John Dewey (1916) asserted that deliberate and systematic educational systems provide capacity to all members of society in order to solve problems and is the foundation for participatory democratic education (Harbour, 2015). Learning is also a social process that allows people to live purposefully. The goal of this qualitative, narrative inquiry…

American college towns represent a unique but understudied feature of the global educational landscape. With hundreds of college towns dotting the American geographical landscape, this uniqueness is particularly relevant for rural higher education. This article identifies a taxonomy of characteristics found commonly in the everyday environments of…

Complexity theory suggests that educational research should consider students' community contexts, because individual students' outcomes are interrelated with community characteristics. While some prior literature finds that higher education enrollment choices are influenced by geography, scholars have largely overlooked the importance of…

Rural communities around the United States are facing a critical shortage of teachers due largely to challenges with recruitment and retention. Our vision for responding to this growing crisis is to consider how technology-rich early rural field experiences that emphasize "place-attentive" technology integration can build preservice…

Teacher education programmes are often tasked with preparing predominantly White, middle class, pre-service teachers to be effective in diverse contexts. Many teacher educators consider practicum experiences critical to forming values and dispositions necessary for the teaching profession. This article focuses on the work of two White,…

During South Africa's apartheid era, the social and political ideology of Afrikaner nationalism Othered those who disrupted an idealised vision of white heteronormative Afrikaner masculinity. While protections from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation were enshrined in the post-apartheid constitution in 1996, anti-LGBTQ violence…

To provide examples of culturally responsive practices used by leaders of a rural Latinx-serving youth program, this case study focused on a community youth program in a small, rural Midwestern town. Program leaders (one White man and one Latinx woman) were both middle-aged and had postsecondary degrees. Nine Latinx youth participants (four girls,…

Although some studies have explored the influence of academic achievement on rural students' college access and success, little research has analyzed the relationship between students of different types of rural communities and their persistence in postsecondary education. This study examined the likelihood of college-going students from three…

Transformative learning, and its processes as proposed by Mezirow, has been the subject of much debate. This study contributes to the literature about these debates by examining transformative experiences within a foreign service-learning context. Canadian post-secondary students lived and worked to build a school in solidarity with a community in…

Many university-based principal preparation programs prepare individuals for employment in local K-12 school districts. Programs recruit students and shape aspects of curriculum and ongoing professional development in light of local school districts and community characteristics. Utilizing Indiana state licensure and employment data sets for all…

Things are not going so well in small-town America. While the so-called "Great Recession" of the moment has focused considerable attention on the travails of Main Street and Middle America, the truth is that the troubles that plague such places have been a long time in the making. For the past 30 years, nonmetropolitan counties and the…

Context: Small towns across the United States struggle to maintain an adequate primary care workforce. Purpose: To examine factors contributing to physician satisfaction and retention in largely rural areas in Massachusetts, a state with rural pockets and small towns. Methods: A survey mailed in 2004-2005 to primary care physicians, practicing in…

Rural communities such as Stanthorpe on Queensland's Southern Downs, in Australia, are familiar with turbulent environmental, social, technological and economic change and the adversity that frequently accompanies such changes. The capacity of individuals and communities to bounce back from adversity is referred to as resilience. Participation in…

Building the research capacity of the vocational education and training (VET) sector is a key concern for the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). To assist with this objective, NCVER supports an academic scholarship program, whereby VET practitioners are sponsored to undertake university study at honours', master's or…

Dalarna University has doubled its student numbers during the past five years, and now has the highest proportion of students from non-academic backgrounds of Swedish universities (37%). The province of Dalarna combines steel and paper industry in a number of relatively small towns with large areas of sparsely populated countryside. By tradition,…