The country mouse in the city school house: making the case for a critical rurban pedagogy

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Jennifer Tomon Stephens (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Leila Villaverde

Abstract: With the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) by North Carolina, local school districts are encouraged to develop CCSS-aligned curricula that that are culturally relevant for an area's students. However, defining the culture of a community becomes increasingly complex in urban areas with significant numbers of rural students. Addressing cultural relevancy in the curricula within communities where rural and urban cultures intersect, thus, requires a conceptualization of a rurban space that lies between the rural and the urban. Supported by research on the rural-urban distinction, rural culture, and school-university-community collaborations, this dissertation makes the case for the use of transformative curricular design informed by a critical rurban pedagogy to be utilized by urban counties with significant populations of rural students in order to better integrate rural students into urbanized schools. Using a case study of an urban county in Central North Carolina that has a significant rural population, this study seeks to answer the question, "How can local definitions of rural culture be used to construct fruitful collaborations for curricular reform between schools, institutions of higher education, and communities?" Through document analysis, surveys, semi-structured interviews, and generational narratives, this study collected and analyzed local stories to inform a process of transformative curricular design around a critical rurban pedagogy that may connect the culture of the area with the Common Core State Standards.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 2014
Keywords
Common Core State Standards, Critical Pedagogy, Place-Based Education, Rural, Transformative Curricular Design, Urban
Subjects
Education $x Standards $z North Carolina
Curriculum change $z North Carolina
Rural-urban relations $z North Carolina

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