Attracting teachers to rural schools continues to be a problem in Australian education. Debates on how to remedy staff shortages are based on a better distribution of financial and material resources. This emphasis on distribution has sidelined the role of recognition theory in understanding the challenges of rural staffing. I draw on the social justice frameworks of Nancy Fraser and Axel Honneth to argue that rural staffing challenges are anchored not just on matters of distribution but on issues that lead to the cultural misrecognition and disrespect of teaching and learning in rural places. Using data from a qualitative research project with pre-service teachers from a metropolitan university who undertook a six-week placement in a rural school, I explore how Fraser's and Honneth's frameworks contribute to illuminate that a resignification of the cultural value of rural education is critical to understand the root of the problem of rural school staffing.