Teaching in Rural Places: Thriving in Rural Communities, Schools, and Classrooms

By Karen Eppley, Jayne Downey, Devon Brenner

This fully updated teacher education textbook invites pre-service and new teachers to think critically about the impact of rurality on their work and provides an overview of what it means to live, teach, learn, and thrive in rural communities. It underscores the importance of teaching in rural schools as an act of social justice--work that dismantles spatial barriers to economic, social, and
political justice. Teaching in Rural Places, 2nd Edition provides concrete strategies for understanding rural communities, valuing rural ways of being, and teaching in rural schools by addressing topics such as working with families, building professional networks, addressing trauma, teaching in multi-grade classrooms, and planning place-conscious instruction.

New features to this edition include:

New vignettes, visuals, and boxes throughout the book to aid accessibility and comprehension; A new chapter on student and teacher well-being; An updated chapter on the unique structures of rural schools, which addresses multi-grade teaching, itinerant teaching, rural careers and technical education (CTE) teaching, and more; A fully updated chapter on technology, which now includes discussions of the challenges and opportunities of AI and other innovations for rural teaching and learning.

This comprehensive textbook for rural teacher education is targeted toward pre-service and new teachers in traditional and alternative teacher education programs, as well as new rural teachers participating in induction and mentoring programs. Teaching in Rural Places, 2nd Edition will help ensure that rural students have the well-prepared teachers they deserve.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1032887559
• ISBN13: 9781032887555
• Release Date: April 2026
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 302 Pages