Teaching rural place: pre-service language and literacy students consider place-conscious literacy
Abstract
Attention to place-based pedagogy in teacher education is needed if we value a con- ceptualization of citizenship wherein people assume responsibility for their community and its physical setting. Place-based pedagogy seeks to prepare citizens who understand their local lives and are thus prepared to participate in the democratic processes of its creation and sustainability. It is explicitly learner-centred and in its most mature form seeks democratic participation spiralling from the local to the global. In this study, I describe my own efforts with place-based pedagogy: a pen pal project between teacher candidates and local, rural second graders. Within the project, the children embraced the opportunity to explore and assert their out-of-school literacies, but the pre-service teachers’ responses to the children point to the complexity involved in shifting away from decontextualized teacher education toward a model where place matters.
Reference
Eppley, K. (2011). Teaching rural place: pre-service language and literacy students consider place-conscious literacy. Pedagogies:An International Journal 6(2), 87-103.
Journal
Pedagogies: An International Journal
Analysis
Is this article part of a larger project or series of studies?
no
Does this study draw on a large, preexisting data set?
no
Research Approach
Geographic Setting
Institutional Context
Certification Level
Programatic Focus
Research Location Context
Preservice Participants
- Undergraduates (university based program)
Preservice Sample Size
15
Other Participant Data
Duration of Data Collection
Data Sources
Data Analysis Tools
- Content analysis
- Qualitative Analysis
Researcher Positionality
- inside (staying their own students)
Research Questions
to provide my students the opportunity to experience place-conscious literacy practices at least as a means of highlighting their rural students’ identities and literacies.
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? No