20.8% of its public schools are rural and Iowa, where over half of its public schools are rural. Purposive sampling was used and superintendents from rural public districts were invited to complete an online survey. Research questions focused on how state mandates impacted curriculum offered, curriculum delivery strategies used, and professional development on remote learning provided to teachers before the start of the 2020-2021 school year. The overall survey return rate was 22.30% with 67% from Illinois and 33% from Iowa. Most respondents worked in districts with enrollments of 1 to 999 students. The theoretical framework for this study was the top-down theory of policy implementation wherein top decision-makers assume a command and control orientation, generating clear and definite policies/strategies that are communicated to others to implement. This study is important because it provides superintendents with a reference point for how mandated state policies can impact student achievement through both curriculum and its delivery.

This project is a single ongoing case study that focuses on the teaching experiences of two early-career math teachers working in rural schools and the factors that influenced their decision to work in these environments (Yin, 2014). Both teachers are graduates of Clarkson University's STEM Up NY program, a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program designed to strengthen STEM teaching and to learn in high-need schools. This project is part of a larger, 14-partner Noyce research collaboration focusing on STEM teacher persistence, retention, and recruitment (TPR2) in rural schools. TPR2 addresses the national shortage of STEM teachers in rural communities, which is critical for future student success. This larger project seeks to identify programmatic features of STEM teacher preparation programs that aid in rural STEM teachers' recruitment, retention, and persistence.

This empirical study provides a rare glimpse inside one classroom setting to explore the ways one high school Civics teacher taught for pluralist citizenship in his rural community, in anticipation of looming urbanization. This study demonstrates concrete ways of teaching and learning to navigate difference and conflict in seemingly homogeneous classroom settings. Using a qualitative case study approach (Yin, 2018), data collected in southern Ontario (Canada) include classroom observations, teacher interviews, group interviews with students, and analysis of classroom documents. The findings challenge mainstream understandings of diversity typically embedded in some multicultural education and citizenship education scholarship to include less visible diversities as important elements of living in a pluralist democracy.

Rural schools are unique in the challenges they face; therefore, it follows that the policies to address the challenges should also be unique and not adhere to the "one size fits all" mentality. This research uses a qualitative approach and takes the bold step to seek the input of teachers who work in rural schools for suggestions on how to solve challenges found in rural schools. Eight teachers from seven rural Alabama schools across seven different districts were convened in multiple focus groups organized around four themes--federal policy, state policy, local policy, and community partnerships. The findings from this study shed light on how "one size fits all" policies, which are often created by policymakers with an "urban" mindset, affect rural schools. Additionally, the study inspired a "rural school policy playbook" that includes recommendations for local, state, and federal policy changes to address the needs of rural schools. The solutions shared by the rural teachers we interviewed represent only the tip of the iceberg. Yet, they are important because they shed light on feasible solutions that could help address the contemporary challenges rural schools face.

This article examines the impact on the adult facilitator of a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) team at a rural high school in the Midwest. By focusing on the learning trajectory of the adult facilitator and emphasizing the youth's pedagogical and inspirational roles, it illuminates the potential impacts of YPAR on adults in a school context, a topic not yet thoroughly examined in research on YPAR. If the goal is to ensure that schools are supportive spaces for all youth, it is imperative that adults in schools learn from the young people they work with. This article argues that engaging with students through YPAR can be one way to facilitate transformative change and growth for adults in school settings, including in rural locations.

Rural-serving community college (RSCC) STEM faculty play an essential role for their students and communities. We employed an institutional ethnographic (IE) approach to elucidate the social and ruling relations organizing the everyday work of RSCC STEM faculty in Wyoming. Our data confirm that RSCC educators see students at the center of their work. They detailed gaps and barriers to STEM transfer and explained administration and policy impact on their work, and described work that is invisible. Faculty's feelings of isolation and connection were inextricably linked to social networks and administrator acknowledgement. We explicate a problematic wherein RSCC administrators not centering the student when making decisions grinds with faculty's philosophical and practical focus on student-centered work. Based on our findings, we hope to persuade readers with our practice implications as you question whose interests are being served and the role that power and politics play in the everyday RSCC work.

This case study examines the political and social pressures high school social studies teachers face in rural areas. In the political sphere, many social studies teachers focus on the end of course exam. The resources that informed this study were public materials on the web. Findings indicate teachers stay to state tested content.

In 2020, humanity experienced one of the most complex situations in history: The COVID-19 pandemic, which caused significant social, economic, and educational consequences. Nevertheless, countries and people generally survived. Why? Resilience and the ability to cope are fundamental elements in human, community, and national survival. This study compared the situations experienced by six children from different social and educational backgrounds in Colombia during the COVID-19 pandemic using a collective analysis of cases. Interviews with children's families, as well as observations of the participants and a narrative instrument from the BASIC Ph resiliency model (Lahad, 2016) are used to describe the context, the promoting factors of resilience, and the so-called coping "channels" of each case. Results showed that (a) the difficulties perceived by families during the pandemic were different from those perceived by the children, and (b) the predominant coping channels had an important relationship with factors that promote resilience. Finally, although it is not clear from the present study whether the children developed resilience, they exhibited factors that determine their future development.

This article addresses the issues faced by the young Aboriginal students in urban and rural settings, which hinder their achievement in mathematics and science. An effort is made to reveal the techniques and programs that address the under-representation of young Aboriginal students in these subjects at secondary and post-secondary levels. Successful programming is essential to bridge the gap between differing urban and rural cultures and also to make the content material recent and relevant, thus providing a supportive environment. The Aboriginal students can be empowered to learn and be motivated to succeed by improving the linkage between Western and Indigenous thinking, by creating relevant and up-to-date curricula, and by providing adequate support at the family and community level.

Using a single-case multiple baseline (MBL) across behaviors design, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the PEERS® for Young Adults manualized intervention on the acquisition of introductory conversational skills by five adults on the autism spectrum. Five participants attended the PEERS® group in a classroom at a rural state university campus. Visual analysis of level and trend as well as Non-overlap of All Pairs (NAP) and TAU-U measures of effect demonstrated that the PEERS® intervention were indicative of a strong effect on the participants' acquisition of conversational behaviors and general knowledge related to starting, entering, and exiting conversations. Implications for practitioners, higher education faculty, and adult service providers are discussed.

Background: It is arguable that teachers' understanding of the roles of various stakeholders and their need to sometimes assume some of these roles influenced how they practice inclusive education that results in influencing the choice of strategies that they will employ in the classroom. Aim: This article presents factors influencing how foundation phase rural teachers practised inclusion during teaching and learning in ordinary classrooms. Setting: The study was conducted in Limpopo, South Africa, from four selected schools. Methods: Four foundation phase teachers were purposefully selected to participate in the study. Direct observations and supplementary data through individual interviews were employed to elicit data from in-service foundation phase rural teachers. Results: The findings from the data revealed that teachers' current understanding of inclusive pedagogy is influenced by knowledge of inclusive pedagogical practices, professional development, reflective teaching and planning of lessons contents, which was found to be inadequate, whilst the absence of teacher development through workshops and lack of parental involvement and teachers being in loco-parentis is found to be another contributing factor. Conclusion: The study supports that foundation phase rural teachers should be capacitated and empowered through consistent teacher development workshops. Parents also need to be empowered on their support role in order to fully realise inclusive pedagogy in rural classrooms. Finally, the study recommends further research on teacher development and teachers being in loco-parentis in rural foundation phase classrooms. Contribution: The study highlights issues of equality and human rights, which has a fundamental bearing on teaching and learners for both teachers and more importantly the learners they teach.

Despite a long history of overrepresentation in segregated settings (Brock, 2018), students with disabilities who require extensive supports are more likely to receive inclusive placements in rural schools. In this paper, we present findings from a narrative literature analysis of inclusive education for students with disabilities in rural schools located in the United States. Our search yielded 24 articles, published between 2002 and 2019, which reveal three storylines: (a) perceptions about inclusive education in rural schools and communities, (b) inclusive placements are common for students with disabilities, and (c) access to resources is a factor for rural schools to provide inclusive education programs. The National Rural Education Association (NREA) has prioritized "building capacity to meet the needs of diverse and special populations" and so this review thoroughly examines special education practices in rural schools and describes how the diverse qualities and contexts of rural schools contribute to inclusive education practices.