From Sharks to "The Big Ugly"

Kristin Rearden,Joy Bertling

doi:10.35608/ruraled.v40i3.559

Abstract

This longitudinal case study explored one rural elementary art teacher’s praxis for two years after she participated in professional development sessions on place-based education (PBE). These sessions focused specifically on PBE within the discipline of art for K-12 art educators in a geographically-large southeastern school district. Through surveys, observations, interviews, and document analysis of curricular materials, the researchers investigated the teacher’s experiences with PBE as she taught art in a rural area of the district. Her curricular decisions transitioned from a focus on art reflecting her personal knowledge base to art that built on students’ expressions of, experiences in, and knowledge of, their rural setting. Implications for teacher professional development focused on rural education include strategies for promoting the contextualization of content and communicating the benefits of transitioning from place-neutral to place-based instruction.

Highlights

This longitudinal case study explored one rural elementary art teacher’s praxis for two years after she participated in professional development sessions on place-based education (PBE)
This study examined the longitudinal progression of a rural elementary art teacher’s implementation of place-based practices after participating in a minimal-intervention PBE professional development program, with a focus on the perceived benefits and challenges of implementing a place-based art education curriculum in a rural elementary school setting
Patricia entered the first workshop of the professional development program with no knowledge of place-based education beyond the description of the workshop she received

Summary

Introduction

This longitudinal case study explored one rural elementary art teacher’s praxis for two years after she participated in professional development sessions on place-based education (PBE). (Patricia, Year 2 Interview) As rural settings tend to offer children opportunities for outdoor experiences and families within those settings often have expectations that members will participate in daily chores, rural children often develop first-hand, experiential knowledge of their local environment, both sociocultural and ecological (Avery & Kassam, 2011). Rural children’s diverse perspectives and experiences need to be acknowledged and fostered In her analysis of Zimmerman and Weible’s (2017) study on rural students’ research of a local watershed, Eppley (2017) noted that “the centering of curriculum on rural places and people makes a stark contrast to standardized curricula and suggests to students that rural communities ‘count’ as places worth understanding, transforming, and preserving” This connection is not a naïve acceptance of the status quo, . Wake (2012) stated that “rural education can be reconceived as a way to contribute to a a sense of community pride and unity” (p. 24) with the caveat that the rural setting must be “analyzed critically and considered realistically” (p. 25)

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Conclusion