Volume 41 (2025)
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This study examined the college transition experiences of rural Latinx undergraduate students in California’s San Joaquin Valley. The literature on rural students in higher education is limited, and much of it has been focused on White students, especially those in areas such as Appalachia, the Midwest, and the Southern United States, which has led to the exclusion of rural Latinx undergraduate students and how their rurality intersects with their race to inform their higher education experiences. This study adds to the literature by focusing on the college transition experiences of rural Latinx undergraduate students from the San Joaquin Valley to better understand how race and rurality impact students’ experiences in higher education. Fifteen students engaged in two two-hour-long pláticas, which were conducted utilizing Chicana/Latina feminist pláticas (conversations), for a total of 30 pláticas. Three critical findings were revealed: (a) rural Latinx undergraduate students encounter academic challenges based on prior K–12 rural schooling, (b) they experienced racial microaggressions as they navigated unfamiliar racial dynamics on campus, (c) the rural Latinx undergraduate students felt socially disconnected from wealth and urban Latinx peers. These findings revealed the unique challenges that rural Latinx undergraduate students face in higher education.
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Given recent anti-Queer legislation across the United States and the 16-year gap since Gray’s Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America, this literature review describes the intersections of Queerness and rurality in K–12 educational spaces. Hallinger’s process for review provides a framework to analyze the selected articles. Based on the search criteria, nine peer-reviewed, empirical journal articles published between 2012 and 2022 were selected. These articles were analyzed for rural Queer salience and how they discuss the intersection of Queerness and rural education. From the analysis, three themes emerged related to victimization and safety, teacher and administrator attitudes, and school-provided Queer resources. This review concludes with a discussion and implications for change section that educators and researchers may use to further investigate the intersections of rural education and Queer identities.
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To support preservice teacher education and in-service professional development for rural social studies teachers, I examine the degree to which rural teachers, students, and communities are reflected in social studies education research. I first developed a theoretical framework for analyzing the rural research quality in the articles I found. I then identified 70 research articles in social studies education that intersect with rural education. Using my theoretical framework, I used content analysis methods to review these 70 articles and classify them based on (a) each article’s quality of rural analysis and (b) the facets of social studies education it examined (e.g. world history, elementary, economics). Based on these analyses, I provide several suggestions for social studies education researchers looking to conduct meaningful rural research. I also outline several facets of social studies education in need of (more) urgent investigation in rural contexts. In addition, I discuss a few areas in need of future consideration by rural education researchers looking to improve the quality of rural education scholarship more broadly.