Future Directions for Rural Education Research: A Commentary and Call to Action
Research in rural education is alive and well; the chapters in this book demonstrate that researchers are doing rural education work that is both rigorous and responsive to (and inclusive of) the communities in which it takes place. They are addressing a
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Abstract Research in rural education is alive and well; the chapters in this book demonstrate that researchers are doing rural education work that is both rigorous and responsive to (and inclusive of) the communities in which it takes place. They are addressing a broad range of meaningful research questions and using multiple methods to approach the challenges inherent in rural research. In addition, these chapters call us to action to continuously improve our own research work and dissemination. In this final chapter we suggest some lessons for rural researchers taken from the work presented in the book, including the importance of explaining how rural is defined, describing the rural context of a study, addressing how the rural context affected the conduct of the research, considering multidimensional risk in rural environments, including a variety of stakeholders in research partnerships, trying rigorous designs even with small samples, being realistic about rural recruiting costs, and preparing for sustainability after studies end.
Keywords Rural education Education research Research design Research partnerships Small samples Risk mitigation Study recruiting Dissemination
Research in rural education is alive and well. The chapters in this book demonstrate that rural education researchers are doing work that is both rigorous and responsive to (and inclusive of) the communities in which it takes place. They are addressing a broad range of meaningful research questions and using multiple methods to approach the challenges inherent in rural research. In addition, chapters in this volume call us to action to continuously improve our own research work and dissemination. What lessons do these chapters provide for those planning, conducting,
A.D. Beesley (&) IMPAQ International, Columbia, MD, USA e-mail: [email protected] S.M. Sheridan Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, USA © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 G.C. Nugent et al. (eds.), Rural Education Research in the United States, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42940-3_15
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and reporting rural education research? Below we identify some suggestions based on the chapters that, if addressed routinely, could improve the state of rural education research significantly.
1 Explain How Rural Is Defined Distance from urban areas and community size are usually part of rural definitions. As Hawley, Koziol, and Bovaird note in Chapter “Defining and Communicating Rural,” however, the specific definitions of rural we choose matter a lot in determining a research problem and interpreting results. The definition chosen will provide the lens through which all subsequent aspects of the research study must be specified and interpreted. It will determine the sample being considered “rural” and the contextual features contained therein. Regardless of what approach to defining rural we choose, we must specify why we chose it, and articulate subseq
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