While researchers have used qualitative and quantitative methods to study postsecondary education access opportunity for rural Black youth, the use of critical mixed methods approaches to examine postsecondary education inequities for rural Black youth is unrealized. The purpose of this paper is to highlight lessons learned in using…

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…

The college-going journey in rural areas is shaped by a large deficit of information on rurality and higher education. From a neo-institutional and Bourdieuian lens, this study explored the field of rural higher education by (a) centering the actors and organizations in the field, (b) highlighting the internal and external forces that shape and…

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the lives of students around the world, forcing them to study remotely through online learning. This article uses 60 in-depth interviews with students from four Romanian universities (Iasi, Galati, Brasov and Cluj-Napoca) who had recently completed 3-year degrees to analyse the impact of remote learning on the lives…

This chapter explores the application of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a lever for equitable and inclusive pedagogies in teacher education. Building on our prior work as teacher educators in the northeastern United States, we analyze how UDL can be used to support teacher candidates in identifying, interrogating, and resisting problematic…

This paper focuses on the potential, challenges, and limits of participatory, narrative and multimodal research methods as contributions to decolonising research on understanding student experiences of teaching and learning in higher education. Drawing on Fraser's social justice concepts of participatory parity, redistribution, recognition, and…

MDRC, Ascendium Education Group, and Rural Matters partnered to present a four-part audio series called "Rural Higher Education: Challenges & Opportunities," which aired on the Rural Matters podcast. This supplementary paper summarizes Part III of the series. This paper (and the podcast on which it is based) features the scholarship…

This article examines the impact of rural origin on higher education access among one ethnic group, the Uyghur, a Muslim minority group who reside mostly in China's northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). The article is based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with Uyghur university students, graduates, and the faculty who…

Driven in large part by the National Quantum Initiative Act of 2018, quantum information science (QIS) coursework and degree programs are rapidly spreading across U.S. institutions. Yet prior work suggests that access to quantum workforce education is unequally distributed, disproportionately benefiting students at private research-focused…

Distance higher education plays a critical role in the promotion of regional equality in China by contributing to the availability of higher education. However, unbalanced regional development of distance higher education can lead to a widening of educational inequity. The study on which this article reports sheds light on the issue of unbalanced…

This longitudinal qualitative study delves into the nuanced dynamics of postsecondary education access and choice for 23 rural Black students during their senior year of high school. Employing a multifaceted methodological approach encompassing interviews, visual data, and geospatial data, this research illuminates conditions that influence…

Equity is crucial in maintaining human rights in the education sector. It has become more crucial due to the abrupt global spread of coronavirus and the initiation and affordances of unequal accessibility to online teaching, specifically in resource deficit peripheral countries like Bangladesh. Hence, it seems pertinent to explore if online…

Rural students' academic performance is of critical importance for college success and later life outcomes. Prior literature on the rural-urban gap in academic performance has produced mixed results. Drawing on data from students at a highly selective university in Beijing, this study compares the differences in academic performance between…

Students from regional and remote areas remain significantly under-represented in higher education despite decades of equity policy designed to encourage participation. One explanation is that policy initiatives often overlook the realities in local rural contexts that can make higher education less desirable. Applying the theoretical lens of…

This book offers context, research, policy, and practice-based recommendations centering college access and success for a historically overlooked population: rural Students and Communities of Color. Through an exploration of how colleges and universities can effectively welcome students from rural areas who identify as Asian and Pacific Islander,…