The Whippoorwill Award aims to bring attention to the theme of rural spaces and people in the larger genre of young adult literature. This award annually recognizes the best books for the middle grades and young adult readers that portray the value of rural spaces, knowledge, people, and cultures. The Whippoorwill Award is intended to be a…

Rural critical policy analysis (RCPA) goes beyond questions about whether a policy will "work" in a particular place, to examine the impact of policies on rural places. RCPA recognizes that policies represent the allocation of values--and that policy analysis cannot be separated from views of right and wrong. RCPA asks us to consider…

In this policy brief, the authors describe the steps they took in a rural education organization to rethink equity and justice and create meaningful and sustainable change at a policy level. The authors begin by providing context about who they are as rural educators and scholars and how their positionalities and experiences informed their…

As roughly 7.3 million students in rural school districts head back to school this fall, they remain largely unaware that the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (2018 Farm Bill) is due to expire on September 30, 2024 (Hartman et al., 2023). Enacted on December 20, 2018, and temporarily renewed in September 2023, this critical piece of legislation…

In this policy brief, we use research findings to illuminate experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic of U.S. rural college students from poor and working-class backgrounds. We offer institutional, state, and federal policy lessons gleaned from such experiences. We show how rural, poor and working-class students' higher education success was…

Both superintendents and principals create a foundation for student achievement, school culture, and the vision of a school building or district. When combined, these two similar yet distinct administrative roles become one unique position with less time and resources to fulfill individual job responsibilities. A dual-role administrator is defined…

This article describes the author's journey to creating the website Literacy In Place (LIP) and outlines the major components of the site. LIP was created to support the reading and writing of rural stories in an effort to help create rural community across the various (non)rural and academic spaces. The principles of the community are: (1) Rural…

An incongruence exists between the growing job opportunities in rural areas and the educational opportunities provided to rural students, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Positive change is possible, however. As one means to tackle this complex issue, this study sought to understand the perceptions and…

This study examined the parenting choices of Mexican-heritage former child migrant farmworkers who are now financially stable and raising their own children in the rural South. The study yielded multiple significant findings using data collected during semi-structured, bilingual focus groups and analyzed through grounded theory coding. The…

For rural students, finding one's voice and identity on a college campus and developing a sense of belonging are important for engagement and degree persistence. Rural affinity groups can create a feeling of comfort or connection that affirms students' place identity and can lead to a more successful college experience. Additionally, an organized…

Many rural communities have seen population shifts with burgeoning communities of linguistic, racial, and economic diversity expanding into traditionally homogenous rural communities (e.g. Brenner, 2016; Sharp & Lee, 2017). These shifts can occur rapidly, as a result of regional economic, social, or political forces and are particularly…

Prior research on college choice indicates parents are the preferred source of information about college, yet little research exists from the viewpoint of parents, and even less research from the viewpoint of rural and minoritized parents. Using Q methodology, this study explored rural parent viewpoints of what makes college possible. The study…

In 2016, California residents widely supported the passage of Proposition 58, which allowed non-English languages to be used in public education. This proposition was intended to benefit all students, especially the state's large Latinx K-12 student population, who tend to speak Spanish and English at home and in school. Yet educational resources…

In rural Canada the issue of school closures and consolidations due to low enrollment and heightened fiscal constraints has become a contentious and highly charged issue for citizens and communities. This literature review synthesizes the major effects of school closure on rural communities, identifying economic impacts, social impacts, and…

Rural undergraduate students at flagship universities in the United States are typically outnumbered by their urban and suburban peers. Students from rural demographic backgrounds bring different forms of social and cultural capital to higher education with them. This phenomenological study at a flagship university in the Deep South region of the…