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Rurality in education research is a function of the size of the school, the distance of a school in relation to urban areas, and factors within each school that may differentiate the school community based on geography. Distance matters. This study finds variation between rural communities at different distances from an urban center and differences based on analysis of student groups and student outcomes within a locale. By taking a granulated geographic approach to rurality we can better compare differences within locales. This analysis of the distance a student lives from school highlights socioeconomic differences between student groups. One related measure is the degree to which income estimates explain variation in student outcomes. Out-of-town students in rural areas have lower family incomes. These income data explain fewer school-level student outcomes than for students who live near to school. Use of data pertinent to students who live near to school reflects a certain bias in poverty measures and may not include variation in family income of students at a distance from school.

This design-based study explored the digital and linguistic practices of South Korean adolescents from a rural area within the Write4Change global online community, emphasizing their use of image-driven tools. Framed within the cosmopolitan literacies perspective, these adolescents adeptly merge local and global dimensions, integrating their multilingual identities, and compelling visual narratives into their work. They navigate English, the dominant language of the online community, while incorporating multilingual elements to enrich community dialogues. These practices reflect their linguistic adaptability and digital literacies and underscore the significant role of cosmopolitan literacies in transforming literacy studies. The study highlights the impactful digital practices of South Korean adolescents, contributing to a broader understanding of inclusivity and diversity in global literacies.

The present study investigates the perception of experience of depression, anxiety, and stress (DAS) among young adults (18-22 years of age) from different locales in India during the global COVID-19 pandemic. The sample included 1,020 participants (603 males and 417 females) with 470 identified talented students (ITS) and 550 nonidentified students (NiS) from Indian villages, towns, and cities. multivariate analysis of variance and ordinal logistic regression analysis were carried out to understand the differences between the various subcategories and the probability of having high negative emotional states among those groups. Results point toward varying levels of DAS depending on whether they were ITS or NiS, whether male or female, and whether they came from Indian villages, towns, or cities. Both similarities and dissimilarities with other studies were observed, and the results provide insights into the effect of the pandemic on the mental health of young adults in India. The importance of developing psychological support systems for all students is implicated in the findings of the study.

This invited article provides a comprehensive overview of the history and development of distance learning in Aotearoa New Zealand's school sector over the past century. It begins with a discussion of creating a common language to describe distance learning. The article then transitions to its main focus on the history of distance learning--tracing the evolution from The Correspondence School's establishment in 1922 to serve rural students, through technological advancements that include radio, television, and online learning. Key milestones are highlighted, such as the formation of early e-learning clusters, the Virtual Learning Network, and urban-based "school loops". The transformation of The Correspondence School into Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu and its adoption of digital technologies are discussed. The article also covers government initiatives, consultations, and legislative changes aimed at supporting and regulating distance learning, including the short-lived concept of Communities of Online Learning. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on distance learning is addressed. Throughout, the article emphasises ongoing challenges of sustainability, equity, and quality in distance education, as well as continuing efforts to adapt to technological changes and meet diverse student needs in Aotearoa New Zealand's education system.

In this article, a native of Appalachia who has worked in secondary and post-secondary literacy education examines the ways that comics depict life in the region. Particular attention is given to the exploration of the paranormal found in the work of Brian Level, and Level serves as a first-hand voice in this researched work. Additionally, the author explores comics that focus the Appalachian region in terms of masculinity, roles of women, and domestic life, alongside other social norms. In sum, the author wishes to push back on limited and problematic visions of the region, and to comment on the ways in which Appalachian life is rich, diverse, and profligate with literacy practices. The strength of female characters, mysticism in the region, and dialectical distinctions all emerge as patterns from the author's reading across visual literature, and the beauty of the region finds representation as well as juxtaposition with imagery in counterpoint through comics work.

Transitional engineering students are those who are academically ineligible to enter a bachelor's engineering program but are enrolled in an associate engineering program with a university. Successful completion of such an associate engineering program allows the higher achievers to transfer to a full bachelor's engineering program. The associate engineering program is taken commonly by self-employed tradesmen, technical workers, and young apprentices in regional, rural, and remote (RRR) areas. The foundation engineering mathematics course in the associate engineering program, particularly knowledge and skills in solving word problems involving triangles, plays a key role for the smooth transition of these students to the engineering disciplinary courses. However, there is little we have known about the performances of the transitional engineering students in solving problems involving triangles as the associate engineering programs are not among the mainstream of undergraduate programs. This study analyzed the 27 transitional engineering students' performances in solving word problems involving triangles assigned to the students in the foundation mathematics course at a regional Australian university and found that the RRR transitional engineering students demonstrated a higher level of study ethics and achievement in solving word problems involving triangles, compared with the RRR student mathematics teachers. This seems mainly due to the professional experiences in delivering real-world projects prior to the start of their mathematics learning. Further research should be expanded to more areas of mathematics to gauge the overall performances of the transitional engineering students in mathematics learning and progression.

Rural students graduate high school at a rate comparable to their urban and suburban peers; however, people from rural areas attend college at the lowest rate. Due to this discrepancy and the ever-growing importance of postsecondary education, this article summarizes and synthesizes works on the college enrollment of students from rural areas. The article begins with background information on the benefits of postsecondary education, definitions of rurality, the educational attainment of rural people, as well as institutional type and attendance patterns of rural students. Next, using Bronfenbrenner's ecological model of human development as a guiding framework, literature about the individual, family, and school factors associated with the college enrollment of rural people is reviewed. Based upon these discussions, recommendations for educational practices are explored, providing ways to promote the postsecondary enrollment of people from rural areas. These sections are then summarized within one table as a quick guide and resource for student affairs and higher education scholarly practitioners. Recommendations for educational research are also included towards the end of the article.

In the study reported on here, we analysed parents' involvement in their children's primary education in 4 primary schools in rural Malawi, focusing on the home and the school. Through interviews and focus-group discussions, information was obtained from 19 parents, 24 teachers (6 from each school), and 4 head teachers. Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory was used to design the study and to interpret the data, focusing mainly on the micro- and mesosystem elements. The home and school settings represent the autonomous microsystem, whereas parental involvement is part of the mesosystem. The microsystem appeared to be active both with learner-parent and learner-teacher actions; however, mesosystemic interactions were limited. We found that parents and teachers needed to develop stronger mutual relationships and interactions to support learners better. Schools also need to communicate positive aspects of children's learning to the parents. Enhancing positive reinforcement could enhance parental involvement.

Students from rural Appalachian regions often face increased career development barriers within university spaces. As part of an NSF-funded program, we provided diverse, structured supports for a group of STEM majors from rural Appalachian backgrounds. We utilized narrative inquiry to interview 10 Program participants, which allowed us to explore which supports they described as impactful, including graduate student mentors, their fellow program peers, program coordinators, campus supports, and other various campus faculty. Participants further described being impacted in a variety of ways: as an individual person, in their research pursuits, in their future plans, academically, and financially through the program's scholarship. Specifically, they described strategies for success and the importance of belonging as impactful. Implications for future college support programming and for how to best support the career development of rural Appalachian college students, along with suggestions for future research needs and limitations to the research, are provided.

Much research on access to the higher education system overlooks the importance of a base factor: place. An 'education desert' is defined as an area in which residents are separated from the higher education system by geography and structural factors. This study employs a granular approach to locate education deserts within the state of North Carolina, and analyze the condition of higher education access across the state. By delineating the state into Census tracts (n=2184), the analysis draws more specific boundaries around deserts than did previous researchers. The analysis then goes beyond the binary classification of desert or non-desert, and ranks each census tract's access to the higher education system on a five-point scale. The data shows that approximately one-quarter of the state's population lives in an education desert. Various socioeconomic indicators, such as median household income and the rate of disconnected youth, are found to be significantly correlated with a census tract's access to the higher education system. Distance learning seems to be an apt solution; however, residents of higher education deserts have low rates of internet access, making online education impractical. Policy makers should recognize that gaps in access to higher education, and the subsequent benefits from a degree, have roots in geography and in infrastructure.

This position paper explores the needs of rural families of children, adolescents, and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to COVID-19, literature portrays elevated stress in families of individuals with ASD and health and socioeconomic disparities for rural and underserved populations. These disparities were exacerbated due to COVID-19 and subsequent lockdowns and economic turmoil. Academic and adaptive skills training were particularly impacted due to school closures, with parents tasked with taking some responsibility for training these skills. Our goals for this article focus on special considerations for rural families regarding: (1) neurobiological and developmental impacts of stressful experiences like COVID-19; (2) delineation of the impacts on individuals with ASD and other comorbid and related conditions; and (3) education and intervention needs during these times. Finally, we offer suggestions for future care during pandemic events, including recommendations for improving service delivery under such conditions.

Background: Inadequate sleep has been shown to have detrimental effects on academic performance, physical, mental, and emotional health among adolescents. Factors that influence sleep have been identified. However, most literature is currently limited to urban settings. This study sought to identify factors that influence sleep habits among high school students in a semi-rural community. Methods: Twelve focus groups were conducted in-person with separate groups of students, parents, and school staff in October 2019. Discussions focused on sleep experiences, knowledge, environment, and factors influencing sleep. Data were coded using grounded theory approach. Themes were identified through summative content analysis. Results: Four major themes were identified: (1) inadequate sleep adversely affects academic performance and emotional health; (2) students face a gap in knowledge regarding sleep duration; (3) academic and nonacademic activities compete with sleep needs; and (4) night-time use of technology negatively influences sleep habits. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that high school students do not get adequate sleep, largely due to the demands of academic and extracurricular activities and the use of electronics at night. These results can guide the development of targeted sleep education and intervention programs.

In this study, northern Canadian rural and Indigenous parents provided valuable information about the self-initiated writing that their two- through nine-year-old children do at home. In interview responses, participating parents told stories about the writing materials and spaces they make available to children for writing. They talked about how they support their children's writing: informally--by demonstrating that writing is important; and formally--through direct teaching of letter forms and sound-letter relationships. Parents provided examples of their children's self-initiated writing, which includes types of texts that are not usually valued in mainstream spaces such as school. They explained that the writing is usually for the purposes of expressing feelings and informing family members. Our study adds to the literature on family literacy practices by validating the knowledge and experiences that northern rural and Indigenous children bring to their formal schooling. Recommendations for teachers include initiating conversations with parents about the writing that their children do at home, finding spaces in the classroom schedule for children to present and talk about their self-initiated writing with the class, and providing specific information about how parents can support their children's writing. A "Tips for Parents" sheet is provided.

Researchers have frequently described rural women as invisible, yet at 28 million, they represent over half of the rural population in the United States. We conducted a transcendental phenomenological study using semi-structured interviews and artifacts to explore 12 Midwestern rural-based mental health counselors' experiences counseling rural women through a feminist lens. Overall, we found eight themes organized under two main categories: (a) "perceptions of work with rural women" (e.g., counselors' sense of purpose, a rural heritage, a lack of training for work with rural women, and the need for additional research); and (b) "perceptions of rural women and mental health" (e.g., challenges, resiliency, protective factors, and barriers to mental health services for rural women). We offer specific implications for counselors to address the unique mental health needs of rural women, including hearing their stories through their personal lenses and offering them opportunities for empowerment at their own pace.

Kenyan public universities primarily provide classroom-based courses. However, socioeconomic realities prevent many rural learners from attending classes regularly. Interestingly, because of the willingness of Kenyans to further their education, informal education is picking up fast. Individuals are forming informal learning circles and have proactively found ways to use smartphones to access online educational resources. This paper explores ways to leverage the strengths of these informal learning practices to enhance participation in formal higher education for Kenyans. One way this can be achieved is through blended learning. With blended learning, students experience the convenience of online learning without losing the on-campus social interactions they are accustomed to. Currently, the use of blended learning in Kenyan public universities is not at the desired level. Economic constraints mean that a lack of conventional computing resources, such as laptops and desktop personal computers, (PCs) is a contributing factor. Given their widespread adoption, we suggest smartphones could be a viable platform for blended learning in Kenya. To explore this idea, a survey was conducted with 114 students in Tom Mboya University College (TMUC), a rurally based public university in Kenya. The survey examined students' attitudes to using smartphones in education. Results indicate smartphones are already an integral part of students' informal education and they have a strong desire to integrate smartphones in their formal education. We envisage that our research will contribute knowledge towards the adoption of blended learning in resource-constrained university environments.

This paper reports an analysis of university lecturers and students' experience of the online mode of learning in the COVID-19 situation. It as qualitative research employed semi-structured interviews and observation of online classes to gather data. It reports on how online classes enabled university lecturers and students to manage online learning and improve technological skills with the consistent practice of various information and communication technology (ICT) tools. Despite limited technological and pedagogical knowledge, lecturers initiated online learning as an alternative to physical classroom learning in the crisis. Both lecturers and students, thus, were intimidated by new technologies and ways of learning at the beginning. In absence of ICT training, their consistent practices of online learning enabled them to develop some level of confidence in using ICT in teaching and learning activities. Many students from remote rural villages, however, are unable to access online education due to the lack of the internet, smart devices and electricity. The online mode of learning, albeit it is reported a potential strategy to shift from the traditional education system to modern learning, cannot be sustainable in the context where there is limited or no infrastructure for the internet and electricity.

Purpose: The present study aimed to analyze the entrepreneurial resilience of small and medium-sized businesses among rural women. Design/Methodology: The study was conducted using a survey, and 269 individuals were selected through stratified random sampling. This research was conducted in three stages. First, the Lifespan Resilience Scale-Business was used to identify the factor structure of women's business resilience. Second, the resilience of women entrepreneurs' businesses was analyzed. And third, path analysis was carried out to identify the factors affecting the resilience of women's businesses. Findings: The business resilience of rural entrepreneur women was determined by the following components: external resources, internal resources, innovation, opportunity and adaptation, risk management, and family support. The results of the causal model indicated that the variables of marketing strategy, marketing mix, marketing methods, business communication, business plan preparation skills and supporting policies are effective factors in improving business resilience. Theoretical Implications: To improve the entrepreneurial resilience of rural women, it is necessary to identify the influential factors and their indicators to reduce entrepreneurial failure, analyze the factors that foster resilient behaviors in rural entrepreneurship, and provide contexts that are resistant against changes for women. Practical implications: Holding companies that specialize in agricultural development in Iran play an important role in improving women's entrepreneurial resilience. These companies could empower rural women to overcome barriers and apply new methods through educational and extension programs that are appropriate to changes in technology and the market. Originality/value: This study presents the Lifespan Resilience Scale-Business as a native model for measuring the resilience of rural women's businesses in Fars province of Iran.

Since the expansion of higher education, many rural students in China managed to enter urban universities. However, migrating across layers of structural constraints, those rural students faced dramatic transitions and challenges in the urban university. Drawing upon 50 rural students' narratives about their educational trajectories, I find that participants in this research moved from the rural context, which almost exclusively emphasized academic performance, to a versatile and complex university culture, featuring implicit and ambiguous expectations of students. The rural students' perceived desirable traits, together with the "suzhi" discourse, reinforced the existing symbolic inequality of the social structure and justified the legitimacy of the dominant group's culture. Moreover, participants generally lacked an accurate grasp of the expectations of students in university, which resulted in a lasting sense of ambivalence and uneasiness. Therefore, exploring the connotation of ideal student is a crucial approach to enable the disadvantaged group to better grasp the hidden mechanisms of urban universities.

Background: Parents play an important role in shaping young people's sexual lives and behaviours with implications for their current and future sexual and reproductive health. This study examined the perspectives of rural Zimbabwean parents on young people's sexual health. Design: Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 19 (6 men and 13 women) participants. Setting: Interviews were conducted in a rural district in Zimbabwe. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Community Field Officers who were the parents or caregivers of teenage learners in two rural secondary schools. Transcripts were coded and thematic analysis conducted by reading, re-reading, interpretation and reflection on the coded texts. Results: Parents approached the question of young people's sexual health by placing young women's sexuality under surveillance and regulation. Puberty and female bodily changes triggered concern about heterosexual relationships informed by protectionist and moralising discourses. Abstinence and self-control were promoted as expectations for female sexuality based on cultural norms concerning purity and female virginity. Female sexual purity provided a claim to status, was differentiated from other forms of femininity and was an important cultural and economic resource. In a context of economic precarity, the institutions of marriage and bride wealth, whereby female virginity status is valued, provide opportunities for future economic security and reinforce cultural norms concerning respectability. Conclusion: Working with parents to address the ways in which gender and cultural norms operate within the local social and economic context is vital to understand the enduring processes by which young female sexuality is placed under surveillance while reinforcing gender inequalities.

Young people's choices and decisions during their education to work transition reflect their perceptions about work. Empirical studies of these perceptions of young rural-urban migrants are limited. This article explores the perceptions of young rural-urban migrants working at call centres in Kathmandu and the way these perceptions are associated with socio-cultural values and beliefs. The dominant perceptions found among young rural-urban migrants were that their job in a call centre served for skills development, financial needs, and as a temporary solution. Even though the centre was a fun place to work, there was little indication that young people saw this job as a 'career' The perceptions reveal a strong relation with socio-cultural values and beliefs influencing young people's choices and decision making in their education to work transition in this context.

This paper explores how Australian literature mandated for study in the Victorian senior English curriculum creates opportunities for problematizing central myths about Australia. We engage with Homi Bhabha's notion of ambivalence to demonstrate how representations of colonization, rurality and migration reflect discursive formations of Australia. We consider how each discourse serves a pedagogic function, essentializing a set of myths about Australia: as having redeemed the violence done to Indigenous Australians in the colonial period, as embodying a white, rural masculine ideal, and as a welcoming nation open to migrants. Here, we show the points of orientation these texts provide, in their rearticulations of "the scraps … of daily life", and further consider how the texts can problematize nationalist narratives.

Purpose: Rural education research has historically been cast in a deficit lens, with rural places characterized by their problems or shortcomings, as if the way of understanding rural itself is to compare it to nonrural locales. These intransigent and narrow perceptions of rurality hinders recognition of the assets and possibilities of rural places. The purpose of this paper is to apply community-empowering, transgressive knowledge to analyses of rural communities to advance rural education research and practice. Design/methodology/approach: In this conceptual paper, the authors propose an asset-based, conceptual framework to ground rural research and education practices: rural cultural wealth. Findings: The authors describe and explore the concept of rural cultural wealth within the context of education. Furthermore, the authors discuss the dynamics of rurality and propose four constructs that comprise the rural cultural wealth framework, rural resourcefulness, rural ingenuity, rural familism and rural community unity, and consider implications for future research and practice. Originality/value: The goal of this paper is to advance a rural cultural wealth framework aimed to interrupt social reproduction of educational inequities that impact rural students.

Blending narrative portraiture and feminist methods, this study explored the lives of two rural women who are creative writers. The study asked (1) What are their critical purposes? and (2) How did gender and place intersect in their writing lives? The findings were that the women used creative writing to engage in praxis by creating and disseminating knowledge. Their writing critically interrogated and redefined conceptions of womanhood. Additional critical purposes were unique to women's intersectional identities and lived experiences. They ranged from interrogating societal perspectives of gender, sexuality, and race to interrogating rurality and sexual violence. The aesthetic texts they created articulated and advocated for intersubjective truths. Shifting the focus of critical literacy from pedagogy and reading to writing beyond educational spaces, the women drew upon critical literacy not as a means of being taught how to understand the power of texts, but to wield the power of texts themselves.

Data on postsecondary degree attainment show persistent equity gaps between rural and nonrural student demographics. Accordingly, colleges and universities throughout the United States are now recognizing the need for more explicit support of rural stakeholders. These efforts are spurred by political shifts that have foregrounded the concerns of rural peoples in the United States and drawn rural spaces into the center of policy discourse. Policymakers seeking to further support rural demographics often face challenges, particularly in operationalizing rurality as a policy construct. This case study analyzes the development of a rural equity initiative--the Engage Program--at pseudonymous Southern State University, a public land-grant university in the Southeastern United States. By applying Schneider and Ingram's policy design lens, the author explores the ways in which campus administrators wrestle with and help to produce--or reproduce--social constructions of rurality. The results suggest that rural equity initiatives may serve to introduce rurality into mainstream conversations about campus diversity, helping to further crystallize rural identities on college campuses and, by extension, within society at large.

Cross-sector school-community partnerships have recently garnered attention for their potential to improve outcomes across multiple child- and family-serving organizations. Despite the central role of schools in rural communities, partnerships in these settings have largely been overlooked in the literature. This structured review examines the empirical literature on rural school-community partnerships using an ecological framework to (1) understand what is known about these partnerships; (2) assess the strengths and weaknesses of the literature; and (3) identify directions for future research. The review identified a range of partnership types, as well as facilitating factors including social capital, school leadership, and shared vision. Inhibiting factors are social geography and limited capacity. The review identified an increase in empirical research in recent years; however, weaknesses in the literature included a lack of attention to connecting partnering efforts and outcomes and to the role power. Areas for future research include full-service community schools; critical analysis of power in rural partnership efforts; the tensions of school leadership caused by educational policy and local needs; research that reflects the importance of place, identity, and relationships; and research methods that can identify commonalities and contextual factors and connect partnership efforts and outcomes.

During the 1960s-1970s in Ecuador, Indigenous and peasant movements challenged the descriptions of rural life in government education programmes while offering a space of transculture. As Sylvia Wynter [2003. 'Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth/Freedom: Towards the Human, After Man, Its Overrepresentation -- An Argument.' CR: "The New Centennial Review" 3 (3): 257-337.] proposes it, such space allows to narrate human life with sensibilities non-aligned with normalised cultural particularities of the ideal tacit 'we' in national(ised) stories. This text engages with the convivial movements between narratives and counternarratives about rural lives and ways of living. It argues that rural can be thought as a genre and ruralness as a practice of existence, which disrupt overdetermining notions of what counts as dignified life, valid political demands, and possible futures. That disruption is an exercise of conviviality where Indigenous and racialised peoples challenge a living together under rules and practices that demand their assimilation or erasure. Their "luchas" (fights) are proposals for coexistence through social change. Particularly the article looks at how the poem "The Bread of Life," published in the bilingual Kichwa/Spanish newspaper "Jatari Campesino," pushed back against the logics of 'bettering' lives offered by Fundamental Education and Community Development projects. These were projects espoused by the Ecuadorian Government and UNESCO and funded by the Alliance for Progress, among other foreign aid agencies.

There are several indicators (e.g. lower enrollment rates and lower persistence rates) that rural people are achieving less postsecondary success compared to their urban peers. This is particularly true for people with low socioeconomic statuses and people of color. This article, therefore, utilizes critical race theory in education as a framework to explore the experiences of college students from rural areas. The article begins with an overview of critical race theory and a review of relevant literature about rural people organized within a critical race theory framework. This information is then utilized to construct a strategy to guide educators in their critical explorations of rural students and their experiences through assessing pertinent questions. A vignette is also provided as an example to assist educators in their utilization of the strategy, providing a promising practice to support educators at higher education institutions in their efforts to be more inclusive of students from rural areas.

Agricultural education programs are experiencing pressure to change from a variety of educational and societal influences. This pressure is not new to agricultural education programs. The evolution of vocational agriculture from 1945 to 1963 provides a historical example of vocational education change as a result of social influences. Rural America experienced unprecedented emigration after World War II. The loss of students from farming families, the intended recipients of vocational agriculture, should have hampered local programs, but in fact the opposite occurred: enrollment in vocational agriculture continued to grow. We examine how vocational agriculture teachers transformed local programs to match their emerging clientele before the Vocational Education Act of 1963.

This paper highlights experiences of young mothers, victims of child, early and forced marriages (CEFM) as pertaining to their basic rights, social wellbeing and sustainable livelihood four years after their participation in the Girls Inspire project. CEFM is still a critical issue in Tanzania and one of the obstacles toward girls' and women's empowerment. Data was collected from six districts in the regions of Dodoma, Rukwa and Lindi between 2016-2018 through the use of questionnaires for a random sample of 367 as well as in-depth interviews with 34 young mothers between 13 to 19 years old who were purposively selected. Other data was generated from the use of focus group discussions for a non-random sample of 137 young mothers. The findings show how the provision of alternative learning through ODL, coupled with skills development in areas of vocation and entrepreneurship can help vulnerable girls and young women be involved in shaping decisions that affect their lives as well as enhance their well-being, employability and sustainable livelihoods.

This study explored the question "What roles does rurality play in the professional lives of teachers in a Midwestern state?" Using narrative analysis of four participants' interviews about their lives and work in two rural towns, this paper compares participants' stories with dominant narratives about rural schools and communities in published literature. Common depictions of rural people, places, and work often oversimplify the complex relationships among the school, community, staff, and students. This study found that participants: (1) feel a sense of belonging in rural places despite the challenges of living and working there; (2) create and maintain a strong professional family in order to mitigate the difficulties of recruitment and retention in rural schools; and (3) experience school and community partnerships that are both supportive and challenging. As a result of this analysis, this study calls for a more critical and complex representation of rural people and places, especially schools, in order to work against the dominant narratives about rurality that exist in popular imagination.

Purpose: Technology is an important part of healthcare in the United States. There are opportunities for a better understanding of how technology and digital health can improve health and healthcare. The purpose of this study was to answer two research questions. The first research question was, what is the understanding of digital health in the community? The second research question was, what is the knowledge of digital health in the community. These research questions may inform how health professionals address the issue of electronic health records, digital health, and the implications for technology. Methods: Using a convenience sample, participants were recruited to answer an online survey to identify knowledge and understanding of technology, digital health, and a better understanding of health. Participants were able to opt into or out of the survey. The data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel and evaluated with descriptive statistics. Results: The sample size of 14 is small. Results identified that participants were not fully embracing of health technologies. The data indicated that participants were not fully accepting of technology and digital health. Conclusions: Further research should be conducted to obtain a larger sample size. Healthcare professionals have a responsibility to plan interventions to educate the community about health and health technologies. Qualitative and mixed-method studies can add to what is known about health and healthcare technology and digital health resources. Recommendations: It is recommended that interventions be targeted to educate the East Texas population about electronic health resources, telehealth/telemedicine, and technologies that can support health.

The process of getting information regarding government initiatives to promote entrepreneurship (2016-2020) in rural area has not been clearly explained to the population in rural areas. The development of an alternative teaching and learning module has enabled for meaningful. There is a need to develop an alternative teaching and learning module to support the transfer of knowledge and skills. The aim of this study was to design and develop Junk Art Module as scaffolding for unemployed women to obtain knowledge and skills in art production. The study was conducted using the Design and Developmental Research (DDR) by Richie and Klein (2007). There were eight unemployed women and three experts from government agencies who were involved in this research. To test the usability of the module, the researchers conducted interview sessions with the experts and unemployed women which showed that the Junk Art Module offered a new knowledge and skills in producing art products using recycled items which should be commercialized through online businesses, tourism centers and other market places. Both the experts and unemployed women gave positive feedback that the module gave them a positive experience in in making art products as a sustainable goal.

This paper examines rural public school student population change in Illinois and explores the implications of these changes on educational leadership. Secondary analysis of 16 years of data from NCES Common Core of Data Universe Surveys illuminates population change in terms of student enrollment and demographic characteristics. Findings suggest that these changes have occurred over the 16 year period and present potentially considerable challenges for school leaders especially given the broader state climate.

The goal of education is to foster all students' intellectual, social, and personal potential to their highest level by providing them with an equitable and equal education irrespective of their characteristics (e.g., ethnicity, social class, language use, religion, and other human differences). Different students and communities should not be excluded in terms of curriculum. At the micro-level classroom, student engagement is central. Teachers should go beyond the prescribed curriculum by working with their students and by including their voices. However, how can students be successful academically and socially if the school curriculum is anchored in the mainstream curriculum, primarily promoting the dominant groups? For example, given that the books, curriculum, and standardised testing are centralised in Indonesia, the content is, of course, generalised for all students. Teachers and schools throughout the country should use the same materials for all students. However, for the disadvantaged children coming from poor, rural, and remote areas, such policies lead them to trouble. They learn the books and materials that are similar to those that the affluent schools and students use in cities, but their values and perspectives are excluded. Also, how can students who are racially, culturally, and linguistically marginalised and low-income families succeed if the curriculum is organised exclusively to maintain the current social structure? The purpose of this paper is to explore the need to move from an exclusive to inclusive curriculum in Indonesia so that all students can succeed academically and socially. The orienting questions for this study are: (1) What do we mean by an exclusive and inclusive curriculum? (2) What are the components of an inclusive curriculum? (3) What should be reformed to create an inclusive curriculum? (4) What kind of leadership is required to guide the reform from an exclusive to an inclusive curriculum?

Although life satisfaction has been associated with maladjustment and adverse experiences among adolescents, few validated measures of life satisfaction have been evaluated for use with diverse populations. The Brief Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS) is a promising measure that has been validated in samples of White and Black adolescents. This study used an item response theory approach to evaluate its psychometric properties in a diverse rural sample of early adolescents and its concurrent associations with other measures of youth adjustment. Support was found for partial invariance across sex and racial and ethnic identities. Scores on the BMSLSS were also correlated with measures of youth adjustment. However, the strength of these correlations differed for adolescents of different racial and ethnic identities. Findings suggest that the BMSLSS is a psychometrically sound measure for assessing life satisfaction in diverse samples of adolescents and highlights the importance of assessing invariance across racial and ethnic groups.

This study sought to measure risk perception and behavioral intention in rural and urban communities in Mississippi and Alabama when severe weather strikes. We developed an experiment testing how visual cues and media messages surrounding an impending hurricane could influence an individual's decision-making in the situation. Respondents were selected from six counties on Mississippi and Alabama coastlines and placed into one of three conditions, each of which described a hypothetical "Hurricane Farrah," which was near landfall nearby. Data were collected on 466 respondents and analysis determined that the live video was least likely to motivate respondents to take evacuation measures.

Distance learning in social work has proliferated in recent years and is increasingly promoted as a strategy for diversifying the social work workforce and expanding access to graduate education for individuals in rural and underserved communities. Our study assesses the accuracy of this claim by analyzing the 2018 GW [George Washington] Survey of Social Work Graduates to evaluate whether participation in an online or blended Master of Social Work program (a) increases diversity in the field by providing educational opportunities to nontraditional students and (b) is associated with practice in rural or underserved areas. Our findings indicate that online and blended education is associated with practice in rural and underserved areas. We also find evidence that online education increases diversity in the field by expanding access to education for older, working adults.

In this duoethnography, two rural Canadian women explore personal memories, stories, and conversations to illuminate the factors involved in our willingness/unwillingness to change to become more climate conscious in our everyday lives. Rural areas remain understudied and face unique challenges in sustaining changes to become more climate conscious. This work presents the divergent narratives of one person (myself) striving to make significant changes to her life in light of the climate crisis and another who resists these changes. Together we attempt to answer the question, 'What motivates and/or prevents us from living climate-conscious lives?' Our answers provide depth and insight into the influence of identity, belonging, relationships, early formative educational experience, and place on one's beliefs, emotions, and actions for our changing climate. This study will be valuable for environmental educators seeking to effect social change, as it will offer real examples of the complicated and diverse contexts that affect opinions on the climate crisis and inform pedagogical practice. Through this, I call for environmental educators to critically reflect on the influence that their contexts play in informing their own climate beliefs, emotions, and actions.