Doing Educational Research in Rural Settings ─ Methodological Issues, International Perspectives and Practical Solutions

Methodological Issues for Educational Research in Rural Settings is a much-needed guide for educational researchers, and in particular graduate students, 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 no other text currently takes up the key question of how to conduct educational research within and for rural communities or seeks from an inquiring stance to explore the impact of educational research in rural contexts in terms of the lasting ‘good’ of research to those being researched about.

The authorship is international bringing together researchers experienced in conducting educational inquiry in rural places from across European, Australian, American, and Canadian contexts discussing national and regional challenges and ways of working into conversation. It also draws from the research experiences of the most senior ‘elders’ in the field of rural educational research as well as those in their early career as they share their research methodological issues such as unpacking their own subjectivities; considering ethics of confidentiality/pseudonymity in places where often everyone is well known and identifiable; thinking about reciprocity and converging interests; and notions of representation.

This book is uniquely written with an eye to practicality and applicability for a higher degree and doctoral research market and offers a compelling international comparative perspective addressing a key criticism that rural education research tends to be too locally-focused, nostalgic or insufficiently attuned to the effects of globalization.

Simone White is Professor of Teacher Education at the Faculty of Education, Monash University, Victoria, Australia.

Michael Corbett is Professor at the School of Education, Acadia University, Nova Scotia, Canada.