Literacy Teaching and Learning in Rural Communities: Problematizing Stereotypes, Challenging Myths PDF
Preview Literacy Teaching and Learning in Rural Communities: Problematizing Stereotypes, Challenging Myths
LITERACY TEACHING AND LEARNING IN RURAL COMMUNITIES “This book provides a clear and compelling window into the realities of rural teaching. The writers make it possible to imagine rural teaching as a rewarding professional career. I wish I’d had this book when I was a young teacher!” Robert Brooke, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, USA This defi nitive look at teaching English in rural secondary schools contests cur- rent defi nitions and discussions of rural education, examines their ideological and cultural foundations, and presents an alternative perspective that conceptualizes rural communities as diverse, unique, and conducive to pedagogical and personal growth in teaching and learning. Authentic narratives document individual teach- ers’ moments of struggle and success in learning to understand, value, and incor- porate rural literacies and sensibilities into their curricula. The teachers’ stories and the scholarly analysis of issues raised through them illuminate the unique chal- lenges and rewards of teaching English in a rural school and offer helpful insights and knowledge for navigating the pedagogical landscape. Lisa Schade Eckert is Associate Professor of English at Northern Michigan University, USA. Janet Alsup is Professor of English Education, Purdue University, USA. This page intentionally left blank LITERACY TEACHING AND LEARNING IN RURAL COMMUNITIES Problematizing Stereotypes, Challenging Myths Edited by Lisa Schade Eckert and Janet Alsup First published 2015 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2015 Taylor & Francis The right of Lisa Schade Eckert and Janet Alsup to be identifi ed as authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Literacy teaching and learning in rural communities : problematizing stereotypes, challenging myths / edited by Lisa S. Eckert, Northern Michigan University, Janet Alsup, Purdue University. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Literacy—Study and teaching. 2. Literacy—Social aspects. 3. Rural education. I. Eckert, Lisa Schade. II. Alsup, Janet. LC149.L518 2015 302.2'244—dc23 2014030168 ISBN: 978-1-138-82233-7 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-82234-4 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-74287-8 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Apex CoVantage, LLC For all the youth in American rural schools and the teachers who teach them This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Foreword ix Leslie Susan Rush Preface xiii 1 Literacy Teaching and Learning in Rural Communities: Problematizing Stereotypes, Challenging Myths 1 Lisa Schade Eckert and Janet Alsup PART I From Stranger to Native: Early Career Teacher Narratives 11 2 From Stranger to Native: Early Career Teacher Narratives 13 Lisa Schade Eckert and Janet Alsup 3 A Rural Education: From Stranger to Strangerer 19 Taylor Norman 4 Crossing the Tracks, or The Bacon of Despair: The Story of One Teacher’s Story . . . of One Teacher’s Story . . . of Teaching in a Rural School 33 Jeff Spanke viii Contents 5 Falling Through the Rabbit Hole and Teaching Through the Looking Glass: Experiences of a New Teacher in a Rural School 48 Kendra McPheeters-Neal 6 Is There Such a Thing as Caring Too Much? A Farm Girl Swims With Sharks 60 Chea Parton PART II Teaching Through Place: Mid- to Late-Career Teacher Narratives 71 7 Teaching Through Place: Mid- to Late-Career Teacher Narratives 73 Lisa Schade Eckert and Janet Alsup 8 Lessons From the Inside Out: Poetry, Epiphanies, and Creative Literary Culture in a Rural Montana High School 78 Jeffrey B. Ross 9 Bridging Divides Through Place-Based Research, or What I Didn’t Know About Hunting in the Northern Rockies 95 Hali Kirby-Ertel 10 Whose Kids Are They, Anyway? Balancing Personal and Professional Identities in a Rural School 105 Kari Patterson 11 Teaching and Learning at Nay Ah Shing School 114 Gregg Rutter, Roger Nieboer, Govinda Budrow, and Bambi O’Hern 12 Teaching in My Own Voice: A 30-Year Pedagogical Journey 124 Sharon Bishop Contributors 137 Index 141 FOREWORD Leslie Susan Rush I must begin this foreword by making an admission: I grew up in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas. In spite of my suburban beginning, I have been fortunate to live much of my adult life in rural communities. My fi rst classroom teaching position was in rural Uganda, east Africa, where I taught A-level literature, prose, and poetry to high school students whose parents farmed in villages neighboring Lake Albert. I was so young as a teacher there, but my three years at Duhaga Secondary School in Hoima, Uganda, led to me say thereafter that Uganda was where I really ‘grew up.’ After another three-year stint teaching sophomore English in the outskirts of Los Angeles (defi nitely not rural!), I returned home to Texas and taught sophomore and senior English in Farmersville, Texas—home of the Fighting Farmers—in northeast Texas for six years. Since 2002, I have been a faculty member at the University of Wyoming, where I have been responsible for pre-service teacher education in English for this predominantly rural state. Students who completed the English Education program at UW have gone on to be English teachers in a variety of settings, in Wyoming and elsewhere, but many of them would identify themselves and their communities as rural. As a suburban to rural transplant, I am thrilled to see this book, which enriches our understanding of rurality and of teaching in rurality in such a thoughtful and competent way. I am also deeply honored that the editors chose me to introduce their work to the world. The editors of this volume, Lisa Eckert and Janet Alsup, think about rural edu- cation as an issue of social justice. Frequently when the notion of social justice is bandied about, the context in mind is an urban one, with high population density to accompany issues of poverty, racism, crime, and all the rest of the problems that are frequently attached to urban settings. However, there are plenty of problems
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