The capacity to aspire for young people is significant, as they cannot choose to be what they cannot experience or imagine becoming. Student exchange programmes that expand experiences of STEM may increase opportunities, interests, and participation for rural young people in the STEM subject field. This paper creates a cartography with data…

Aspirations predict students' trajectories, and knowledge of how youth develop and achieve goals is crucial to supporting success. However, rural students may encounter constraining conditions that can curtail their aspirations, and students of color often face institutional barriers that impact their postsecondary pathways. Guided by theories…

Young people aspire, make choices, and develop within a particular place and historical context. Recently, federal and state governments, policy and research institutes, and advocacy organizations have shown a growing interest in the aspirations and transitions of rural youth--and, in particular, the role that schools play in shaping and…

Rural adolescents approach the transition out of high school with individual concerns about making an emotionally or financially expensive "mistake," family concerns about young people leaving home, and national and local concerns about declining rural economies and out-migration. The literature concerning this topic considers factors…

We argue here that critical educational scholarship is crucial to developing educational analysis attuned to the nuances of place, mobility, and change in rural locations. Critical sociological analysis, we argue, can also nuance and complicate simplistic portrayals of rural communities and their social, economic, and cultural character. Two…

Digital storytelling was used in a high school classroom in the Midwestern USA as a part of the curriculum for "non-university-bound" rural youth. Though described as "unengaged", in this paper we illustrate the way this digital storytelling project redefined the teacher-student power relationship, and students responded by…

Purpose is a concept receiving increasing attention in the developmental sciences. Making sense of your place in the world and finding meaning--a process fundamental to purpose--support positive development in adolescence and beyond. Using traditional ethnographic strategies, this article examines the development of purpose among a small group of…

Despite the significant proportions of rural Americans, schools, and public school students situated in the geographic peripheries of an increasingly urbanizing country, rural education in the United States has consistently occupied both scholarly and policy peripheries. This is to the detriment of rural America, especially to the extent that…

In 2004, the Center for Rural Pennsylvania contracted with Pennsylvania State University to begin a longitudinal study of rural Pennsylvania school students to understand their future aspirations, the factors influencing these aspirations, whether their plans change as they age, and if they attain their goals and plans. The main research questions…

This report focuses on the education and work experiences of rural youth during the emerging adult years (age 20 to 24), as they make the transition from adolescence to adulthood. It documents how rural emerging adults combine work and school and experience idleness, closely examines their educational attainment, and compares their experiences…