ABSTRACT

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.

part |67 pages

Tales of the field

chapter |19 pages

Making sense of rural education research

Art, transgression, and other acts of terroir

chapter |15 pages

Social cartography and rural education

Researching space(s) and place(s)

chapter |14 pages

A trialogue about method in rural education

Experiential perspectives

part |75 pages

Reflexivity and standpoint

chapter |16 pages

Rural community research process as outcome

Approaching the community

chapter |15 pages

Researching within and for a rural community

Research journey

chapter |16 pages

A conversation about research as risky business

Making visible the invisible in rural research locations

part |56 pages

Ethics and reciprocity

chapter |15 pages

Research and remembrance in a rural community

A step toward ethical learning 1

chapter |15 pages

Metaphors we lose by

Re-thinking how we frame rural education

chapter |12 pages

Reciprocity as relational

Two examples of conducting research in Finnish Lapland

chapter |12 pages

Three Rs for rural research

Respect, responsibility and reciprocity