Doing Educational Research in Rural Settings is a much-needed guide for educational researchers whose research interests are located outside metropolitan areas in places that are generically considered to be rural. This book is both timely and important as it takes up the key question of how to conduct educational research within and for rural communities. It explores the impact of educational research in such contexts in terms of the lasting good of research and also those being researched.
The authorship is international, which brings together researchers experienced in conducting educational inquiry in rural places from across European, Australian, American, and Canadian contexts, allowing readers insight into national and regional challenges. It also draws on the research experiences and methodological challenges faced by senior figures in the field of rural educational research, as well as those in their early careers.
Key topics include:
- Working with and within the rural;
- The impact of educational globalisation and the problematisation of cultural difference in social research;
- Researcher subjectivities;
- The position of education research in rural contexts;
- The usefulness of research
- Reciprocity and converging interest;
- Ethics and confidentiality.
This book is uniquely written with an eye to practicality and applicability, and will be an engaging guide for higher degree and doctoral students seeking to gain a stronger understanding of educational research in rural settings.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Why put the ‘rural’ in research?
Part 1: Tales of the field: working with/in the rural
- Making sense of rural education research: art, transgression, and other acts of terroir Craig Howley and Aimee Howley
- Social cartography and rural education; or, researching space(s) and place(s) Bill Green and Jo-Anne Reid
- Theory as the source of ‘research footprint’ in rural settings Rune Kvalsund and Linda Hargreaves
- A trialogue about method in rural education: Experiential perspectives Pamela Bartholomaeus, John Halsey and Michael Corbett
- Understanding ‘the community’ in rural community research Tanya Brann-Barrett
- Rural community research process as outcome: approaching the community Zane Hamm
- Researching within and for a rural community: research journey Cath Gristy
- A conversation about research as risky business: making visible the invisible in rural research locations Robyn Henderson and Sherilyn Lennon
- Researching from the standpoint of the rural Philip Roberts
- Research and remembrance in a rural community: a step toward ethical learning Linda Farr Darling
- Metaphors we lose by: re-thinking how we frame rural education Kim Donehower
- Reciprocity as relational: two examples of conducting research in Finnish Lapland Maija Lanas and Pauliina Rautio
- Three Rs for rural research: respect, responsibility and reciprocity Michelle Anderson and Michelle Lonsdale
Part II: Reflexivity and standpoint
Part III: Ethics and reciprocity
Simone White is Professor of Teacher Education at the Faculty of Education, Monash University, Victoria, Australia.
Michael Corbett is Professor at the School of Education, Acadia University, Nova Scotia, Canada.