Class and geography profoundly influence rural youth's opportunities and aspirations for social mobility (Carr & Kefalas, 2009). Neoliberalism insists this mobility is achievable individually through education, though education is also often antithetical to the rural lifeworlds and communities of youth pursuing it (Corbett, 2007). These…

This article employs historical analysis of a unique collection of essays to examine the college aspirations of rural high school students. Although researchers attribute the low educational attainment of this population mainly to poverty and poor school quality, many scholars continue to believe that historically rooted cultural norms and kinship…

Rural areas in many parts of the U.S. experience population decline from outmigration. Geographic mobility has long been a contributing factor to the social and economic instability of rural communities; high-achieving and ambitious youth are inclined to leave rural areas to take advantage of the expansive economic opportunities and cultural and…

Reports that the Estes Attitude Scale suffers from the influence of cultural biases that make it inadequate to measure attitude about reading among low-income, Black students in grades three through seven in the rural southern United States. (FL)