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?

Does this study draw on a large, preexisting data set?

Research Approach

Geographic Setting

Pennsylvania

Institutional Context

University based

Certification Level

Elementary

Programatic Focus

place based education

Research Location Context

University

Preservice Participants

Undergraduates (university based program)

Preservice Sample Size

Other Participant Data

students in rural school

Duration of Data Collection

Academic Semester

Data Sources

Document Analysis

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